Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

I had intended to write an "on one hand / on the other hand" about this today but this makes that unnecessary

however...... IT MAY BE that "studies" have shown that fully trained "Scout/Snipers" was not working out and though many of the same skills were required it was better to have specialists in scouting and sniping rather than highly trained " generalists" that are expected to do both jobs equally well and <SPECULATION> it was found that they were being used as one or the other based on their strengths in both disciplines <END SPECULATION>

Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

Roll the dice and see if you get snakeyes or box cars......

This is not the first time in world history that a conflict in one part of the globe is viewed as an "opportunity" to another part of the globe

Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

I hadn't been aware the USMC is divesting itself of integral law enforcement capability (i.e. Military Police).

As a former MP (and Watch Commander, i.e. I was the one in charge of everything during a shift) I have mixed feelings. Duh.

Traditionally USMC MPs did mostly gate and traffic duty during peacetime with a small "detective" unit (CID) to handle investigations of rapes, murders, etc. In wartime they do mostly traffic control, forward POW collection/control until they are shipped to a real POW camp, and work VERY closely with Civil Affairs dealing with indigenous civilians (Civil Affairs doesn't begin to have the manpower needed). Unlike the US Army USMC MPs do not do route recon, convoy security, or much rear-area counter guerilla work (other then as a immediate fast reaction force to an incident since we're fully motorized and have our vehicles on hand not in a motor pool).

The gate guarding, passing out speeding tickets, and detective work can certainly be easily done by civilian security contractors. But that's what USMC MPs do when not training for their wartime tasks.

I guess the "Powers That Be" assume with electronic information dissemination traffic control is unnecessary as everyone always knows where they are and are going (as during Desert Storm when we had GPS ... which didn't work much of the time and most stuff was still good old map and compass). POW handling? Guess we'll just have to task a combat unit to that ... reducing the available combat strength on the front lines. Dealing with the local civilians ... Civil Affairs will just need another combat unit (with zero training/experience in what they're going to do) further reducing the combat strength on the front lines.

Each USMC Division has (had?) one MP company (vice the US Army Corps level MP Brigades, i.e. a battalion+ per division). But I guess apx. 600 former MPs (the entire number of MPs in the USMC) will be more useful elsewhere.:re:

Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

Army MPs doing convoy security and counter guerrilla work? On what planet was this and when? I never saw them doing ANYTHING in Iraq or Afghanistan but writing tickets and crying about being there. If they went out the wire it certainly wasn't after the fist push into either country. Saw them try reall damn hard to give us speeding tickets as QRF on Liberty many times and they got mad when our get out jail card trumped their power trips.

Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

You and I both know official doctrine and reality tend to have a way of being not quite the same.

Besides given the situation in Afghanistan (i.e. IEDs) I don't think their peacetime training was really adequate to the situation. And the whole thing was a counter guerrilla so ...

Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

Pretty nice vid of what it's like to be attacked by the USMC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uhYpqGpnkU

Note the lack of armor, number of helos and the height that fly at.

Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

YAY!

Some info on the USMC ground launched anti-ship missile.
NOT THAT THIS IS RELEVANT TO WinSPMBT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef8sQhKiYzs

Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

Gee....... Ya think maybe this is something that would interest Taiwan?

Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

I'd be VERY surprised if they didn't already have a number of anti-ship missiles of some sort already. But more, newer, better? What's not to like!

Re: The USMC will drive you crazy !!!
 

Well now it seems the USMC MAY go back to the 13-man squad.
Squad Leader, Assistant Squad Leader (and presumably drone operator), 2x4-man and 1x3-man fire teams.
But don't hold your breath on this. It was 13-man 1944-1961, 14-man 1962-1970, 13-man 1970-2019, 12-man 2020, 15-man 2021-Present.
But until they settle on and officially announce this there's no point implementing this in WinSPMBT.