There's been endless talk about what the war has shown about artillery, tanks, air defense, drones, etc. but nobody even bothers talking about rifles or machine guns. Do they just not matter in modern warfare?
There's been endless talk about what the war has shown about artillery, tanks, air defense, drones, etc. but nobody even bothers talking about rifles or machine guns. Do they just not matter in modern warfare?
The difference between an army with AKs and PKMs and an army with Gucci ARs and state of the art GPMGs is much less than the difference between HIMARS and Grads.
You will always need small arms to kill the children
>reddit finger
As expected from the ones controlling leddit.
>Does Ukraine prove small arms are a meme
no. this was proven in WW1.
>Do they just not matter in modern warfare?
no, they have not mattered since 1914. France's service rifle used a fricking tube magazine like a pump action shotgun, you had to load it one round at a time. didn't matter. england used a rifle that had its locking lugs in the rear of the bolt and consequently couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. didn't matter.
You could argue that it's some peace of mind for soldiers as a last resort sort of thing, but yeah. I don't think they've ever really been a major part of any military with firearms. Rifles have always been the go to. Obviously replaced with more modern stuff but you get the picture.
>no. this was proven in WW1.
WWI was the case when countries took rifles designed to shot at 1000+ meters distances and brought them into trench fights. When they should arm soldiers with SMGs. If anything WWI crisis of attack was created (among other things) by small arms completely unsuited for modern war.
it was proven long time ago.
In close-quarters combat at Severodonetsk and MANY places? Urban battle isn't dead dude. You still need a damn gun to shoot Vatnik invaders.
Small arms exist to stop the enemy from just bum rushing the arty, tanks, ect with fricking grenade sticks. And also to keep the local wildlife from just walking away with the army equipment.
Also morale is important and having a gun makes a soldier more comfortable.
Not to mention bullets can be made much easier and cheaper than other fancy ammo.
Ukraine itself is going to manufacture more bullets than America post-war, lol.
>ect
etc, short for et cetera.
They matter but not to the extreme autism level displayed by many /k/ tards. Small arms are as refined as knives, forks and hammers after so many years of development and the round isn't critical. Most fire is suppressive so small arms are def needed but the greatest room for advancement is vision enhancement not the boomy bits.
Every serious weapons enthusiast or designer is somewhat autistic but the trick is to be aware of that then use it to your advantage AND be alert to silly socially defective shit it can make some of us do. PrepHole could certainly crowdsource a "autspergtism operators manual" to great benefit for those able to listen (extreme cases should be chained in their basement, fed and monitored for possible useful ideas).
The idea of a particular system "mattering" while others can be ignored is narrow and usually mistaken. Everything which is necessary "matters" (is important to victory) but not everything goes BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM and makes babby feel potent.
For example bad footwear can mobility kill an infantryman. A single bad locknut can destroy an F-16 (many years ago they used a plastic insert locking nut to retain one of the generator rotors. Worked fine for thousands of hours until it didn't and two acft at least crashed when the ignition quit working. An all-metal nut retrofit solved the problem.
>Plastic instead of metal
Idiots. It obviously either melted, weakened, or came loose.
What the frick kind of halfbrain moron take is this?
They suffer from diminishing returns faster than almost any other aspect of warfare. Id rather have a bolt action rifle and a state of the art missile system over a tacticool rifle and mediocre artillery any day.
>Do [small arms] just not matter in modern warfare?
Yes, absolutely, this is a moronic question to ask.
>Are small arms a meme?
Artillery was the number one cause of battlefield casualties in WW1, WW2 and Korea, and remains so today. Since WW2, air power has been number two, and in rare occasions (where the US has been involved, like Vietnam and both Iraq wars) probably number one.
Small arms are wayyyyy down the list.
I'm sure they do matter but ukraine got flooded by quality western small arms already, it's like they got a fricking arma 3 arsenal.
Theyre not a meme, artillery crews need them to protect the gun from infiltrators. Small arms will never go away, every soldier needs one even the rear line heavy weapons guys.
yeah you still need a gun but the truth is there's only marginal difference between troops with AK74s and troops with fricking sig spear or something. You only need a gun that shoots where you're aiming and it's nice to have an optic but you're still not going to shoot on more than 200 yards because you'll not see that far. This proves that discussions about
>muh 11.5 vs 12.5 inch barrel
are meaningless and byproduct of GWOT sof going civilian. You just need a fricking gun that you can hit shit with, no matter if AR, AK or fricking AUG, in a grand scheme of things it's still okay, you'll die in an artillery strike.
all you need is a semi automatic rifle with red dot sight, some nvg's, at least a few thermals in your squad and some machine guns and you end up defeating a nation whose main strenght lies in weapon systems that prove small arms are a meme.
