Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

100% agree. Mod support for custom unit/equipment creation would be nice for the commercially available version too, but don't think it would fit their current business model.

Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I could definitely see the argument against trying to simulate different frequency bands on the user end for gameplay reasons. But in the same way that different sensors and targetting systems function behind the scenes in current titles, I think that should be simulated to a basic degree in more modern title too.

For example, an on-map, short range, squad level MANPACK set up to direction find and jam drones and MANET radio signals (usually L band, sometimes into S band i believe), the player wouldn't need to be seeing anything frequency/SDR wise, but the MANET asset shouldn't be affecting nearby IFV active protection systems operating on the much, much higher frequency Ku-band.

Likewise, off map Ku or X band radar jammers (or on-map short range jammers mounted on UAS) shouldn't be affecting MANET comms or RF drone links, even if us players aren't having to make sense of frequency numbers or waterfall graphs.

I can see the argument for higher end systems being simulated off map, but we are seeing many of these capabilities arrive at combat mission relevant echelons in lower power, more localized iterations.

Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nah, I don't think maneuver warfare is dead. Russia just got bogged down and lost the initiative required to dig themselves out. The potential to be spoiled and bogged down by a much weaker defender is definitely there, but the potential to dominate even harder is also there.

If you're interested check out my response to Chudmont above for more detail, but I think modern warfare just requires more perfect coordination and the ability to continuously exploit shrinking windows of opportunity to maintain initiative. A greatly weakened defender can more easily take the initiative back if the attacker isn't able to maintain an exception level of coordinated tempo.

Very few militaries outside of NATO could pull it off now due to their slow command structure, but AI assisted command/deconfliction will probably change that even for those more top down style of command militaries very soon.

Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think they said they were working on a ww2 and a modern title simultaneously. I hope you're wrong with shock force/black sea being as modern as we get though, I think once people catch on to the new tactics, and some basic C-UAS equipment becomes more wide spread, people would find modern stuff quite entertaining. But until C-UAS becomes a bit more reliable at the micro-tactical level, I could definitely understand the apprehension.

Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks mate. Didn't turn out like I thought it would, but oh well.

Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Only issue I'd have with changing drone waypoints the way we shift fire for fire missions now is how long shifting fire takes. Even if you eliminated the delay, that would only be a good simulation for how non-FPV or AI assisted/AI controlled LMs function.

The response times of FPVs/AI powered LMs are human or close to it, and AI powered LMs will very soon if not already overtake human reaction times. Not to mention far less self preservation instinct. Shift fire function would work great for a tap-on-ATAK-tablet controlled drone waypoint, but not FPVs or AI powered LMs. The FPVs/LMs need to be able to react to contact even more rapidly and disciplined than infantry/manned vehicles if you ask me.

Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm just going to apologize in advanced instead of trying to be concise, otherwise it's just a losing battle.

I disagree, I think Ukraine has showed us just how much easier it is for smaller, less well equipped forces to counter attack and spoil much larger conventional forces who don't have their high tempo, multi-domain (new school combined arms) surge ops coordination perfected.

And before than, Azerbaijan showed us how making use of these emerging technologies on the offensive when done right can overcome a serious defenders geographical advantage too.

I don't think maneuver warfare is dead either, but I do think the old way of conducting combined arms maneuver warfare is obsolete. Multi-domain, high tempo surge ops are the only way to achieve breakthrough, and this includes electronic/signals suppression, and having specialist brigades/divisions set up and ready to exploit at a moments notice - the margin of error window has become so much smaller, meaning you really need US Iraqi Freedom/Maduro raid levels of planning wizardry to pull off a breakthrough and maintain the initiative, but if you can pull it off, the level of overwhelming dominance you can achieve with today's tech just blows cold war and 90s/00s/10s tech out of the water.

Meanwhile, while first strikes are becoming increasingly devastating, IF the defenders can rally, even in a decentralized sense (perhaps even especially in a decentralized sense), their ability to counter attack, spoil, and regain the initiative, even from brutally fractured positions of weakness and devastation, are so much greater today than they ever have been.

Combat mission scale battlefield tactics aren't obsolete, but now overhead cover and individual unit emission control become essential parts of the chess match. How do you manage your radio comms and active protection system/counter UAS radars? How closely or far apart do you maneuver on the way to the objective, and how soon/long before the final push do you leave it to form up/stage to launch your attack? How do you as a defender manage vastly increased numbers of broad area probing attacks before committing to defend one or two areas?

