"The Fighting Season" Weapon Loadout Analysis

[CPM]

I’m more concerned with the lack of willingness to attack into the ambush, close with and destroy the enemy in close combat. It seems the SOP is to take pot shots at one another for 30 minutes until a AWT shows up and sprays a girls school with 30mm.

I’m honestly appalled at the risk adverse nature of current big military leaders. I saw it first hand with my battalion in Iraq, and it’s only become worse.

[vicious_cb]

The Marines got it right with the M27 rifle.

I wouldnt call giving everyone a 13lb rifle getting it "right"...

Getting something right would entail reducing soldier's load while maintaining greater or equal capability.

[1168]

By "standard configuration" do you mean with the KAC rail? ACOG or CCO?

If you were using one to deploy with and were given the latitude (and $$$ too) what would you change on the M4A1?

I do mean with the KAC rail. ACOG or CCO; either are better or equivalent to what is fielded by most other nations regular forces. I’ve seen units that equip most Soldiers with the Comp M, and TL, SL, and top marksmen with the ACOG, and thats not a bad model. All ACOGs for AFG rotations wouldn’t be bad either. There are obviously other optics out there also, and that one of the things that makes the M4 so great; ease of mounting optics.

Given the lattitude and budget, the thing I would most like to see changed is the handguard. I want it longer, and I want MLOK. I also don’t like burning my hands, so as much as I love FSB’s I’d shave it. I would change the grip to be more vertical in angle, and make it grippier. I might consider another trigger.

I’m honestly appalled at the risk adverse nature of current big military leaders. I saw it first hand with my battalion in Iraq, and it’s only become worse.

Risk aversity in the big mil is not new, and its a plague.

[turnburglar]

Is "The Fighting Season" a multi-season series? IIRC they did a similar show on my unit, The Reapers in 2013. We where a USAF unit primarly made of security forces airmen that did most of the area security ops for the AO around Bagram.

Our main vehicles where MRaps and MATV's and we would typically dismount 10-14 bodies. To counter the RPK threat Airmen where humping the same M240B that we would mount on the vehicles. It was SOP to take 1, 240 but in sketchy areas we would deploy 2. There was also always 2 249's and 2 M203. The main benefit of being an AF unit though was our close connection to CAS. We would regularly use air frames on stand by to do our route recon, and assist with PID. When there ever was a TIC typically air support was on scene in less than 2 minutes. Im a lowely blue beret and I coordinated plenty over comms. It's really not that hard. Like others have said, the name of the game was find, fix, air asset. During my deployment all of our TICs where actually pretty close and not the typical afghan long range duel that other units seem to have. IDK just how the dice rolled.

For carbines we loaded regular green tip, althouhg we managed to scavange some m855A1 and dispersed that to our ACOG shooters that would do overwatch during traffic check points. Honestly the most effective accesory was the Peq and PVS 14. LPV would be nice, but honestly the peq was my primary sighting system. My aimpoint was my back up lol. The best evolution of the M4 IMO is the new USASOC upper from gieselle. Thats basically how my personaly owned carbine is set up and I doubt there is a better tool out there for our troops.

[jesuvuah]

I was never in the service, but in my experience of engaging paper targets, I would take an acog over a lpv for just about anything but a spr. I find 4power to be enough for a carbine and much prefer the acog weight and compactness.

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[BallisticHarmony]

I was never in the service, but in my experience of engaging paper targets, I would take an acog over a lpv for just about anything but a spr. I find 4power to be enough for a carbine and much prefer the acog weight and compactness.

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What do you think of the 1.5x TA44 with the ACSS reticle?

[jesuvuah]

What do you think of the 1.5x TA44 with the ACSS reticle?

Never used it. I only have experience with the 4x and 3x models.

I personally would probably struggle to use a BDC on a 1.5x scope.

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[CPM]

Risk aversity in the big mil is not new, and its a plague.

I mean, there's no way to say this without sounding like an asshole, but I feel like there's a real fear of dying and that permeates the ranks in the past 8 years or so. People throw around the term "Savage" all of the time and it drives me nuts, because no one really is. When I was over there my entire platoon was ready to die at any moment. We truly didn't give a shit, it felt as though we were fearless at times. All we cared about was killing the enemy. Nothing else mattered. We would assault through ambushes, dismount and clear buildings. There was no seeking cover and waiting for air. It was pure aggression. Every place we went we were prepared to kill everyone we looked at. I would walk into a room and run the numbers in my head of who was getting it first, second, etc... if things went south.

