Something that really needs to be kept in mind is that we don't really
know what type of war we're going to face until we actually face it. Maybe ISR, drones, loitering munitions and artillery will force us into a relatively static front with small scale localized assaults and infiltration tactics. Or maybe enough mass of air power, AD, EW and strategic fires will allow maneuver to work and break through the enemy's front.
To me that would suggest combined arms units that through grouping can be scaled to either concentrate arms in mass or to break down into smaller, more dispersed combined arms teams.
A couple of things seem to suggest themselves to me though.
- A good portion of the force will have to remain armoured. Either to be able to take enemy fire in massed assault or to protect the troops inside from enemy munitions (incl. UAVs and LMs) if being used to move troops in a more dispersed environment.
- How that armour protection is to be balanced between actual physical armour and "virtual" armour (APS, supporting C-UAS/C-RAM systems, maneuverability, reactive armour, etc.) isn't clear yet to me but my suspicion is toward somewhat lighter vehicles than current MBT's...say 50-55 tons? Defensive systems would have to be proven to be extremely effective I think before you could envision tanks going down to the 40 ton (CV90120) range.
- I definitely fall into the tracks over wheels camp for vehicles in the heavy forces.
- I'm also in favour of IFV's having more dismounts than most current vehicles. Infantry are having to deal with a greater variety of weapons and systems and are facing more variety of threats. Larger dismounted sections will help spread the burden.
One thing that is certain to me is that when conflicts escalate they become attritional. In personnel, equipment and munitions. We need to recognize that in our force design and plan for both sustainment and expansion.
There will be war.
In the same vein:
There will be tanks.
There will be helicopters.
Assaults have to happen. Tanks are required for assaults. Assaults will be opposed. Protection will be required. Protection costs weight. Weight is best managed on tracks.
There will be tracks.
Those tracks will also move the other supporting arms (infantry, engineers, guns, AT, AD, EW...).
All stipulated.
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The enemy will fight where the tanks can't go.
The best All Terrain Vehicle is the helicopter. It may change form. It may use different propulsion methods but there will be helicopters.
Until helicopters can lift tanks forces to be moved by helicopter will have to weigh less than the tank forces.
They will be lighter.
I will designate the tank forces as heavy.
I will designate the helicopter forces as light.
....
Both heavy and light forces are extremely expensive.
They are hard to train.
It is difficult to generate and sustain their necessary skills.
They will always be available in small numbers.
They will have to be husbanded and employed with care.
If employed they will be hard to replace.
....
There are many tasks required of an army other than assaults.
Many of those tasks require only limited manoeuvre. Many of them are static.
Many of them can be managed by soldiers with fewer skill sets than the assaulters.
Different technologies will be appropriate based on both the different threats and the different skills.
These forces will operate widely across the inhabited domain. They will operate in cities, towns and villages. They will operate in farmlands. They will operate in industrial lands: forests, mines, quarries and drill sites.
They will operate where there are roads. They will operate where the economy runs on wheels. They will operate in support of the civil power.
They will have to endure.
They will have to add to the peacetime capabilities of the civil power.
They will be of limited value in time of peace.
They will be critical in time of war.
Those forces are best served with wheeled transport so that they can rapidly relocate using the road network and patrol that network.
Some of that force will require low levels of armour protection to manage COIN threats (knives, pistols, rifles, machine guns, hand grenades as well as rocket and mortar launched varieties, mines and IEDs as well as UAVs).
In the Canadian context the CAF and politicians will be required to ensure that no enemy heavy forces with tanks are allowed on Canadian soil. They are best managed in transit when they are massed in ships. Sink them before they are in a position to overmatch our domestic COIN force.
Our domestic COIN force, on wheels, must be in a position to overmatch organized light forces armed as previously described. It is not unreasonable to expect that lightly armed forces, a mix of nationals and foreigners, could be equipped, trained and organized by foreign powers to overmatch our peacetime security forces. This was the role of the British SOE and American OSS in Europe in WW2. It is the hybrid attack being employed by Russia in Ukraine.
In Europe the threat is managed by full time Gendarmeries and Border Guards with their own stables of heavily armed wheeled vehicles up to and including the Italian Centauro. They do not regularly patrol the streets but they are available to both put down insurrections and to thicken the line in the event of "LSCO".
The threat is also managed by the presence of a functioning system of reserves.
There is your wheeled fleet.
Neither light enough to move by helicopter nor heavy enough to conduct an assault in LSCO it lies between the two.
Not light.
Not heavy.
Medium.
theprinciplesofwar.com
