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Army Report: GIs Outgunned in Afghanistan
Politics Daily ^ | 04/2/10 | David Wood

Posted on 04/03/2010 1:03:04 PM PDT by neverdem

American troops are often outgunned by Afghan insurgents because they lack the precision weapons, deadly rounds, and training needed to kill the enemy in the long-distance firefights common in Afghanistan's rugged terrain, according to an internal Army study.

Unlike in Iraq, where most shooting took place at relatively short range in urban neighborhoods, U.S. troops in Afghanistan are more often attacked from high ground with light machine guns and mortars from well beyond 300 meters (327 yards, or just over three football field lengths). The average range for a small-arms firefight in Afghanistan is about 500 meters, according to the study.

Unless U.S. troops under attack call in artillery or air strikes and risk civilian casualties, the only way they can fight back is with long-distance precision shooting -- a capability currently in short supply among infantry units, according to a study done at the Army's School of Advanced Military Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., by Maj. Thomas P. Ehrhart.

According to Ehrhart's paper, Army infantrymen do not regularly train and practice shooting at distances of more than 300 meters. The round fired from their M4 carbines and M16 rifles, the 5.56mm bullet, don't carry enough velocity at long distances to kill.

While the Army has moved recently to equip each infantry company of about 200 soldiers with nine designated marksmen to overcome this problem, they don't often carry weapons with sufficient killing power at distance, and there aren't enough of them, Ehrhart reports.

Army spokesmen had no immediate comment on Ehrhart's paper, which was released by SAMS last month and given wider circulation by defensetech.org and the Kit Up! blog on military.com.

Most infantrymen in Afghanistan carry the M4 carbine, a version of the standard M16 rifle, but with a shorter barrel. It was designed to allow soldiers to operate from cramped armored vehicles and in the city neighborhoods of Iraq. But the shorter barrel robs the weapon of the ability to shoot accurately at long distances, because the bullet doesn't acquire as much stabilizing spin when it is fired as it does in a longer barrel.

Soldiers commonly are taught in training to use "suppressive fire,'' in effect returning enemy attacks with sprays of gunfire, which are often ineffective in Afghanistan.

One reason is the ineffectiveness of the most commonly used round, designated the M855. Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, was once accidentally shot in the chest with an M855 round from a light machine gun; rather than being killed, he walked out of the hospital several days later.

Ehrhart recalls seeing a soldier shot with a M855 round from a distance of 75 meters in training. Twenty minutes later he was "walking around smoking a cigarette.''

Such incidents may be flukes, but they do illustrate that the rounds can lack killing power. Most infantrymen are equipped to fire the M855 round from their M4 carbine, M16 rifle, or the SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), a light machine gun. When a firefight erupts in Afghanistan, they are unable to fire back accurately at more than 200 or 300 meters, leaving it to soldiers with heavier weapons -- the M240 machine gun, 60-mm mortars or snipers equipped with M14 rifles.

"These [heavier] weapons represent 19 percent of the company's firepower,'' Ehrhart wrote, meaning that "81 percent of the company has little effect on the fight.

"This is unacceptable.''

One quick fix, he suggested, is to equip the designated marksmen within each company with a powerful weapon that can kill at long distances, the M110 sniper weapon, which is effective out to 800 meters.

These rifles are expensive -- about $8,000 apiece. But you could outfit every infantry squad in the Army with two M110 rifles for the price of one U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor supersonic stealthy fighter, Ehrhart noted.

Ironically, American doughboys in World War I were better trained and equipped for Afghanistan-style firefights than today's GIs.

"The U.S. infantry weapon has devolved from the World War I rifle capable of conducting lethal fire out to 1,200 yards, to the current weapon that can hit a target out to 300 meters but probably will not kill it,'' Ehrhart wrote.

The School of Advanced Military Studies, where Ehrhart was a student last year, trains the Army's brightest young officers for senior leadership. His unclassified paper, written last year, does not reflect official Army positions. But the paper has rocketed around in military circles and has been read avidly in some units preparing to deploy to Afghanistan.

But even before his report began circulating widely, some Army units were acting on the hard-learned lessons from Afghanistan, where the Army has been fighting for almost nine years.

Several weeks ago I watched an infantry battalion of the 10th Mountain Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team working on live fire maneuvers in central Wyoming.

One key focus, according to Command Sgt. Maj. Doug Maddi, was to hone soldiers' skills in high-angle and long-distance shooting -- precisely the skills not widely required in regular Army training, according to Ehrhart.

Where normal Army marksmanship training is often conducted on level ground against pop-up targets, Maddi and the battalion commander, Lt. Col. Chris Ramsey, had their men shooting up towering ridgelines and down steep inclines, and at distances out to 600 meters.

The battalion's troops, wearing their full battle kit, also were firing live rounds while running, and while running with heavy packs, up and down the steep Wyoming ridges.

"We're here to replicate the environment of Afghanistan," said Ramsey, who brought his battalion to Wyoming from its home base at Fort Polk, La. "We don't get this kind of terrain at home."

Ramsey told me he had not read Ehrhart's paper before his battalion deployed to Wyoming for a month's training in early February. Polishing those skills was "intuitive," he said. But he said the paper now has been read across the battalion.

At a meeting with reporters this week, Army Secretary John McHugh was asked whether he was familiar with the Ehrhart report. McHugh said he was not, but after hearing a brief description, he said he would track down the paper and read it.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; banglist; bhodod; ehrhart; ehrhartreport; guns; oef; oefsurge
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To: GreyFriar

We used M-14s as sniper rifles over in Iraq.

