The future of warfare, high and low tech side by side: Part 2

Here's a scenario to explain and illuminate last weeks blog post on how the military situation could work out using Australia and surroundings (the specific scenario given is highly unlikely to be the actual case). Assume that Australia is united and is allied with New Zealand, the other states are a united New Guinea, Borneo and Timor (each separate)  and what remains of Indonesia and Malaysia (I am ignoring the various small islands), these aren't likely to be the actual states, however they'll do for this thought experiment. Additionally for simplicity's sake I am assuming no direct outside interference. For this scenario we need to define what each states military technologies are and their access to them, uses of said technology and what they import and from who they import. Then their's the integration of different tech levels in the armed forces, so if automatics are limited are they officer only, or is the other option of only elite squads being armed with them chosen. If the society has tanks but not automatics, how is combined arms used, and how do the different branches (land, air and sea) interact.

Many of these factors and their effects I can't give more than cursory guesses, but I can probably give enough detail for a war game of at least the strategic level. For exploring the military consequences that actually sounds like a good idea, since hard data is rather lacking and 'educated guessing' would have very little accuracy at all but the broadest levels. The best would be to make a system of interlocking games to simulate the global, national, strategic, tactical and operational consequences of overshoot. it would also need to be very flexible so that various concepts and the effects to different technologies can at least be guessed at and variations tested. At the very least, it would make for a dynamic, interesting and ever changing game, especially if it was strung into a series of campaigns. Besides, it would allow the current military establishment to begin exploring the military future, yes the conclusions they draw will almost certainly be wrong, but they'll be wrong anyway, this way allows for them to wing it enough times to be occasionally right. Might as well not go completely blind into an uncertain future, only mostly blind. For now I'll set out a very broad situation.

I'll be using a standardized force structure since that allows easy comparison. It also means it's easy to see where equipment is relative to an individual soldiers perspective. From the bottom up its squads (10 men) which are organized into platoons. Platoons are made up of say 1 command squad (will have the radio if limited) and 5 squads (roughly 60 men) of mixed general and specialized infantry (depending on the availability of support weapons). Above the platoons are companies which are made up of say 5 platoons (roughly 300 men)  and above the company is the regiment of say 10 companies (3000 men). Regiments are then formed into battalions and above that is the overall army. As far as I'm aware this isn't a real organizational structure. This is solely so I can say where vehicles, certain technologies, support weapons or artillery are attached and their relation to individual soldier in a standardized way. Are automatic rifles issued to only one squad in a platoon, or one company in a regiment. Are mortars assigned at the platoon level or the squad level. This is to reflect the availability of the equipment rather than how its used (so if a tank is attached to a squad it just signifies that there are more than if attached to a company), so rifles at the squad level represent a wide availability of them, while with tanks being attached to companies represents a low availability while them being attached at the platoon level means a medium availability. With vehicles and artillery being in separate units represents the highest availability. Tanks, even if there aren't that many will likely be massed because by doing so they enhance each over more than if they were separate.

Here's the list of equipment I'll be examining, there are assumptions behind them but their not so important at the moment. It is solely to easily examine the differences at a glance.

Automatic or non-automatic rifles. Rifling refers to the grooves inside a gun barrel that are supposed to cause the bullet to spin, giving it increased accuracy and range. All guns will be rifles (except for a few exceptions when it's disadvantageous), but the variable will be if their automatic or not. While in certain terrain and areas bows or crossbows would be better/equal, assume their under non-automatic rifles.

Radios: Does every soldier have a walkie-talkie or does only one man in a squad carry a radio, or is it only the command squad. Basically how fine grain is the armies communication system and therefor how flexible is it in battle. Take it for a proxy of overall communication equipment and tactical communication network, though the strategic communication is likely to be excellent for all sides (at least during the start of any wars or conflicts).

Availability of infantry support weapons: Machine (or Gatling) guns, Mortars, anti-tank guns, small artillery pieces and rockets. Do infantry rely solely on their rifles or are their support weapons nearby and how rare are they. Can only the command squad use them or do individual squads get armed with them.