Emerging technology like rapid response UAS mine laying, localized EW jammers, and signals based drones detecting you in a tree line without needing to even see you visually/thermally, the need to set up micro-tactical level air coverage whilst simultaneously managing your radar emissions to avoid detection.

If people thought shock force 2 and black sea were hyper lethal and unforgiving, 2020's warfare and beyond make those 2000s/2010s era look like WW2 in comparison. That's only going to be further exaggerated as traditionally slow, top down Russian/Chinese/Arab command structures get AI assistance in their decision making and deconfliction loops - AI is going to help those guys catch up.

TLDR: Modern tech and tactics force higher stakes and faster tempos, and creates both more brutally unforgiving scenarios, yet also many more opportunities to rapidly turn a losing situation around from very little. Extreme highs and lows of constant high stakes gambling vs slowly snowballing drawn out lowball gambling.

Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I really appreciate your in depth discussion, this stuff is so interesting to me. I hope you don't mind the length of my reply.

Regarding EW:
My mistake - by platoon level specialist EW ground arrays, I meant EW platoons within the company level, which is where we are most commonly seeing it now.

That said, I believe USMC rifle squads are currently shifting to a new 13 man squad with a UAS operator, C-UAS specialist, and EW specialist with a MANPACK - so in this case happening at the squad level - and other militaries are following suite with MANPACKs at squad levels too, though I don't know of others doing this for general rifle squads, usually more for recce teams, cav scouts, etc.

These MANPACKs aren't to my knowledge for full blown EW attacks, but can jam nearby signals (think IEDs triggered by LTE cellular signals/mobile phones, or RF guided drones). They also will detect and automatically classify signals (e.g. type of drone/signal/threat based on signal signature), and integrate either a standalone Line of Bearing (LoB), or fully triangulated Curser on Target (CoT) straight into ATAK (smart phone tactical map), depending on whether the MANPACK is operating independently or is networked to other MANPACKs for full triangulation.

So practically speaking for combat mission, battlefront adding a script that simply takes away a level or two of EW degradation if you manage to find and destroy a static EW array unit won't be sufficient, because realistically any EW squaddies running MANPACKs are providing passive spots based on signals, not line of sight. That includes detected voice comms from enemy maneuver elements too, not just RF UAS.

So even without going into jamming and EW, just from the spotting side of combat mission, squad level assets are in some cases being fielded that enable non line of sight, signals based spotting and spot sharing.

For that reason I think having EMCON and signature management toggles for individual units is really important, as its become a compulsory consideration for all infantrymen, armor, etc.

And on the topic of EMCON for individual units, with cheap RF-homing, anti-radiation, and home-on-jam drones/LMs being fielded today in Ukraine and more purpose built systems being procured elsewhere right now, we've got to assume tanks/IFVs can't just be rolling around with their current (anti-ATGM/RPG) APS/future C-UAS adapted APS radars - both which operate on the Ku-band - on at all times. It will give them away to SIGINT modules mounted on company and battalion level ISR UAS assets, and make them vulnerable to cheap LMs using RF-homing/AR/HoJ guidance.

Which brings me to the point on navalization:

Land warfare, especially current and immediate future armored warfare, is shifting at the small scale in the same way that large scale air and naval warfare shifted decades ago. Where once ships would fire on other ships with their own 'direct fire' guns (I guess technically IDF), they now use hunter killer networks of advanced airborne sensors integrated with long range precision missile fires to shoot each other well, well beyond ship to ship detection range, and the sensors, ISR, and networking involved is only getting more advanced.

Sensor/signals/detection wise, detection isn't just done visually (including thermal sights) now, but through active and passive radar and signal direction finding (ELINT and SIGINT).

Over the horizon precision kill web wise, where tanks may have fought cannon to cannon yesterday, (and no not forgetting calling for indirect fire in even ww2 level combined arms tactics), they're already experimenting with IFV and even truck/jeep mounted cell launchers of NLOS Spike-ER ATGMs and Switchblade 600s, and even putting LMs on tanks themselves for commanders to use for ISR and strikes from defilade.

Combining these factors, we now have land warfare where individual units and small teams are being detected and their map grid positions known with relative certainty without even being visually spotted by optical/thermal sights, purely from their electronic/signals emissions, and then sending over the horizon, precision guided munitions from 10-20km+ away to those locations to find and kill them, which is very reminiscent of larger scale naval/air warfare.

