#Military Logistics

[from-the-coffee-shop-in-edoras]

Research Rabbit-Hole Tag Game

Rules: As writers, we all end up researching random things for our writing. Share the latest thing you've researched for your fic and tell us something you learned!

Thank you @emmanuellececchi ! You know I’m obsessed with your planetary rings research, and mine might be a little dry in comparison but we’ll see!

I’ve been working on and off on a WIP about the massive muster of Rohan (connected to Obscure Blorbo Dúnhere), and that’s had me dipping into the logistics of supplying and moving a huge army in pre-modern times. That sounds like such a yawn topic, but I find it fascinating. And it’s so impactful on who wins and who loses in military conflicts, so its importance can’t be overstated. A few random tidbits:

– There are massively complicated calculations that go into what supplies (and in what mix) you bring with your army. Every kilo of weight has to be carried by someone so it’s got to be stripped to the bare minimum. Often that meant trusting that you’d forage or pillage food and water along the way, so those were left behind in favor of things like weapons and material goods that are less likely to be found away from home.

– The benefit of pack animals or wagons to increase your carrying ability was largely canceled out by the hassle of how much pack animals need to eat and the degree to which they slow your army down (thus requiring everyone to need more total food/water).

– All this means your options for where you’re going are very limited by the availability of foraging/pillaging opportunities along your path unless you’re in the very rare scenario where a resupply from allies is possible. It also means your army must nearly always be on the move because (again, without resupply) if you sit in any one place for too long, you’ll exhaust the local resources and then you’re f*$^ed.

Anyway. One source I thoroughly enjoy is the blog A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry, which looks at ancient military strategy and how it’s reflected in pop culture. It breaks down topics like logistics or what a battlefield would look like right after a fight, and it analyzes specific battles from books or film. It’s got deep dives on what Tolkien got right/wrong at the siege of Gondor or Helm’s Deep and lots of hot takes about who were the best/worst generals in Middle Earth (it’s not always who you might think!). So I recommend that to anyone else who might find that enjoyable!

No pressure tagging @hobbitwrangler @lucifers-legions @celeluwhenfics or anyone else who’s interested if you’ve got anything you’d like to share.

[silentwisher-feed]

Introducing Two Brand-New Tools: Character Sheet Generator and Military Roleplay Shipping Manifest Generator

Hello, everyone! Hot on the heels of my recent announcement about the new suite of tools, I’m back again with some exciting news. I’m thrilled to present two more additions to my toolbox: the Character Sheet Generator and the Military Roleplay Shipping Manifest Generator. Character Sheet Generator: The first tool I’d like to introduce is my Character Sheet Generator. This tool is a game-changer…

[latestnews-now]

NATO’s Admiral Pierre Vandier issues a wake-up call for Europe to reform its defense strategies and ramp up military readiness. Highlighting weaknesses in space tech, IT systems, and logistics, Vandier warns that Europe risks falling behind in the global arms race. Learn how increased defense spending and strategic reforms can shape Europe’s future.

[nocternalrandomness]

"RUDY 35" arriving at Mesa Gateway, Arizona from NAS North Island, San Diego

[morkaischosen]

yaaaaay!

[jeannereames]

Your top 5 Alexander the Great moments?

Top Five Alexander Moments

One issue with answering this is to figure out what events actually happened, especially when it comes to anecdotes! Here are four I find either significant to understanding his charisma and/or which explain how he functioned and why he was successful, plus one I like just because I’m a horse girl.

1) To my mind, the event that best illustrates why his men followed him to the edge of their known world occurred in the Gedrosian Desert. While I’m a bit dubious that this trek was as bad as it’s made out to be (reasons exist for exaggerating), it was still baaaad. One story relates that some of his men found some brackish water in a sad little excuse for a spring, gathered it in a helm, and brought it to him. Given his poor physical condition after the Malian siege wound, he no doubt needed it badly. He thanked them (most sincerely), then carried it out where all (or at least a lot) of his men could see, raised it overhead, and announced that until all of them could drink, he wouldn’t. Then he poured it onto the rocky ground.

