HD combat in Syria

[Suhiir]

Really depends how your tank-infantry teams are trained to operate together.

For the most part the US Army was (is still?) equipped/trained for "The Big Battle", a primarily armor vs armor engagement. In such a case the infantry supports the armor who sometimes seems to forget infantry can't move as fast when dismounted and doesn't have 4+ inches of protection vs small arms/artillery. Additionally the armor-infantry ratio means there just plain aren't that many infantry to work with each tank.

Us Jarheads (USMC) view tanks as an infantry support asset, and don't have near as many to start with. So the ratio of infantry to armor is much higher and the armor tends to "hang back" with, and often behind, the infantry screen until called forward to deal with something.

The environment your trained to operate in and basic mindset (infantry supports armor or armor supports infantry) is important.

Then you have a lot of military forces that really don't train much in combined arms so have significant difficulties in the first place.

[shahadi]

The footage posted by DRG is quite remarkable in that we may glimpse at how the Syrians are using their tanks in certain urban environments as assault guns, hitting any possible opposing force's firing position. Unlike American crews where roof top sniper teams over watch advancing armor, the Syrians blast away at any suspected firing position. The Israelis use massed artillery fires, destroying structures in the path of advancing infantry followed by armor making it easier for the infantry to locate, identify and kill ATGM teams. Here in these few videos, we have Syrians using tanks similar to how Israelis use artillery fires (to destroy firing positions) to clear path for infantry to dismount and enter the fight.

The Syrian tactic is faster than sniper over watch teams, less destructive while requiring less coordination with artillery, than the Israelis approach, and at the least, is a best match given apparent Syrian capabilities.

The T-72 tank crews are divided between the Defense Companies and the 4th Armor Division; both of these organizations are near exclusively populated by the regime’s Alawite minority, the sect of Bashar al-Assad, confirming loyalty throughout the ranks from officer to enlisted. Further, it is erroneous to say the tank crews in these videos demonstrate poor urban or weak combined arms tactics, when in fact, these two units are extensively Soviet trained in combined arms doctrine and routinely trained with Russian forces in joint exercises (before the civil war.) They know what they are doing, although through our lenses, it may not appear to be the case.

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[Duzmond]

I'm glad that the Russians are involved in this. Certainly a thorn in the side of the CIA,Mossad,and anybody else involved in the funding of the fools trying to destroy a sovereign nation.

Now the Syrians can maybe get country back.