Fully agree. I think it was on M4C but beside the issues that any decent gun guy would expect about line troops using different loads for training and combat, a lot of people don’t realize how small the log support team for an IN BN really is. I don’t remember off the top of my head, but there are very few guys qualified to fix weapons at that level, I think two E1-E4s and an E5. Maybe one of the senior maintenance NCOs has the background in weapons but it’s uncommon. And those guys fix everything from M17 to M2, plus mortars and artillery. Any added weapon system is one more thing that they need to know how to repair and have parts on hand for.
On the distribution side of the house, about a squad is responsible for resupply. JRTC is a relatively small training area and I still had to run convoys (5-13 hrs was the longest I believe) every single day that we were in the box minus one because that squad resupplies five to six different companies. Of about 12 people, two of those are probably going to be in a fuel truck. Another two will be the PL and his driver in a HMMWV or JLTV. That’s four trucks left over for all food, water, ammo, and anything else that may need to be delivered/retrieved. Adding trailers helps but it becomes a delicate balancing act of pallet spaces to minimize redundant trips. And some of those vehicles with trailers are huge for the spaces that we have to try to get them into. Adding an entirely new type of ammo without removing one just takes up more space and it becomes more complex for tracking and projecting, which historically line companies suck at.
And none of that acknowledges the need for protective platforms. Sometimes you can take guys from the other sections in the company to escort the logistics convoy but that means they’re not doing their own job (like repairing weapons…).
And as sad as it is, it’s often not your most competent soldiers that are fuelers and truck drivers, so the few performers in that squad are probably lifting more than their fair share, exhausting them quicker and degrading sustained operations.
Crazy enough, I still haven’t heard the Ukrainians asking for more powerful small arms. Who would’ve guess that against a near peer, they care more about things that explode.
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