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24 October 2010

M24 Sniper Rifle

History


Introduced in 1988 as the Army's designated sniper weapon system, the M24 SWS the first bolt action rifle to see dedicated service with the US Army since the .30-06 caliber Springfield Model 1903. With the withdrawl of the Springfield 03 during the Second World War, all army sniping activities have been carried out, more or less, with either scoped regular-issue rifles (in the case of the M1C and M1D) or match-grade variants of issue rifles (as in the case of the M21 sniper rifle.) 

While the use of issue rifles has eased the logistical demands on the army supply system, the use of semi-automatic rifles for sniping applications is not with out serious drawbacks. Although the M21 is a very accurate weapon, it is not designed to stand up to battlefield abuse. The wood stock was subject to warping, the gas operating system was subject to fouling and contamination, and because the weapon was semi-automatic there was no way to ensure every round was chambered in exactly the same way. All of these conditions could grossly affect the accuracy of the rifle beyond 500 yards. 

In light for these limitations, the Army initiated a program in the 70's to re-introduce a bolt-action sniper rifle to its inventory. Eventually, the weapon the Army settled on was the M24 bolt-action rifle. Chambered for 7.62mm NATO (.308 Winchester) the M24 is based on the Remington Arms 700 action and is very similar to the civilian 40X target rifle and the Marine Corp's M40 series rifle. 

As with the M40, the M24 utilizes a custom-built fiberglass stock but with an adjustable cheek pad as well as an adjustable pad on the butt stock to adjust length of pull. Both utilize an internal 5 round magazine, are scoped, and are adaptable to the use of night vision devices and weapon scopes. The greatest difference between the two is the fact that the M40 is a "short" action and the M24 is a "long" action. The reason for this difference is the Army ultimately wanted to adopt a more powerful .30 caliber cartridge (such as the .300 Winchester Magnum) which would require the "long" action to extract the larger cartridges in its re-chambered sniper rifles.

Description



The M24 Sniper Weapon System is a bolt-action rifle chambered to fire 7.62mm NATO (currently either the M118 Special Ball Cartridge or the M852 Match Cartridge, though it can fire any standard NATO 7.62mm cartridge.) The Kevlar-reinforced fiberglass stock is custom built by HS Precision and incorporates an adjustable cheek pad and as well as an adjustable pad on the butt stock to adjust length of pull. The 24" barrel is bolted to the full-length aluminum bedding block in the stock to reduce vibration and loss of zero. The scope is a Leupold & Stevens Mk. IV M3A day telescope and is mounted on the rifle using Mk. IV rings and base.

23 October 2010

Attack Kills Taliban Cmdr., 7 Militants


October 07, 2010
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan -- An airstrike and a raid by ground troops killed eight insurgents, including a senior Taliban leader who spearheaded attacks against Afghan security forces, NATO said Thursday as the war in Afghanistan entered its 10th year.

Maulawi Jawadullah -- accused of organizing deadly ambushes, roadside bomb attacks, and abductions of Afghan police and soldiers in northern Afghanistan -- was killed in the airstrike Wednesday in Takhar province, an alliance statement said.

Jawadullah was linked to the recent deaths of 10 Afghan National Police officers during an attack on a police station in neighboring Kunduz province, the statement said.

Seven other Taliban also died in the assault, including three who opened fire from a forest when coalition forces moved in following the airstrike, NATO said.

Thursday is the nine-year anniversary of the American invasion of Afghanistan, a frustrating benchmark for those who expected a quick exit after small targeted special forces toppled the Taliban from power in 2001.

This week also marked another milestone, as the death toll for NATO forces surpassed the 2,000 mark. At least 2,003 NATO servicemembers have died fighting in Afghanistan since Oct. 7, 2001, according to an Associated Press count.

"NATO is here and they say they are fighting terrorism, and this is the 10th year and there is no result yet," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an emotional speech last week. "Our sons cannot go to school because of bombs and suicide attacks."

As NATO touts success at routing the insurgency, there are signs it is losing the trust of the Afghan people.

In a report released Thursday, the Open Society Foundations -- a think tank backed by liberal billionaire George Soros -- said Afghans are increasingly angry and resentful about the international presence in Afghanistan, and do not believe figures showing insurgents are to blame for most attacks and civilian deaths.

"While statistics show that insurgents are responsible for most civilian casualties, many we interviewed accused international forces of directly stoking the conflict and causing as many, if not more, civilian casualties than the insurgents," researchers say in the report.
The report was based on interviews in late 2009 and 2010 of more than 250 Afghans in seven provinces, along with discussions with community leaders in other parts of the country.

It suggests that NATO's message either is not getting out or is disregarded by Afghans, despite stepped-up press releases about their successes in protecting civilians and development projects over the past year.

The report argues that NATO has failed to fight back against the disinformation because the military coalition dismisses the perceptions as based on rumors, conspiracy theories, propaganda, or bad analysis.

"However, many of these perceptions seemed based as much on actual policies, albeit often due to indirect effects, as on propaganda or lack of information," the report says. "Many Afghan communities drew these conclusions only after they suffered from civilian casualties, night raids, detention operations, and saw few signs of progress in their country."

Meanwhile, NATO reported the death of a servicemember in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, without providing the nationality or specifying the location of the attack. The death was at least the 14th sustained by the NATO force so far in October, according to the AP's tally.

In other violence, assailants threw a hand grenade at a wedding party, wounding four people in eastern Wardak province, Afghan's Interior Ministry said Thursday. A ministry statement did not specify when the attack occurred.

