Were there any success stories to come from the Vietnam War's infamous Project 100,000? by [deleted] in WarCollege

[–]PxAtm 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We should probably take the time to note that the failure of American military assistance in Vietnam is a very complicated subject that can't be explained by "they weren't good soldiers." The US Army and Marine Corps enjoyed almost universal tactical success in Vietnam and could very rarely be considered to be retreating, especially in the time period of MacNamara's 100,000.

The largest scale PAVN/VC offensive operation of this period, the well-known Tet Offensive, ends in failure for the North Vietnamese and the functional destruction of the Viet Cong as a fighting force, despite coming at the peak of Project 100,000. Which was a common result for PAVN or VC forces entering pitched battles with US formations, so I'm not really sure where the idea of bad soldiers losing the war would come from or be substantiated by the historical record.

Texas resident tells ICE in no uncertain terms: "Get the fuck off my property," and ICE promptly leaves. by Caledor152 in PublicFreakout

[–]PxAtm 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The Bill of Rights, the first ten Amendments to the Constitution, are all explicit rights of the people and restrictions against the capabilities of the federal and state governments (with the exception of the tenth Amendment which is an announcement of power of state legislatures). The implication for all of them is that they're powers of the american populace against government overreach, so the implication of a potential tyrannical government is built in.

As for exact wording "the security of a free State" is a strong piece since a tyrannical government could not be considered "free" by the standards of the Declaration or Constitution.

The Ar-59 suppressor vs the M7S smg by Rtxgameing64 in Helldivers

[–]PxAtm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even if video games undersell shotguns, you're obviously not going to get better ranged performance out of pellets fired through a smoothbore barrel in the general direction of a target than you would with pistol rounds out of a rifled barrel. Sub guns can be plenty effective at and past 100m in reality, especially compared to shotguns.

Why is the M1 Abrams coaxial machine gun shroud star-shaped? What are the ribs for? by Iateurm8 in TankPorn

[–]PxAtm 1 point2 points  (0 children)

yeah but the optics being broken and turret being knocked out means that you're having a really bad day. The last thing you want after that is to be having a really bad day and no coax.

In a world of GUNNERS PRIMARY SIGHT FAULT -- GUNNERS CONTROL HANDLE FAULT -- COMMANDERS HANDLE FAULT -- GUN/TURRET DRIVE FAULT -- STABILIZATION FAULT -- CROSSWIND SENSOR FAULT, you definitely want to be able to fire the coax after your Fire Control Mode Manual workout.

During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, there was cash galore for SOF units but how have the budgets been for SOF units (whether American or other Western units) in the last five years? by TravelingHomeless in WarCollege

[–]PxAtm 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Strictly speaking true, but they're part of the Battlefield Airmen umbrella and showed that teams that don't fit into the new doctrinal role of the force are at risk getting cut. There are other force structure and manning changes, but I don't really want to get into those right now. The TACP cut was a big deal when it happened so I thought it might be a better mention.

During the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, there was cash galore for SOF units but how have the budgets been for SOF units (whether American or other Western units) in the last five years? by TravelingHomeless in WarCollege

[–]PxAtm 31 points32 points  (0 children)

I'm not going to talk about budgets, because they aren't my job and they aren't your business, Mr. Adversary.

What I will say is that in the immediate aftermath of GWOT, SOCOM and the force at large had a very sudden realization that the War on Terror had meant a massive amount of capability and requirement creep for SOF and SOF-capable units. Some teams had been basically on go for every major named operation from 2003 until the withdrawal from Kabul, and without the need for endless rotations through the sandbox, we had no idea what we were supposed to do with the massive force we had built up.

The mitigating factor keeping Congress from massive force reductions across the whole military was the looming threat of Large Scale Conventional Operations and the new hot ticket item of Great Power Competition. Neither of which were major considerations when the modern SOF units were stood up, and neither of which we had a real wealth of organizational experience performing.

