BLA attack - tactics

[CriticalThought]

Somebody posted a thread sharing links to videos that show the BLA attack. The thread has been deleted, but I still want to discuss tactics.

The post and its defences have not been made to withstand a well planned attack. The guys were pinned by long range fire while enemy troops moved in. I watched the beginning and it looks like the enemy didn't have any snipers. The guys should have ascertained the accuracy of long range fire, and then they should have broken cover to take on incoming men. There is a guy in the corner who tries to remain behind the cover while enemy men amass right outside the wall. Had he tried to jump outside the compound and then take them from the flank they would be easy targets. There seems to be no one in charge who is thinking about all the approaches to the camp and how to defend them. Yes, the lack of hand grenades is appalling. Moreover, the camp is at the base of a mountain. The enemy could have opened another front from the top of that mountain. Conversely, if there had been another camp at the top, that would be an advantageous position for machine gun and sniper fire. I wonder if our regular army is trained to think along these lines?

@PanzerKiel

 

[Tornado23]

I hope the FC soldier is rescued and all his captors are either captured or slain.

 

[Hawkeye1]

It's just depressing and embarrassing that some savages wearing shalwar kameez who can't even aim correctly can ambush our soldiers that easily and no one even bothered to send help or a rescue team for them.

 

[spectregunship]

It was heart wrenching to watch it... only did it to see how easy it was for those bastards but I should commend the soldiers who stood their ground till the end... my brief analysis:

1. The terrorists took their planning to a new level of detail. Very well coordinated by them. It should ring alarm bells at the top most headquarters if the attack did not already do so and mere cosmetic measures wont work next time because they will find a way around them.
2. They were well equipped and supplied. Not just the M4 or M249 but their radios and the proficiency with which they used them.
3. Siting an outpost which is already dominated by heights around is always the worst idea, unless you have well sited listening posts on these heights but again which is the worst idea in a COIN setting.
4. Post was set up without proper security measures like razor wires at a distance from post boundary walls. But you cannot expect the soldiers to do it. It is the responsibility of the command to ensure it is done so and by providing the requisite stores for it.

The conclusions from this are also a few:
1. It is basically failure of command at senior levels. Do not expect the JCO commanding the post to do anything better than to manage the post and ensure command and control under fire which he possibly did try.
2. Insurgents like these can only be tracked and hunted when you are one step ahead of them and that technique does not include tiring and cumbersome cordon search, area domination or sanitisation but rather use of ISR and SIGINT. Had there been a SIGINT effort taking place, one aircraft can pick a lot of chatter in urban areas and it should not be a problem when doing so in scanning vast terrain of less populated areas. Find them and hunt them through swift means not double cabins moving through some dirt tracks and waking up the entire south asia before they reach their target. We did it in 2006 and it should not be a problem at all in 2021 but again, its the will and thinking at the top that decides how to go about it.

Its absolutely sad... and very unfortunate. Typical mediocrity at play on our part.

 

[waz]

Allah bless our troops who fought hard.
That group of terrorists held their position with six of them hunched together outside a wall, an easy target for snipers or a well placed mortar hit.
The fire that was incoming was very inaccurate save some RPG shots.
Reinforcements would have made mince meat out of these filth.
An armed drone like the Wing Loong 2 would have ended all this in 50 seconds.

 

[Mrc]

Sir you just cannot send troops to slaughter without back up...

There shud b a 15 or 20 minutes max backup b it by air or ground to every out post...

This is ridiculous

 

[313ghazi]

The troops are just thrown into the meat grinder without any consideration for them, because the senior leadership know that there is no conseqeuence to it. They'll throw rose petals on their corpses, make some youtube videos about the valour of shaheed and we'll all just lap it up.

Apart from a handful of people on this forum, the vast majority of people don't even think twice about it. It's expected that troops are thrown at a problem until we clog up the meat grinder with too many casulties.

This is why 70,000 people died in this country due to the WoT - because anyone who has the power to control and change anything - also has an armoured limo to drive in. Put the senior political and military leadership in standard Toyota Hiluxes and say they'll remain that way until all our troops have adequete equipment. Watch how quickly things change.

 

[alee92nawaz]

Somebody posted a thread sharing links to videos that show the BLA attack. The thread has been deleted, but I still want to discuss tactics.

The post and its defences have not been made to withstand a well planned attack. The guys were pinned by long range fire while enemy troops moved in. I watched the beginning and it looks like the enemy didn't have any snipers. The guys should have ascertained the accuracy of long range fire, and then they should have broken cover to take on incoming men. There is a guy in the corner who tries to remain behind the cover while enemy men amass right outside the wall. Had he tried to jump outside the compound and then take them from the flank they would be easy targets. There seems to be no one in charge who is thinking about all the approaches to the camp and how to defend them. Yes, the lack of hand grenades is appalling. Moreover, the camp is at the base of a mountain. The enemy could have opened another front from the top of that mountain. Conversely, if there had been another camp at the top, that would be an advantageous position for machine gun and sniper fire. I wonder if our regular army is trained to think along these lines?

@PanzerKiel

Our paramilitary and police lack so much in training

 

[Tom_Cruise]

It was heart wrenching to watch it...

Absolutely.

