Military FAQ thread

[Obcession]

Re: Military FAQ

Cellphone coverage sucks from places to places... you have to bounce it off satellites which can be intercepted... and from the looks of it's not really durable (you get it wet it's dead) and battery life sucks (on average 3 hours of talk time)..
Just my opinion... wouldn't be a bad thing if a soldier had a cellphone as back up though...

Ok, a few problems:

1. If the enemy can intercept messages going to and from satellites, then the enemy can most certainly eavesdrop on radio conversations. All you need to do is to turn to the right frequency, and if you speak the language, then viola! You know exactly what the enemy is up to. If you use a code, well, you can use a code on cellphones too, not a very big problem.
2. Doesn't a radio also stops functioning of you get it soaked?
3. Battery life, well, just bring a couple of spare batteries, or have a recharger in a vehicle, and you can charge the batteries there. 3 hours of talk time is enough isn't it? I mean for those outpost guys, report in every once in a while, nothing more. Or calling in artillery or air strikes, doesn't take very long to do that...

 

[Gollevainen]

Re: Military FAQ

To awnser some...

1. To my knowlidge, modern military radios (at least the one we used) has quite sophisticated crypting system but some other can tell more about that...
2. Almoust everything stops working when get soaked...at least all western stuff
3. Actually military radioes have batteryes as well and they they are constantly running out. Each gun alone have three singal devices which need a battery and about tree spare batteryes per machine. We had this special recharging device which was able to recharge all the batterytypes used by Finnish army (or at least all the ones we used...). It used the power of the hauling trucks, wires connecting to the cigarette-liter...

 

[rommel]

Re: Military FAQ

Well, from an canadian infantrymen point of view, the radio is by far superior to the Cell Phone. I'll compare the canadian radio againt cell phone

CELL VS SHORT RANGE COMBAT RADIO (AN/PRC-52)

1. Short Range combat radio (hand-held or with hand-free headset) generally have a encrytpion device, our AN/PRC-52 have a secure channel.

2.Long lifetime, our AN/PRC-52 have a 10 hours of usetime at 25 degree and on high-power transmission mode with the rechargeable battery or 20 hours with the disposable lithium battery

3. The AN/PRC-52 can resist to 2m of underwater immersion, 90% of humidity, to a shock of 1m and can operate from -30 degree to 70 degree (even that at 70 degree, the operator will be dead...)

4.The cell only have a greater range, since the AN/PRC-52 have a maximum range of 10km with the blade antenna, in the plain and on high power mode. But the radio don't need a retransmission center to send the signal to the other radio.


CELL VS COMBAT NET RADIO ( AN/PRC-522: Manpack radio set, AN/VRC-513 (V)1: Medium power vehicle installation radio set, AN/VRC-513 (V)2: High power vehicle installation radio set)

1. Combat Net Radio have a built-in coding unit, all communication can be encryted at wish of the commander.

2. Battery of combat net net radio can last at least 12 hours at 20 degree (infantry only).

3. Combat net radio can operate from -40 to 48 degree

4. Combat net radio have a 30 - 107.975 MHz frequency range, this give the operator a choice of 3120 different channels.

5. Combat Net Radio can also can resist to 2m of underwater immersion, 90% of humidity, to a shock of 1m ( Meets environmental extremes listed in STANAG 2895 and MIL-STD-810D like the AN/PRC-52, and even more for the temperature resistance...)

6. The cell is much smaller, since the combat net radio is a 28cm height and 22cm wide and weight around 5 kg.


CELL VS HF RADIO ( RT-1694 Receiver-Transmitter)

1. The RT-1694 Receiver-Transmitter share the same environmental resistance than the Combat Net Radio, except for the temperature, it can resist from -40 to 70 degree

2.Have a frequency range of 1.6 to 59.9999 MHz

3. It's somehow heavier and bigger, the HF Radio is use for long range communication and need a external encrytion devise.

4. You can fire a radio "shot" by make it bouncing on the atmosphere anywhere in the world, you only need a well skilled operator...

5. The cell phone is smaller, but you don't have this ability to make you signal bounce, you need a sattelite to relay the signal...


Military radio have a recharge system or use high-power disposable battery, this can last very long and, even 10h are sufficient for a short term engagement.

Military radio are designed to be use in wild,rough and combat condition, not cell phone, those toy are made for the city only...

So, something more to say about radio vs cell ???

 

[vincelee]

Re: Military FAQ

you can't change (easily), commercial cell phone encryptions. Also, it's my impression that cells operate very near, or even at, the low microwave range, so any perceived range advantage is really superficial because you have receiving towers in urban environments every few blocks.

And of course you can't do ionosphere bouncing with a cell.

 

[Obcession]

Re: Military FAQ

Wow, thanks to you all, Yue, Goll, Rommel, Swimmer, I really learned alot now. But one more question, a cell can be made to operate in rough environments too, right? For example, those radios that we use on our cars (civilian ones) are not very resistant to environmental damages. But the military ones does. So can't a cell be easily made into environmentally resistant?

 

[vincelee]

Re: Military FAQ

sure you can, but let me ask you this, isn't the whole point of using cells to minimize cost? To build a "tanker" cell phone would be rather wasteful because you can buy a mass produced military grade radio instead. And it's not much bigger.

 

[ahho]

Re: Military FAQ

Dunno if people have asked this before and it is pretty silly

the question is how do you PU when you are on duty in the forest, do you bring your paper???

 

[Gollevainen]

Re: Military FAQ

well from deep voice of experience....you just dig a hole (or not depends on the ground and conditions in general), knee a little and do the the job...if you have extra time you can always build up an 'riuku' (but a strong stick between two trees and sit on top of it) or if you want to do it by the book, there should be a field wc in every positions were you spend more time in one place...wich offcourse never occured in the field...So you can just imagine what its like in -20 degree
And about paper, offcourse you bring it up, if you are sain enough...and if you didnt, then you certainly remeber to bring it next time...In in all batteryes, at least the HQ has lots of it and usually every truck has a wide supply of paper...If you run out of it, or like in my group, unfortunate battle incidents did occure involving waterpits, just steal it from others like you do all other resupply operations...

I have no clue wheter you asked this but at least now you know this part of military life also...

 

[swimmerXC]

Re: Military FAQ

i got a question about the PRC 1999 parade, how long do you think they take to train to march like that? what happens if one of them get stabbed?

 

[rommel]

Re: Military FAQ

Train to march like that ?? Well, I'll say maybe a few week or a few day. I'll explain, drill is something that is very important in an army, since the drill is the basis for the discipline. A parade, most of the time, is a drill show, where you can show the drill of you army and maybe your best drillers. All soldiers want to perform in drilling when there a parade, since it's a big show-off. We have a parade each year in the Canadian Armed Force Reserve, so we get about maybe 1 day or 2 of intensive drill session to refresh the drill technic in our memory before the parade. Every soldier know how to drill, but some drill better than other and some don't care about drill at all.

PS: Drill is all the movement that a formation of soldier or an individual soldier use like marching, the size of each step, how much distance between each soldier, the number of step per minute, the angle of your leg, etc... and all the move like attention, rest, shoulder arm, etc...