Terrain, I believe is one cruel master for "force multipliers". For example, a single platoon of soldiers with very advanced equipment, having to run patrols over hilly and difficult terrain, need to have the know how in survival skills. So a Lieutenant armed with a communications set, pdas, and so on, would have less time preoccupying about his gear, and be more concerned with dividing up his sections to forage for food and water. So, in effect, that platoon is no longer a viable military unit, the patrol is meaningless and every effort is expended trying to master the geography and dwindling rations, rather than track, locate and engage a elusive enemy. What more to say, a platoon of townboys fighting in dense jungle, secondary forests or even plantations???
A force multiplier in technology does not always deliver the right results. Environment, Survival conditions, understanding the lay of the land remains the basic military skills for any army. RMA as a fluid concept can be selectively shifted and used in this area, but faced with tenacious conditions, it can also be inhibited.
The MAF is changing but it is doing so at a snail's space. Consider this, today's flavour of the month is tomorrow's outdated tool. The basic tactics of Military warfare remains a staple diet for those attending the MAF defence and staff colleges. Processes need to be identified, analysed, and implemented in the best possible manner, and this includes technology and economics.
Would it be a conflict of heavy industry in a scenario like MAF and Malaysia? I very much doubt it, and no victory will be swift.
Anyway, moving on to Weasel;
Have you ever serve in any military orgn that give you an expert opinion that NCW is not force multiplier?
From the posting above , obviously you dunno much abt what is NCW and also very unlikely that you have ever served in military orgn!
First thing,wireless network connectivity is not constraint by any kind of terrain , whether it is in thick primary jungle or the flat plain of a desert.
NCW give any army whether is well trained or otherwise the additional edge of better efficiency, better decision making tools by having a real time situational map of the battlefield and better command & control of troops for the commanders.
Let me give some example for an infantry platoon,and how NCW will improve the efficiency of that platoon(Pl):
1) Firstly I need to explain NCW not only give the location all the friendly troops via GPS which will
reduce the possibility of blue on blue situation, it also give the location and composition of detected enemy troops.
2) It also indicated the position of that Pl on the map via GPS, which means that Pl will never get lost even in thick jungle, it could move more efficiently as compare to the old map and compass method where the PC need to constantly refer to his map , make calculation for triangulation of positions etc, and it will never be deployed in the wrong location becos his position will be known by all.
3) More efficient in calling for airstrike or arty support, old method is to give the exact co-ordinate of the enemy location by refering to map which may take a min or so depending how well he know his exact loaction, now the PC just need point it in virtual map on his rugged PDA and the airstrike is on his way.
4) Logistics support will be even more effciently, eventhogh I am not very sure how it work in SAF , but I could roughly guess.
The old method logistic replenishment for ammo for example , is that after every contact, the PL Sgt will gather all the ammo required then he pass that info to CSM where he will then consolidate for the whole coy then pass on the RSM which he will then consolidate for the whole Bn and request for replenishment from the Div logistics base.......
Lot of pen and papar plus manual calculation thru the chain of command, with NCW , all this will be eliminated, all the PCs will just key in his requirement and data wll be consolidated by the network straight to the logistics base, which mean more efficient logistic support.
Now, let look at the marco level, at the Div command post, the Div commander will look at a big realtime virtual map where he could see the movement of his own troops in real time via GPS, all the enemy locations and compostion will be updated by the various sensor managers using their laptop as they are detected by the various sensors like UAV, UGV, recon troops etc, etc.
The map is as realtime as you can get, no more drawing of transpancy, no more request for troops location etc , etc.
Therefore with that, the commander could make better decision and precisely deployed his troops to counter any enemy threats more efficiently, and since the airforce and the navy is also connected, airtsrike and possible NSFS from the airforce and navy respectively will be more efficeint as they are also looking at the same map.
Since I have ROD from the army so I dun have all info of SAF NCW revolution, but based on info from reports and talking to current commander and troops during the recent army open house , it give me rough idea how all thing work.
Afterall I did similar thing in the private sector.
Anyway, I believe the advantages above are only just tip of the iceberg, the potential of NCW is only limited by budget and the current technology, it will be continue to evolve as new technology is available.
Lastly , who said we only trained in urban warfare???
We have secondary forest, palm tree and rubber tree plantation to train in SG, and all our infantry units have at least gone thru twice in their career Jungle training course in the former SAS Jungle training school in Brunei which is now under SAF.
So you guys do not assume w/o doing more research, not only in Brunei , our troops also train in Thailand, ROC etc, so primary forest is not unknown to us, in fact we train in such terrain pretty frequently.
