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Modern Warfare: Ground Combat Fire Fights

Modern Warfare: Ground Combat Fire Fights

I am no expert in this area, however from watching related documentaries I have to wonder about the visual capabilities of those involved in ground combat especially urban warfare. Besides snipers do foot soldiers really have the ability to see from which direction they are being shot at or is it just a case of fire in a wide cone and hope it hits something?

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I have seen that yes you can figure out where the bullets are coming from. Using that information you can seek cover and return fire. Hoping that you can eliminate the source of the bullets coming in your direction before they find a home in your body. Sometimes if they have good cover it is a bit harder to learn exactly where they came from but you still have the general direction.

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In military parlance urban warfare is called MOUT, which is Military Operation in Urban Terrain. Yes, we WILL make an acronym out of anything. MOUT is the worst terrain to fight in. The reason is it is multi-dimensional. There are people on your level, above you in buildings, below you in sewers, and there are so many places to hide at each level and most of those hiding places provide a potential enemy protection from your fire as well. Add to that sound is echoing off of the building so it is no use in orienting you to the enemy. So, the answer is that sometimes you know where the enemy is firing from, and usually you don't. [By The Way], this goes for snipers as well. It's just a ridiculously dangerous environment.

As an example, we were training at a make believe city the Army built on Fort Bragg. This was called MOUT City or the MOUT Site. I was a young squad leader in the 82nd Airborne (ABN) Division. My squad was playing the bad guys and the rest of my platoon and another platoon were attacking us. I set us up for layered defense and gave us escape routes to fight a running fight as we moved higher in the building. We were using a system where you wear sensors and your weapon has a box on it that "Shoots" a laser that the sensors read and will start buzzing if you are hit. The outcome was my ten people were all killed. But we killed about fifty of the 70 people attacking us.

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I remember using the MILES system a lot in combat and even MOUT combat. IT was a lot of fun and a very interesting experience. Yes urban combat is the harshest reality and it is one that I do not want to fight in if I can help it. But Once bullets start hitting around you, you do have a very good idea where they are coming from.

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KN,

I was in Fallujah and it was pretty darn tough to figure out from which direction the firing was coming, and most of the building were only two or three stories. Occasionally, the fire is coming from multiple directions, and that makes it tougher still. Our normal course of action would be to move in to an area, slowly, have two or three snipers located at the highest points possible, usually they rappelled from a Blackhawk, and we'd draw fire. As a Warrant Officer, I had to lead the men as often as I'd be the sniper. When receiving fire the sniper would locate the source and call it in to us so we could react if he couldn't take out the bad guy. They got very good at masking where the fire came from by learning to stay back from windows and shooting from multiple locations. It's just an incredibly ugly terrain to fight in.

Modern Warfare: Ground Combat Fire Fights

Well yes when the bullets are coming in from multiple locations it is much harder to identify and react to the them. Usually We would try to fight on more than one front and try to take them out as quickly as possible. Sometimes it ended up taking them out one by one. All I know it is something I do not want to experience again. Therefore I stay away those type of games on computers and game stations.

Modern Warfare Ground Combat Fire Fights

I laughed out loud. I stay away from them too. Some of them are too darn realistic and they take me back to a place I don't want to be. When my son was around 15 we played a sniper game and we were getting into it. All of a sudden I was shot and I couldn't figure out where it came from and it was Tim, my boy. It was just a kid thing but it shook me so much I haven't played a game like that with him since. I didn't yell, I never held this against him because he couldn't understand how that would affect me, I explained I knew he was only fooling around but the effect on me was clear and he was old enough to understand.

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This Thread is a good example of why places like Mosul are hard to take. I have heard comments like "Why is it taking them so long to get them… ", but most inexperienced people just don't get that its not like Space Invaders where the person is just standing there waiting for you to shoot them, neither is it an open field where troops / enemy can be easily identified. Besides, the enemy being cowards in using civilians as barriers, they also hunker down in a concrete jungle making it very hard to clearly pin point where they are located. Thank you for sharing your views from experience.