I have an S.A.S. memoir in my library by a senior NCO. The Falklands was the first time they had real time SATCOM, a brand new borrowed system. He was part of a small group who was dropped onto the taskforce already underway, bringing last minute extra/new stuff like the SATCOM and Stinger MANPADS and so on.

In the old days, SF operated behind the lines and out of contact, and had a great deal of autonomy. Even in a full Squadron op like in Oman, the local CO was pretty much left to his own devices, man on the spot knows best etc.

Well, once TPTB back in London realized that they could call up the Squadron CO whenever they wanted and bend his ear with whatever the good idea fairy had most lately bestowed upon them, they did so. He states several times that this was the beginning of a decline in the effectiveness and efficiency of British SF operations, and he wished he had accidentally dropped or broken it.

Part of it stemmed from experienced WWII commanders of higher echelon dealing with tyro commanders in their lower formations. More of it stemmed from commanders who couldn’t give up what they knew best, low-level operational leadership. If you’re lost and at sea as a brigade commander, why not go back to what you know and are good at, commanding a battalion? Which is what a lot of these senior leaders essentially tried doing, only to founder on the fact that a brigade usually has three battalions, and you can’t play battalion commander everywhere at once.

It’s a fairly common syndrome in the US Army, and it went on in Vietnam right through to our latest military misadventures. The ease and breadth of the modern communications networks make it way too easy for a senior commander to interfere in his subordinate commander’s business, and that creates a whole host of subsidiary problems, starting with the fact that if the subordinate is never really in command, his development as a leader becomes stunted.

In other words, this is a real thing, and it has only gotten worse with being able to watch in real time what is going on via drone camera. I swear to God, it ain’t gonna be too long before there’s gonna have to be a videoteleconference betwixt division commander and some poor fucking squad leader out on the pointy end of things before he does what has to be done. It’s coming, I promise you. Hell, it’ll eventually spread like cancer down to team leader level, and probably individual soldier, if they can manage it somehow.