Suggested military upgrades or ideas

[Airframes]

Matt and Flyboy2, re your last. TOTALLY agree! It's about time the politicians etc., in the 'States and here in the U.K., stopped f*****g about with the military, and let them have the kit they need, and do the job!

[MacArther]

Like what - a leatherman anti-armor knife?

Perhaps I'm thinking of the wrong anti-armor weapon as an example. I was trying to refer to the collapsing one used by US forces in Vietnam. I think it was either 66mm or 70mm caliber.

[Airframes]

M63/66, the telescopic tubed, pre-packed 66mm LAW. Use once-throw away!

[Freefalling]

Reduce the load carried by the infantry. The average rifleman is carrying about 65-70 pounds of gear. An RTO, 249 gunner, 240 gunner, or mortarman will exceed that by quite a bit.

[SoD Stitch]

Originally Posted by Flyboy2

I'm thinking that if somebody is trying to kill you, a soldier should be able to kill back. I know that we are trying not to hurt people but I don't think its worth it to put American soldiers in danger.

It's not. If you're in a war zone, you're in a war zone; casualties, friendly and non-friendly, are going to happen. You can try and minimize them, but you're not going to be able to eradicate them. Sooner or later, a civilian/friendly is going to get killed, it's just a matter of time. It makes me mad when the international press zeroes in a friendly-fire/civilian casualty incident; it's like they think wars should be made "safe" or something. Safe for who? The insurgents would like nothing better than for US armed forces to do their utmost to avoid civilian casualties, it makes their job just that much easier.

[Flyboy2]

The insurgents would like nothing better than for US armed forces to do their utmost to avoid civilian casualties, it makes their job just that much easier.

Exactly. I always think about if we worried about civilian casualties in the World War II bombing raids. How much different would that have worked out. The problem is the people want the government to get the job done but then don't want anybody to get hurt doing it. That is the problem America has in Iraq. After 9/11 they were calling for the head of every terrorist and now we get worked over casualties. I don't want anybody to die but being a soldier means you take that chance.

[Freefalling]

I can't speak for Iraq but we try to avoid civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Sometimes you don't see a civilian though. The bad guys like to use houses/ citadels as firing points. We've used a GBU-31 on a single sniper before.

You try to avoid them but they still happen.