I was reading something a while back, I think about Pat Tillman and the 75th Rangers. The author was describing all the weapons the soldiers had and then followed it up by saying they were lightly armed infantry.
The soldiers in question had things like assault rifles, grenades, grenade launchers (I think), a vehicle mounted machine gun and possibly a few other things.
So if that is what counts as lightly armed infantry what are medium or heavily armed ones in the modern military? Are those people armed with light machine guns, RPGs, mortars, etc? Do heavily armed infantry even exist anymore or are they replaced by vehicles?
I might be on completely the wrong track, but I generally think of light infantry as being less dependent on logistic support, rather than being more lightly armed by definition.
That’s not totally wrong, but the reason they would be less dependent is because they’re lightly armed and equipped.
Light infantry goes back to the concept of skirmishers, which have been sued in varying capacity since we were beating each other with clubs for fun and profit. Skirmishers usually had light armor, often ranged weaponry, and harassed the enemy where possible. They also often performed scouting duties. There’s a pretty clear cavalry equivalent, although they might not have ranged weaponry.
Where this gets awkward is in the changeover to gunpowder weaponry. Light infantry eventually becomes clear from this as well, however. Armies still need skirmishers and scouts. Even within the main body of an army we have units capable of effective fighting in broken terrain where heavy vehicles can’t always successfully move. But they can, and are, still supplied via air drops.
The short version is that light infantry basically means flexible, not necessarily lightweight.
The article in question though implied that assault rifles, grenades and a vehicle mounted machine gun counted as ‘lightly armed’.
I understand groups armed with those weapons would have more mobility than people in APCs with heavy machine guns that require 2 people to operate them. But to me I always assumed assault rifles and grenades backed up by a vehicle with a mounted machine gun were standard military hardware. The article I read implied that that made one lightly armed.
Heavy infantry is typically the term for what’s also called “mechanized infantry”- infantry carried around in IFVs (M2 Bradleys, Marders, BMPs, Warriors, etc…) and therefore can lug more stuff around with them, and have more organic fire support due to the presence of the IFVs.
Light infantry is traditional foot-borne infantry- what they can carry is what they have.
Medium infantry may be some hybrid of the two- maybe truck-borne infantry or Stryker-borne infantry? Basically less capable vehicles would be the distinguishing factor, I’d think.