If BRAZIL uses ACAV gun/shield kit on it's M113s, why the F**KING HELL dose the US Army not do this? Is it not completely obvious how completely F**KED UP the US Army is?!!!
Attempt to kill Taliban leadership dude by an A-10 apparently resulted in the deaths of 9 children somewhere nearby the target's locale, I suspect this is due to the A-10's high speed resulting in "over shoot"; just as bad as "over penetration" (something the A-10's gun can equally be susceptible to). Heres how I would have done it:
Fly at least one C-130 over the whole country 24/7, load it with a dozen Scout Sniper Teams with M2HBs and M40A1s mounted on SKEDCO carts for maximum firing options. With such a light load the C-130 should have an especially long endurance. When one of these dudes pops up (trying to bag Aidid's cronies come to mind) I'd direct the C-130 there and have it drop off 2-4 SSTs by High Altitude Drop Low Altitude Parachute-deploy (HADLAP) some distance away - maybe even with a ridge separating - from the target's area, but would always prefer to wait for night if possible. They would then march to some pre-selected sector - affording easy access from DZ wile being triangular for maximum range and position options - witch would give them overwatch of the target's location from 2km on in. The multiple teams would take up positions of observation and fire to cover all possible escape routes from the target's location emplacing either 1-2km out with the M2HB and it's M3 tripod's T&E or <1km with the M40A1. From here they would setup for firing wile maintaining observation until finally dropping the SOB right there in front of his body guards and other groupies; NOW THAT'S INSTILLING FEAR INTO OUR ENEMIES HEARTS WILE ASSURING NEUTRALS THAT WE ARN'T THE BAD GUYS, true American military professionalism. The SSTs would then scurry away to waiting helos some distance away from the "kill zone". Because of their equipping with the M2HB Gavin forces in the vicinity could also do this job without all the clandestine-esque complication, it is simply a way that could be done NOW with existing resources in-theater if we had conscious and imaginative leadership that studied it's stuff.
Armor defends you from attrition, not defeat (and thus harm).
Note: By the above title I mean defense of the helo, not FROM HELOS
When the ground is close (urban as extreme), fly high: the enemy in this environment is hard to spot and can come from anywhere, place distance between him and you. At 3000+ feet small arms are basically ineffectual (unless quite large and hard to conceal and move) and MANPADS will take one to several seconds to reach you with a vary clear smoke trail during the day or bright rocket motor at night heading your way, with much more time to do something about it than from a few dozen to few hundred feet. Always carry manned-at-all-times-MGs and flare dispenses.
When the ground is open (desert as extreme) fly low: the enemy can spot you from along ways off, so when upon him at low altitude you fly by much faster, are harder to aim at and appear from over the horizon for much shorter a time. The enemy is also much easier to spot by you and not as much civilian cover so easier to take out for wing-gunners or maneuvered around.
Flying at a few hundred feet sounds to me to be the best all-terrain altitude for the enemy to get the best shot at you, pure suicide, nothing will save you there.
Trianglular theory of air defense: when ground is close; fly high (base is narrow, sides are tall), when ground is open; fly low (base is wide, sides are short).
Place M18 Claymore AntiPersonnel Mines facing upward on an enemy LZ in as dense a grid as possible. Camouflaged a bit by taking off the top layer of earth and placing the Claymore in the vary shallow hole and the turf over it, otherwise if time is at a premium just lay them in the open, he's probably to dumb to notice. Then trail the command detonation wire off to your position and know where your Claymore is. When the unsuspecting helo is about to land commence the ambush by detonating all the mines as closely under the helos as possible wile trying to leave some for the enemy that will poor out of their crippled helos after. Then open up and when the opportunity presents it's self use the remaining Claymores, if for nothing else than to spread confusion amongst his ranks!
LAY CAMP: Secure yourself in a defensible position witch the enemy neither suspects nor is likely to find
RECONNOITER: Locate the enemy's positions without giving away your presence, discover his habits.
PROBE: Make contact with the enemy's positions in a way witch he may not discover much or anything of you, but witch you discover his means.
CONDITION: Escalate from probing to shape himself as is desirable to you, minor attacks to weaken his abilities and resolve from positions of none-committed advantage, condition his troops to conditions leading to a real assault, clear key obstacles and sabotage key defenses.
ASSAIL: Final offensive should come suddenly, committedly, and take maximum advantage of discovered and created weaknesses, should be preceded by prepatory actions not significantly different than those toward the end of step four; transitions between all steps should be seamless and overlapping.
