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11-19-2021, 09:18 PM | #11 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: VA
Posts: 6,169
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Quote:
Given the super advanced equipment it has access to (much of which it must be building itself), I would guess that Cobra is more like a country than a guerilla organization. That being said, I wonder if the comic has a misprint. If there are only 5,000 Vipers, are there really 250,000 Cobra blueshirts? Maybe it was supposed to say 25,000 Troopers. Or maybe the blueshirts count ALL Cobra personnel, including scientists (who in the cartoon are just blueshirts wearing lab coats), administrators, and other non-combat personnel.
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11-19-2021, 09:26 PM | #12 |
Salty Scallywag
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Swabbin' with Shippy
Posts: 3,226
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Yes, I guess that it has, if we believe that silly number.
I remember a similar discussion to this one on the HissTank forums last year, and that same comic book spoof page was brought up, which suggests just on that single page alone that COBRA has a global deployment of 265,500 uniformed personnel. At present , the entire United States Marine Corps numbers approx. 181,200 and most other countries could never even dream of that. COBRA command certainly could not. Al-Qaeda worldwide operations numbered from 31,400 to 57,600. Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham has an estimated 12,000 to 15,000. Al-Nusra Front had an estimated 5,000 to 10,000. Boko Haram had an estimated 4,000 to 6,000. Ansar al-Sharia in Libya had an estimated 4,500 to 5,000. Abu Sayyaf had an estimated 200-400 (down from an earlier 1,250). By that logic, my guess would be that COBRA could never exceed 25,000 to 50,000 members worldwide.
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11-19-2021, 10:28 PM | #13 |
Retired Toy Hunter
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Burbank, Ca.
Posts: 12,048
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Just how big is Cobra Island?
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11-20-2021, 12:43 AM | #14 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: Aug 2020
Location: Va.
Posts: 262
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I'd totally but a Kitchen Viper. No lie.
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11-20-2021, 03:55 AM | #15 |
retro O-rings, baby!
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: USA
Posts: 829
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I don’t think it was consistent over the course of Cobra’s history.
I like to imagine that Cobra started to form in the later 70s but didn’t really become active until 1981 or 1982. Early on, the troops were mostly cosplayers, but gradually they shaped up into a force capable of hit & run guerrilla actions and ambush-style assassinations or robberies. This is the reason that early troops were issued Dragunovs; early Cobra doctrine did not encourage regular infantry operations, and there were questions about the willingness of the early legions to stand and fight in pitched battles. But as Cobra gained experience, a harder core of experienced troops started to emerge who could be trusted in infantry operations and pitched battles. This group could mold new recruits into the same through a combination of peer pressure and physical abuse, undergirded by the financial incentives of Cobra membership, and so Cobra gradually gained the flexibility to use blueshirts more or less however it wanted on the battlefield. Logistics being what they are, though, for a while most of these new troops still used Dragunovs, though they also started to gain the smg-ish weapon sometimes retconned as an M3 grease gun, as well as AKs transferred from the officer’s stock for some missions. At a certain point, say 1984, specialized training pipelines stated to emerge on a more formal basis, creating Cobra units specifically dedicated to niche tasks, such as diving, arctic operations, RTO, and bodyguarding, as well as a new program of infiltrating important positions in society through a subset of what became the sieges. Then the next year (1985), these formalized even more, into the early specialized troops we know as CG, Snow Serpent, Eels, and Tele-Viper, as well as some desert troops who are still something of a mystery. None of these were new skills to Cobra in 1985 or even 1984, but they had leveled up and gained distinct professional identities, as well as benefits upgrades and the bragging rights that go alongside higher status. Vipers followed in 1986, as a way of furthering Cobra’s opportunities for professional advancement (read: you can get rubes to do a larger quantity of dangerous shit if you offer larger/more carrots), so from maybe later 1986 or 1987, after most of the infantry style units had gotten the status and tech upgrade, the blueshirts were increasingly the new guys and low initiative types, or those with less combat oriented roles. Then in the later years of Cobra a profusion of new specialities arrived, as Cobra Commander started shifting to high-tech gear for individual soldiers in the aftermath of the Cobra civil war, trying to emulate Serpentor’s greater successes. However, unlike Serpentor’s emphasis on getting the most out of his people via morale, training, and wise tactics that didn’t throw away their lives, Cobra Commander did it by giving raises and high-tech toys as patronage to those most personally loyal to him, which he was even more paranoid about after the civil war. Another factor was that the struggle with the Joes had been going on a long time, and between all the conflict, the casualty rates were pretty high, so it behooved Cobra to try to give its soldiers the (mostly) false impression that it cared about them and wanted to empower them to create mayhem. I never had a mental picture of Cobra’s numerical strength, but I figure that by 1992 or so, title inflation had gotten to the point where Cobra had the equivalent of Executive Vice President for Toilet Paper Replacement Operations, so maybe as much as half or two-thirds of Cobra had become Vipers of various kinds, or were members of other specialized groups like sieges, eels, or snow serpents. Last edited by books; 11-20-2021 at 05:03 AM.. |
11-20-2021, 09:04 PM | #16 |
just a Marine
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: central PA
Posts: 1,681
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Logically, Cobra can only be so big otherwise the UN and countries would be taking joint action against them, unless of course Cobra infiltrated. OTH, to pull off all the things they do, Cobra would have to number in the hundreds of thousands.