That gesture exemplified his charisma. And it absolutely is not something the likes of a Donald tRump could even imagine doing—nor most dictators, tbh. They’d be blaming everybody else and calling for heads while drinking Diet Coke, not suffering alongside their people.

This wasn’t an isolated event of that type. While he almost certainly didn’t have time to engage along with his soldiers in every project, we’re told he would drop in from time-to-time, to inspire them and to offer a little friendly competition.

He also dressed like his men for everyday activities, especially early in the campaign. As time went on, some sources say he inserted more distance—probably necessary as his duties exploded—but he still seems to have found time to “just hang out” with his Macedonians on occasion. The claims that he was too high and mighty to do so appears to have been exaggeration (as such accusations often are) in order to forward a narrative that he was “going Asian.” Troop resentment over court changes was very genuine—I don’t want to underplay it (especially as I’ve written about it in a few chapters in this), but it tended to boil up during certain periods/events, then die back again. Alexander was trying to walk a very fine line of incorporating the conquered while not ticking off his own people.

2) Reportedly, he once threw a man out of line because he hadn’t bothered to secure the chin strap on his helm. I pick this one because it tells me a whole lot about how he saw himself as a commander, and what he expected of his men (and why he tended to consistently win).

On the surface, his reaction seems almost petty. It’s precisely the sort of mistake students whine about when professors ding them for it. It’s just a chin strap! I’d have tightened it before I went into battle! (It’s just a few typos; you knew what I meant! Or, Why does everything in the bibliography have to be exactly matching in style? Who cares? What a stupid thing to obsess about!) These objections are all of a piece. First, they’re lazy, and second, they indicate a disconcern with details. In battle, such disconcern can get a person killed. And on a larger scale, for a general, such disconcern loses battles.

One of the striking aspects of Alexander’s military operations was just how well his logistics worked. Consistently. We hear little about them precisely because they rarely fail. Food and water was there when they needed it, as were arrow replacements, wood to repair the spears, wool and leather for clothes and shoes, canvas for tents, etc., etc. All those little niggling (boring) details. If these are missing, soldiers become upset (and don’t fight well). Starting with Philip, the Macedonian military was a well-oiled machine. That’s WHY Gedrosia was such a shock: the logistics collapsed. Contra some historians, he did not do it to “punish” his men, nor to best Cyrus.* He had a sound reason—to scout a trade route.

Alexander understood that details matter. It starts with a loose chinstrap. (Or an unplanned-for storm and rebellion in his rear.) Everything else can unravel from that.

3) Alexander sends Hephaistion a little dish of small fish (probably smelts). He also helps an officer secure the lady of his dreams. And writes another on assignment (away from the army) that a mutual friend is recovering from an illness. While technically three “moments,” these are all of a piece. Alexander knows his men, and is concerned not only for their physical well-being, but also their mental state: that they’re happy. Granted, these are all elite officers, but it suggests he’s paying attention to people. I’ve always assumed he sent Hephaistion the fish because they were his friend’s favorite, and/or they were a special treat and he wanted to share. That he didn’t punish an officer for going AWOL to chase the mistress he wanted but offered advice, and even assistance, on how to court and secure her suggests the same care.

I don’t want to take away from what appears to be his serious anger management problems(!), but little details like those above strike me as the likeable side of Alexander—why his men were so devoted to him.

4) Then we have the encounter with Timokleia after the siege of Thebes. While probably a bit too precious to have occurred exactly as related, I think it may still hold a kernel of truth.

Alexander had a reputation of chivalry towards his (highborn) female captives. If some of that was likely either propaganda from his own time or philhellenic whitewashing later by Second Sophistic authors such as Plutarch (and Arrian), poor treatment of women is not something we hear attributed to him.

