The soldiers believe that instructors have never fought a war like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — the first clash of two heavily-armed militaries for decades.
Most Western forces have experience of very different conflicts, like those in Iraq and Afghanistan where their side had huge advantages in resources and far superior technology.
Well, that makes sense. Not every tactic and strategy works for every situation, battlefield, the arms at location and enemy.
The Western army fought no army on the same level as them for quite a while. Always inferior ones. And all memes aside, the Russian army is not that far away from the Ukrainian army, despite all incompetency and corruption. It’s also rare for Western armies to not have air superiority.
i’m sure his complaints are right on target, but like you say it’s completely understandable… this trench battle has a ton of new elements that both sides are adding to the global tactical lexicon on a daily basis… there’s no training base in the world capable of getting people up to speed on current conditions there… a big proportion of the effective responses to those conditions are brand new and being learned in the field for the first time… the Ukrainians are the experts who should be training everyone else now…
While the UK were superior on paper, the specifics of the situation meant that it was a lot closer than it should have been.
If Argentina had been a little more brash in their tactics against the task force then it could have went badly for the UK.
If I remember correctly just a single functional older Type 209 submarine was a major nuissance for the British and to this day the Argentinian side insists to have shot a salvo of several torpedos at one the British carriers that missed because of a technical malfunction…
They missed because they didn’t connect the guiding wires to the torpedoes properly, not because German torpedoes fired from a German sub don’t hit their target.
I think that “first clash of two heavily-armed militaries for decades” is quite misleading here.
They always manage to make this sound like idiot Westerners are decades behind as they haven’t fought a serious war for so long they have no clue. When the reality is the opposite: Their instructors don’t remember how to fight trench wars 1950s style with only light infantry and very limited support… because why would they?
Well, that makes sense. Not every tactic and strategy works for every situation, battlefield, the arms at location and enemy.
The Western army fought no army on the same level as them for quite a while. Always inferior ones. And all memes aside, the Russian army is not that far away from the Ukrainian army, despite all incompetency and corruption. It’s also rare for Western armies to not have air superiority.
i’m sure his complaints are right on target, but like you say it’s completely understandable… this trench battle has a ton of new elements that both sides are adding to the global tactical lexicon on a daily basis… there’s no training base in the world capable of getting people up to speed on current conditions there… a big proportion of the effective responses to those conditions are brand new and being learned in the field for the first time… the Ukrainians are the experts who should be training everyone else now…
An exception to that would be the Falklands.
While the UK were superior on paper, the specifics of the situation meant that it was a lot closer than it should have been. If Argentina had been a little more brash in their tactics against the task force then it could have went badly for the UK.
If I remember correctly just a single functional older Type 209 submarine was a major nuissance for the British and to this day the Argentinian side insists to have shot a salvo of several torpedos at one the British carriers that missed because of a technical malfunction…
They missed because they didn’t connect the guiding wires to the torpedoes properly, not because German torpedoes fired from a German sub don’t hit their target.
Ask American carrier group admirals.
I think that “first clash of two heavily-armed militaries for decades” is quite misleading here.
They always manage to make this sound like idiot Westerners are decades behind as they haven’t fought a serious war for so long they have no clue. When the reality is the opposite: Their instructors don’t remember how to fight trench wars 1950s style with only light infantry and very limited support… because why would they?