22 October 2010

SEAL May Face Punishment for Aid Worker Death


A US special forces member suspected of having accidentally killed a British aid worker held hostage in Afghanistan could face disciplinary action, officials said Thursday.
The serviceman, a member of the elite US Navy SEALs, failed to initially inform his commanding officers that he had tossed a grenade into an insurgent hideout during the operation, two Western officials told AFP.
NATO officers suspect the grenade may have killed Linda Norgrove, who died last Friday in the American rescue bid.
US and NATO officials had initially believed Norgrove was killed when one of her Taliban captors blew up a suicide vest -- but a subsequent military review of the operation suggested she may have been killed by the American's grenade.
Commanders reviewing a video of the operation spotted a SEAL throwing a grenade into the captors' building, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Britain's Guardian newspaper first reported on the role of the US serviceman and details of the rescue, citing sources in Kabul and London.
The US military has ordered an investigation into the incident, and the American SEAL member potentially faces disciplinary action, including over his initial failure to inform superiors about throwing the grenade, officials said.
During the assault on the kidnappers' compound, 36-year-old Norgrove broke away from her captors and lay in the foetal position to avoid harm, the Guardian said.
But the SEAL failed to see her and tossed a fragmentation grenade close to where she was hiding, and it exploded next to her, said the paper.
The rescue was ordered because officials concluded Norgrove's life was in grave danger, with her captors talking about murdering her, based on eavesdropping of radio conversations and other intelligence, the paper reported.
The revelations came as British Prime Minister David Cameron was to meet the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, US General David Petraeus, in London later Thursday. They had been scheduled to hold talks before the incident.
Cameron said Tuesday the circumstances surrounding the aid worker's death were still "unclear."
"The responsibility for Linda's death lies with those cowardly, ruthless people who took her hostage in the first place," he insisted.
In the rescue attempt, the American team moved in before dawn, descending by rope from helicopters, while commanders back at headquarters watched the operation unfold on a live video feed, the Guardian reported.
The US Navy SEAL team was chosen for the rescue because they were familiar with the mountainous terrain in eastern Kunar province and had access to Blackhawk helicopters, better suited for night operations and able to fly at higher altitude, the paper said.

21 October 2010

NATO Official Says Bin Laden in Pakistan


October 18, 2010
UPI

Osama bin Laden and his deputy are believed to be hiding near each other in northwest Pakistan, a senior NATO official said.

The unnamed official said bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are thought to be living in houses, not caves, and protected by residents and members of the Pakistani intelligence community, CNN reported.

Pakistani officials have repeatedly denied protecting leaders of al-Qaida.

The official said bin Laden likely moved about in an area from mountainous Chitral near the Chinese border to the Kurram Valley near Afghanistan's Tora Bora region.

The official also confirmed the U.S. assessment that Taliban leader Mullah Omar has moved between the Pakistani cities of Quetta and Karachi in the past several months, but didn't say how coalition military leaders got the information, CNN reported.

Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Monday similar reports on the location of bin Laden and Omar have been disproved previously and denied the two men were in his country.
The NATO official said finding al-Qaida leaders now is important for the region's future.

"Every year the insurgency can generate more and more manpower," he said.

The NATO official said the overall strategy is to increase airstrikes and ground attacks to put more pressure on the Taliban and insurgent groups to negotiate with the Afghan government.

The official said an internal assessment indicated between 500,000 and 1 million "disaffected" men ages 15-25 live in the Afghan-Pakistan border region, willing to fight for money, not to advance the Taliban philosophy.

"We are running out of time," he said.

20 October 2010

MG3



History

The MG3 (an abbreviation for the German word Machinengewehr meaning ""machine gun, model #3"") is a direct descendent of the WWII era German machine gun, the MG42, which was in turn, an improvement the MG34, originally developed by Metall und Lackierwarenfabrik Johannes Grossfuss AG, which entered production in 1942. The MG42 was one of the most terrifying infantry weapons of its time (nicknamed "Hitler's chain saw" and "Hitler's zipper" because of its high ROF.)The original MG34/42 was chambered to fire 8mm (7.92x57mm) Mauser ammunition, the same rifle ammunition used in the Mauser K98 bolt-action rifle service rifle. In 1959 the MG42 was rechambered to fire 7.62x51mm NATO and redesignated the MG42/59. In 1968 the MG3 officially entered production. 

The MG3 is still in production and in service world wide. It is one of the most popular MGs ever produced (it is one of the most reliable weapons in service today and has one of the highest ROFs for any single barreled machine gun.) The MG3 currently serves as the primary MG in the German army (Bundeswehr) where it serves as an infantry support weapon (it can either be carried and fired off of an attached bipod by an individual soldier, or tripod mounted and fired from a defensive position.) as well as a vehicular MG (the MG3 is used as an anti air/ GP MG on all German armored vehicles, such as the Leopard II and the Marder.)

Description

The MG3 is air cooled, belt fed, short recoil operated, and capable of firing on full automatic only. It fires from the open bolt position to facilitate cooling. ROF exceeds 1200 rounds per minute. Barrels are changed every 150 rounds or so to extend barrel life and prevent thermal damage to the barrels. Barrels are replaced by pushing the barrel locking lever (located on the right hand side of the receiver) forward to unlock the barrel. Once unlocked, the barrel can be withdrawn and a cold barrel inserted and locked into place. This entire process can be accomplished in as few as 5 seconds. Since the weapon fires from the open bolt, the chamber remains empty, which helps facilitates these quick barrel changes. The bolt operates off of a dual roller principle, where by the bullet cartridge pushes out a pair of rollers when chambered to lock the bolt and barrel together. Once fired, the barrel/bolt group recoil a short distance whereupon the spent cartridge is extracted, unlocking the rollers, and allowing the bolt to travel freely to the rear, ejecting the spent casing.

19 October 2010

Su-47 (S-37) Berkut



The Su-47 (initially known as the S-37) Berkut is a testbed for developing technologies for nex-gen aircraft.

