New (and more affordable): Echelon Alpha

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For 25 years, Springfield Armory and Croatia’s HS Produkt have partnered on polymer-framed, striker-fired handguns, starting with the XD series, followed by the popular Hellcat, and, since 2023, the modular Echelon. We’ve reviewed the full-sized 4.5F, 4.0C Compact, 4.0C Comp, and 4.0FC crossover, and we’ve had little to criticize.

They perform reliably.

We’ve put over 5K rounds through assorted Echelons during reviews since the pistol was released and never had a notable problem with these guns. They run. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Springfield has also gained meaningful traction for the Echelon in law enforcement. In December 2024, the St. Louis County Police Department, with nearly 1,000 officers, adopted it as its duty pistol under a $2.1 million contract, reinforcing the company’s claims about the pistol’s reliability and performance. The Echelon has secured other major law enforcement contracts as well, and abroad, the Spanish National Police have chosen it as their standard duty sidearm.

What do you get with the Alpha?

Based on the G19-sized Echelon 4.0C Compact, which is likely the company’s most popular offering in the series, the new Alpha is the same gun at its core.

The new Springfield Armory Echelon Alpha 4.0C is a 15+1 capacity 9mm with a 4-inch barrel. (Photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Weight is 24 ounces unloaded. The Vortex Defender ST red dot shown installed is not included.

It utilizes the same Central Operating Group, a serialized stainless-steel chassis that can be easily swapped to different sized/styled polymer grip modules. The striker-fired pistol disassembles without having to pull the trigger.

It is optics-ready with Springfield’s Variable Interface System, which enables direct-mount capability for more than 30 optics directly to the slide without the use of adapter plates.

The MSRP on the Echelon Alpha is $599, which is a good bit less than the $710 ask on the standard Echelon models. Keep in mind “street price” at retailers will likely be even less.

For the full review, head on over to my column at Guns.com.

The Ark

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Check out this amazing crew shot of USS Arkansas (Battleship No. 33) assembled on deck, circa April-Sept 1914.

Note the sweeping collection of mascots (monkey, dogs, cats, a goat, and birds), as well as the ship’s baseball championship pennant flying, among other awards and trophies.

(Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph NH 96594)

Inset of the above. I count a retriever, a goat, and at least seven parrots in this one sample.

Plus a monkey and a mouser.

The third U.S. Navy ship to bear the name of the Diamond State, Arkansas was laid down on 25 January 1910 at Camden, launched just a year later on 14 January 1911, and commissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard on 17 September 1912, Capt. Roy Campbell Smith (USNA 1876) in command.

Smith is surely the skipper shown in the image, as he remained the proverbial Noah on “The Ark” until October 1915.

A closer look at Smith. Note the parrot and Ark’s accumulation of trophies and loving cups. At the time, she carried the fleet’s coaling record, having taken on 687 tons from USS Cyclops in an hour. Smith, born in Texas in 1858 to Charles Henry Smith, an assistant surgeon general of the United States, fought at Santiago on USS Indiana, earned a Navy Cross, and later married Admiral Sampson’s daughter. Before Arkansas, he served as naval attaché in Paris and commanded the cruiser USS Chattanooga. After leaving Arkansas, he was governor general of Guam, supervisor of New York harbor, and on the board of the Naval War College before retiring in 1921 after 51 years of service.

Caption: Arkansas churns through the waves with the traditional “bone in her teeth,” most likely during her sea trials, 1912, in an image captured by the noted maritime and naval photographer Nathaniel Livermore Stebbins (1847–1922). (Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph NH 96594)

After extensive antebellum cruising, including a European tour, service in Mexico (Veracruz) in 1914, Arkansas joined the other American battleships in Rosyth, as part of the British Grand Fleet’s Sixth Battle Squadron during the final year of the Great War.

Rebuilt 1925-26 to upgrade her coal plant to an oil-fired one, along with a host of other modernizations, Arkansas was a fixture of interbellum Fleet Exercises and midshipmen’s summer training cruises.

Much active WWII service in the Atlantic and then in the Pacific earned the aging dreadnought four battle stars.

From her War History:

Sadly, the Ark met the sun during the Bikini atomic bomb tests, with the uncrewed battlewagon just 250 yards from the epicenter of the Baker shot on 25 July 1946, “sinking of Arkansas by hammering it more or less straight down into the lagoon bottom.”

Arkansas, broken and lost, was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 August 1946.

