Amateurs Vs. Professionals

[chris_gerrib]

There is a saying in military circles that "amateurs study tactics while professionals study logistics." Simply put, you can have an army of the bestest super-ninja-warriors EVEAH dude, but if you can't get them to the fight and keep them in bullets and bacon while they're fighting, your army is useless.

This was brought to mind by a couple of things. First, I read that the French are relying on US air transport to support their troops in Mali. Google tells me that it's just over 2,000 air miles from Paris to Timbuktu, but apparently the French Air Force doesn't have sufficient planes to get and support its force over that distance.

The second thing that brought this to mind is the ongoing writing work. The aliens in Pamela's Ghosts are on the wrong end of a light-years-long supply chain, as are the humans. I've just written the scenes where the aliens have launched their big "shock and awe" -style knockout attack on the humans. Perhaps it's a bit of a spoiler, but the knockout attack didn't knock out the humans. Now, both sides will be settling into a longer-term struggle, and logistics are about to become even more of an issue.

Comments

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem is lack of regional bases and carrier support. France only has the one carrier, the UK currently has none. Given that I think France and the UK are the 3rd and 2nd largest 'functional' navies on the planet, this tells you more about the USA than it does about the UK and France :)

I'm interested in why your aliens are bothering with the whole invasion thing though. A fetish for bio-spheres?

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

That's a longer answer - I think I'll make a post out of it.

[bdunbar.livejournal.com]

If I were to do it over again, I'd be a logistics guy. Getting stuff on, and off, and in the right order ... it's lego with real toys.

Plus - at least in the early 90s, they were using autocad for load planning. So very, very, cool.