Bikes and Velomobiles (interchangeable with horses for now): Since motor transport will decline, bikes will see a renewed usage in warfare. Mostly for quick transport and communications. While bike machine guns have always been problematic, velomobiles offer a far more stable platform and could also tow heavier guns. Its also possible for dragoons to return (effectively mounted infantry) using either bikes or horses.


Vehicles: Tanks, Jeeps, trucks anything that's normally powered by an internal combustion engine, but here it could be other engines. It's divided up into transports (APC's, trucks etc) and fighting vehicles (IFV's, tanks, technicals etc). How common are they, are they in separate units or only attached to something etc. While fighting vehicles and transports are different, for these purposes assume it refers to both.

Artillery: Big guns that lob explosive shells around, additionally anti aircraft guns. This refers to anything bigger than a squad support weapon and generally needs to be towed around by a motor vehicle,  horse(s) or theoretically velomobiles and/or bikes (though the lighter pieces can be carried by infantry).  While artillery has always been important for siege operations, it has only been since the 30 years war when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden used light field guns that their capabilities on the battlefield were fully realized.

Aircraft: Three major roles; air superiority, recon and strike. The main variables are whether their imported or not, how they are attached and how many roles can be reliably filled. If comparing individual planes, they can be relatively inferior, superior or equal, but we don't need to do that here and the assumption will be that they are all roughly equal.

Capital ships: Since both aircraft and missiles will be greatly weakened along with the likely return of armor, battleships and other big ships will likely appear. Capital ships are the most important ships (for the fleet battles) and will here refer to big aircraft carriers, battleships, dreadnoughts etc. I'll assume every navy has roughly the same technology, since any navy which doesn't have the best technology isn't very worthwhile outside of anti-piracy operations and defense under the cover of fort guns/minefields.

Small ships: Any ship which isn't a capital ship, so up to a battle cruiser. Battle cruisers are normally capital ships, but their not designed for actual fleet battles but to engage in what small ships normally do, so their small ships for functional purposes. The British found that out the hard way at the Battle of Jutland, "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today" is the appropriate quote (they exploded fairly quickly). Small ships mainly work as escorts, raiders or patrol ships. They are incredibly important as they do the majority of a navies work, though they cannot do the important work (in large scale wars) of large scale battles. Only very weak powers import small ships (except the cruisers). In order of size; corvette, frigate, destroyer, cruiser, battle cruiser.

Submarines: Submarines are very high tech, but open up  a new dimension of naval warfare. Assume torpedoes stay effective, so they can potentially destroy capital ships (The Collins class has in war games). Only the strongest states build their own and most powers import theirs, if they have any. Assume that the ones here are all small and so have limited operational range and capabilities.

An important variable not included here is the type of soldiers, e.g professional, militia, conscript, mercenary, feudal, seasonal etc and how big the armed forces are. Since this is focused on examining the technology, we can ignore that for now. For this assume standing professional armies with significant use of conscript/volunteers during wartime.

Each variable will have a value out of 10, the higher the better but obviously terrain and infrastructure would affect each variables usefulness in any theater. Its solely to allow quick comparisons and isn't that accurate and thus will miss many things.

New Zealand
Rifles: Since its a small elite force, everyone is equipped with automatics. 10
Radios: Ditto, every one has a walkie-talkie. 10
Support weapons: High access to support weapons at the squad level. 10
Bikes and Velomobiles: Whenever needed, they're available. 10
Vehicles: A fair amount of vehicles, work as attached units to regiments.5
Artillery: same as vehicles. 5
Aircraft: Only for recon and limited defense purposes. 4
Capital Ships: Only 2 imported from Australia. 3
Small ships: A small force. 5
Submarines: Has 3 imported from Australia. 4

Australia
Rifles: Most have automatics, however some regiments only have non-automatic. 7
Radios: Available at the squad level most of the time. 8
Support weapons: Available at the platoon level as support squads, Machine guns in squads. 8
Bikes and Velomobiles: Readily available. 10
Vehicles: Enough to organize into separate units. 10
Artillery:  Same as above. 10
Aircraft: Full range of aircraft. 10
Capital Ships: Produces Capital ships and exports them to allies or far away powers. 10
Small ships: Large amount and variety of small ships. 10
Submarines: Has submarines and produces them. 10