Description

The basic dimensions and weight of the Su-47 ""Berkut"" are similar to those of Su-37, although they are different aircraft, and the tail, nose and canopy are similar to those of the Su-35. The first two prototypes of this aircraft were evidently designated the S-32, and the S-37 designation was previously applied to an unrelated fighter project for a smaller delta wing single aircraft that was cancelled due to lack of funding.

The Su-47 features forward-swept wings, which promises a range of benefits in aerodynamics at subsonic speeds and at high angles of attack. The forward-swept wing, which enables the aircraft to increase its range and its manoeuvrability at high altitude, makes extensive use of composite materials. The aircraft has large canards mounted on the intake side, close to the leading edge of the wing. The vertical stabilizers are canted slightly outward [not inward, as previously believed], and two large auxiliary intake doors are visible on the center fuselage section. It is unclear which engines are used on this aircraft. The two powerplants are at the moment D-30F6 turbojets which are normaly used at the MiG-31M, while the second prototype uses the Ljulka AL-37FU turbojet with thrust vectoring. The Su-47 is an experimental program for developing fifth-generation technologies.

The Su-47 is a better performer at high angles of attack in post-stall manoeuvring much needed in close-in dogfight. Having the edge in manoeuvring, the Su-47 is clearly catching up in stealth with US and European new-generation fighters. However even with its internal weapon bay and RAM coating, the new Sukhoi is a very different concept than F-22. The heavy accent on RAM rather than radar absorbing structures (RAS) is obvious. The major components of radar stealth -- RAM coatings and surface quality -- are subject to the production and maintenance tolerance as it was shown by USAF F-117 and B-2 operational experience. Untightened screws, scratches or unfastened access panels were known to greatly deteriorate the RCS of the aircraft, reducing the engineering efforts put into aircraft design. It remains to be seen how Sukhoi will overcome the looser production standards of the Russian aircraft plans.

18 October 2010

T-80 MBT Current Russian front line main battle tank (MBT).






Description

The T-80 MBT is a continuation of the T-64/T-72 series, retaining many similar features of the previous tanks. It is similar to the T-72 in that it retains the low silhouette, centrally mounted round turret with the commander seated to the right of the main gun and the gunner on the left. As with the T-72 the T-80 retains the use of the automatic loader, feeding ammunition from a 27 round circular magazine around the turret ring. Attached to the hull below the front slope is a toothed dozer blade. Beneath the blade are attachment points for the KMT-6 mine plow. The T-80 is the first Soviet design to incorporate a laser rangefinder as well as a gas turbine engine for increased automotive performance. The T-80 is currently in service with the Russian army and is slowly being replaced by the T-90.



17 October 2010

ZU-23 Lightweight towed anti-aircraft gun.


History

Introduced in 1964 the ZU-23 was a lightweight air-transportable anti-aircraft gun system. The ZU-23 saw extensive use with airborne and airmobile units, as well as some use in lower readiness motorized rifle units that had not received the mechanized ZSU-23-4 self-propelled air-defense artillery vehicle. 

The ZU-23 has an effective range of 2,500 meters vs. air targets, is effective against light armored vehicles and ground targets, and can be fired while limbered.

Description

The ZU-23 weapon system consists of two air-cooled 23mm automatic only cannons mounted on a two wheel transport-firing carriage. While the gun can be fired while limbered for traveling, it is intended to be emplaced wheels up, suspended on its carriage. The carriage contains three built in jacks to level the platform.

16 October 2010

AK-47




All 7.62-mm Kalashnikov assault rifles are very dependable weapons. They produce a high volume of fire and are simple to maintain and produce.

History

The ""Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947 g."" or AK-47 is a gun designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov and produced by LZh, widely used by the USSR armed forces from the 1950s through the 1980s. It is classified as an assault rifle, a mid-caliber rifle (7.62 mm, which is approximately equal to .30 caliber) that can be fired semi-automatically, or in fully-automatic bursts. It is intentionally smaller and shorter-ranged than WWII battle rifles. 

The AK47 was cheap, light to carry, and easy to clean and repair in the field. It was mostly reliable but the ejector pin sometimes broke. Derivative designs replaced the AK-47 during the 1980s. 

It was favoured by non-Western powers because of its ease of use, robustness, and simplicity of manufacture. Copies were made by many factories in other countries including Israel, Finland, Hungary, China and Poland, where they remain in production today. 

AK47 and AKM have been extensively modified and improved upon since their first designs. Standard Kalashnikovs include: 

AK-47 1948-51, 7.62x39mm. The very earliest models had a stamped sheet metal receiver. Now rare. 

AK-47 1952, 7.62x39mm: with a milled receiver and wooden buttstock and hand-guard. Barrel and chamber are chrome-plated to resist corrosion. Rifle weight 4.2Kg. 

AKM 7.62x39mm: a revised, lower-cost version of the AK-47; receiver is precision-stamped sheet-metal. Rifle weight 3.61Kg. 

AKS-74 5.45x39mm; note the new, much smaller ammunition. 

AK-74M 5.45x39mm folding stock (for motorised infantry) 

AKSU 5.45x39mm, tanker's self-defense weapon, folding stock, short barrel, altered sight and gas mechanism. 

Later designations: 

AK-101 5.56x45 mm round (NATO round) 

AK-102 short stock 101 

AK-103 7.62x39mm round 

AK-104 short stock 103 

AK-105 5.45x39mm round (short stock)

Description
General Characteristics, AK-47 Rifle

15 October 2010

The Pincher is designed to take out explosives


I know what this looks like. You’re probably thinking that: “Oh no, it is a Star Wars/Terminator/Matrix/Battlestar Galactica/any other science fiction franchise robot that is designed to take out enemies. Are the humans its next target?”