Its infuriating and makes my blood boil that our soldiers were left pretty much defenceless with no support. Surely they had access to radios to report they were under attack. This went on for hours and there was nothing in the way of support. I also can't believe they had no grenades. It makes us seem weaker and ill-equiped than a WWI army. What an absolute farce.

If a western soldier is killed, a huge, thorough investigation is undertaken, yet we have huge portraits of the dead made instead. We are a complete joke.

This crime goes right to the top of the military heirachy, including the PM.

 

[313ghazi]

Absolutely.

Its infuriating and makes my blood boil that our soldiers were left pretty much defenceless with no support. Surely they had access to radios to report they were under attack. This went on for hours and there was nothing in the way of support. I also can't believe they had no grenades. It makes us seem weaker and ill-equiped than a WWI army. What an absolute farce.

If a western soldier is killed, a huge, thorough investigation is undertaken, yet we have huge portraits of the dead made instead. We are a complete joke.

This crime goes right to the top of the military heirachy, including the PM.

It stops with the COAS. He should spend less time talking to businessmen and foreign dignatories and spend more time focusing on the needs of his troops.

 

[Sharma Ji]

Somebody posted a thread sharing links to videos that show the BLA attack. The thread has been deleted, but I still want to discuss tactics.

The post and its defences have not been made to withstand a well planned attack. The guys were pinned by long range fire while enemy troops moved in. I watched the beginning and it looks like the enemy didn't have any snipers. The guys should have ascertained the accuracy of long range fire, and then they should have broken cover to take on incoming men. There is a guy in the corner who tries to remain behind the cover while enemy men amass right outside the wall. Had he tried to jump outside the compound and then take them from the flank they would be easy targets. There seems to be no one in charge who is thinking about all the approaches to the camp and how to defend them. Yes, the lack of hand grenades is appalling. Moreover, the camp is at the base of a mountain. The enemy could have opened another front from the top of that mountain. Conversely, if there had been another camp at the top, that would be an advantageous position for machine gun and sniper fire. I wonder if our regular army is trained to think along these lines?

@PanzerKiel

Watched some of it.

Guy in lookout tower at the north west from the camera's perspective was dealing with accurate fire.

Whole thing seems pretty well planned, as evidenced by their briefing clip and model at the start, they'd obviously been recceing it for a while, possible monitoring comms too.

RPG fire seemed super accurate, probably a specialist.

The insurgents were also noticed bunching around in groups many times, not the best trained tactical fighters.

A gunship would have laid waste to them, too bad none came, neither did any other form of backup, which is odd, given the mere 30 km distance from an army airbase... what kind of assets does that base host anyway ?

PAF and PA aviation need to be flying some show of force sorties in the area, possibly dropping some heavy munitions in empty areas too, to let their enemy know.

 

[Reichmarshal]

U need to under stand its take time to build capacity n bring troops up to speed, in this case fc baluchistan, as they r front lines troops n will do most of the fighting.
All of the above takes time n can not happen over night " aag ka darya say ghuzar ka jana ha ".
PA went through it, fc kpk went through it. Fc kpk I say is the most battle hardened and well equipped troops in the whole of Pakistan after ssg.
While the rest of Pak was fighting a war, baluchistan was going through a low intensity ensurgency. Now the intensity of the ensurgency has gone up n will go up further. Fc baluchistan will learn through hard knocks n sacrifices n get battle hardened.
All the lessons learnt in kpk n the rest of Pakistan r being applied in baluchistan to bring troops up to speed.
They have started to produce results and will root out terrorism from baluchistan soon in sha ALLAH

 

[Tornado23]

They have started to produce results and will root out terrorism from baluchistan soon.

Such as?

 

[arjunk]

U need to under stand its take time to build capacity n bring troops up to speed, in this case fc baluchistan, as they r front lines troops n will do most of the fighting.
All of the above takes time n can not happen over night " aag ka darya say ghuzar ka jana ha ".
PA went through it, fc kpk went through it. Fc kpk I say is the most battle hardened and well equipped troops in the whole of Pakistan after ssg.
While the rest of Pak was fighting a war, baluchistan was going through a low intensity ensurgency. Now the intensity of the ensurgency has gone up n will go up further. Fc baluchistan will learn through hard knocks n sacrifices n get battle hardened.
All the lessons learnt in kpk n the rest of Pakistan r being applied in baluchistan to bring troops up to speed.
They have started to produce results and will root out terrorism from baluchistan soon in sha ALLAH

What are all our drones and attack helis for, parades? They are doing nothing but collecting dust and indians damn well know FC will never get any air support and are proudly advertising that fact in these videos. Balochistan is 100 times bigger than FATA and "training" FC by making them target practice for BLA with no air support will NEVER end the insurgency.

 

[Ahmet Pasha]

FC post at the base of a mountain??
What were they thinking?

Battle of Kamdesh - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I think some elements from within FC are sabotaging FC and setting traps for it.

What are all our drones and attack helis for, parades? They are doing nothing but collecting dust and indians damn well know FC will never get any air support and are proudly advertising that fact in these videos. Balochistan is 100 times bigger than FATA and "training" FC by making them target practice for BLA with no air support will NEVER end the insurgency.

Our drones can't do jack. Tbh the drones we have right now aren't the best(we can certainly have better)