combatreform.org/AIR_MECH_STRIKE

1. A
CORRECTED
HISTORY
OF ARMOR
“A page of history is worth a pound of logic.”
--Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

2. 1916: After heavy WWI casualties,
the British Army led by Churchill
begins experimenting with tracked
tanks in combat to break the
deadlock of the trenches. Wheeled
armored cars get stuck in mud.
The U.S. Army is disinterested.
Only private companies experiment
with tracked tanks in the U.S.
November, 1917: British tanks
go into action as part of a
combined arms infantry, tanks,
artillery, aircraft team at the
battle of Cambrai. The tank is
proven effective at break-
Tanks: note no gun turrets! throughs and 2D mechanized
mobile warfare is born.

3. Oops…..
The U.S. is soon woefully
behind in tank technology.
Belatedly, the U.S. shows
interest. Patton is ordered to
establish an U.S. Army tank
school at Langres, France
in late 1917.
The first U.S. tank units
go into combat on-board foreign
FT17 Renault light tanks. U.S.
produced tanks are not available
until 1919 and are only copies of
European armor.

4. The “War to End All Wars”
ends in 1918. A short sighted
and budget conscious Army staff
disbands the U.S. Tank Corps
in 1920.
1922: The Tank Board is
established to define the future
role of tanks in the U.S. Army.
The primary considerations in
the decision-making process are
cost and the ability to move
the vehicles rapidly. Armor and
armament are sacrificed for
cost and weight. Tanks are
largely considered “infantry
support” weapons as they were
used in WWI.

5. British Reformers Like B.H. Liddell-Hart,
JFC Fuller and Percy Hobart create tank
units linked by radios to infiltrate through
enemy lines and collapse enemies with
2D mechanized infiltration tactics to win
battles without costly trench warfare. The
Allies thinking war has been abolished ignore
them and party in the “Roaring” 1920s. The
“party” is over in the ‘30s with the great
economic depression.
Unlike the victorious Allies, the Germans
listen and act on their reform ideas as
Hitler takes power and builds powerful
panzer divisions. They add a 3D
maneuver element with parachute and
glider Airborne troops

6. 1939: The Germans act on the
pre-war reformers and achieve
dramatic successes with massed
light tank led combined-arms
teams in Poland and France to
infiltrate then collapse enemy
armies by encirclements. Called
“Blitzkrieg” or lightning war,
their light tanks are fast,
cross-country mobile, well armored
and have effective main gun systems.
Oops…..
Behind again, the U.S. begins
to research better tank
designs and massed armor
tactics. As a result of poor
planning and limited vision,
the U.S. enters WWII with
inferior tank designs.

7. The Americans without a battlefield function
focused branch to oversee armored vehicle
development creates “mechanized cavalry”
in wheeled scout cars to avoid enemy
contact and report back enemy positions to
“cherry pick” where tanks will be used.
Tank destroyers with light armor protection
and open-tops would then destroy enemy
tanks. In North Africa, the German enemy
doesn’t co-operate and drops mortars and
artillery on the rubber-tired scout cars and
open-topped tank destroyers leaving burning
hulks and dead Soldiers all over the Kasserine
Pass. After many defeats in North Africa,
mechanized cavalry units are given tracked light
tanks and Armor branch is born to work around
Cavalry branch. Cavalry branch which is a
legitimate battlefield function is disbanded in
1944. U.S. Army tank development drifts into
tank vs. tank platform centricity under an
ill-defined “Armor” branch.

8. Oops…..
U.S. light/medium tanks perform
superbly in the Pacific against
dug-in enemy infantry, WWI-style.
However in Europe, they are
woefully outmatched when fighting
enemy tanks. German tanks are in .. Too late to save crews
their 2d and 3rd generations of of hundreds of medium
development and now on the Grants, Shermans and
defensive have switched to light Chaffees from faster,
heavy designs to compensate for more heavily gunned and
being out-numbered by Allied armored German tanks.
mass-produced light/medium tanks.
The U.S. will not have a heavy tank
comparable to the enemy until
late 1944….with the M26 Pershing
with 90mm main gun

9. By 1944, both the Axis and the
Allies have developed hand held
shaped-charge anti-tank weapons
for infantry. Most armored vehicles
fall easy prey to the new weapons.
Pundits herald the end of tanks
due to the advent of cheap, 2.36” Bazooka
effective anti-tank weapons.
Heavy armor on new heavy
tanks can defeat hand held
AT weapons. Thin-skinned
vehicles are still easy targets
for AT weapons so tanks get
progressively heavier and
heavier to lead 2D maneuvers
in the Cold War period after
Tiger 1 heavy tank
WWII.

10. Just like after WWI, after M4E8 “Easy Eight” Medium tank
WWII, the U.S. neglects
tank design. The U.S. fails
to build large numbers of
improved design tanks thinking
aircraft bombing with nuclear
weapons have made
conventional ground
wars obsolete.
Uh-oh…..
The “backwards” Soviets
“don’t get the memo” on
ground wars and continue to
mass-produce tanks and
develop further improvements
in tank technology.