Actually, from what I have been reading from my sources, this robot, also known as “Pincher” is designed to disable Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) from a long distance. It apparently uses rockets the size of pencils to destroy the explosive charges, which will make them burn, not explode in a process known as “deflageration”.

I’m guess that it does this via remote control with a video camera and laser pointer. Then it uses “pyrophoric” rockets for its job.

In other words, this is not designed to be a weapon. Sure, I suppose that you could reprogram the thing so its pyrophoric pencil-sized rockets could be targeted at us fleshy mortals, but you can always use something technological to hurt someone. Heck, you can do that with a dang brick.

In a way, the Pincher is unique as it is designed to disable weapons, not shoot weapons. It is designed by Israeli roboticists, and I don’t have any word about when it would be used on the battlefield.

FPS games to teach medics


In case you are one of those people who think that First Person Shooter games are nothing but a vain activity, then you should know that they are sometimes used to train for combat.

I’m sure that comes as no surprise, as what could be better for training a soldier to go into enemy territory than an FPS game. Believe it or not, these are also being used to train medics.

What you are seeing here are screenshots from the Tactical Combat Casualty Care Simulation (TC3), and this FPS is the game you want your medic to play.

Sure, you want the medic to also be a trained doctor, but do you think that they cover how to treat wounds on the battlefield in medical school? That is a completely different animal.

Fortunately, the TC3 simulator uses actual combat scenarios from a virtual version of Afghanistan. Now medics-in-training will know a little of what it is like to treat injured soldiers on the battlefield.

One of the skills that TC3 teaches is bedside manner. Yes, this is important when treating a soldier, and all skills are tallied at the end of the game for a final score.

Well, I think we all know that there is a difference between reality an a simulator. I suppose the difference here is the fun of a video game and the real-life Saving Private Ryan D-Day situation.

14 October 2010

Liquid armor hardens in contact with bullets


What you see there is a bullet-proof vest, and I’ve just learned that even the best ones cannot completely keep bullets out. However, this one model could change all of that.

This model uses “custard-like goo” that somehow makes molecules lock together when it is hit. I’m going to assume that makes it really, really hard.

Apparently, these “shear-thickening liquids” have been used by downhill skiers in order to prevent broken bones and injuries, and, even though it would seem obvious, this is the first time it is being used as armor.

I don’t know about you, but this technology sounds like something that Wayne Enterprises would have in its basement in Batman Begins. After all, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman’s character) had this very expensive bullet-proof vest as well as some “memory cloth”. That memory cloth was the stuff that made Batman’s cape go all hard and like a glider. I don’t see why Mr. Fox wouldn’t be working on some bulletproof custard.

Bulletproof custard. Man, that sounds like an item from a desert menu at a school cafeteria. At least, that is what the students would call it.

Well, I’m sure that if this tech works, then all the cops will probably be wearing these bulletproof vests filled with this goo. Hopefully they will not leak.

Giant Laser blasts 300mph aircraft


In case you thought that the pain gun was the only real-life science fiction weapon that Raytheon was up to, then you haven’t heard about this real-life laser.

This Laser Close-In Weapon System was recently unveiled in an airshow in England, and it has recently made history as the first time a laser has shot down an aircraft in flight.

This demonstration took place last May, and I don’t know why this is the first time I am hearing so much buzz about it just now. This project was developed by Raytheon and the Navy, and I can only assume that they have de-classified it or something. The laser blast happened 100 miles west of Los Angeles, and the target was an aircraft flying at 300 miles per hour.

The laser was about 50kW, and, unlike what you see in science fiction, the beam was completely invisible. They only know that it hit because the target exploded. The event is being called, and I quote from my source: “the real Star Wars” or “better than Star Wars”.

My source also says that battle-ready lasers probably won’t be ready until 2016. Hopefully, the US won’t use them then, because we will have stopped fighting these wars that we are currently fighting. I can always hope.

13 October 2010

Raytheon Sarcos XOS 2 exoskeleton


I thought I would celebrate the release of Iron Man 2 on DVD and Blu-ray today by reporting on a real-life iron man exoskeleton.

This is the XOS 2 from Raytheon Sarcos, and it is a lot more bulky than the armor from Mr. Tony Stark. It actually reminds me of the power loader suit that Ripley wore in Aliens.

The suit is able to boost the user’s strength. You can see here that the wearer is punching through several layers of wood like a karate master. It is also designed to make a 170 pound weight feel like ten pounds.

Sadly, the power source stems from a very thick cable from the back. So it is going to be a while before there will be one of these on every soldier. I’m guessing that would be a very expensive endeavor, too.

Still, if you were to put them on every soldier, you would definitely increase their endurance as well as strength. Imagine doing a ten mile hike that only feels like one mile.

Yes, the future is looking pretty bright for the future of exoskeletons. I guess all those science-fiction books and shows with armor like this served as inspiration for times such as this.

Iran’s Bavar 2 flying machine-gun boats


I have heard a lot about how president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is very outspoken of the United States, the United Kingdom, not to mention Israel. Usually, when I see him on the news, it is in association with nuclear arms.

This is apparently the Iranian weapon that we don’t hear about. I guess they would hardly be weapons of mass destruction, but the Bavar 2 fleet would scare me if I saw them flying in from the horizon.

Every plane in this fleet has machine guns, as well as surveillance cameras. I have some video after the jump so you can watch them fly and go across the water.

I have to admit that they are downright impressive. According to my Source:

The delivery comes as Iran celebrates its Week of Sacred Defense, which commemorates its eight-year-long resistance to the 1980 Iraqi invasion, according to the Fars News Agency.

I’m not really certain what Iran has planned for these guys. They look brand spanking new and have no doubt never seen combat. I really hope that they will not, honestly.

Does anyone know if the military has some sort of amphibious plane like this in their arsenal? Like in the United States or Great Britain, maybe?