>all you need is a semi automatic rifle with red dot sight
stopped reading right there because aside form having seen some vidya games you have no conception of firearms their use or employment or the depth of combined arms tactics required to support morons with ARs and red dots in their role of weak 300M contact visual range fire and manoeuvre suppress and pin using meh guns *just* good enough to mag dump. the only point to holo sights is to use them with an IR setting with NVGs by the way. red dots are just stupid moronic battery toys for people who had no father to show them how to use iron sights. If the rifle survives it will be in a long range, precision or anti material role, sniping, eod etc The AK and AR family of weapons are over. The tactic they were part of is as dead as smooth bore musket volley fire. Visual range contact with intermediate cartridges in squads for fire and manoeuvre to pin for fire support is ideocracy when drones with flir that drop grenades from 400M up exist
using optical sight in general is sign of weakness and lack of training. scope is another thing.
Just about everything is designed around countering them, so they seem a bit ineffective until you think about the ridiculous things you could get away with if you went up against an enemy that had no small arms at all.
Small arms are a must but the least deciding factor on the battlefield. As long as you field ANY assault rifle and beltfed, you are gtg. Caliber and model are practically irrelevant, they are all functionally identical.
One of the main reasons russian infantry has such a hard time in gun fights is because they're all armed with basic AKs and no optics. Ukraine universally has red dots and scopes as a standard.
Red dots are mostly meme.
They are good for night (with nvg) and twilight conditions.
Also for specialised door kicking specul operators who can fine tune gear for their mission.
Both doesn't apply for general infantry in Ukrainian war. They don't have nvg and don't fight at night.
Scopes yes, scopes bring tangible advantage. With scope you can have much better chances to see and headshot head sticking out of the cover from 100-300m range, what is one of the basic infantry engagements. scenarios.
Random graphs I can find on google suggest that red dots provide a significant advantage over iron sights.
in a fricking pistol you dumbass
in cqb scenario
during war it's easier to drop a nade or just call artillery instead of doing some insta-GBRS-goon-CQB-clearing shit
Nobody actually uses red dots on pistols because that's a meme. It's faster to just point at your target with a pistol. With rifles, which must be aimed, a red dot speeds up the process by eliminating the need to line up a front and rear sight. One simply needs to place the dot on a target and pull the trigger. Nobody cares about CQB.
Red dots, as a default optic, are always superior to iron sights in all situations.
>Nobody actually uses red dots on pistols because that's a meme
it would be nice if you'd at least look at the "experiment" you are referring to you dumbo
https://www.luckygunner.com/lounge/do-you-need-a-red-dot-sight-on-your-carry-pistol/
They only matter in heavily urbanized area or mountainous terrain
t. some guy who isn't a 45 year old russian trying to aim with iron sights
You'll understand when your vision begins to go.
I have eye autism so I prefer irons or holographic anyway
eye AUTISM? You motherufkcing pirce of suit b***h frick I’ll Kill you if you ever see here again b***h tit
Dude the only way you'll hear anything is if Russians started using pipes converted into single shot rifles, or if a country supporting Ukraine sent them something really fricking dumb.
Are you moronic? I'm asking seriously now. This has been the same with every war since Crimea you stupid fricking mong
Teleprompter said that himself. Small arms are hobby.
>war is about controlling territory
>you need people in said territory to control it
>there are already enemy soldiers there with guns
>you bomb the place
>still enemies left with guns
>you still have to move units there to control it
>even if you were to drop a nuclear bomb there and kill everyone, both sides will try to take control of the area (although everybody will get cancer) and at some point they will be close enough to have to shoot at each other as opposed to artillery
furthermore
>you have tanks, planes, helis, drones etc.
>all of which cost way more than 1 expendable little homie
>whoms't ever has more little homies with AKs has superior firepower over enemy's little homies
small arms will never ever be obsolete
>Have air field covered in high tech planes
>morons with obsolete small arms drive in and shoot all your planes up
>NO YOU CANT DO THAT WITH OBSELETE WEAPONS
They do, but it just doesn't matter a whole lot whether you have an AK or M4 or whatever, so long as you have decent optics or are fighting an opponent that doesn't have them either. The most important part about small arms is that you have them and the necessary food for them.
Small arms keep the enemy pinned down so you can call in artillery/an air strike.
I've seen so many moron takes in this war that I'm almost willing to believe OP is sincere and this is not a shitpost.