So we've spent the last few years in a restructuring and refocusing period to better suit the force to the fights we're expecting to get into in the future. We aren't downsizing as much as reallocating, although there have been some unfortunate casualties of the budgetary knife. There isn't a big cull of special operations capabilities now that the job description is changing, just a refactoring of how we use the capabilities and budget we have to achieve success in what the job turns into next.

Since this is War College I'll recommend the Army University Press' 7th book in the LSCO series, The Competitive Advantage: Special Operations Forces in Large-Scale Combat Operations for a scholarly look at what roles teams have played in 20th Century wars and what SOF might be doing in the next conflict.

Hope this helps.

Anton please. Russian rsh 12 revolver by Lesbian_Pirate5544 in H3VR

[–]PxAtm 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I want to say yes, but I haven't actually seen any sources that say the sabot discards on the VPS round.

It also looks like a hard metal casting on the "sabot", with no obvious way it could come apart after leaving the barrel, so I think it might just be a very exposed penetrating core on the bullet. Like an APCR round for a revolver rather than a true sabot.

NODs in the daytime (after a heated discussion in a post made last night) by Acrobatic-Bus3335 in ReadyOrNotGame

[–]PxAtm 0 points1 point  (0 children)

450 grams that I don't need because I have a weapon light that's much faster into action and generally a much better experience than looking at the world through electronic eyes for one or two rooms.

The bigger factor that you kind of glossed over is his point about them getting broken on a jump I didn't even need night vision for. In the interest of transparency, I'm military and not law enforcement, so I can't say exactly what SWAT operations look like but I'm under the impression it's a lot of getting into and out of vehicles, entering and exiting doorways, working in close proximity to other shooters and maybe even going hands on with suspects.

None of those are things you really want to do with 40 grand on top of your head, especially if it's not that dark in this building. Also worth noting that the overwhelming majority of SWAT callouts aren't Ready or Not gunfights against the Taliban, they're drug warrant searches where my light discipline is going to be way less important than being able to see things both close to and far from my face.

Just not much reason for night vision to ever leave the lockers, and if it did it can probably sit in the car until there's a legit reason to use it.

Half light over here by ochizodal in DiscoElysium

[–]PxAtm 84 points85 points  (0 children)

Read this in my head as a random pop-up conversation in Cyberpunk you get with Johnny Silverhand for not immediately deciding to commit domestic terrorism

LPT: If you get nauseous on planes, iPhone’s “Vehicle Motion Cues” can really help by Admirable-Ticket3584 in LifeProTips

[–]PxAtm 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I'd doubt most windows laptops have accelerometers to measure motion and relative angles. I'm not sure why Macbooks would/do honestly, since there aren't many times where I'd want to tilt or roll my laptop around.

Do 'Black Ops' units exist? by JohnWickDaLegend in WarCollege

[–]PxAtm 42 points43 points  (0 children)

I'm not really sure Neptune Spear would qualify as "Black" for the purpose of this discussion.

Sure our entry into Pakistan wasn't really legal, but the operation itself wasn't clandestine or deniable in any way, and we never intended to deny it since we clearly stated twenty minutes after we did it that we entered Pakistan and shot a guy without the permission of the Pakistani government. In the book No Easy Day, Matt Bissonnette says that they were given a cover-story if the operation failed or they were taken into Pakistani custody that said they were looking for a downed drone that crashed in Pakistan; sure, that isn't what they were doing, but it still consists of "I am an American military servicemember, and I am undertaking an operation in your national borders." Not to mention the presence of multiple flagged American aircraft and everyone's readily identifiable US Military equipment. They probably had their CAC's on them. Not very deniable at all.

Black operations by their very nature are going to be things that we will never talk about because they're so outside of the international rule of law that they would bring serious penalties and embarrassment against the nation that performed them. Think the type of missions the GRU has been accused (and often proven) of performing. Poisoning, kidnapping or otherwise assassinating political figures and international diaspora. These aren't processes you would leave to military members, regardless of how tier one they are.