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11-21-2021, 08:01 AM | #17 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Feb 2020
Location: Sarasota, Florida
Posts: 1,128
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Quote:
Yes, I guess that it has, if we believe that silly number.
I remember a similar discussion to this one on the HissTank forums last year, and that same comic book spoof page was brought up, which suggests just on that single page alone that COBRA has a global deployment of 265,500 uniformed personnel. At present , the entire United States Marine Corps numbers approx. 181,200 and most other countries could never even dream of that. COBRA command certainly could not. Al-Qaeda worldwide operations numbered from 31,400 to 57,600. Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham has an estimated 12,000 to 15,000. Al-Nusra Front had an estimated 5,000 to 10,000. Boko Haram had an estimated 4,000 to 6,000. Ansar al-Sharia in Libya had an estimated 4,500 to 5,000. Abu Sayyaf had an estimated 200-400 (down from an earlier 1,250). By that logic, my guess would be that COBRA could never exceed 25,000 to 50,000 members worldwide. Quote:
I think you can probably get rough totals from what the regular US Army does.
That means Cobra Officers and Cobra Troopers are conventional Army. I think Vipers are more like the Special Forces of Cobra. Crimson Guard has always seemed more of an offshoot of Cobra like a private military firm run by Extensive Enterprises and the Crimson Twins the way that Blackwater was run by Erik Prince. I also think Crimson Asp is part of the Crimson Guard and not so much with conventional Cobra. |
11-21-2021, 09:49 AM | #18 |
US military family
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fort Campbell, Kentucky
Posts: 2,218
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Quote:
How many did ISIS have at it's height a few years back when they held all that territory? I think they might be a good example for a real life Cobra because they had all this land, equipment, and weapons. Also, recently a few months ago I saw some picture on the news of some ISIS off shoot and it was a group of guys in formation and they had dark blue fatigues on, similar gear, and masks and I was like holy shit those guys look like real life Cobra troopers!
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... freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same... - Ronald Reagan |
11-21-2021, 10:08 AM | #19 |
US military family
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fort Campbell, Kentucky
Posts: 2,218
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Quote:
Do you understand what sort of economic engine that COBRA would require to field such an Army? The United States Army has 1,388,100 which is beyond what most any large nation on the planet could hope to equal, except for Russia which has 1,014,000 and China which has far exceeded us at 2,185,000 and continues to grow at an alarming rate! G.I. Joe would never be tasked with fighting COBRA if they were that size. Instead, the US State Department would be in diplomatic talks to start trade negotiations with COBRA.
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... freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same... - Ronald Reagan |
11-21-2021, 05:14 PM | #20 |
Cobra Viper
Join Date: May 2021
Location: RI
Posts: 230
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Quote:
How many did ISIS have at it's height a few years back when they held all that territory? I think they might be a good example for a real life Cobra because they had all this land, equipment, and weapons. Also, recently a few months ago I saw some picture on the news of some ISIS off shoot and it was a group of guys in formation and they had dark blue fatigues on, similar gear, and masks and I was like holy shit those guys look like real life Cobra troopers!
Yes, this is kind of how I always thought of them too. The Vipers are like Rangers or other Special Forces. I always thought of the Crimson Guard as Secret Service. I could also see the CG like a splinter of Cobra that is more private military that is paid by would-be despots to support military coups, etc. I can't quite figure out what they are but the Vipers are def the Rangers of Cobra. The Eels are the SEALs, Snow Serpents are like the Army 10th Mountain...Actually, this would actually be its own cool thread.... |
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