ASTROS II is unguided, but then so are artillery shells. They
have a pretty large CEP, so lots of missiles are fired to saturate
an area.
To be honest, there is no counter to MLRS type systems. If someone
wants to shoot it at you, there is no way to prevent yourself from
being hit. The key is for us to ensure that that hit will not be
fatal. This means force protection for the troops and civil defence
for the civilians.
In terms of active force protection, it becomes even more important
that we hit first. Our troops must be past the border and therefore
dispersed, which will minimize the effect of an MLRS strike. If we
are hit while our troops, equipment and ammo are still concentrated
in their camps, it will be disasterous. Our planes must be in the
air before MLRS disables the runways, and the first strike they
deliver must be utterly devastating. The ships and subs must be at
sea.
In terms of passive force protection measures, we need to invest in
hardened aircraft shelters (HAS) and runway repair systems for the
airforce, hardened ammo bunkers for the army and hardened C4IT
systems for the whole force.
In terms of civil defence, it is important that civilians take it
seriously. The vast majority of civilian casualties sustained
during bombing are due to flying broken glass, so it is important
that as hostilities become likely, everyone follows blackout
instructions and tapes their windows. Our country is very strongly
prepared for bombing, with numerous bomb shelters and tough,
fire-resistant construction that will minimize civilian casualties.
The only question is how bombing will affect morale. Historically,
bombing of civilians increases the morale of both troops and
civilians, but we will have to see if that's true in our
case.
In war, men die. Just because we can be hit and hurt by MLRS does
not mean we are defeated. We will just take casualties, and that's
perfectly normal and perfectly alright. We will simply ensure that
however many casualties we take, the enemy takes far more as we
take his land from him. MLRS is just another weapon.