11 October 2010

Make an Ops Core Helment out of your ACH


BAE Systems has some pretty cool kit coming out of their Eclipse Performance Gear division and we had a chance to talk to a couple program managers at this year’s Modern Day Marine show out at Quantico.

We’ll be looking at their new modular body armor solution for the Army and an interesting portable power system, but first I wanted to show you their new Helmet Accessory Platform.

Basically this thing is a lightweight bracket that can attach both to the helmet in the raw and to a helmet wearing a camouflage cover. It provides a variety of attachment points for a wide range of gizmos even the straightest leg Joes are apt to hang on their helmet.  

The HAP was designed to provide a stable platform to secure gear such as nightvision goggles and counterweights, lights, cameras and IR beacons. The system incorporates a universal NVG mount, NVG lanyard and NVG cover holder that accepts both Wilcox and Norotos hardware.

The unique ear mounts provide a tight, positive retention of integrated goggles as well as an oxygen mask receptacle for use during HAHO/HALO jumps–eliminating the need for a secondary helmet for these missions. Two picatinny rails allow for lights, camera and other hardware attachment. The HAP system also includes cable management to secure communication wires.

The HAP uses existing chin strap holes to attach, so no scary drilling through thick Kevlar to mount the thing.

In a sense, the HAP can turn your run of the mill ACH or LWH into a full on Gucci Ops Core-style lid with all the accessory options your heart (or platoon sergeant) can handle. And at $150, it’s a lot more approachable than the Ops Core ballistic helmet solution at nearly $900.

source: military.com


GD Builds a Grenade Machine Gun That Fits on Your Back


We’ve spoken a couple times here on the issue of crew-served firepower at the platoon and company level. At least in the Marine Corps (I’m not 100 percent sure with the Army) the Weapons Platoons are battalion assets and carry the Mk-19 grenade machine gun as part of their inventory.

But the only infantry company/platoon grenade slinging asset is the 203. Right now, the Army has no grenade machine gun that can be toted into combat ops other than one mounted on a vehicle.

Well, General Dynamics has an answer to the Mk-19 portability equation with their advanced Mk-47 lightweight 40mm grenade machine gun. Kit Up! and our sister site Defense Tech took a look at a new portability solution for the weapon developed by GD: a two-person load carriage system that takes the 40 pound gun and puts it on your back (the Mk-19 weighs 77 pounds).

source: military.com

10 October 2010

M61A1 20mm Cannon


The current version of the M61, the M61A1, remains relatively unchanged from past models.

History

Soon after the end of the Second World War the newly formed United States Air Force identified a need for an improved gun system for its aircraft. While adequate as an air combat / ground attack weapon during World War Two, the Browning M2 .50 caliber machine gun had been rendered obsolete by jet aircraft and needed to be replaced by a weapon with increased range, rate of fire, and projectile lethality. Realizing that singled barreled automatic weapons had essentially reached their design limits, the U.S. Army Ordnance Research and Development Service hit on the idea of re-introducing the multi-barreled rotary weapon invented by Richard J. Gatling in the 1880s. Initial tests proved promising as a vintage Gatling gun, now powered by an electric motor in place of the usual hand crank, was able to achieve rates of fire in excess of 4,000 rounds per minute. 

In 1946 the General Electric company received the contract for this new program, code named "Project Vulcan," and was tasked with producing functional prototypes in a number of calibers for further testing. In 1952 GE produced three different guns; .60 caliber, 20mm, and 27mm. After extensive testing, the 20mm version was selected for further testing to determine its suitability as an aircraft mounted weapon. In 1956 the gun was standardized as the M61 20mm cannon and entered service with both the United States Army and Air Force. 

Description

The current version of the M61, the M61A1, remains relatively unchanged from past models. In its basic form the M61A1 is a six barreled rotary cannon firing a variety of electrically primed 20mm cannon shells. The gun can be mounted either internally in aircraft, or externally in a pod arrangement, and has been mounted on both ground vehicles and trailers for use as an air defense weapon. The M61A1 can be driven hydraulically, electrically, or by ram air and has a variable rate of fire of between 4,000 and 7,200 rounds per minute (depending on individual settings and performance requirements).

source: military.com

AT4 Viper


The AT-4 is a Swedish-manufactured, shoulder-launched anti-armor weapon designed to defeat modern threat main battle tanks.

Description

Light anti-armor weapon. The AT-4 is a Swedish-manufactured, shoulder-launched anti-armor weapon designed to defeat modern threat main battle tanks.



09 October 2010

War Crimes Case Raises Leadership Questions



WASHINGTON -- Despite allegations that members of a rogue Stryker platoon engaged in a monthslong drug and murder spree while stationed at a small forward base in Afghanistan, no leaders or officers responsible for the platoon have been charged or disciplined in the case and the Army will not confirm whether any are under investigation.

In what is developing as the worst American war crimes case to emerge from the 9-year-old Afghan war, five Soldiers of the 5th Stryker Brigade Combat Team are facing potential courts-martial on various charges that they killed three unarmed Afghan civilians for sport between January and May this year in the Maiwand District near Kandahar City.

Prosecutors allege that some of the accused Soldiers then posed for photos with the corpses and collected body parts as souvenirs. Another seven members of the platoon face related charges of drug abuse, assault and attempting to cover up the alleged crimes.

Some of the accused Soldiers have told Army criminal investigators that drug use was widespread in the platoon and that knowledge of the murders, as well as the gruesome photos of the dead Afghans, were widely shared among a group of about 30 Soldiers.

But Army officials say that Lt. Col. Jeffrey French, the battalion commander and most senior officer at Forward Operating Base Ramrod during the period when the crimes are alleged to have occurred, is not under investigation. The platoon sergeant and lieutenant in charge have been reassigned but not reprimanded, according to Maj. Kathleen Turner, spokeswoman for I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where the Stryker brigade is based.
“We cannot comment on the number, scope or substance of the investigations,” Turner told Stars and Stripes. “It’s still really early in the process. We’ll have to wait and see how the investigations go.”