I remember handling one of them,I would take them over the M-16.The M-4 has at least some use because of its much shorter barrel.


121 posted on 04/03/2010 3:49:29 PM PDT by Del Rapier
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To: ebshumidors

Thanks for the links.


122 posted on 04/03/2010 3:51:47 PM PDT by neverdem (Xin loi minh oi)
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To: jim-x

I’ve used the M16,the only effective shot to an enemy would be to the head.Of course at close range the M16 will effectively shred an opponent,but if the SHTF I’m carrying my HK 91.(and my 1911,screw those 9mm pussy pistols)


123 posted on 04/03/2010 3:52:30 PM PDT by Farmer Dean (stop thinking about what they want to do to you,start thinking about what you want to do to them)
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To: mamelukesabre
"Bigger bullets is the wrong way to go, imo. More speed is the best solution."

You ain't going shooting with me.

124 posted on 04/03/2010 4:07:30 PM PDT by An Old Man
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To: neverdem

…whatever round our military uses, be sure to lube with ‘Pig Fat’


125 posted on 04/03/2010 4:28:03 PM PDT by Java4Jay
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To: Sylvester McMonkey McBean

Those rounds aren’t designed for expansion, but better accuracy.


126 posted on 04/03/2010 4:29:36 PM PDT by Favor Center (Targets Up! Hold hard and favor center!)
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To: neverdem

Mosin Nagant M91/30s.

7.62 x 54R. Hundreds of thousands of re-armored models available for about $80 each.

Reach out a country mile accurately with stock iron sights.

:)


127 posted on 04/03/2010 4:32:58 PM PDT by 2111USMC
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To: mamelukesabre
It’s still made. It only tumbles when shot from longer barreled rifles. No tumbling when shot from a m4 carbine.

Please have a clue before you spout something like the above.

The rifling rate of twist in relation to the bullet length and velocity governs bullet stability, not barrel length.

128 posted on 04/03/2010 4:35:23 PM PDT by Lion Den Dan
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To: jonascord

AP is not illegal.


129 posted on 04/03/2010 4:35:49 PM PDT by Favor Center (Targets Up! Hold hard and favor center!)
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To: Lion Den Dan

dam you sure are arrogant for such a moron.


130 posted on 04/03/2010 4:37:39 PM PDT by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
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To: bitterohiogunclinger
One quick fix, he suggested, is to equip the designated marksmen within each company with a powerful weapon that can kill at long distances, the M110 , which costs 8,000 bucks apiece!

I know this is BS. How can a frikcin' rifle cost 8,000 dollars? There are plenty of rifles that can blow the eyebrows off of a fly at 1,000 yards that cost less than 1,000 dollars. Not to mention we must have plenty of M14s salted away somewhere, that is if Clinton didn't cut them up when he did the B52s.

131 posted on 04/03/2010 4:45:00 PM PDT by calex59
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To: neverdem

Pig Fat vs islamic terrorist

SILVER BULLET GUN OIL can be used in or on ALL weapons and weapons systems.

Put a drop on the remains of ‘’suicide bombers’’ for the same effect-No Paradise! FOR
MAXIMUM IMPACT DOWNRANGE; USE ‘’SILVER BULLET’’ AND MAKE SURE THE ISLAMO-FASCIST
COWARDS KNOW IT!

http://www.silverbulletgunoil.net/


132 posted on 04/03/2010 4:57:58 PM PDT by Java4Jay
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To: Favor Center

Those rounds aren’t designed for expansion, but better accuracy.
**************
Regardless of what they were “designed” for, an open point round is by definition, a hollowpoint. It is an academic distinction without a difference.

Furthermore, since we still have not signed on to the protocol specifically prohibiting it, why aren’t we fielding expanding ammunition. (rhetorical)

(Also rhetorical) Rounds considered humane for killing game are not humane for killing people, and rounds humane for killing people are not humane for killing game. How can both be true, given a single definition for humane?


133 posted on 04/03/2010 4:59:35 PM PDT by Sylvester McMonkey McBean
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To: bitterohiogunclinger

I agree 1000%. Take a Remington 700P and shoot Federal Gold Match .308 win, 168 grain. This round was recommended by Carlos Hathcock.


134 posted on 04/03/2010 5:00:51 PM PDT by fredisred
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To: GreyFriar

Start now. Give ‘em M1As in the meantime.


135 posted on 04/03/2010 5:03:31 PM PDT by karnage (worn arguments and old attitudes)
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To: calex59; smokingfrog

See smokingfrog’s link at post # 27. I would love to have one of those M14 EBR’s.


136 posted on 04/03/2010 5:03:54 PM PDT by davetex (All my weapons got melted by a meteor!! No Sh*t)
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To: EGPWS

AR-10s would also work.


137 posted on 04/03/2010 5:04:23 PM PDT by karnage (worn arguments and old attitudes)
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To: Favor Center

Give ‘em SOCOMs.


138 posted on 04/03/2010 5:06:37 PM PDT by karnage (worn arguments and old attitudes)
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To: Favor Center

Gee, every M-1A I have utilized worked great...


139 posted on 04/03/2010 5:07:20 PM PDT by karnage (worn arguments and old attitudes)
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To: karnage
AR-10s would also work.

I'm looking forward to going to the range tomorrow to see.

140 posted on 04/03/2010 5:08:45 PM PDT by EGPWS (Trust in God, question everyone else)
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