Foreign vehicle and equipment identification class

[TheSteve]

Hey guys,

A few days ago I realized a lot of the joes in my scout platoon have no clue what type of vehicles and equipment countries such as china, Russia, or Iran are using these days. So I decided to give a class, considering the Army is moving back to more full spectrum operations.

While there is no shortage of material on Ft Bragg, I was just curious if any of you were aware of any existing classes on this subject. I was planning on going over eastern bloc/soviet weapons systems, plus Iranian and Chinese equipment. For some reason I thought there was some sort of class like this in the Q-Course.

Any input or ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

[Silent Reader]

I have no idea about anything army related - but if you are looking for some material to ID Chinese, North Korean, Russian and Iranian vehicles - you should check out planemans threads in here as he made some pretty could images of all kinds of vehicles (although the latest ones might be missing as his threads are from 2009 / 2010 mostly)

[Sniffit]

A scout platoon such as a reconnaissance platoon or as in boy scouts? Since you mentiond Ft. Bragg I assume that you already have access to manuals and so on with information about foreign forces and their organizations? Start with those.
When you know the difference between russian and other eastern bloc units and the western you should start with learning the different ID points on vehicles (turrets, cannons, wheels, suspension, add-ons).
After you get this down, grab a bunch of pictures (preferably sketched, not photos), make copies of them and cut them into decksized cards. Write what vehicle it is on the back aswell as the nationality, then you just begin flipping cards. If you guys keep at it you'll have most of the eastern bloc down in a matter of weeks. Try talking to someone at S2, they should be able to help and probably has access to pre-made decks of the kind I was talking about.

[skyeye]

Look up your friendly local Image Interpretation unit & see if they can share some non-classified pics & info.

[tommyd]

A scout platoon such as a reconnaissance platoon or as in boy scouts? Since you mentiond Ft. Bragg I assume that you already have access to manuals and so on with information about foreign forces and their organizations? Start with those.
When you know the difference between russian and other eastern bloc units and the western you should start with learning the different ID points on vehicles (turrets, cannons, wheels, suspension, add-ons).
After you get this down, grab a bunch of pictures (preferably sketched, not photos), make copies of them and cut them into decksized cards. Write what vehicle it is on the back aswell as the nationality, then you just begin flipping cards. If you guys keep at it you'll have most of the eastern bloc down in a matter of weeks. Try talking to someone at S2, they should be able to help and probably has access to pre-made decks of the kind I was talking about.

When I was at Bragg there were decks of cards around that were foreign vehicle ident. They were regular playing cards, but on each card was a silhouette of a tank, apc, etc., with type and nomenclature. They are probably still around.

[Dominique]

Hey guys,

A few days ago I realized a lot of the joes in my scout platoon have no clue what type of vehicles and equipment countries such as china, Russia, or Iran are using these days. So I decided to give a class, considering the Army is moving back to more full spectrum operations.

While there is no shortage of material on Ft Bragg, I was just curious if any of you were aware of any existing classes on this subject. I was planning on going over eastern bloc/soviet weapons systems, plus Iranian and Chinese equipment. For some reason I thought there was some sort of class like this in the Q-Course.

Any input or ideas would be appreciated, thanks.

There are online classes on the Ft. Benning website, not to mention recognition guides, playing cards, PPT, etc. They cover everything from armored vehicles, to aircraft, artillery, small arms and crew served weapons.

[Ought Six]

Do not forget Planeman's awesome drawings and data.

[TheSteve]

Hey thanks for the tips guys.