Ergo, while the meeting was probably doctored for a moral tail, he may well have freed Timokleia as an act of clemency to put a better face on a shocking destruction he knew wouldn’t sit well with the rest of Greece—who he both wanted to cow yet earn support from. (A difficult balancing act.) Also, if Timokleia hadn’t been high-born, she’d probably have been hauled off to one of the prisoner cages with little fanfare.

Nonetheless, I find his actions surprising given the casual misogyny of his era. If we can take the bare bones of the story as true, and it’s not all invented, Timokleia was raped as a matter of course during the sacking of Thebes, then managed to trick her rapist and kill him by pushing him down a well and dropping rocks on him. I assume this happened when his men weren’t there, but they found out soon enough and hauled her in front of Alexander to be punished for killing an officer. To the surprise of all, Alexander decided the man had earned it and freed Timokleia. One might be inclined to call this overly sentimental, but��.

There’s a similar story that occurred much later in the Levant, when two of Parmenion’s men seduced/(raped?) the mistresses/wives of some mercenaries. Alexander instructed Parmenion to kill the Macedonians if they were found to be guilty.

In both cases, we have an affront against (respectable) women. In the latter case, Alexander was (no doubt) working to avoid conflict between hired soldiers and his own men, who—in typical Greek fashion—would have looked down on mercenaries as a matter of course. Some sort of conflict between Macedonians and Greek mercenaries up in Thrace had almost got Alexander’s father killed. Alexander saved him. No doubt that was on Alexander’s mind here.

Yet what both events illuminate is a willingness on Alexander’s part to punish his own men for affronts to honor/timē that involved women. Yes, this is clearly about discipline. But it also shows an unusual sensitivity to sex crimes in warfare: actions that would normally fall under the excuse of “boys will be boys” (especially when their blood is up).

I doubt he’d have felt the same about slaves or prostitutes; he was still a product of his time. Yet without overlooking his violence—sometimes extreme (the genocide of the Branchidai, for instance)—I find his reaction in these cases to be evidence of an atypical sympathy for women that I’d like to think isn’t wholly an invention of later Roman authors. And just might show the influence of his mother and sisters.

5) Last… the Boukephalas story…because who doesn’t love a good “a boy and his horse” tale? Obviously the Plutarchian version is tweaked to reflect that author’s later concern to contrast the Macedonian “barbarian” Philip with the properly Hellenized Alexander. Ignore the editorializing remarks, especially the “find a kingdom big enough for you” nonsense.

But the bare bones of the story seem likely: unmanageable horse, cocky kid, bet with dad, gotcha moment. You can imagine this was an anecdote Alexander retold a time or three, or twenty.

——

* His attempts to copy Cyrus may be imposition by later writers. In his own day, he may have cared more about the first Darius, for reasons Jenn Finn is going to explain in a forthcoming, very good article on the burning of Thebes and Persepolis.

[yearofinstitutionalization]

203/638 One Suga a day while he is away

[plummetingplum]

[fic] Stitches

fandom: fire emblem (tellius)

characters: rhys/shinon, ike/soren (background), titania, mist, greil mercenaries

genre: drama/romance

warnings: graphic violence, language

Out of goosedown bedding. Out of that soft silk cathedral cassock and into rough frieze work-clothes, out of quiet heat and into the chattering cold of late Begnionite autumn. It was some comfort to leave the cloistered gloom of the cathedral – to breathe unperfumed air, and to be surrounded again by folk who, for the most part, meant the things they said. But not much, when the wind blew.

red in the garden | anodyne | arrow pierces bone | sowing season | the lightning | the thunder | moment of | you are here | god-country | cold

[sprites4ever]

My Political Philosophy

Society

For a functional Republic, we need the people to know the truth.

If the people are educated on the world, bad actors cannot abuse popular lack of knowledge to advertise extremist policy.

I want MASSIVE investments in public education and media, and a COMPLETE restructuring of the education system.