Malaysia
Rifles: Fair access to automatics from China, half of their regiments have them. 6
Radios: Access on the platoon level. 7
Support weapons: Some platoons have support squads. 7
Bikes and Velomobiles: Readily available. 10
Vehicles: Can attach to companies. 5
Artillery: Every regiment has Artillery. 6
Aircraft: Can import full range from China and makes some. 8
Capital Ships: Only 1 imported from Russia. 1
Small ships: Fair amount of small ships. 7
Submarines: 1 imported submarine. 1

Borneo
Rifles: Half of the regiments have rifles. 5
Radios: Access on the platoon level. 7
Support weapons: Only as attachments to some companies. 5
Bikes and Velomobiles: Readily available. 10
Vehicles: can attach to regiments. 3
Artillery: same as vehicles. 3
Aircraft: Can import all from china but can only make recon planes. 7
Capital Ships: 3 capital ships.4
Small ships: Large amount of small ships. 8
Submarines: 3 imported submarine.3

New Guinea
Rifles:Very few automatics. 3
Radios: Access on the company level. 3
Support weapons: Available to a few regiments. 3
Bikes and Velomobiles: Very few bikes. 2
Vehicles: Very few overall. 2
Artillery: can attach to regiments. 3
Aircraft: Can only afford recon. 3
Capital Ships: Cannot create or afford capital ships. 0
Small ships: Some small ships. 3
Submarines: No subs. 0

United Timor
Rifles: Half of the regiments use imported automatics. 4
Radios: Access on company level and some platoons as well. 4
Support weapons: Available to companies. 5
Bikes and Velomobiles: A few bikes. 3
Vehicles: Very few overall. 2
Artillery: can attach to regiments. 3
Aircraft: can only afford recon. 3
Capital Ships: Cannot create or afford capital ships. 0
Small ships: a handful of small ships. 2
Submarines: No subs. 0

Indonesia:
Rifles: Most regiments have automatics. 8
Radios: Access on the platoon level, some squads as well.7
Support weapons: Available to platoons as support squads. 8
Bikes and Velomobiles: Readily available. 10
Vehicles: can attach to companies. 5
Artillery: can attach to companies. 5
Aircraft: can build recon and air superiority, imports strike. 7
Capital Ships: 3 capital ships. 4
Small ships: A large amount of small ships. 7
Submarines: A couple of subs. 5

Above I have assumed a fairly common level of technology (one side is not solely armed with muskets). That sort of imbalance (muskets vs automatics) will probably exist, possible even worse ones. I also haven't taken into account terrain and differences if the side was an attacker or defender. United Timor could be supreme in war because it always fights defensively, simply mines its harbors and could rely on significant foreign help. The only nod to those circumstances is that New Guinea and Timor have very few bikes, because they're relatively mountainous and therefor they aren't as useful. Its also highly unlikely to be the actual equivalent values they will be in the future as these values are nothing more than really rough estimates. A more detailed scenario would have drastically different technologies, and detail the spread of technologies in each military.

A far more detailed and realistic model could be constructed, but it would take far more time and research than I can do at the moment. Also you'd have to figure out the political future of India, since their a major power and them being united or divided makes a huge difference (same with China). As well as the situation of Indochina (a Vietnamese empire for example) since that impacts directly on everyone north of Australia. Due to the clipper routes likely return, South America and southern Africa also have an important, it's only around 40 days along the clipper route if you only stay in the south which is fairly close time-wise.

This environment of widely varying technology and capabilities will foster a great deal of tactical and strategic innovation. While there are certainly many constants in war, the suite of technologies used radically changes the tactical landscape (compare Napoleonic warfare to Roman), force mixtures (artillery is far more important than it used to be) and various strategic concerns, such as logistics and speed. Understanding the demands, strengths and weaknesses of the various technologies will be crucial to any competent strategist or tactician. Jettisoning the idea that better equipment means an army is automatically superior is also needed as all it does is cause the perception of military strength to be unduly focused on technology. The infrastructure requirements, tactical or strategic speed, what attributes (initiative, discipline, forms of courage etc) do they require, hinder or enable. All these and many more are key questions to understanding the post-peak military landscape.