French, speaking through Turner, said he could not comment on the allegations against his Soldiers because the investigation is ongoing.

Chris Grey, spokesman for the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command, declined to specify whether the Stryker criminal investigation was expanding beyond the individuals already charged, but he said that the agency “looks at everything” and could refer any troubling issues to the command for further inquiry.

A defense attorney for one of the accused Soldiers is questioning how leaders at FOB Ramrod could not have known anything about the alleged drug use, murders and other crimes that reportedly continued for months.

“The battalion itself, really from top down, needs to be looked at,” said Eric Montalvo, who represents one of the accused, Spc. Adam Winfield. “If anything, maybe [the battalion commander] doesn’t have criminal culpability at the end of the day, but, my God, there’s a leadership culpability. How was this allowed to happen? Commanders are responsible for everything a unit does or fails to do, and here you have an entire platoon running amok.”
The battalion commander who took over FOB Ramrod last summer when the 5th Stryker 

Brigade redeployed raised similar questions.

The forward operating base, which is about 800 yards square and houses some 1,600 people, is “not a little place,” said Lt. Col. Bryan Denny, commander of 3rd Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment.

But Denny said he would have expected company and platoon leaders to have known about any illicit drug use by their men.

“You know what everyone is doing,” Denny said. “At the company level, you certainly know your guys, because you are looking at them every day.”

What’s more, the father of one of the five Soldiers accused of murder has said he telephoned several stateside Army offices last February to warn officials of potential wrongdoing at FOB Ramrod, after his son told him about one of the alleged murders and how “the whole platoon knew about it.”

Army officials confirmed last week that there are at least two investigations under way into how officials handled the calls from Christopher Winfield, father of Spc. Adam Winfield.

The others facing Article 32 hearings on charges of murder are Spc. Michael S. Wagnon, Pfc. Andrew Holmes, Spc. Jeremy Morlock and Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, the alleged ringleader of the group.

Although there seems to have been “a terrible leadership failure” within the Stryker unit, past cases of wartime misconduct suggest that higher-ups are not likely to be found legally responsible and prosecuted, according to Eugene Fidell, the president of the National Institute of Military Justice.

“I would be somewhat surprised if they were prosecuted for dereliction of duty,” Fidell said. Instead, leaders could get their “knuckles rapped” or possibly be relieved of command, he said.

For example, senior officers faced no legal repercussions for the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq.

Only the junior Soldiers who directly carried out the abuse were prosecuted for the crimes, while Brig. Gen. Janis L. Karpinski, who was in charge of U.S. prison facilities in Iraq when the abuse occurred, was relieved of command of the 800th Military Police Brigade and demoted to colonel. Eight other officers were administratively reprimanded.

Stars and Stripes reporter Seth Robson contributed to this report from Afghanistan.


When the Warrior Returns Home


U.S. soldiers are battling stress on two fronts: at war and at home. Their coping strategies might help you on the home front as well.

At lunch in a hotel in Philadelphia, a fast-talking, slightly rattled, 38-year-old master sergeant in camouflage and combat boots is recalling another lunch a few years back, in Iraq. That meal took place at a forward operating base, and he'd been standing 20 feet away from where an Iraqi soldier triggered the detonator on a vest loaded with explosives. Shrapnel ripped through everything in its path, and the blast flung the sergeant back into tables and chairs. He came to, dazed but alive, amid a scene of blood and chaos. "I was saved by a coffee urn that had just been filled, between me and the bomber," he recalls. "Guys on either side of me were torn to pieces." Twenty-two people died, some while he was performing CPR on them. He spent a month recuperating from a shrapnel wound and then returned to his unit. A few months later, a car bomber hit his armored vehicle; he spent the next 5 months in bed with a broken back. "It took a few years to get over the bad dreams," he says. "I was worried that if I told the army I had mental-health issues, I would lose my security clearance."

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The sergeant ended up with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a jittery witness to the way the U.S. Army's own leadership says it has mishandled trauma in the past. Now he is in Philadelphia to help as the army tries to remake itself, at a training session focused on teaching soldiers how to cope with their emotions--on the field of combat and back at home.

The basic idea behind "resilience training" is that you can train your mind to become mentally and emotionally fit the same way you train your body to become physically fit. And as with marathon training, it has to happen before you really need it, or in military lingo, "left of the boom." Bad things may still happen, from broken relationships to rocket-propelled grenades. But with the right training, the program's proponents argue, you'll respond better in the moment. Instead of PTSD, they contend, you can come out the other side with "post-traumatic growth."

The initiative is being deployed on the fly, at a cost of $125 million over 5 years, in response to record rates of depression, domestic strife, and suicide in a military worn down by 9 years of warfare. Col. Darryl Williams, the 49-year-old artillery officer organizing the program, is frank about its practical benefits for army brass. When they're grilled by Congress about the mental fitness of combat forces, he says, "they will use this. This is the only thing they have left of the boom to inoculate soldiers."

Reaching everyone who needs that inoculation will be difficult. The U.S. Army is simply too big to quickly reach everyone who needs the training. Also, the military has always prided itself on physical, tactical, and technological training; emotions have generally been viewed as excess baggage. Thinking was mostly something officers did. Now the army wants soldiers not just to think, but also to think about how they think.

In a conference room at the hotel, Karen Reivich, Ph.D., a University of Pennsylvania psychologist in flared pants and patent-leather flats, is teaching soldiers how to thrive in a hostile world, both downrange in the war zone and back home at the dinner table. The soldiers in her audience have seen more than their share of bad stuff, including multiple deployments, suicide bombings, and friends maimed or killed at close range. Many of them are now drill sergeants, those kindly guys at boot camp who use the nostrils of terrified recruits as echo chambers. Reivich is just trying to convince them to do it all more thoughtfully.