Stop forcing children, who need to go out and explore the world to mature, to slave away eight hours of five weekdays learning things they aren't interested in.

Educate children on natural sciences and sociopolitics in a more friendly, decentralized atmosphere which isn't a relic of the 1800s.

Do not stop education at age eighteen and expect the currently taught knowledge to serve the people for decades to come.

Make continually updated, digitalized education a constantly available commodity for all citizens, free of charge.

All cititens MUST be free and have the same rights.

Via better education on the fundamental realities of humanity, such reforms will also be met with less opposition from regressives who believe groups such as the LGBTQ+ community to be evil.

TOTAL Secularism!

If you want to dedicate your life to spreading the idea that the world exists on a giant's ballsack, that's fine, but pay for it yourself.

Economy and Logistics

IF a Socialist Utopia is possible, I want it.

But it must be achieved through reform, not through revolution.

Until that day, I will continue to work toward it as a Liberal.

For freedom, peace and prosperity, one needs a strong economy, and for that, one needs Industrialization 3.0.

I want a nationalist approach to industry;

Stop outsourcing the people's work for profit. Use modern technology to produce goods and services in the country, and have that technology designed, maintained and improved by an educated populace which has emerged from the fusion of proletariat and academia.

A founding pillar of a strong economy is a good logistics network.

It is amazing how many problems can be solved by trains if they are built and maintained properly.

Expand and modernize the railway network and BAN CARS FROM CITIES!

You'll be amazed by how much space is freed up if we do that. All those parking spots and roads, gone in favor of freely navigable public spaces, as well as living and working spaces. We can put trees everywhere in the city centers to improve air quality!

We can make reliable, far-reaching public transportation that is free for citizens, based on trains, as well as drones for delivery.

Again, this will be powered by our educated citizens and modern technology.

Immigration

Uproot the problem.

Immigration is not the problem, but a symptom of a far more deeply rooted problem.

Do you believe people WANT to travel across half the world in a dangerous refugee boat??

No, but they have no other choice because the conditions in their home countries are unworthy of humans!

We need an aggressively moralist foreign policy that uses a part of our economic product to fund massive, systemic improvements and reforms in the nations where the most migrants come from, which happen to be the poorest, most crisis-plagued ones.

Don't just deliver medicine and bottled water to a desert village. Deliver tools and teach the people how to make medicine and build water wells.

This is an investment into the future. This creates positive relationships between our country and the countries we help grow, meaning mutually beneficial ties with those countries when they've grown to stand on their own feet. Then, their people also won't need to flee anymore.

Military and Foreign Policy

Recent developments have shown that a unilateral desire for peace is not enough to assure it.

Insane imperialists and self-righteous terrorists, corrupting words of peace, justice and goodness to justify their selfish aggression, will wage war on whomever they think they can, regardless of if the victim has any desire for war.

I do not desire war.

But to prevent us from having war unleashed upon us, we need to make it clear to the aforementioned that they do not want war with us, due to the violent consequences we would unleash. For that, and to stop those imperialists and terrorists who, in service of their selfish motives, counter our foreign policy of helping the less privileged nations, we need a strong military which is powered by educated decision-makers and soldiers who are also motivated by our country's values, to use cutting-edge, industrially homemade technology and weapons in order to defend our people and enforce our help for others against those who wish to destroy both.

As mentioned before, the allies we make via our investment in the poorest nations will definetly help us in that regard.

Environment and Energy

It ties back into the education problem.

Since the 1950s, nuclear power has provided a clean, safe means of producing absurd amounts of energy, but systemic propaganda by the fossil fuel industry, the same people who greenwash their agenda with insincere promises about a transition to renewable energies, of which they know those cannot cover the energy demands on their own, has made people fear nuclear energy like the devil.

All the problems about reactor meltdowns, radiation safety and waste products have already been solved and have generally been overstated by the fossil fuel lobby. People have also taken to fearing all forms of nuclear energy due to the prospect of annihilation via its weaponized form, nuclear weapons.

