Who would like an digital orders package for use in the field?

[Bazkirby]

I am looking at researching the use of a digital orders unit, that will be able to get up to date intelligence and show 3d maps to make he platoon commanders job easier. What are peoples thoughts and what would they like to see. Initially it would be a touchscreen LCD about the asame area as the back of a clansman 352. Barry Kirby
Barry@siaero.co.uk

 

[Bazkirby]

My idea is for the information that is to be disseminated to be passed down and self extracting. Those familiar with the British orders process will know what i mean and it would not take much to flag information so it gets sorted correctly, but the paintball idea could be quite useful as well as testing it on real troops ie used at the platoon level and above. Barry Kirby
Barry@siaero.co.uk

 

would this realy improve batle procedure as the warning order is issued relatively early on.i believe a far more effective use of technology would be to give out t6yped orders with the roles specific to that platoon or attachmen highlighted for easier extraction. also this system would probably not express the summary paragraph in british ordes quite how its extraction is intended. Please let me know how it goes though i would be very interested to see thedevelopment!

jonmace@hotmail.com

 

[rd909]

Bazkirby,
DARPA and NATICK have tried this type of order relay equipment. After serving 12 years in the Infantry with 6 of them in the 9th Inf, test bed I can tell you that the major problem is that not enough information can be passed on to the Plt Ldr to conduct an operation based on real time data. In today's forces the speed of most operations do not allow for pre-planned or canned orders. It's more of we move that away and this is your area or objectives, this are your supporting units, bravo on your left, charlie is on your right. Go Go Go...

 

[dpa]

No one higher up than the plt ldr is going to have as much detail about the situation. Only he can see the ground. At plt level training is the answer. My experiences as an instructor at the Infantry school is that people who were teaching tactics were not very good at reading the terrain. This included several combat veterans who seemed to think that surviving a tour in Vietnam made them a tactician when in reality they were just lucky. This is not a very technical answer but high tech serves no purpose once you pass the final coordination line.

Dave Adkins
Airborne!

 

[Bazkirby]

The construction of this unit would now be smaller, and due to work being done on land vehicles as well as attack helicopters, the actual functionality is useful. It may provide more use for Black missions where in depth planning is vital. I woudl also envisage using technologhy to provide live video links to make better communications.

Barry Kirby
Barry@siaero.co.uk

 

[BigRed1]

As a former platoon leader and S2(Viet Nam), as well as a computer nut who built his first one, rd909 and dpa are both correct: tactical action is too fast for this type of input to be useful. At best it is an annoying distraction, and at worst it is actively misleading. Please read the after-action reports from the Afghanistan FUBAR for the latter. Transmission rates and security would have to be several orders of magnitude faster and better for such devices to even have a chance.

Additionally, reliance on technology in tactical situations has been almost universally disastrous from a security viewpoint: check with the Germans on their experiences with ULTRA, for example. If you can send it, I can read it and mess with it. If I were going to go to war with a high-tech power, I’d use their technological reliance against them.

Finally, infantry combat was, is and forever will be a small-scale, brutal, personal, real-time activity; troops fire: fire-team leaders direct fire: squad leaders direct fire-team leaders: platoon leaders direct squad leaders, and platoon sergeants keep platoon leaders alive. Input from anyone higher is usually counter-productive. In contact, everyone else needs to send ammo and butt the hell out.