She tells them a story about the night she flipped out over a coffee coaster. The audience members have families too, so if there's a disconnect between problems with coffee coasters and, say, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), that doesn't seem to faze them. It's 17 years ago, the morning after her future husband moved into her apartment. Thinking he's scoring points, he has gotten up first to make coffee. But as Reivich wanders into the living room, her bleary eyes pop halfway out of her head in horror: He has set his coffee cup down not on the coaster but beside it. Coasters are sacred for her, and he knows it. So how hard can it be to use one? She winds herself up into such a coaster-compulsive snit that she blows down the door and flies out into the street in a vortex of righteous indignation.

So, um, what just happened here? And why should the U.S. Army, fighting two wars with roughly 154,000 soldiers deployed, actually care? The offense was nothing to get crazy about, Reivich admits. A little vexed, maybe. But the story has become her favorite tool for teaching people how to listen to family members, fellow soldiers, and friends. We all have what she calls "icebergs"--deeply held beliefs that now and then cause us to react out of proportion to circumstances. The trick is to find out what lies beneath.

Reivich gives her soldier-students four techniques that can help reveal a person's iceberg. First, she says, ask open-ended questions that require more than yes/no answers. Second, use the word "what," not "why." ("'What' questions make you stop and think," she says. "'What' brings out facts and events.") Then repeat the answers verbatim. ("You want the other person to hear his or her own thoughts, not your rendition.") Finally, keep asking questions until you arrive at an iceberg that's big enough to explain the overreaction.

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Reivich's iceberg, it turned out, was a belief that her future husband should know her quirks and accommodate them. It was about the relationship, not the coaster. Someone in the audience asks if her husband now uses coasters, 17 years on. "No," she says, beaming. "And neither do I."

What Reivich is teaching is a variation on positive psychology, a popular but controversial movement. Instead of just treating mental illness, as traditional psychology has generally done, positive psychology aims to make average people's lives better--and maybe help them avoid mental illness in the first place--by teaching them ways to improve relationships, cultivate character strengths,  and think about the world more effectively. Positive-psychology programs are now common in the corporate world and at colleges, where "Happiness 101" often ranks among the most popular courses.

The controversy comes from critics who wonder if programs intended for corporate team-building and self-improvement can also work in the pressure cooker of a wartime army. But army psychologists say their preliminary test results show that resilience training can help. In a recent study, they trained soldiers in a single 8-hour session on what to expect and how to handle their return from deployment--for instance, how to separate from the "battle buddy" dynamic of the war zone and assimilate back into their own families. Among soldiers with heavy combat exposure, only 12 percent (versus the usual 21 percent) experienced mental-health problems in the following 4 months.

Reivich adds that resilience training is not a happiness program, nor is it about turning everything into good news. "These are critical-thinking skills," she says. "This is about problem solving." And listening to the soldiers talk between sessions, you have to hope she is right.

The chatter is less about combat--they say they have a mission and that they know how to carry it out--and more about relationships. A sergeant wonders how he could have applied some of the resilience lessons to deal with one of his young soldiers who was struggling downrange. "If I'd had the tools, I would have been able to see what his icebergs were. I probably would've pulled him aside and talked to him more, would've seen the withdrawal, would've seen a lot more of the warning signs. I would've put it in perspective." Instead, the soldier "leaned on his M16. He killed himself."

This is the first time in history that soldiers can phone home from the war zone almost daily if they want to. But doing that can often make problems worse, because they know what's going on back home and have so little influence over those events.

A staff sergeant says his wife of 14 years "sometimes just couldn't give a shit about what I say." So he's already trying one of Reivich's techniques on her. When he phones home after the first day of resilience training, his wife tells him she's just had somebody in to fix the broken leg on their couch. He'd normally respond, "Oh, great. What's that gonna cost me?" This is what Reivich calls "active-destructive responding." Or maybe he'd change the subject (passive-destructive) or just say, "That's nice" (passive-constructive). But this time he opts instead for the full-on activeconstructive: "Hey, that's great, honey. How'd you feel about that?" And the conversation immediately goes better--less barking, more wagging.

Encouraging people to relive their little victories helps them open up, says Reivich. In truth, the chatter during breaks suggests that every cellphone in the hotel has been channeling Reivich during the nightly phone calls home, with generally good results. One soldier says his bewildered kid asked, "Is this you, Dad?"

The big question--the "bottom line up front," or BLUF, in army jargon--is whether such lessons will have the staying power and strength to help soldiers deal with the big stuff. With Reivich, a slender, attractive, almost birdlike woman, the soldiers are deferential. But when one of the army's own trainers starts off by asking the soldiers what they did to relieve stress before joining up, voices call out "weed" and "I used to break into peoples' houses." The hapless trainer asks, "Did anybody do anything legal?" to which a soldier earnestly replies, "I used to have sex before I went into the army." And these aren't ordinary bottom-of-the-ladder grunts. They're the frontline managers the army is counting on to relay resilience training to the soldiers they lead.

Still, it's a surprisingly idealistic crowd. One standard resilience exercise is to take an inventory of character strengths. It's a way the soldiers can recognize what they do well, so they can build on their own strengths and those of the people around them. (Find the VIA Survey of Character Strengths at www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu.) When this audience puts up its results, no one's surprised that it ranks dead last in the "caution, prudence, discretion" category. But traits such as honesty, gratitude, and fairness top their lists. They also rank surprisingly high in "capacity to love and be loved."

