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I believe it would be better for an army to put its manuals on the internet publicly so its soldier could read them easely than to have them semi-secret. What g

I believe it would be better for an army to put its manuals on the internet publicly so its soldier could read them easely than to have them semi-secret. What good does reading a tank manual do the enemy? "Oh, the armor is weak in the back?" I have seen the same problem in companies, where manuals and reports are hardly accessible and thus effectively lost in the name of confidentiality ...

MrDresden 5y ago
I have a hard time imagining that any nation state that operates its own tanks, wouldn't have a thick dossier about each tank type that a potential adversary might field. So these leaks in all likelyhood are not militarially damaging in anyway, but may weaken public perspective of the military (incompetent with keeping 'vital' information safe for instance). I see no particular reason though to openly share these documents from first sources either. Security through obscurity is bad security on its own, but can be an extra layer when combined with other tactics.
Cthulhu_ 5y ago
> What good does reading a tank manual do the enemy? "Oh, we can recreate this, only better or more of them" "Oh, this missile uses IR, we can come up with a counter" "Oh, this device uses such and such chip, our hackers know an exploit for that one" Come on, use some imagination.
- TeMPOraL 5y ago
  I think any competent nation is able to obtain this type of information - but it will require doing some work. I feel the point is, why give the other parties information for free, where we could easily make them burn money to get it? I'm thinking back to the Cold War - one way of seeing the rivalry between the US and USSR is as a game of making the other side spend more and more money, in hopes the enemy's economy will give out and collapse before yours does.
- rightbyte 5y ago
  Excluding the IR that info would not be in the operators manual. Also, capabilities such as type of missile systems on the tank are in practice not secret and present in 3rd party catalogues. The only real downside I can see of public manuals are the risk for adhoc use of captured equipement. However I believe the upside of having the operators being able to use the equipment properly easier is greater.
- KineticLensman 5y ago
  The known vulnerabilities of a tank (e.g. X% will be defeated by weapon Y in situation Z) will usually be classified higher than the operator manual (which however may contain technical or tactical work-arounds). E.g. the existence of a defensive aid suite on a tank system may be unclassified (because it is plainly visible in photographs), what it does may be restricted, how it does it may be secret and how well it does it may be top secret.
deleted 5y ago
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nonameiguess 5y ago
Every tank crewman gets a copy of the TM for their vehicles, at least in the US Army. I doubt this is actually classified, unless for some reason the UK is vastly different. You can at least view the entry for the M1A2 TM for the US Army here: https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/Details.aspx?PUB_ID=83571 https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/Details.aspx?P... You can't actually view it on the Internet, because as it notes, it has a dissemination restriction to US government agencies and contractors only, but it is unclassified and the soldiers on the crew are employees of a US government agency and entitled to read these. Reading paper is fine. In fact, when you're actually on a tank, it's your only option. You're not usually going to have a ruggedized computer that can access the Internet with you, if there's even a network at all serving wherever you happen to be. Information needs to be available in the absence of connectivity.

MrDresden 5y ago

I have a hard time imagining that any nation state that operates its own tanks, wouldn't have a thick dossier about each tank type that a potential adversary might field. So these leaks in all likelyhood are not militarially damaging in anyway, but may weaken public perspective of the military (incompetent with keeping 'vital' information safe for instance). I see no particular reason though to openly share these documents from first sources either. Security through obscurity is bad security on its own, but can be an extra layer when combined with other tactics.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago

> What good does reading a tank manual do the enemy? "Oh, we can recreate this, only better or more of them" "Oh, this missile uses IR, we can come up with a counter" "Oh, this device uses such and such chip, our hackers know an exploit for that one" Come on, use some imagination.

TeMPOraL 5y ago
I think any competent nation is able to obtain this type of information - but it will require doing some work. I feel the point is, why give the other parties information for free, where we could easily make them burn money to get it? I'm thinking back to the Cold War - one way of seeing the rivalry between the US and USSR is as a game of making the other side spend more and more money, in hopes the enemy's economy will give out and collapse before yours does.
rightbyte 5y ago
Excluding the IR that info would not be in the operators manual. Also, capabilities such as type of missile systems on the tank are in practice not secret and present in 3rd party catalogues. The only real downside I can see of public manuals are the risk for adhoc use of captured equipement. However I believe the upside of having the operators being able to use the equipment properly easier is greater.
KineticLensman 5y ago
The known vulnerabilities of a tank (e.g. X% will be defeated by weapon Y in situation Z) will usually be classified higher than the operator manual (which however may contain technical or tactical work-arounds). E.g. the existence of a defensive aid suite on a tank system may be unclassified (because it is plainly visible in photographs), what it does may be restricted, how it does it may be secret and how well it does it may be top secret.

deleted 5y ago

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nonameiguess 5y ago

Every tank crewman gets a copy of the TM for their vehicles, at least in the US Army. I doubt this is actually classified, unless for some reason the UK is vastly different. You can at least view the entry for the M1A2 TM for the US Army here: https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/Details.aspx?PUB_ID=83571 https://armypubs.army.mil/ProductMaps/PubForm/Details.aspx?P... You can't actually view it on the Internet, because as it notes, it has a dissemination restriction to US government agencies and contractors only, but it is unclassified and the soldiers on the crew are employees of a US government agency and entitled to read these. Reading paper is fine. In fact, when you're actually on a tank, it's your only option. You're not usually going to have a ruggedized computer that can access the Internet with you, if there's even a network at all serving wherever you happen to be. Information needs to be available in the absence of connectivity.