Few women will qualify for land combat

l think there are brute strength and endurance things that, in general, women should still give way to men in. Sniping doesn't seem to be one of those.

 

There is already a serious problem with sexual assault in the military. You start mixing females in with the infantry...probably the biggest "good ol' boy" club next to the fighter pilot community...things will not end well.

 

Schools used to be gender separated too. If the problem is rapist-men in the military, the problem is the rapist-men. Banning potential victims from military service is not an acceptable solution. Since military men are going to be around women whether or not there are women in the military or their unit, keeping women out doesn't stop rapist military men. Thinking he'd get away with rape is far less likely if there are a lot of women around.

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Women can match the endurance of men and in some categories ever more. Brute strength has little relevancy in modern warfare, even combat, though for "brute strength" jobs then use strong back men.

 

It's highly likely the female Soviet snipers were not much more than propaganda because according to their scores they killed the German army about three times over.

 

The Soviets found that sniper duties fit women well, since good snipers are patient, deliberate, have a high level of aerobic conditioning, and normally avoid hand-to-hand combat. They found the same with women as bomber crews, very fine adjustments and intense technical expertise actually gave them a better reputation than most all male bomber squadrons.

 

That's a misconception, the idea that a sniper just sits and waits to shoot is not how it works. Actual shooting is a small part of what a sniper does, its not even the main part of either the Army sniper school or the Marine Scout Sniper school. Most of a scout snipers job is being able to operate independently, travel long distances unobserved, often with a lot of gear (over 100 lbs), you have to be able to function for long periods with little or no sleep. Sometimes you are all by your self. Its not just patience, its being able to operate at a high state for a long period under stress.

And "sniper" is not a MOS (Military Occupational Speciality), its an "Additional Skill Identifier" for infantry, special forces, and the like. That's because the sniper/scout skill builds on the infantry skills - land navigation, patrolling, endurance, shooting, communications. If a person isn't a good infantryman then they won't be a good sniper.

 

Women do not need to carry as much as their bodies more efficiently use water and food. They are smaller, meaning a smaller profile. They have superior physical traits allowing superior covert movement. They tend to be superior at precision and technical skills, plus a higher tolerance of pain. No, a sniper does not have to be an "infantryman."

 

Do the Russians currently use women as snipers and in bomber crews?

 

I don't know. Russia tended to only use women when in critical war circumstances. The reason to otherwise not have women was not due to women being inferior. For the most part, it was because of other claimed problems. The women tended to be far more tenatious in commitment and battle and on occasion showed up the men. Raping enemy civilian women is not so easy to get away with if there are women in the force, and historically armies tended to roll on motives that include rape and pillage. However, this not an official reason, though may be one reason men demanded they didn't want women troops along.

Men and women in the same fighting formation produces different psychological effects on both. As soon as their are casualties, the psychology changes. The men tend to become protective and defensive if women are wounded. With casualties, women troops tended to become extremely aggressive towards the enemy, as extreme as the men retreating while the women then attacking/charging on their own - and winning. Apparently when a woman fixates on destruction and retaliation, there's not stopping her? If with casualities the men and women both go into the attack mode, they become very difficult to stop killing and destroying everything and everyone in front of them. There are many theories as the the psychological reasons why that is.

In WWII, a case could be made that Russia only brought in women into combat whenever Russia faced a massive, decisive lose. There were decisive campaigns for which Russia was on the verge of losing (and then losing the war) when it then decided to arm women troops. These additional female troops then saved the day. However, some claim it is simple a matter that the attrition of Russian men was so high that there is no gender issue involved and rather only a numbers-of-troops factor.

 

Too many old military men still think in terms of WWII and troops marching all the way to Germany or across the ME and Italy. Battles really aren't fought that way anymore, not by us anyway.

What no military men care to discuss (among other topics) is the positive effects having some women troops can have on the civil population. Civilians tend to see invading troops as murderers, rapists and thieves (because they usually are). That then leads to civilians covertly supplying and assisting the enemy, or even going into combat themselves to protect their families and property. Particularly for the types of conflicts the USA is in now such as in the ME, the difference between a cooperative civilian population and an adversarial one can be decisive.

Women troops aren't perceived as rapists by civilians. Those cultures also tend to admire personal courage and have contempt for cowardice. If "insurgents" etc (usually outsiders to the village/town) are so cowardly as to not come out and even fight women, they would be seen as the ultimate cowards. The Marine squad leader we know who was in the Helmann district of Afghanistan often used shaming the no-uniforms enemy into fighting and, if they wouldn't, were seen as such cowards that locals would sometimes tell them who the insurgents are or where they are hiding.

There are beneficial ways that women can interact with civilians that male troops simply cannot because of how the civilians perceive women as being different than men - and some of those perceptions are accurate.

 

Yeah, I know. Our US representative out here, though, is Martha McSally. She was an A-10 pilot and in charge of a wing at DMAFB. I believe she led the first A-10s into Iraq during GWII (might've been GWI but I'm too lazy to look it up). Not exactly the Navy with the tailhooks 'n all, but whose tail was she supposed to grab at the parties?

 

Agreed. I'm a pretty big fella in fairly good shape and I can't see myself hauling an 80# pack 20 miles in 108 degree weather in a day. That takes brutes. Angry brutes.

 

There were no female combat pilots in the Gulf war. Prior to 1994, females were banned from flying combat missions.