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On the other hand, all but a dozen of the 180 or so people in the room test poorly on social intelligence. These are guys from broken homes, with troubled pasts--just plain guys, if you accept the gender stereotype--with lots of emotions and no clue about how to process them. They spend their working lives in a "make it happen" culture, often deploying "targeted aggression" in combat and making split-second decisions that can be lethal. Then they come home from work and can't do things differently. It's the male condition, but with M16s thrown in.

So Reivich has them break down scenes from domestic life, much as soldiers in boot camp learn to break down their weapons and name the parts: Here's the activating event, here's the thought it produces, and here's the consequence. In a video, a father just back from war invites his teenage son to play some hoops. "Maybe later," the kid says, without even looking up from his video game. "That's the activating event," says Reivich. Dad sulks off to watch television and drink beer, thinking, He doesn't love me anymore or My brother took my place while I was gone. And the thought leads to the consequence: When the kid comes in to say, "Okay, I'm ready for a game now," the father retaliates. "Go ask your uncle instead," he says.

"Make sure your activating event doesn't include, 'He doesn't love me' or 'He wishes I were still deployed,' " says Reivich. "You need to help people separate out what they felt" from what actually happened. "They tend to be blended." Separating things out opens up space to think about other possibilities and better outcomes: "I've been gone for 15 months; I need to win him back a little." So maybe the father grabs the moment when the kid is finally ready.

Slowing down is also a chance to sidestep what the resilience trainers call "thinking traps"--mental habits that lead a man to resign himself to a problem instead of resolving it. "Let's say it's the first few weeks of boot camp," a trainer suggests. "You're late for formation, and now your squad is down on the ground pushing South Carolina into Georgia. You know you're the cause. What are your thoughts?" In the thinking trap called "mind reading," you figure, They're all gonna hate me. In "jumping to conclusions," you think I'm not going to make it through basic combat training. Instead, you need to restructure your thoughts: "I'm going to learn from this situation and not make the same mistake twice."

When Reivich is running a session, she tends to underscore her points with inspirational stories and even a quotation from Winnie the Pooh.

The army's own trainers, on the other hand, sugarcoat nothing. "Someone you've been downrange with for 9 months just got hit. Right here," the trainer says, meaning that you're now wearing his blood. "What are some of the emotions you might feel?" The audience calls out "anger" and "anxiety." ("Right. Am I going to be next?") Then, from experience, someone adds, "Happy. Happy that it wasn't me." ("Some soldiers feel guilty about that for the rest of their lives. It's normal.") Or maybe you're a medic working hard on a casualty, but the patient dies anyway. "You say, 'What did I do wrong?' You didn't do anything wrong. Casualties sometimes die. If we don't train 'em on that, we're not doing our job."

Then the trainer rattles off a list of things their soldiers may be thinking on deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan: "I'm wasting my life here. They should be fighting for themselves. They don't want us here. There doesn't seem to be a point to this. The sacrifices I'm making are not worth it. No progress is being made here." And the big one: "I'm tired of this shit." It doesn't sound like positive psychology, or even like resilience training. But he's driving toward two or three basic lessons: If you know to expect these thoughts, if you know that they're normal, then you can avoid getting stuck on them. You put it in perspective, and focus on the little things you can actually control.

Will that kind of perspective make soldiers healthier? Will it change the current dire statistics on mental problems? The army brass hopes to avoid having the program judged on factors like the suicide rate. "We're not saying these specific things have to go down for this to be successful," says Colonel Williams. He likens resilience training to physical training, in which the aim is simply to build stronger soldiers--and bloodpressure levels improve as a by-product.

The lesson the army wants to drive home is that going out and doing a difficult, dangerous job can make you stronger, that post-traumatic growth is possible. Or as one of the trainers puts it, "We're not going to be talking about deployment as a negative, or about how you're going to be screwed up for a long time. Resilience training takes a positive approach: 'Here are some of the things you may encounter, here's how you handle them, and here's how you'll grow from the experience.' "

Nobody delivers this message more effectively than Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, M.D., a slight, blue-eyed army surgeon with a rattat- tat manner. When she asks who's run a half marathon, dozens raise their hands. She reminds them that they trained for weeks or months to prepare for the race, "and if you're willing to do that for your legs and your lungs, why not do it for your head, too?"

Then she tells her story, about going "wopping off" in a helicopter to rescue a downed pilot during the first Iraq war, taking heavy fire while flying 140 miles an hour at the height of this room, and knowing in that instant that she was going to die. (But being a perennial optimist, she was comforted knowing that at least she'd die honorably.)

The chopper flipped and landed upside down, killing most of the crew. General Cornum woke up with "two busted arms and a busted leg," in enemy territory. "Even being a POW didn't seem like such a bad deal," she says. "That's cognitive reframing. I wasn't dead." Her captors sexually molested her. While imprisoned in Baghdad, she distracted herself by singing every opera and musical tune she could think of. "Having a plan not to dwell or ruminate on misery is a good thing." Eventually she was rescued, and now she looks out for the mental and physical well-being of the entire U.S. Army.

Even for men half her age and twice her size, General Cornum sets the bar mighty high. It must seem particularly high for a soldier who's working on his second or third deployment, watching his kids grow up on video, and wondering whether some other guy back home is, as they put it gingerly, parking in his space. But General Cornum makes the case that post-traumatic growth of the kind she experienced isn't "just about your genetic background, or your neonatal health, or where your grandparents grew up, and all that kind of crap. Like physical fitness, it's about what you put into it."

A little later in the hotel conference room, Reivich is leading yet another exercise. She asks her audience to write down words that suggest what a soldier needs to become resilient. Most call out predictable stuff like strength and confidence. But after a moment, from the middle of the crowd, one soldier says, "Peace." Heads turn. Then in the awkward silence, reality sets in, and the soldier recalibrates his thinking.

"Peace of mind," he offers. 

source: Military.com
writer- members of military.com


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