But a form of energy that is so powerful that it can destroy the world when weaponized, can also be used by good people to save the world. Evil people will use all means at their disposal anyway. It's the good people who need to stop limiting themselves.

Factually, atomic energy is an extremely complex topic that requires immense education to be understood.

Hence it being so easy for the fossil fuel lobby to fearmonger against it, due to the popular lack of knowledge about it.

As said before, we need more public media and education, which would also alleviate the people's fears of a form of energy which, due to its power, we are OBLIGATED to use for good.

With clean, reliable energy that can supply even an exponentially growing people and economy, we can also use more products of advanced technology and science to fix environmental damages and preserve nature, so that we can exist in harmony with it.

[you-were-alone-too]

i can't wait until we get a better understanding of the show timeline in s5 because what do you mean max might be in a coma and mike doesn't find out about the painting and they're all living in apocalyptic hawkins for 1.5 years???

[jcmarchi]

US Developing New Version of Scary Abrams Main Battle Tank - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/us-developing-new-version-of-scary-abrams-main-battle-tank-technology-org/

US Developing New Version of Scary Abrams Main Battle Tank - Technology Org

The M1 Abrams has been in service since 1980. It is still one of the most capable main battle tanks in the world, but even the most common versions the M1A1 and M1A2 are starting to show signs of their design ageing. So, this tank needs to be upgraded, but how?

M1A1 Abrams – one of the most common versions of the American main battle tank. Image credit: Cpl. Paul S. Martinez via Wikimedia (Public Domain)

While the standard M1 Abrams has been in service since 1980, the most common versions are slightly younger. The M1A1 was produced from 1985 to 1992, and the M1A2 – from 1992. In general, the Abrams platform has proven its advantages in battles and so far surpasses the technology of potential enemies. However, it is clear that the Abrams must be developed further, but there are limitations to this.

It’s hard to believe, but the first Abrams weighed 55.7 tonnes. They were equipped with a 105 mm rifled gun and had slightly weaker armour. The M1A1 initially retained this weight, but the M1A1SA grew to 61.3 tonnes and the M1A2 – to 62 tonnes. And that weight gain continued little by little.

The M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams weighs about 67 tonnes. One can look at the tank’s mobility, maintained maximum speed and other dynamic characteristics, but one cannot ignore the fact that, being so heavy, the Abrams is a huge weight on the specialists of military logistics. The US wants to be able to operate globally, but moving such heavy tanks quickly is very difficult.

The General Dynamics M1A2 SEPv3 Abrams tank. Image credit: GDLS

What is the path of modernization then? Well, upgraded tanks usually get heavier. Additional armour is attached to them because anti-tank weapons, including drones, are being developed faster than tanks. In the past, kilograms were saved by keeping relatively thinner armour on top, but now you can’t even do that – anti-tank drones are cheap and everywhere.

On 2023 September 6 The US Army announced that it had cancelled the planned M1A2 SEPv4 variant and would instead focus resources on the new M1E3 Abrams. The new model will have a modular architecture and will be lighter but with even better protection.

“The Abrams Tank can no longer grow its capabilities without adding weight, and we need to reduce its logistical footprint,” said Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, Program Executive Officer for Ground Combat Systems. He said that the war in Ukraine showed that crews need to be protected better, but not with added armour.

The M1E3 Abrams is likely to rely heavily on active protection, which is lighter than conventional armour. The US Army promises that the Abrams will remain the most capable main battle tank in the world. The M1E3 version is planned to start service around 2030 and it will continue working well into the next decade.

Written by Povilas M.

Sources: Army.mil, Wikipedia

[marginal-notes]

People being like “desk shinobi [derogatory]”

You should be THANKING THEM for your BREAD and your STEEL.

[nocternalrandomness]

Rudy 71 and Rudy 33 inbound to NAS North Island