South Korea Will Reportedly Abandon Light Infantry Units
It was a common sight to see ROK Army units ruck marching across the terrain north of Seoul, but it appears it may be coming to an end according to Dr. Tara O writing for the East Asia Research Center:
The Republic of Korea (ROK) Army plans to supply all its infantry, down to the squad level, with wheeled combat vehicles, including Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs), according to YTN’s article titled “Army to Supply Armored Vehicles to Infantry…Will Ruck Marches Disappear?” (……)
There are some positive aspects of incorporating new technology on the battlefield. There is also room for combining mechanized infantry with light infantry. Previous commanders have probably thought hard about the right force mix, if hostilities were ever renewed.
Even if new analysis suggested a need for a change in force mix, converting all light infantry units, which is the majority (65%) of the infantry in the ROK Army, into heavy, mechanized infantry units is problematic. The main element that has been ignored is the terrain of the Korean Peninsula. [East Asia Research Center]
You can read more at the link, but if this moves forward I agree with Dr. O that this a major strategic security concern to not have hardened light infantry units trained to fight in Korea’s mountainous terrain. The way things are going I would not be surprised if in the coming years the Moon administration tries to do away with the mandatory service requirement because “peace” has been declared with North Korea.
going 100% of anything is a bad idea. need to keep a good force mix. This has more to do with commie moon trying to ruin South Korea than any military capability.
Commie Moon Pie is doing the bidding of the Norks. If the entire force is mech, the light mobile forces of the Norks will maneuver around the slow heavy ROK military that can’t move that fast. Then the heavy infantry of the Norks will come in and kill the light armor and avoid the heavy armor.
You silly guys are not wrong… in a way… as you are 100% prepared to fight the last war!
But this isn’t the last war.
It is all infantry theater these days… NK isn’t… can’t… invade.
South Korea is a regime-ending trap to a North Korean invasion.
Both North and South Korea recognize this in their own ways.
Trump fully recognizes this… and is the first president to encourage the honeypot and call the North Korean bluff.
North Korea is crafty… and will not take the bait.
Relax. Let peace break out.
If peace fails, nothing truly changes… except for the death of a few hundred thousand South Koreans who get what they deserve for voting commie.
But the reality is that things will continue on with less expenditure of resources by SK and USFK… and NK.
It is time for this pissing match to end… not in conflict… but in evaporation.
There is no downside.
At first, I thought Commie Moon was telling the ROK army to lay down their arms and demobilizing the army.
The RoK Army is recognizing the fact that their draftees may have spent more time in high school at KFC than the gym… plus they need the APCs to keep their cell phones charged for selfies… /jk
Seriously, the higher tech used by modern troops requires vehicles. And if the norks try to take over the hill forts, they might find someone forgot to remove the self-destruct button…
Much ado about nothing. Don’t worry about it. You people are overreacting and getting hysterical. The ROKs are fine. Also, mechanized infantry – next to Special Warfare units – are elite units in the ROK Army’s order of battle. Regardless, the fact is that all ROK Army units are – even if mechanized – still capable of functioning as “light infantry” as that is still their bread and butter.
Furthermore, the much vaunted hills & mountains cited by historians and experts alike as limiting troop movements and operational planning that restricted and/or “canalized” troop movements into valleys during the Korean War is largely irrelevant today, as Korea’s terrain has largely been vastly resculpted over the past 50 years with thousands and thousands of miles of new roads, highways, expressways and tunnels that have cut through entire mountains or circumvented them all together.
The new plan to “mechanize” all ROK troops, or more accurately, motorize them is simply adapting to this new reality in terrain. Even if there are hills to be fought for in the future, or terrain features to be occupied, you still have to get the troops there first, and that will take moving hundreds and hundreds of troops quickly over hundreds and hundreds of miles of hardball road networks. What? Were you expecting then to walk to their objective? Not any more.
Even during the Korean War, the U.S. Army was highly motorized and drove everywhere and anywhere, when & where they could. These plans to introduce new up-armored wheeled vehicles to ROK infantry units – not APCs, which the ROKs already have plenty of – is simply upgrading their outdated TO&Es to be able to move and fight at the same level and speed as their U.S. counterparts on a new network of hardball roads that didn’t exist some 50 or even 40 years ago, so give them a break.
HK, you obviously no nothing of what happened in the Korean War. US Army troops, stuck in vehicles and out of shape could not get up the mountains. Meanwhile, nK troops maneuvered, on foot, using the mountains and ridge lines to get behind the US and Korean troops, cut them off and destroy them. Chinese did much of the same thing. Being stuck on the roads cost many lives, and the tactical situation was only balanced by massive uses of airpower.
And, yes in South Korea the road network is greatly improved, in nK the road network still is very primitive.
While South Korea my look at making more a better force mix, the idea of converting 100% of the force to motorized/mechanized is short sited tactically and problematic when it comes the budget.