WP/Nato: Infantry discussion !

[narwan]

Well, it's tough to compare the two since there's a staggering array of different nations and within nations different types of infantry formations to pick from.

Why I think NATO has (on average) better infantry is because they are much better at the job they are meant to do. Infantry is meant to take and hold vital ground. To do that you need firepower, firepower vs soft targets especially and you need to be able to keep going after losses. Having nice AT weapons is all good and proper, but it is a secondary issue. If you have each squad equiped with a weapon system only very few of them might actually need during an engagement you've actually weakened your whole force (as all squads will be paying for a system very few will use and more directly by not having another weapon in that slot that they can use regularly!). A good example is infantry AT weapons capable of dealing with enemy MBT's head on. You don't need them on squad level. You have AT-teams, ATGM teams, and a whole bunch of other units (like some IFV's, choppers, armor etc) who can do that. So often I pick squad make-ups with maximise their firepower vs soft targets and leave the tankbusting to tankbusters. Some lighter AT-weapons are useful (and much cheaper than the heavy stuff) for dealing with the large amounts of soviet light armored vehicles. But for that even energa grenades suffice. And NATO's IFV's have a clear edge over the soviet ones so that need is limited too.

From the above it may be clear I am not a fan of extensive multipurposing of standard infantry units. I'm all for specialising with some redundancy build into the force structure. Usually for NATO nations you have squads with good basic infantry weapons and enough support weapons in specialised units. And the squads are big enough to keep going after taking a few losses.

By far the biggest problem for WP infantry is their squad size. Their squads are commonly in the five to seven men range which is way to few to conduct sustained infantry operations. Most of the NATO nations have a standard squad size of nine or ten men per squad. Which I think is far, far better. A couple of nations do field smaller sized squads in their IFV formations, as these vehicle have a limited capacity. But these have the advantage of being of better quality, like the US and Germany with their basic 75 experience, and therefor able to stay into the fight a bit longer than their WP counterparts.

WP infantry may have neat weapons, they may look good on paper but if they can't do the basic job infantry must do well, I don't think they're that good.

So on the whole, it is my opinion that NATO infantry is better, and by some margin too.

Narwan