Surprise, enemy disorientation upon contact, obscurity of nature and intentions
On going conduct of ISR wile remaining obscure, hidden and aloof to the enemy's ISR
Preparation actions on enemy; softening, demoralizing and / or isolating of the enemy
Preporation actions on own forces; rigorous training, wargaming and caching
Engagement only when and where adventagious
Causion, alertness and flexibity to prevent any obstacles not discovered by ISR from spoiling offense
In-depth strong-point "obstacle in force" plan on adventagious terrain
Extensive obstacle or "obstacle in fire" plan, overwatched and supported by Obstacle in Force plan
Extensive, survivable and flexible "Surveillance Strike Complex"
Well thought out executed and perpetually shifting counter-ISR / fake-out plan
American Civil War; Union bombards Southern cities relentlessly and dose huge, centuries of animosity fueling, destruction and the Southerners never relent, only bloody infantry charges take cities (and at least some of the time inspired maneuver)
World War One: Trenches are shelled like nothing in history to cover infantry charges, the moment the shelling lifts enemy pops out of deep bunkers to man machine guns, result is good 60% casualties in charges of 100,000s of men for gains of just hundreds of meters of advance that could be lost within weeks
World War Two: 100,000s die in the air and 10,000,000s on the ground in attempt to destroy enemy "war machine", barely successful, questionable if worth price to victor alone, basically all targets civilian, "terror bombing" of cities
Korean War: (their still at it!) attempts to hit few real industrial/C3 targets in DPRK by air fail with B-29s from 25,000-35,000ft - can't hit shit at that level - and attempts to hit troop concentrations and logistics bases fails miserable under withering Mig-15 defenses
Vietnam War: "punishing" (when was the last time anyone won a war by throwing a tantrum at the enemy?) and "gradual escalation" (so the enemy can just rebuild whatever you destroy in no time flat as they take more of your pilots hostage! woo hoo! them Americans, they dumb!) bombing of civilians escalates North Vietnamese resolve, and further sinks American. Accomplishes nothing but high costs in money, lives and huge quantities of political capital, in short a death spiral, just what the enemy ordered!
Gulf War One: bombing is semi-successful at targeting an extraordinarily dumb opponent, otherwise impressive and further inspiring feelings of persecution by Arabs and Muslims the worth over, but little else, but at least they learn to do it all at once instead of this "graduated" BS
Ongoing craziness in TFY: failure to be able to bring in ground forces fast enough has US put up an other "graduated" bombing campaign basically targeting either civilian infrastructure - inflaming Muslims and FYians - and striking decoys wile the Balkan Madness continues unfazed
"Operation Infinite Reach": blows over some just-abandoned tents in Afghanistan and 1 of only 5 pharmaceutical plants in impoverished Sudan, but it's still victory!
2001 Afghan War: bombing takes out what little government there is and more than a handful of civilians to boot! But ultimately fails in it's principle aim because nobody knew exactly where to point it (UBL's GCs).
Gulf War Two: largely same as above, except for a 30 minute light show for one night, Sadam's henchmen seem never to have been uprooted for more than a few weeks, blah blah blah ...
Imagine an M113 ACAV with 2 M40 106mm recoilless rifles mounted atop the roof and 2 M260 7-tube 70mm Hydra rocket launchers on the sides well camouflaged in the brush beside a road at a remote local. Along comes our hapless convoy, the M113 emerges, aims the whole vehicle in a way only a track vehicle can and fires one of it's 106mm rounds in the lead vehicle, then turns to fire the second into the trail vehicle. Then it turns again hip-shooting it's 14 Hydras approximately one per vehicle between the two blocking wrecks. The convoy's crew flee their burning vehicles, the M113 advances, firing it's 5 MGs to waist all the crew members until nothing is left moving. Now it halts all of a sudden, turns around, it's rear hatch drops open, troops dismount in a hurry, and as M113 overwatches they thoroughly if rather rapidly boobytrap all the vehicles and scavenge what they can of what remains of the convoy, most importantly their crew's weapons, ammo and anything of possible intel value. Dismounts quickly remount, M113 fires flank smoke grenade launchers and disappears back into the landscape when the smoke clears. Reaction crew comes to the scene, finds no one alive, everything thoroughly charred and riddled, try to recover vehicle ...
M113 crew returns several hours later, observing from a distance as the body count rises, the fruit of their labor ripened they scurry off to the next kill zone ...
THINK! IF YOU THINK "IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE DEVICES" (READ: COMMAND-DETONATED MINES) ARE NASTY, WAIT TILL YOU ENCOUNTER REAL GUERRILLA WARFARE!