"A Look At The U.S. Military Forces That Have Been..." Topic

… Deployed To Attack The Islamic State In Iraq.

"* U.S. forces have spent last two months moving ships, weapons and troops within close proximity of conflict zone
* Two F/A18 fighters flew from American 'supercarrier' in Persian Gulf to fire 500lb laser-guided bombs on ISIS group
* Jets were on USS George H.W. Bush, which travelled 1,000 miles from Arabian Sea to Persian Gulf seven weeks ago

The strike on ISIS today came after U.S. forces spent the last two months moving ships, jets and troops within striking distance.

After President Obama gave the go ahead last night, two F/A18 fighters flew off from an American 'supercarrier' in the Persian Gulf to fire 500lb laser-guided bombs on a group of Islamic militants outside Kurdish capital Erbil…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

A number of companies make F/A-18s and US CVNs in a number of scales for gaming purposes …

And Khurasan makes some wonderful DEVGRU special ops to represent the guys on the ground.

QRF makes a 15mm Predator drone. I'd like to see an MQ9 Reaper drone model, but you can honestly just use a 1/72 scale Predator model and change the tail, it's about the same size as a 1/100 scale Reaper (you'd also need to use 1/100 weapons, but that's a less-critical issue). Or you can be lazy and use a card to represent Predator/Reaper strikes, no model required.

From one of my preferred news sources… "For anyone who has been conscious of world events since 1990, it may seem that bombing Iraq is something the U.S. simply does every few years."

At least right now, we're facing what amounts to a pseudoconventional military force with armor, artillery, etc. Dropping GBU-12s on 2S1s is far less nasty than getting into urban-environment CAS.

Dropping GBU-12s on 2S1s is far less nasty than getting into urban-environment CAS.'

I have absolutely no idea what most of that means – thank goodness.

A 2S1 is a Russian designed Self-propelled 122mm Howitzer. link Those were sold liberally to Arab Armies in the region. Like Syria and Iraq for quite sometime. Along with other Russian equipment. A GBU 12 is a US 500 lbs. Laser Guided bomb dropped from an aircraft … like an F/A-18. link What is good about using CAS (Close Air Support) on targets that are in the countryside. Is that there is far less a chance of causing collateral damage ( ie.: hitting non-military items & civilians, etc.) than in an urban environment … If you watch the news with footage from Gaza. You can see how much damage CAS or artillery can do in a city, town, village, urban environment …

"Somewhere in Iraq " is the default GPS setting in most munitions. Just like PASSWORD is the default password.

I heard today that about four combat sorties were flown, in the last day or so.

ISIS is shifting tactics, to keep from being targeted from the air, by mixing in with the local populace (not sure if that also means taking human shields along for the ride, but suspect so).

Apparently, we will be sending more "advisors" to the region. Not sure if they will be issued with running shoes, or flip-flops/sandals, to avoid violating the "no boots on the ground in Iraq" policy.

It appears the US will be sending "more" advisors somewhere around 130 Troops … I think these will assist with evac'ing the refugees on Sinjar. I would not be surprised to see V-22s, CH-53s, etc. to expidite this. Also it appears that CAS will increase too, to suppress/destroy IS assets that could interfer with this mission and the force protection ops. I was a Bn Air Ops Officer in the 101, in my youth. I've run many LZs/PZs that moved 600-800 troops by UH-1s, CH-47s, UH-60s and even the odd USAF CH-53. Most lifts were only 3-5 birds. So it took sometime. Even the biggest LZ/PZ I ran had a couple of lifts of 12-13 UH-60s. My point … it will take a very, very, long time to try to evac the thousands that are up there. Plus who ever is running the LZs/PZs [Which will most likely be US troops, [SF, USMC, etc.] will have to coordinate Re-supply drops, which I have done also. The Kurds with US support will have to provide defense of the area [and don't doubt there won't be US "Advisors" right there along with them !] And of course US and some Euro assets will provide SEADS to keep air routes clear of IS AAA … Of course from my experience and knowledge the best way to do this entire ops is to attrite as many IS assets as possible. Plus the Kurds with US advisors with have to help with crowd control. What we called "PZ Contol". That was my call sign for the incoming flights on occassion. The Kurd/US troops, will be setting up aircraft loads/Chalks, etc. … We all remember what happened often in Vietnam, When US choppers were trying to evac ARVN troops for an LZ/PZ and the "brave" ARVN ran and jumped on the skids, etc. … To get out as fast as possible. Many fell off and died hitting th ground, etc. … So if you really want to try to wargame this type op, it could be very "challeging" … But based from what I know … not fun. And again GHQ pretty much has most of what you'll need including local civilains, etc. … link link link