"Ground Surveillance Radar (GSR)" Topic

How do ytou deal with this in your games.

I must admit it is giving me a headache tacticaly. It lets my opponent see some of my vehicles moving up to their positions. The coverage of woods does not help at all. He finds out where my vehicals and troops are and although the detail is not grest it gives away my dispositions which is a real problem. I can move unobserved behind hills but that can take more time and can still betray me as I move into final positions in some cases.

What rules cover GSR in your games.

It rarely comes up in American Revolution, Pirate or Comanche vs Texas Ranger games.

John the OFM – Why are you posting on an ultra Modern Board when you clearly have no interest in the period?

It seems they are mostly used for the security of static locations. I doubt they'd survive very well in the FEBA.

I did not hear of their use in Ukraine from guys who were specializing in SigInt.

link

Wolfhag

@ UshCha
And, do I need your permission???

Your OP did not confine itself to "Ultramodern".
🤷
It merely asked about "your games". Meaning "mine", I presume.
I once had a Mycenaean army and a Trojan army. I made up god intervention rules. You can do that for Ultramodern if you wish. I won't complain.

They come with a nice EM signature, which on todays battlefield near the front lines means they would quickly become a target.

I believe drones, aircraft and even satellites have replaced most ground radars as has been noted, their emissions make them a sub optimal choice.

Was platoon sgt for the STA platoon in the mid to later 70's. Teamed the GSR with a NOD to clarify the targets.
Yeah, the 'coffee grinder' GSR put out a signal. Had a 12 foot cord to the headset. It was advised to run it 3 feet back and 9 feet down <lol>

Norway, 1982 with Boot Troop 16/5 Lancers, advice was "If you want children do not stand in front of the ZEBEDEE (phon)"

Tally Ho!

The RF from a GSR won't penetrate very far into woods or dense foliage, so I recommend limiting how far a GSR can see into woods. The GSR operator is hearing or seeing (depending on the system) the doppler effect of movement. In the early '90s I was a ground surveillance systems platoon leader with PPS-5 GSRs, TVS-4 thermal sights, and REMBASS. I thought the thermal sight was far more useful than the radar.

As for the sterilization effect of GSRs, that risk is way overblown. The PPS-5 emitted about 5 watts of RF in C-Band. You're probably getting as much RF leaking from your microwave oven while you stand next to it waiting for your dinner to heat up. My platoon of 96R GSR operators were quite a prolific cast of characters and appeared to have no problem reproducing.

pjm

Well I interacted withe GSR tracks and EC tracks at two levels.
I was an Armored Cavalry platoon leader in the 1970s. We operated ahead of the front lines both on defense and offense. A secondary mission was rear area security.
It was amazing how many assets are deployed ahead of the frontline. We frequently had ADA , stinger or Redeye teams, attached.

My experience was that there was no tactical affect on tactical games by CEWI. Data collected was sent to brigade and divisional G2 for analysis.

My Second experience with CEWI units was when I served as the S4 of the First Infantry Division MI battalion. That was were I leaned about how they operated. As with the Cavalry, they were regarded as expendable once data was collected.

Ground surveillance radar are effectively line of sight and don't penetrate much into woods or urban areas.

They are not great for locating stationary units; unless the units are very familiar with the terrain. What they are pretty good at is detecting vehicle movement at night. Identifying what type of vehicles are doing the movement, is challenging is it civilians, tanks or unit logistics trains?

Their electromagnetic signature is large, and likely to be detected by peer adversaries, not insurgents Turning on your radars is likely Gina give away your units location and multiple ones will help map out the adversaries understanding of your defenses and or where you are expecting to advance.