Quote:
Originally Posted by TopHatter
Oh too true. But I was commenting vis a vis effectiveness in a COIN/peacekeeping role amongst a civilian population.
The civilians, or at least this civilian, will be more negatively concerned, perception-wise, by tracked and turreted vehicles than by wheeled vehicles.
|
You know I keep hearing that, but has anyone actually done any studies to very it? I keep hearing how people feel intimidated by soldiers in body armor and helmets more than soldiers in berets, and how people will be more intimidated by Bradleys than Strykers. Unless someone shows something more substantial than a hunch, I'm not going to blindly buy that. A Bradley that defends the civilian population and carefully picks its targets to avoid civvie casualties, methinks, will be much less menacing to noncombatans than a Stryker that peppers every moving things in sight if it gets ambushed. Similarly, a careful soldier with body armor and a helmet is logically going to be perceived as more friendly than a soldier in a beret who has an all too touchy trigger finger. I think proper conduct would matter much more than the initial awe of a tracked vehicle with guns. Not to mention that to a civilian, a big armored vehicle is a big armored vehicle, tracked or not.