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Government
No Grunts Under 26, $250K Bonuses: DoD's Most Radical Ideas to Transform the Infantry
2019-07-08
[Mil.com] What would it take to transform U.S. infantry into a higher-caliber force modeled after the elite 75th Ranger Regiment? For starters, find recruits in their mid-20s and offer them $250,000 bonuses and a $60,000-a-year salary.

That's part of a working concept officials from the Pentagon's Close Combat Lethality Task Force (CCLTF) have been turning over for the past year in efforts to take Army and Marine infantry to a higher level of lethality.

The task force is the legacy of former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, a retired Marine Corps general and infantryman, who set out to place a new priority on a group that bears one of the heaviest burdens of warfare: the grunts.

Since its 2018 launch, the CCLTF has helped to find money in the Defense Department's budget to accelerate high-tech programs, such as smart augmented reality goggles for soldiers.

But despite its Defense Department backing, the organization faces a tough fight to convince the U.S. military's largest ground force to change the way it does business. Part of the task force's plan hinges on the Army's ability to revamp the antiquated methods it uses to recruit, select and train infantry and other select specialties with key roles in close combat.
Posted by:Besoeker

#6  One problem is that the US Armed Forces seems to have this "One Size Fits All" mentality. Had it before WW2, still have it seems, that the US Rifleman is an interchangeable military cog in the bigger assembly line of death-dealing... If it doesn't work then they were not trained appropriately. National fixation on the glories of the Age of Big Industry, maybe.

Hogwash. We need Specialists for many of the jobs. (The same way the multi-role LCS and F-35 have turned into One Size Fits None boondoggles) I asked a guy, oh back before 9/11, if what we really needed was a "...lot of Military Police Brigades and a small Expeditionary Army, putting nearly all of the Tread-Heads in the National Guard...?"
Posted by: magpie   2019-07-08 18:51  

#5  There's room for improvement, but not where they're looking. The American armyman is still one of the most feared units in battle. No less healthier or deadlier than the enemy. How about fixing other stuff ? Like cutting out pog middle-managers for tasks better handled on-the-fly, in field. Lesser interference/oversight from the beltway boobs. A more adaptive system for SRoEs, to adjust for the wily tactics employed by rag-heads. I assume these are what get grunts killed most of the time.

All those serving in the 75th Ranger today must have cut their teeth in Enduring Freedom. You cannot peace-time train to 'transform' an infantry to match up to that xp. I think under direct supervision of Mattis, it was something else, and the CCLTF today seems more concerned with squad stabilization through "unit social cohesion", and obtaining funds for vague re-armament projects. See this too, it seems... interesting.
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-07-08 15:05  

#4  antiquated methods...

We need new methods that somehow are viewpoint neutralâ„¢ so that we have a combat force that has no racial, ethnic, religious, weight-ist ( All hail the 1st Weight Watchersâ„¢ Regiment as it waddles towards the enemy!) or other biases!
Posted by: magpie   2019-07-08 12:44  

#3  antiquated methods

You mean stuff that has worked for, oh, about 4,000 years?
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-07-08 11:22  

#2  Yeah, or give them caddies.☺
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-07-08 09:35  

#1  Biggest thing is to cut down the amount of bullshit they have to carry. Nothing destroys knees and backs quite like having to carry nearly 200lbs in gear 12 miles over rough ground for weeks on end.
Posted by: DarthVader   2019-07-08 09:12  

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