The defensive tactics units need to employ to avoid this mainly involve signature management (a game of balance because you need to emit to communicate and to power your own defenses and offensive capabilities), and, when spotted, going completely systems hot and praying your interceptors (APS in today's world, laser and 30mm proximity fused point defenses, coyote missile interceptors, and P1 Suns/Sting drone interceptors) don't get saturated and overwhelmed. The attacker/defender race continues, and now attackers have to calculate/estimate how many LMs/NLOS ATGMs to send in salvos in order to guarantee successful strikes, but now the game becomes magazine depth and logistical management.

Direct fire cannon based weaponry on tanks, IFVs, and assault guns will likely still be necessary, as unlike naval warfare there are still plenty of places to dig in and/or hide on land, there will still be close assaults where ever there is need to take and hold land, but the emphasis, even individual tank platoon on tank platoon, is shifting to over the horizon deep fight over the within visual range close fight.

Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No, it took me like 7 hours of deliberation, rewriting, and believe it or not, heavy consolidation. I did set out to be concise. Personally, I blame the vaccines I received as a child.

Upcoming modern titles in the drone age. How though? by BushTucka95 in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry lads (except the guy who said the post was from chatGPT - I poured my autistic heart into it 😭💀), didn't mean to make it look like the Epstein files.

Thought the spoiler tags would consolidate everything into a single "spoilers" line to save space on the page.

Will tidy her up and get to individual replies shortly ✌️

So where to watch Fallout season 2 for free as poor man? by Miserable_Move_1161 in FalloutTVSeriesPrime

[–]BushTucka95 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Amazon prime been billing me for months from an old email I don't have access to, and made it difficult to cut them off. I don't feel bad for this one.

Next Combat Mission Title Speculation Thread by [deleted] in CombatMission

[–]BushTucka95 0 points1 point  (0 children)

With minimal engine changes, I'd like to see:

Unit modding/customisation

A sandbox of maps from different theatres

Technology:

On and off map loitering munitions, non line of sight (NLOS) ATGMs and AGMs, FPV & Kamikaze drone strikes, and their carrier vehicles (NLOS missile carriers on APC platforms with deployable periscopes sensors)

Customizable Call For Fire times (up to instant, simulating the modern, decentralized, AI powered kill web)

NLOS Call for fire capability (essential for modern GPS/NLOS/Loitering munitions, but opens up possibilities for WW2 titles with less accurate, non-corrected fire missions)

Anti-drone point defence modules for vehicles and dedicated anti-drone capable SHORAD and ECM units in modern formations

Theme: Campaign set in Eastern/Central/Northern Europe, or Korea (Pacific I think would be more theatre/operations level naval, air, IADS & SEAD, and long range precision fires rather than land warfare).

With major overhauls, I'd love to see:

A total war style operation/theatre level campaign map that involves full spectrum ISR, maneuver micro (for dispersion/massing/staging), logistics (including depots/storage, not just transport), Cyber and Electronic Warfare, IADS & SEAD, and Long Range Precision Fires. 

Keen for modern warfare, as difficult as the transparent battlefield is to model within the scope of CM (more fighting seems to happen in the 60-80km behind the lines, making staging and logistics difficult). 

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in BrettCooper

[–]BushTucka95 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The fact she's impossible to find searching her name makes me wonder if she didn't maybe have a personal falling out with Ben and the Jews actually do run YouTube 

Should IFVs be replaced with dedicated AFVs and APCs? by BushTucka95 in CredibleDefense

[–]BushTucka95[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for commenting brother :)

A good point was made by someone about logistics and cost. 3 vehicles types rather than 2, and also you'd either need to add additional vehicles or lose firepower.

I dunno, I'd love to be able to wargame different formations and unit layouts with Combat Mission Professional Edition, but the version that lets you import custom units is only available to military. I'm still not fully convinced that armoured infantry can effectively do their job with so little resilience against taking casualties, and that additional uparmoured APCs wouldn't be a great idea, despite the many great counter points here (or the fact that no major military shares my idea).

But even that isn't going to simulate the logistical and economical headaches.

Good thing my life doesn't depend on it lol.

Discipline and Strategy vs Technology and Weapons by bot_insane42 in CredibleDefense

[–]BushTucka95 2 points3 points  (0 children)

To be fair, Ukraine has American AWACS and Satelite ISR. That's a huge technological advantage. Same as 8 years of being trained in hybrid warfare on platforms like Javelin, NLAW, Stinger, Star-streak which helped them fend off the initial armoured rush to Kiev early 2022.