"How the Gulf War transformed warfare" Topic

When GPS-enabled sensors pinpointed enemy targets, surveillance aircraft monitored enemy troop movements and stealth bombers eluded radar tracking from air defenses in the opening days of Operation Desert Storm decades ago -- in January of 1991 – very few of those involved were likely considering how these attacks signified a new era in modern warfare…

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There was a series of articles well over a decade ago that stated that the performance of the U.S. equipment was so shocking to Russia and China, that they embarked on major reorganizations of their forces. It's credited for China abandoning their massive, low quality forces to smaller brigade structures with better training and equipment. Not quite the effect of Crecy or Agincourt, but it was a shock to modern warfare thinking at the time.

Certainly with all the new "high-Tech" during that war and the progress that continues. It was a bit of a "game changer".

And along with the new tech's arrival. Not only did tactics have to change/evolve. The TO&Es of many militaries had to adapt, evolve, etc., to the additions to their "inventories". The US ARMY even added a new Cyber Warfare branch about a decade or so ago.

We see what happens when tactics don't evolve tech, or vis verse, e.g. WWI …

I know when I was training at the NTC in the Mojave, a couple of times in the later '80s. I wish I had GPS !

I think it's a bit funny that I had never heard of GPS until the Gulf War. I remember those odd devices that our officers had and I didn't think too much of them, but the impact they had on the war!

I've read a lot about how the Iraqis were stunned about how we just came out of "nowhere" and took them by surprise because we could use GPS navigation, and our superior logistics, to maneuver through places that they thought were impassable or unnavigable. Those goofy "toys" really were worth their weight in gold in that war.

They're nothing special now. Heck, I have on in my phone now!

We had a GPS in my artillery battery. One. And it was mounted in a Humvee. Like Tgunner said, I have one on my phone.

We used micro-cassette records to record the sounds of combat and messages home. Now the same phone can do both, with video, and send it home instantaneously.

Times have certainly changed.

New Tech … evolved tactics … more effective warfighting … Limiting your losses to as close to 0 as possible.

And keeping the enemies losses as high as possible, as well as frequently …

Check this stuff out. My son worked with many of these:
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Wolfhag

My son was on leave at the house with a few of his buddies and I tried to get them to talk about their equipment. They said it's all "Top Secret". When I showed them this and other stuff their jaw dropped.

Wolfhag

LOL !!!! Why does that not surprise !?!?!

So much for OPSEC! If we have the media and the net in WWII like we have today … They would have published the Op Overlord OPORD ! Before the landings !!!!

but we still had a high rate of friendly fire incidents

Which War ?

I assume he's talking about Desert Storm. Where we discovered that some of the helicopter navigation systems didn't work the way we thought they did. (Wind pushed helos well east of where they thought they were, and ended up shooting some British vehicles in the neighboring sector in one incident)

I remember something like that happening …