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Russian troops are proving that cell phones in war zones are a very bad idea:
It’s been a nightmare scenario for U.S. commanders for years: An amphibious readiness group sails stealthily towards its objective, one reckless Marine or sailor goes topside and uses a personal cell phone to check Facebook, revealing the position of the assault ship. The Chinese or Russians quickly detect the cell phone signal in the middle of the ocean and realize they can’t miss. The enemy fires its anti-ship ballistic or cruise missiles at Pfc./Seaman Schmuckatelli as he posts a meme and suddenly the entire ship along with thousands of sailors and Marines are lying on the ocean floor.
To some, this type of scenario may seem as hyperbolic as warnings that wearing white socks in combat could give away your location to the enemy, but Russian troops in Ukraine have shown the perils of using cell phones in modern-day warzones.
The Ukrainians claim to have killed 12 general Russian officers since late February, in part because the Russians have resorted to using cell phones when their communications systems break down.
“It is not hard to geo-locate someone on a phone talking in the clear,” retired Army Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe, told the New York Times.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @06:57AM (8 children)
I remember my dad talking about how many times cigarettes did in platoons of men, as a non smoking enemy could smell a lit one a mile away.
And here the tobacco companies were giving them away, knowing how addictive they are, so as to generate a market for them from the boys who did make it home.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by julian on Monday May 16 2022, @07:18AM (7 children)
Cell phones and cigarettes seem like things that would get your ass beat by your squadmates if you used them in the field.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Monday May 16 2022, @02:24PM (6 children)
Seems reasonable to me. I have some doubts about the smelling a cigarette from a mile away notion. A lit cigarette is very visible in low light situations, though.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by vux984 on Monday May 16 2022, @08:38PM
Could be a figurative: "We saw them (smelled them) coming a mile away" is a pretty common idiom; rather than a literal "we could smell cigarette smoke at a range of one mile".
(Score: 3, Informative) by alabaster_crone on Monday May 16 2022, @08:41PM
The old WWII saying was that "three on a match is bad luck". A match burning long enough to light three cigarettes was enough to let a sniper draw a bead.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 16 2022, @09:14PM (3 children)
A non-smoker can smell cigarette smoke from a reasonable distance, but its direction is harder to tell. If the breeze is constant you could say, "aha they're upwind of me," but how are you gonna know how far upwind, really, with enough precision to be militarily useful? Also, how can you be sure you're smelling the enemy's cigarettes and not those smoked by your comrades?
A lit cigarette makes more sense as something that puts a target on your back. I have read that at times and in some places soldiers smoked their cigarettes with the lit end inside their mouths to avoid giving the enemy something to shoot at.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 5, Informative) by fraxinus-tree on Monday May 16 2022, @09:52PM (2 children)
A non-smoker (me) did a number of times smell a cigarette a kilometer away in a forest enough to track the smokers down and kick their asses for fire safety and youth-no-smoking policy reasons. They never believed it was the smell that unmasks them.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 16 2022, @11:40PM (1 child)
Sure, because you were moving and could turn to where the smell was strongest. But could you have smelled it the first time and called in a mortar salvo or other artillery and told them exactly how many yards they were out from your position? Or, if you wanted to approach and shoot them (ie., if they were soldiers) could you be sure that you would see them before they would see you?
I dunno. In my mind's eye the idea is that smoking a cigarette exposes you to sudden death from a sniper. That makes sense if they zero in on the glowing red bud at the end of the cigarette, but using smell alone doesn't seem to make sense.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @04:39PM
It doesn't need to be instant to be effective. If a scout can follow the smell back to the source so they can call for an artillery strike, or even just report enemy movement, then that's all they need.