11. Oops…..
As a result, the U.S. enters the
war in Korea without any tanks!
In desperation, WWII M4 Sherman
medium tanks on static display are
pressed into service. Our lighter
M24 Chaffee tanks are inferior to the
M24
T34/85 medium tanks of the enemy.
For the third time in the century,
the U.S. Army sends Soldiers to
die in a foreign land with inferior
equipment because of the false
view that tracked armored vehicles
had out-lived their usefulness
T34/85
and were “too expensive”.

12. After WWII, the French decided
they needed a new light,
air-transportable tank for their
colonial wars after getting good
Oops…..
results from M24 Chaffees as
AMX-13s are successful
infantry fire support vehicles in
in the Arab-Israeli wars of
Vietnam. The AMX-13 would use
the ‘50s and ‘60s used by
speed, mobility and firepower to
the allies and the Israelis.
compensate for lighter armor.
The design is a success
The AMX-13 is well-engineered,
and is in use still today
mass produced and exported
with 105mm guns.
around the world.
However, the U.S. Army
Airborne neglects to
buy AMX-13s and use
M113 Gavin APCs to
create a 3D maneuver
force like the Russians
do.

13. The Soviets and NATO develop
wire guided anti-missiles
(ATGMs) and rocket propelled
grenades (RPGs) for use by
infantry. Pundits again herald
the end of tanks. It is widely and
erroneously reported that Oops…..
missiles out performed tanks in The Russian Airborne with light
tanks is ready to fly in to save the
the 1973 Yom- Kippur War. Egyptian Army, but the American
Despite early tank losses, the 82nd Airborne with only a few M551
IDF reorganizes into infantry-led Sheridan light tanks would be foot-
combined-arms teams to clear mobile in the searing desert if they
out enemy ATGMs/RPGs. parachute in to save Israel.
Fortunately, Israeli losses are
comparatively light and most
missile damaged tanks return to
action. Journalists ignore the
impressive tank kill ratio Israel
enjoyed over the Arabs, almost
exclusively by main gun fire.

14. The Soviet Union with a long history of light tank designs develops light
weight, versatile, amphibious, air-mobile light tanks like the PT-76, ASU-
57, ASU-85, the BMD and BMP family of vehicles which are successful in
Vietnam, Chechloslavakia, Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan. In the ‘60s,
‘70s and early ‘80s it looks like the entire world will be over-run by the
communists.
Oops…..
The Russians continue to improve their light tanks so that today’s BMD-
3s and BMP-3s have powerful 100mm guns with 30mm autocannon and
medium machine gun armaments while able to carry an infantry squad
under armor. Others have 125mm guns. With waterjets they can swim
from ship-to-shore in the ocean. Meanwhile, the U.S. Army fails to add
turret weapons to its M113 Gavins, retires its M551 Sheridans and stops
training to swim across lakes/rivers to effect rapid 2D maneuvers like it
did in Vietnam, obsessed with heavy tank vs. tank combat, the U.S.
adopts medium M2 Bradley and M1 Abrams heavy tanks that cannot swim
and are difficult to fly into action and ignores 3D warfare needs

15. Russian Air-Mechanized Operations with light tanks
ASU-57 BMD
ASU-85
Fixed-wing airdrop il-76
Fixed-wing airland
Mi-26
Rotary-wing airland
World’s First Helicopter 3D Air-Mech
Operation, 1978
Combat: Czechoslovakia, East Africa, Afghanistan, Chechnya

16. Oops…..
By the ‘70s, as the Cold War
simmers, the West has no tanks
that can match the latest
Soviet light, medium and heavy
tanks. And the tanks it does have
are fewer in quantity.
NATO bickers and wastes
money on the abortive MBT-70
heavy tank with kneeling track
suspension. The Russians
already field BMDs with kneeling
suspensions for parachute air
delivery. Not until the early ‘80s
with the deployment of the M1
Abrams does the West
somewhat match Soviet tank
technology.

17. U.S. Air-Mechanized Operations
The Good... Panama, 1989
First combat airdrop in history!
M551 Sheridan light tanks
M113 Gavin Mech-Infantry
U.S. Army Air-Mechanized 3D Operations

18. British Air-Mechanized 3D Operations
CH-47
BV-206 C-130
British beat U.S.
Army into Kosovo in
1999 by using
helicopters to
fly in light tracked Scimitar light tank
AFVs; though U.S. has
both 7-ton Bv206s and Land Rover 4x4
10.5 ton M113 Gavins
that can fly by helicopter!

