hnkst2@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Hanhwe N. Kim) (06/15/91)
From: "Hanhwe N. Kim" <hnkst2@unix.cis.pitt.edu> hc1@bale.cis.ufl.edu (Harry Campbell) writes: >The Dragon ATGM is in fact the primary medium anti-tank missile for the >U. S. infantry. You'll find at least one in every platoon, probably >two. The Dragon has a 1000m range, and can penetrate around 500mm of >steel plate. >Red Pheonix [RP], by Larry Bond ... Not such a bad book but.... A better book IMHO about a war between North and South Korea is "38 North Yankee" by Ed Ruggero, a grunt turned writer. The characters seemed much more real while RP characters seemed much too Clancy-ish, and the scenario in RP is pretty unrealistic if you consider Korean geography, and politics. 38NY is much more believable, concerning the human factors of war, and war plans and technology going awry, and is much more depressing, like a war novel should be. At least from a former (albeit far-rear-echelon) ROK army grunt's point of view. In 38 North Yankee much is mentioned about the shortcomings of the Dragon. The missile is too expensive for extensive live fire training, and general field handling tends to mess up the fine tuned electronics and guidance micro-rockets. It doesn't have the punch to kill tanks with frontal shots, and the back blast tends to expose the missileer. ROK (South Korean) infantry units are much more dependent upon prepared positions for fighting tanks, and can't afford even Dragons, unfortunately. Han Kim