The lack of aggression, especially in the 11 series field, is appalling. I feel like screaming at these guys- "What the hell did you sign up for?! Go kill them!" as they sit on their duffs with a radio.

Edit: i say all this without any intent of being braggadocios- to be honest, we were unsafe at times, and I did many stupid things that could've got my friends and I killed- like picking up a bomb from a ditch by the fins.

[ABNAK]

Is "The Fighting Season" a multi-season series? IIRC they did a similar show on my unit, The Reapers in 2013. We where a USAF unit primarly made of security forces airmen that did most of the area security ops for the AO around Bagram.

Our main vehicles where MRaps and MATV's and we would typically dismount 10-14 bodies. To counter the RPK threat Airmen where humping the same M240B that we would mount on the vehicles. It was SOP to take 1, 240 but in sketchy areas we would deploy 2. There was also always 2 249's and 2 M203. The main benefit of being an AF unit though was our close connection to CAS. We would regularly use air frames on stand by to do our route recon, and assist with PID. When there ever was a TIC typically air support was on scene in less than 2 minutes. Im a lowely blue beret and I coordinated plenty over comms. It's really not that hard. Like others have said, the name of the game was find, fix, air asset. During my deployment all of our TICs where actually pretty close and not the typical afghan long range duel that other units seem to have. IDK just how the dice rolled.

For carbines we loaded regular green tip, althouhg we managed to scavange some m855A1 and dispersed that to our ACOG shooters that would do overwatch during traffic check points. Honestly the most effective accesory was the Peq and PVS 14. LPV would be nice, but honestly the peq was my primary sighting system. My aimpoint was my back up lol. The best evolution of the M4 IMO is the new USASOC upper from gieselle. Thats basically how my personaly owned carbine is set up and I doubt there is a better tool out there for our troops.

Didn't one AF ground-forces officer get awarded the MoH for his actions around there in that timeframe? I believe he was a captain.

Never mind......I was thinking of Capt. Groberg, and he was Army, not Air Force.

[Moshjath]

I was an Infantry Platoon Leader in the same general area of Afghanistan in the same timeframe as this series. My Platoon’s direct fire engagements ranged from about 40m to 900m out. The most difficult aspect of every engagement was gaining PID on the threat...and I don’t think that having a LPVO over the ACOGs that most of us had would have made any difference. The terrain we found ourselves in through that deployment ranged from very mountainous to flat desert to very vegetated agricultural areas with the typical Afghan biblical era mud architecture villages and family compounds. The folks who fought us were in all reality mostly dirt poor farmers who made up the population of the area. They were fighting in their backyard, and were extremely adept at utilizing available cover and concealment, as well as pre-planned escape routes to break contact when the time came. Overall, extremely frustrating to try to break that cycle.

I have no complaints about the M4 carbine as issued. You can’t see it as just a rifle in isolation- with proper echelonment of fires both organic and supporting, an Infantry Platoon as it exists today is pretty well equipped for most threats it would face, with reasonable tactical employment. My major complaint is the weight of a combat load, and I imagine that is an age old complaint.

To the poster remarking about how today’s Infantrymen lack the “savagery” of your early GWOT (presumably) Infantry unit- what is your frame of reference? Early Iraq? The rules have changed significantly over the years- we weren’t even supposed to enter Afghan homes in 2014. The geography of Afghanistan itself dictates tactics somewhat- taking close in pop shots from a building in Iraq, then storming in to eliminate the threat is somewhat different from Afghanistan, when you take harassing fire from nearly a K out...unable to see the enemy, much less think through which ones you are going to kill in what order...with a significant terrain feature between you and the enemy, especially when you can’t even tell where the fire is coming from...that situation lends itself to trying to pinpoint the threat and eliminate with CAS or other fires. You also have to weigh the possibility that you are being baited into a certain situation. My most useful tool in the PLT I found was to engage with direct fire handheld 60mm mortars.

I can tell you, outside of all the alarmist Facebook posts out there on various veteran pages, there isn’t a significant difference between the type of Infantryman in today’s Platoons versus who I went to war alongside of for 15 months in 2007 to Iraq. Certainly no less “savage”.