Category: Military Stuff

If a picture is worth a thousand words, here are a few thousand in remembrance of today.

The New York Post comments on the military’s XM25, a new 25mm grenade launcher that will launch smart grenades. I have no doubt this is a neat, albeit expensive toy, but I think the hype is a bit nauseating. Let’s take a look at the Post’s coverage:

The XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System is a rifle that can fire through doors and walls, leaving the enemy no place to hide, FoxNews.com said.

That’s funny, I’m pretty sure my shotgun loaded with 00 buck has no trouble with doors and walls either. In fact, I’d bet my Glock will shoot through doors and walls too.

It has a range of roughly 2,300 feet making it possible to fire at targets well past the range of the rifles that most soldiers carry today.

The designated marksman’s M14 will reach out that far, and I’d hate to think of how much recoil this has if it can lob a 25mm grenade an entire kilometer. Actual spec says it’ll launch 500m to a point, and 1000 m for an area burst. I’m skeptical it’s practical range is actually that far. If it is, I’d hate to be the soldier who has to shoot something that thumps that bad all day.

My guess is the Army is selling this to taxpayers as the greatest thing since sliced bread so they don’t balk at the 35,000 dollar price tag for each unit. If it’s really as good as they say it is, It’s worth it. But I’m skeptical. The grenade uses the number of rotations to estimate distance. I would think that could be altered by atmospheric variability. Some folks around here are pretty good with ballistics. What do you think about using number of rotations for a distance measurement? What would be the variability, assuming you knew the rifling twist? It could be it’s actually a pretty good proxy for distance.

I have to admit, the biggest thing that makes me skeptical is that it’s built by H&K :)

Looks like an ICBM to me. Best case it was a secret launch. Worst case it’s a Chinese missile designed to show us that they can hit us by surprise if they want to. Obviously it would have had to have been aimed away from the US so it would be apparent quite quickly it’s not an attack. Normally we wouldn’t do that kind of launch without informing the Russians, lest they get a little restless with their finger on the button. Scientists are saying it’s just a jetliner with a contrail, but that doesn’t compute if you look at the video. The trail wiggles like you’d expect a missile to, and jets normally don’t have glowing balls of fire coming out of their tails.

UPDATE: Someone on MSNBC is saying perhaps it’s an LDRS.

I suspect a lot of folks will disagree with the Army’s decision to end bayonet training in basic training. But it seems to be a matter of opportunity costs. In other words, what other things could you be teaching soldiers? One military historian had this to say:

Bayonet training is, in short, used to undo socialization – to “basically to try to mitigate or eradicate the reluctance of human beings to kill each other,” Mr. Kohn says. It is one of the challenges in US or Western society “where we have such reverence for the individual, where we socialize our people to believe in the rule of law, and all of that,” he adds. “What you’re doing with young people is trying to get them used to the highly emotional and irrational and adrenaline-filled situations in which they are liable to find themselves whether they are within sight of the enemy or not – and the reluctance to take a life.”

It would seem that for soldiers who are likely to end up in hand-to-hand combat situations, some knife and bayonet skills would seem to still be warranted. But I can see the logic in replacing it in basic training with other skills that might be more useful. What do some folks who have served in combat think about this?

h/t Instapundit

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c97sqVGoUv4&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

I came across this video today about the Hawaii Air National Guard. They will be transitioning soon to the F-22 Raptor from the F-15 Eagle. Since Bitter and Sebastian are vacationing in Hawaii, I thought it would be nice to recognize one of the units protecting them (and the rest of Hawaii).

Someone lying about his service record, and acting in the spirit of the mall ninja gets what’s coming to him.

Hat tip to Tam.

What could be cooler than tactical bunnies shooting terrorist camels? Clearly the Japanese don’t have the racial issues we do here. But I just watched this and it looks fun. Blackhawk down with bunnies, basically. It’s called Cat Shit One. Here’s the trailer.

I’m not sure where you can buy this, or even if it’s available in the US, but presumably it will be. Resourceful people can probably find it.

Arma Borealis notes from his time in Afghanistan:

On a personal note, the author’s observations about the Lee Enfield and its usage squares with what I observed in Afghanistan. Don’t worry too much about dudes with AKs; it is the old guy with a bolt gun that you need to be concerned about.

I think this is truth. It’s the guy who aims you should to be afraid of. Prior to the Virginia Tech massacre, Charles Whitman’s shooting rampage from a clock tower at the University of Texas was the largest mass shooting in US history, most of which was accomplished with a Remington 700.

While I’m waiting for Bitter to get up and ready so we can go appreciate some Starbucks, here’s some good history for everyone. I found this in one of Richard Fernandez’s posts where he expresses concern that the British military is falling below the critical point where it’s really capable of carrying out its mission, and probably below the point where they could no longer conceivably retake the Falkland Islands again if they were threatened. Then again, even at the time there was doubt as to whether the Royal Navy and Marines were up to the task, and they succeeded. Either way, he links to a very interesting documentary, from The Falklands Portal, that covers the fate of the H.M.S. Coventry, which was one of two destroyers and two frigates sunk during the Falklands War:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNUnbr_voHs[/youtube]

That’s part one of six. You can find the other six at this link here. I was only eight when this war broke out, but I certainly remember it.

UPDATE: Also see this six part documentary on the lessons learned from the sinking of the H.M.S. Sheffield: part1, part2, part3, part4, part5, and part6.