[JasonC]

It is dumb and it is silly to tell those who know it is dumb to put up with it. Are smart mortars better than dumb howitzers? Sure. Straw man. Smart howitzers are better than dumb mortars, and better than smart mortars too. There are terminal homing rounds and ICM rounds for either. For one thing, they have three times the range. For another, organic mortars carry enough for about half an hour of supporting fire. Then you are out, and can pray.

It is just an institutional promotion and funding fight. The air force promises more than it can deliver to get enough of an undersized pie to pay for critical upgrades. Within the army, the snakeaters cite their machismo as evidence nothing else matters. The logistics types and bottom line boys back them up because NG majors and colonels have less pentagon pull than the Domino's delivery boy. Actual combat effectiveness doesn't have anything to do with it.

[Axenolith]

The air force promises more than it can deliver

I seem to remember someone elses air force making those types of promises 64 (Dunkirk, we'll take care of the British) and 61 (Don't worry about the 6th Army in Stalingrad, We'll supply it) years ago. Lets hope we don't pull blunders of this magnitude...