The Red Diamond newsletter presents professional information but the views expressed herein are those of the authors, not the Department of Defense or its elements. The content does not necessarily reflect the official US Army position and does not change or superseded any information in other official US Army publications. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and source documentation of the material that they reference. The Red Diamond staff reserves the right to edit material. Appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the US Army for information contained therein.
This issue of Red Diamond opens with an article on the Chinese QBZ-95 assault rifle. With its adoption, China joined several Western countries that have selected a bullpup assault rifle for primary issue to their armed forces or, at a minimum, to special operations forces or other elite formations. Besides the fact that the QBZ-95 is a new design for China, the country also designed and developed its own proprietary cartridge.
The next article concludes a two-part series on the opposing force (OPFOR) use of an integrated fires command (IFC). The command is composed of a permanent or standing command and control structure, with various types of fire support units task-organized and integrated in an approach to synchronize indirect fires for a maneuver force. Topics covered in the article include the “system of systems” concept and the components of the IFC—artillery, missile, long-range reconnaissance, integrated support, naval, and special-purpose forces.
Mission Command Training Program (MCTP) Warfighter Exercise (WFX) 17-1 was scheduled as a distributed, simulation-supported, corps-level, command post exercise. The first two days of the exercise occurred as scheduled, but a hurricane triggered the abandonment of the WFX as originally planned. The third article provides an overview of the actions of the WFX during the first two days, with the intent to provide greater understanding of the OPFOR operations process, the operational framework used, and decisions that led to the final outcome. It is clear that the effects of the two days of competitive fighting between OPFOR and BLUFOR would have had a significant impact on all subsequent engagements if the fighting had been able to continue.
As a challenging condition in US Army training, an OPFOR conducts tactical operations with a number of collective drills in support of accomplishing its tactical tasks. One drill that occurs often during mission tasks is situational breach of an obstacle. A situational breach is the rapid reduction of and passage through an obstacle encountered in the execution of another tactical task. The third article in this issue describes how the OPFOR performs this task and includes a tactical vignette.
The final Red Diamond article this month focuses on the French ACMAT VLRA 6X6, a relatively-inexpensive light transport truck that features excellent mobility and commonality of parts. This truck is reliable, simple, rugged, and includes interchangeability of 80% of its parts, extending to models produced 30 years ago. There are multiple variants for different requirements, along with multiple mounts for weapons systems. It is primarily a reconnaissance, escort, and support vehicle. It is also used as a heavy patrol vehicle, equipped for long-reconnaissance missions.