http://randomthoughtsandguns.blogspot.com/2011/05/jet-planes-and-helicopters-how.html
Jet Planes and Helicopters, how irregular forces negate air power
The US had air superiority in Vietnam. The USSR had air superiority in Afghanistan. Victory through Air Power right? Wrong.
T.R. was talking about Korea, but even by putting boots on the ground in Vietnam the wars were not decisively won. Third generation warfare CANNOT be decisively won. Third generation warfare is not won on the battlefield where decisive engagements take place, it is won on the political scene by the will of the people being represented by the government of their choosing (and while there are those who believe we are in 4th Gen or even 5th Gen warfare, the differences aren't enough to worry about).
I don't believe that the North Vietnamese wanted "communism" other than it represented their first real chance for a truly native government in CENTURIES. I don't believe that the Mujahadeen were fighting Communists for anything other than the same view on self determination. Man, self determination is a helluva reason to fight isn't it?
So how did the Muj in the desert and mountains and the VC/NVA in the jungles, deal with the worlds two most powerful Air Forces? They didn't. They hid whenever they could. They fought the ground forces that they could, and slowly built capacity through OUTSIDE HELP to get heavy weapons capable of attacking LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT. Fast movers were shot down as well, but at the time North Vietnam had more SAMS than any other place on the planet.
Guerrilla warfare ain't sexy. Lots of people die.
In Vietnam three .51 caliber machine guns would be place into a triangle formation pointing inward, when a helicopter flew through the "kill zone" the ambush would kick off and the pilot would have to react to contact from three directions. The idea was to "overwhelm" the pilots ability to process data, or "get inside his OODA loop". What is funny is that I didn't learn about this technique from studying Vietnam, I learned about it from Iraq. But the Iraqi insurgents were just recycling Vietnamese tactics. Shame on me for not knowing that sooner.
So, don't have your cache of supplies and munitions out in the middle of nowhere. A Predator or Reaper flying at oh damn feet above reality will call down the wrath of God quick fast and in a hurry. Your cache sights need to be in a place where you have a reason to be so that you don't raise suspicion by being there, have overhead cover to mask your activities and normal traffic to and from so that your movement doesn't stand out.
You know who will have freedom of movement? Appliance delivery trucks, plumbers, carpenters, and such in the service or skilled labor industries. Need to move that SVD from Baghdad to Baqubah? Why not break it into components and stuff it in the empty space of a washing machine between the drum and cover? Need a new barrel for your Savage or AR? Call a plumber to come and fix your leak or place a bid estimate on a bathroom remodel. In Iraq large scale smuggling operations happened using gravel trucks (and are probably still happening). But just like the French Partizans or other operating under an oppressive occupying regime, make sure your paperwork is in order for the inevitable "flash traffic control point" that will pop up.
So you don't have to take the Chinese Spy Satellite out of the sky to deny the .gov any actionable intelligence. You just have to be smart, accept that the Chinese can fly over Tibet with impunity, and build robust networks on the ground. Once you have the ground networks in place to RECEIVE the munitions to destroy aircraft, DISTRIBUTE those munitions to the appropriate cells and destinations, and COORDINATE attacks and resupply, just like the Muj did against the Soviets.
To sum it up, when the big dog controls the skies it LIMITS but does not stop the underdog from conducting operations. Stupid underdogs get spotted, and then they get killed. The Big Dog tries to fight an intelligence driven fight, so not sticking out like a sore thumb from an overhead perspective keeps the under dog from providing the Big Dog intelligence. Cause as the US and USSR learned the hard way, it isn't the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog that wins in irregular warfare.
Americans in 1950 rediscovered something that since Hiroshima they had forgotten: you may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life—but if you desire to defend it, protect it and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men in the mud. "
— T.R. Fehrenbach
T.R. was talking about Korea, but even by putting boots on the ground in Vietnam the wars were not decisively won. Third generation warfare CANNOT be decisively won. Third generation warfare is not won on the battlefield where decisive engagements take place, it is won on the political scene by the will of the people being represented by the government of their choosing (and while there are those who believe we are in 4th Gen or even 5th Gen warfare, the differences aren't enough to worry about).
I don't believe that the North Vietnamese wanted "communism" other than it represented their first real chance for a truly native government in CENTURIES. I don't believe that the Mujahadeen were fighting Communists for anything other than the same view on self determination. Man, self determination is a helluva reason to fight isn't it?
So how did the Muj in the desert and mountains and the VC/NVA in the jungles, deal with the worlds two most powerful Air Forces? They didn't. They hid whenever they could. They fought the ground forces that they could, and slowly built capacity through OUTSIDE HELP to get heavy weapons capable of attacking LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT. Fast movers were shot down as well, but at the time North Vietnam had more SAMS than any other place on the planet.
Guerrilla warfare ain't sexy. Lots of people die.
In Vietnam three .51 caliber machine guns would be place into a triangle formation pointing inward, when a helicopter flew through the "kill zone" the ambush would kick off and the pilot would have to react to contact from three directions. The idea was to "overwhelm" the pilots ability to process data, or "get inside his OODA loop". What is funny is that I didn't learn about this technique from studying Vietnam, I learned about it from Iraq. But the Iraqi insurgents were just recycling Vietnamese tactics. Shame on me for not knowing that sooner.
So, don't have your cache of supplies and munitions out in the middle of nowhere. A Predator or Reaper flying at oh damn feet above reality will call down the wrath of God quick fast and in a hurry. Your cache sights need to be in a place where you have a reason to be so that you don't raise suspicion by being there, have overhead cover to mask your activities and normal traffic to and from so that your movement doesn't stand out.
You know who will have freedom of movement? Appliance delivery trucks, plumbers, carpenters, and such in the service or skilled labor industries. Need to move that SVD from Baghdad to Baqubah? Why not break it into components and stuff it in the empty space of a washing machine between the drum and cover? Need a new barrel for your Savage or AR? Call a plumber to come and fix your leak or place a bid estimate on a bathroom remodel. In Iraq large scale smuggling operations happened using gravel trucks (and are probably still happening). But just like the French Partizans or other operating under an oppressive occupying regime, make sure your paperwork is in order for the inevitable "flash traffic control point" that will pop up.
So you don't have to take the Chinese Spy Satellite out of the sky to deny the .gov any actionable intelligence. You just have to be smart, accept that the Chinese can fly over Tibet with impunity, and build robust networks on the ground. Once you have the ground networks in place to RECEIVE the munitions to destroy aircraft, DISTRIBUTE those munitions to the appropriate cells and destinations, and COORDINATE attacks and resupply, just like the Muj did against the Soviets.
To sum it up, when the big dog controls the skies it LIMITS but does not stop the underdog from conducting operations. Stupid underdogs get spotted, and then they get killed. The Big Dog tries to fight an intelligence driven fight, so not sticking out like a sore thumb from an overhead perspective keeps the under dog from providing the Big Dog intelligence. Cause as the US and USSR learned the hard way, it isn't the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog that wins in irregular warfare.
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