Back to the Future: Javelins and Skirmishers on the Battlefield

摘要

The arrival of the JAVELIN fire-and-forget antitank missile can allow the combatunits of the United States Army to maximize the effect of direct fires in tactical depth on the battlefield by employing skirmishers. Throughout history, successful armies have adopted forward-deployed missile systems as skirmishers to effectively harass, delay, and disrupt enemy formations. Cyclic trends in tactics and technology have caused us to replace skirmishers in current doctrine with indirect artillery, but with the advent of smart missiles for ground combat we should reinstate the skirmishers to their historically proper place on the battlefield.