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The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

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Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#491

Post by RealityVoid »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #423
bluGill wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You need human confirmation (for now) only when your side might be there. Tell your army not to go someplace and you can kill anything that is there.

I wonder about the feasibility of an IFF-like mechanism at the level of individual soldiers. The drone could be designed not to attack when a nearby transmitter is broadcasting a prearranged encrypted code that's dependent on elapsed mission time or some other hard-to-spoof factor. Any humans caught out in the open without the IFF signal present are fair game.

I think you can do this relatively simply with infrared led lights. Imagine "Please don't kill me" remote controls. You are a bit more visible when broadcasting, but presumably you can be selective when turning it on.

Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#492

Post by shmeeed »

cwillu wrote: post #317
zcw100 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you're just supposed to read Clausewitz not actually understand it.

The drinking caused by the reading tends to interfere with the understanding.

A man of culture, I see.

Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#493

Post by watwut »

Noumenon72 wrote: post #272
shimman wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the US should focus more on diplomacy and open collaboration rather than letting a few dozen psychopaths convince the country we need to support a war machine that has benefited no one outside of the defense industry.

If the problem was as simple as a few individuals and had no benefits it would not persist -- this is a Hollywood view of the world that won't help you understand your opposition.

Things that benefit only few can persist for a very long time. And US politics is full of those.

Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#494

Post by austin-cheney »

I did cyber defense for the army for more than 10 years before moving into logistics. Logistics is far more complex and challenging.

I can see from many of the comments here people generally have absolutely no idea what logistics management comprises. Let this be a lesson on Dunning-Kruger.

Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#495

Post by dctoedt »

colechristensen wrote: post #424
dctoedt wrote: post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think sooner or later, Iran will succeed in sinking a big US ship Sinking or even just seriously damaging a U.S. aircraft carrier — approx. 5K people in crew + airwing, billions of dollars in ship and aircraft — might trigger a Pearl-Harbor or 9/11 fury among the American public. No U.S. president could get away with even a "proportionate" response, let alone doing nothing. Think of the Tonkin Gulf incident in 19…

>It triggered a cascade of some of the stupidest and costliest government decisions in history. Eh. WWI wasn't an accident, a series of unfortunate incidents, or something that just got out of hand. Countries and people WANTED the war, war was still thought about as a general benefit to the country, almost sporting. Everybody was feeling powerful with the new capabilities industrialization gave them and they wanted t…

> Countries and people WANTED the war, war was still thought about as a general benefit to the country

That was true among some of the players in various governments — Kaiser Wilhelm being a prime example. Can you cite any (reputable) historians who think that was a general attitude?

Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#496

Post by ExoticPearTree »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #396
ericmay wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of differences. One of the chief differences was that during World War II the United States continental homeland was pretty much untouchable, which allowed the United States and the allies access to a secure and resource rich supply chain that helped lead to victory over the Axis powers. In an engagement with China it is likely that both sides would be able to strike each other's defense industrial ba…

> So far nobody has built a tank, plane, or ship that can run on batteries and while drone technology has continued to advance in many critical ways they don't bring the big bombs quite yet. Ukraine is proving that the "big bombs" are useless - fpv drones can and do take out tanks, planes and ships. They don't survive long enough to deliver the "big bombs". Russia is currently reduced to sending in unmechanised light…

Russia could end the war instantly with a few nukes if it wanted to. I don't get it why it hasn't done that yet. Pride?

Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#497

Post by ExoticPearTree »

budsniffer952 wrote: post #481
marcus_holmes wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is working so well against Iran, right? Oh wait, no, the other thing.

Hilarious. You realize the US could nuke and flatten Iran tomorrow, right? Do you imagine that Trump was trying to conquer Iran and just couldn't do it with all the American military power? There is no scenario that Iran wins a war with the USA. They were trying to overthrow the regime, for the second time in a year, and failed.

> There is no scenario that Iran wins a war with the USA.

It actually depends on what the you the outcome of the war to be: total conquest or regime change.

The US can probably achieve total conquest, but not regime change. They spent 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan and left there without winning anything, especially in Afghanistan. If they wanted to erase Iraq and Afghanistan, that would have a been a totally different thing.

Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#498

Post by troupo »

mschuster91 wrote: post #468
caycep wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they already have that, they want to make sure it stays that way alternatively, there's a Dennis Ross piece out pointing out that China's procurement patterns over the years suggests they are not seriously thinking of invading Taiwan, they just want everyone to think that way...

> they just want everyone to think that way That's the thing with religious or ideologically driven dictators. They're nutjobs, not beholden to reality in their decisionmaking but to whatever their ideology prescribes - and thus are prone to making decisions that seem to (or end up being) utterly stupid / irrational. With Yugoslavia, it was Tito's idea to force all the various countries into one common ethnicity. Wit…

Or you completely ignore what China is openly saying: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China's_final_warning

Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#499

Post by troupo »

ericmay wrote: post #343
nostrademons wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When the war started, it certainly looked like it. Russian soldiers were in Kyiv at one point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kyiv_(2022) It was the failure of Russian logistics and the triumph of Ukrainian logistics that beat them back.

Credit certainly that Russian logistics failed, but was it Ukrainian logistics that beat them back or was it Ukrainian logistics and heroism alongside American and British support, intelligence, and 24/7 airlifts of critical weapons and equipment that beat them back?

> and 24/7 airlifts of critical weapons and equipment that beat them back?

There were no 24/7 airlifts of criticql weapons and equipment at any point in this war.

Ukraine was expected to fall quickly, and any help it needed started arriving very reluctantly, very slowly, in small batches stretched over months and years of deliveries much much later.

Re: The glass backbone: Why the Army's logistics will break in the next war

#500

Post by troupo »

brabel wrote: post #474
esseph wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been rumblings of a Russian attack on Poland for awhile. https://youtu.be/NVnbtbtgu2Y?is=2lMFmF2kQ0SXqIw0 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2026/07/03/russia-pla... https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/26/russia-provoca... Polish news: https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/07/09/8043294/ --- The head of Poland's Foreign Ministry noted that he cannot comment on intelligence data but stressed th…

Poland is delivering 90% of NATO’s support to Ukraine. France is one of the staunchest enemies of Russia. In this situation I just don’t understand what people expect Russia to do?? Sit and accept while those countries work hard to kill its soldiers and destroy its economy? I am surprised Russia hasn’t bombed transport depots in Poland that are known to be used for weapons delivery to Ukraine yet, but that seems very…

> situation I just don’t understand what people expect Russia to do?? Sit and accept while those countries work hard to kill its soldiers and destroy its economy

Oh no, the poor innocent Russia that is currently in year 5 of its totally innocent blameless war it's waging. "Hitler did nothing wrong" vibes.

All Russia has to do to stop its soldiers from dying and its economy from being destroyed is to get the fuck out of Ukraine.

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