19. Iraq 1, 1990-91: After victory in
Panama, the U.S. leads coalition
forces against Iraq. The M113
Gavins, M2/M3 Bradleys and M1
Abrams are the masters of the 2D
battlefield. M1s destroy Iraqi armor
on-the-move with laser aiming before
the Russian made Iraqi stop-to-shoot
optics can even acquire the U.S.
tanks. Large tank battles are
successful. Though the 82d Airborne
has 56 M551 Sheridans and a few
The Bad...
Yet, less than three years later, for
M113 Gavins, this is not considered the 4th time in the century, Army
a large enough 3D air-mech Soldiers are sent into battle with
maneuver element to cut the enemy inferior equipment. Light forces go to
off; large parts of the Iraqi Somalia in wheeled trucks without
Republican Guard escape. any armor support. A group of
Rangers and Delta Force Soldiers are
cut off and have to be rescued by
Pakistanis with U.S. made M48
medium tanks and M113 Gavin light
tracked armored fighting vehicles.

20. In 1999, GEN. Eric Shinseki, Chief of
Staff of the U.S. Army, describes his “vision”
of the future. This homogenized, medium-
sized units-only, future requires ONLY a
lightly armored, infantry force in vulnerable
wheeled vehicles. Tracked tanks would be
replaced by wheeled LAV type armored cars
with computers to mentally avoid trouble to
hopefully compensate for reduced armor
protection by ”cherry-picking” when and
where the dismounted infantry fights.
Superior levels of physical protection,
firepower and go-anywhere mobility are not
needed. The Army declares that the 2D/3D
maneuver wars that tracked the AFVs were
The Ugly...
designed to fight will “never occur” again.
General, we have made this mistake before…
“History informs us of past mistakes from which we can
learn without repeating them. “
--Judge William Hastie (1904 - 1976)

21. In 2003, the U.S. Army has to invade Iraq again and the
tracked force that was allegedly “legacy” saves the day
and reaches Baghdad to collapse the enemy center of
gravity when marines-in-trucks get stopped by enemy
RPGs and land mines despite “shock and awe” airstrikes
with “precision” computer guided bombs.
However, DoD and the Army thinks the war is over because
M113 Gavin
the Iraqi nation-state army is defeated by their WWII-style
blitzkrieg. This is actually 3rd generation warfare, but wars
are caused by PEOPLE and machines are just tools, we
forget that people can fight without belonging to a nation-
state army if our political end-state hasn’t taken over; this
is 4th generation warfare. Because the U.S. Army Airborne
hasn’t fully developed air-mech 3D maneuver with
upgraded M113 Gavin APCs and M8 Buford AGS light
tanks to quickly parachute in and capture/kill enemy M8 Buford AGS
leaders in conjunction with 2D maneuvers, we slowly
airland in M1s, M2s and M113s into North Iraq. Saddam
Hussein and others escape Baghdad and start a guerrilla
war. 500
dead and 10,000 wounded Americans later, we finally

22. Oops…..
Moreover, the costly $1 billion 300-Stryker armored car brigades
Shinseki wants are not ready or will ever be in quantity for the
large-scale occupations of countries like Iraq. Without the 100 divisions of
WWII, the enemy is all around and can attack in any direction at any time;
a Non-Linear Battlefield (NLB) where no place is safe for wheeled vehicles
to operate. The Army has to move its Soldiers around in vulnerable
HMMWV and other wheeled trucks to try to maintain nation-state order
on the 4th generation warfare battlefield where the center of gravity is the
loyalty of the people not just defeating an enemy nation-state army.
Casualties mount as enemy road-side bombs easily explode the vulnerable
wheeled vehicles despite computer “situational awareness”.
The enemy does not let us “cherry pick”
BBQ HMMWV
when and where battle will occur. It’s the
WWII scout car debacle all over again.
And the 5th war where U.S. troops have
been sent into battle with inferior gear.
M113 LAV3
Gavin Stryker

23. The U.S. Army without a Cavalry Branch to develop
light tracked AFVs does not have an effective 3D
air-mech maneuver force to compliment its 2D
maneuver forces. The 19-24 ton Stryker armored car
is too heavy to fly by helicopters or fixed wing C-130
aircraft let alone parachute airdrop. Army leadership
in love with the idea of using computers to cherry
pick where and when it fights over mythical linear
battlefields that do not exist, think they can skimp on
physical armor protection by using rubber-tired wheeled vehicles and save money.
Meanwhile, as their Soldiers are getting killed and maimed by enemy road-side
bombs and RPGs on the NLB, the enemy resistance grows as the people see
that America cannot maintain order and protect them. Army officials full of techno
hubris that blinds them to the tracked armored vehicles that work ignore the
thousands of M113 Gavin light tracked AFVs sitting in storage that could be
quickly and inexpensively upgraded to be fully bomb and RPG resistant to move
EVERY Soldier in the Army under superior armor protection and mobility on the
lethal NLB. We could have had a fully light tracked, under full armor protection
U.S. Army ready for Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 had we upgraded the
thousands of M113 Gavins we have instead of buying handfuls of inferior,
expensive Canadian-made Stryker armored cars. We can and still should do this,
but judging from Army past history, the only thing that makes the unprofessionally
organized and led U.S. Army change is obvious failures and lots of preventable
deaths that compels the civilian Congress to act.