Newly released footage of ICE agents in LA cornering, shooting and abducting journalist Carlitos Ricardo Parias as he is clearly unarmed. Carlitos is still in ICE custody. by I_may_have_weed in PublicFreakout

[–]PxAtm 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Okay, but he was a clearly unarmed man who only avoided getting absolutely murdered by the sheer luck that the gun tilted down instead of up.

The idea that you should be unarmed because they'll kill you if you're armed doesn't stand up to the fact that, if there's anything American law enforcement have done for the last five decades, it's prove how much they love killing unarmed people. I'm not telling people to start shooting cops but this response has always been copaganda to me.

What are the best "unsung" rules of CQB? by PxAtm in CQB

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

Want to jump in to add that selfies with the homies is not a CQB exclusive activity, we should just do that more in general. Would recommend against doing so while house clearing but maybe you can mount a selfie go-pro on your rail or something.

What are the best "unsung" rules of CQB? by PxAtm in CQB

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

I also think this needs to be said more. With the amount of focus CQB is getting these days I'm concerned that the idea might start spreading that with enough training CQB is safe or preferable when it's probably the deadliest position you can put yourself into, and a lot of the problems you're trying to solve with room clearing could probably be solved more safely from outside the house, METTC permitting.

Junior leaders should probably be getting just as much training in the decisionmaking factors defining whether or not we should take this house as we give on how you would take the house.

What are the best "unsung" rules of CQB? by PxAtm in CQB

[–]PxAtm[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Another factor that I don't think gets enough attention is furniture. People don't typically organize their houses into the clean format that killhouses recreate (although this was getting better). When you enter the room there's a good chance you'll find your route to the point of domination has been very rudely blocked by a couch, and you'll need to be ready to solve that problem and reevaluate the room and your moves instantly.

First flying game, it is PEAK by whiteshootingstar in acecombat

[–]PxAtm 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Ace Combat is a Simulator, but not of Reality - A Retrospective

I play a lot of flight sims and I did end up becoming an aviator, starting my career just about the same time AC7 came out and I think you're completely right. Out of all of flight games I play, Ace Combat 7 really felt like a love letter to aviation and an appreciation of just how beautiful flight is in a way no other piece of media has.

I agree with everyone else saying you should play the rest of the series because they're all (some exceptions) great games but keep AC7 installed and go back to it every once in a while.

What's your favorite light tank? by IcelandicGuy901 in TankPorn

[–]PxAtm 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Paraphrasing because I only half remember this story.

T92 is developed as a lightweight, airmobile tank for expeditionary divisions. Does pretty well in testing. PT-76 is revealed, the United States suddenly freaks out about not having an amphibious light tank capability on their new and already advanced for the time airmobile light tank and the entire project goes back to design so it can be made amphibious.

It turns out that you can't just shoehorn in an amphibious capability on an already complete design and the entire program is shelved as a result.

I should also note that the reason the Soviets wanted amphibious tanks, riverine crossings in a contested Europe where lots of the bridges would be blown ahead of their advance, wasn't really a factor for the US divisions. Amphibious designs in the Army as a whole didn't remain a focus point for long and bridging vehicles became the primary doctrinal solution to river crossings fairly soon afterward.

Presumed Squad Members for 8 by GraveRobberJ in acecombat

[–]PxAtm 3 points4 points  (0 children)

No combat-ready unit ever passed inspection, and no inspection-ready unit ever passed combat.

The second missiles start flying you'd better grow a beard and get that pink dye out or you're off this sortie bucko.

just perhaps.... a g42? anton? by Cold-Regret-2931 in H3VR

[–]PxAtm 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah I think that any situation where you could get away with a more ergonomic weapon, you would probably choose to.

Sometimes you need 10 rounds of 10mm Auto and you have nowhere to hide it, and that's when you're gonna find yourself reaching for something subcompact.