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Originally Posted by piersyf
Hey Trex. Yeah, no argument about blast being local, but a genade in a pit is worse than a grenade in the open. Arty's biggest threat in a conventional fight is counter battery and air. In both cases digging in is counter productive. In the first case you need to move as soon as you shoot, and the old Soviet concept of moving to an alternate prepared position has been shown not to work, not least because the position can be seen and marked, so you get pounded all the way between 2 known locations and once you get there. As for air, it is a bit easier to hide a gun than the pit as well. Western armies have largely moved as far away from prepared positions as they can except where they are a deliberate blocking force or being dangled as bait.
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Good argument. I have heard it before and, in many situations, I agree with it.
There is however little threat in Afghanistan (to us anyway) from either air or CB.
I think the 'grenade in a pit vs grenade in the open' concept is generally greatly overstated. Regardless if you are at the bottom of a mine or on top of a mountain or even floating in mid-air, if you are within the grenade's lethal radius, you are dead, period, full-stop. The only way a barrier will can (not necessarily will, but potentially
may) cause more problems is WRT blast, and that is within a very short distance. (Indeed, with the exception of low-frag munitions like FAE, if you are within the lethal radius for blast, you are almost always within the lethal radius for frag). In short, the main danger, the main casualty-causer, comes from fragmentation and barriers provide a positive benefit there.
While moving around from AMA to AMA is good protection in most circumstances, looking at the video, I get the distinct impression that these guys are firing from an established base of some sort. Note the large tents. Also, somebody has had time to fill and place a bunch of Hesco-Bastion (or equivalent).
Fatalism is great and my hat's off to the King of Battle, but I am a professional pessimist. Like I said, Chicken Little only has to be right once. If there is any way I can up the chances of sending one more of our troops home with a full set of body parts and no extra navels, I'm all for it.