I still mourn the loss of capability, but am warming to
@Etype's argument. LRS may have played some role in Iraq and Afghanistan, but its validity lies in a static environment. The nature of our doctrine doesn't support static operations, but a blitzkrieg (Sorry, "Air Land Battle" or WTF we call a blitzkrieg these days). I'm curious how often they were employed during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Most commanders didn't use them as intended anyway. The Indiana guys worked as PSD's during their deployment. I'm sure they did some LRS work, but it wasn't the bulk of their deployment. Their maneuver commander didn't know how or wouldn't deploy them as designed. The 25th ID's LRS in Afghanistan 2004 ran missions, but not always. They also hopped from region to region and never built up a solid understanding of their operating environments. One team lamented moving from Kandahar to Nangahar (solid book title, hmmm) which are about as different as you will see there.
Like cav scouts, LRS wasn't used as designed...but the cav scouts remain. Meh.