SASless: just a point, which got eaten last time I tried to post it.
Hot LZ's have been a non trivial tactical problem for a while. I imagine you were in a few yourself. What has happened since your days in the field is that LZ's have become more lethal as they get "hot" given that MG, small arms, mortars, hand held rockets, hand held SAMs, and other weapons have gotten more lethal and more accurate.
(Somalia "Blackhawk Down" incident a fine case in point).
It's the year 2011. Some things haven't changed.
Something that has changed are the means by which one can assess and recon an LZ. I am pretty sure that it isn't just V-22's that are averse to hot LZ's. I don't think any Blackhawk, Huey, Chinook, or 53 driver has a squadron tactical SOP that mandates flying into hot LZ's as the prefered option.
Seems to me that in the intervening 40 years, with sensor ability improving, the tactical mind set is to find LZ's that aren't, or to bring significant supressive fires along to do some temperature control.
The means of doing
that has improved as well.
The outstanding feature that the Marine's paid for, it seems, is speed.
What the Congress funded, and continues to fund, is a non-trivial number of high tech jobs, and improving and sustaining the industrial base, and industrial capability. Whether or not that's a perfect discharge of their duties is open to debate, but I suspect that the representatives and senators in the Prime's state, and the states of the subs, entered that feature into their calculus right along with the USMC's need for speed.
Remember that trick question in flight school?
"What makes a plane fly, young man?"
"Lift and thrust, sir."
"Not so, young man," says the instructor.
He reaches into his wallet for a dollar bill. He tosses it into the air, then watches it drift to the floor.
"What makes airplanes fly is money."