Old School

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I always love to see the old M-14 clocking in with the fleet. Sure, it is just shooting lines here, but work is work, baby. The steel-and-wood M-14 was officially replaced in service by the M-16 platform in 1967, but is still kicking by all means.

“Crimson Connection.” Sailors aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS John Finn (DDG-113) shoot a line during a replenishment with the fleet replenishment oiler USNS John Lewis, May 13, 2026. The John Finn is deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of operations to support maritime security in the Middle East. U.S. Navy Photo 260513-D-D0477-9009.

The Pascagoula-built Finn, a Flight IIA Burke, entered the fleet in 2017 and is forward-deployed and assigned to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 71/Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force.

The destroyer’s namesake, Chief Aviation Ordnanceman John W. Finn, would no doubt approve of the M-14. He earned his MoH the hardest of ways on 7 December 1941 when he ran to a VP-14 training stand at Kaneohe Bay and worked a water-cooled Browning during the attack on Pearl Harbor, remaining at his gun even after picking up wounds from strafing Japanese fighters, until ordered to seek medical attention.

Mighty T’s Hat Trick

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U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma crew members conduct interdiction operations in the Gulf of America, May 8, 2026. Tahoma’s crew, alongside a deployed Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron aircrew, stopped three suspected smuggling vessels carrying narcotics during a maritime patrol approximately 90 miles off Cartagena, Colombia. (U.S. Coast Guard photo 260508-G-G0107-1002)

The 270-foot Famous (Bear) class USCGC Tahoma (WMEC-908) recently stumbled upon three smuggler vessels off the coast of Colombia, and bagged same.

From PAO:

Coast Guard Cutter Tahoma’s crew simultaneously interdicted three suspected smuggling vessels carrying approximately 6,085 pounds of cocaine worth nearly $45.8 million, May 8, approximately 90 miles off Cartagena, Colombia. This seizure represents 2.3 million potentially lethal doses of cocaine that will not reach American streets.

Tahoma’s crew launched their two small boats and their deployed Coast Guard Helicopter Interdiction Tactical Squadron aircrew, stopping all three vessels.

One vessel was non-compliant and required aerial use of force tactics, including precision sniper fire directed at the engines, to compel the vessel to stop, resulting in the suspected smugglers on the vessel jumping overboard. The aircrew released multiple personal flotation devices, and the people were rescued with no reported injuries. The other two vessels stopped when directed by Coast Guard crews.

Commissioned in 1988, the Mighty T is some 38 years young and is homeported in Naval Station Newport, Rhode Island, under U.S. Coast Guard Atlantic Area Command.

She is one of just a handful of American warships still sporting the MK 75 OTO Melara 76mm gun and carries forward the legacy earned by the previous USCGC Tahoma (WPG-80) during World War II.

NOAA: USV Powerhouse?

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NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey (OCS) is currently utilizing fully uncrewed contract USVs for an offshore hydrographic survey mission along the Florida Gulf Coast.

Operated by Woolpert, the mission is being conducted by Chance Maritime’s Chance MC29 and larger MC40 platforms.

The Chance MC40

Chance MC40

Over the multi-month project, Woolpert will survey approximately 11,000 linear nautical miles. Woolpert hydrographers, positioned across multiple time zones, will remotely conduct hydrographic surveys around the clock. Survey data is uploaded to a cloud server via Starlink satellite communications, where it is ingested into Woolpert’s Automatic Survey Production Environment (ASPEN) and made ready for further postprocessing by Woolpert’s hydrographic processing team.

In an expansion of the concept, NOAA just awarded Chance a $21.6 million contract for up to eight Chance LR30 platforms, equipping NOAA with a fleet of long-endurance USVs purpose-built for hydrographic and fisheries surveys.

Coupled with what the USCG is doing with Saildrones, this is all some very good vetting of programs with some serious 21st-century military applications, without which Big Navy can surely piggyback off of.

I hope people are paying attention.

Chance LR30 Uncrewed Surface Vessel

Chance LR30 Uncrewed Surface Vessel

Meanwhile, CTF 66 and CTF 68 are operating robotic and autonomous systems alongside our Norwegian Allies to strengthen our collective ability to conduct operations in the Arctic. (Photos by MC1 Brandie Nuzzi).

RAMSUND, Norway (May 12, 2026) — A Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft and Lightfish Unmanned Surface Vessel, attached to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 66, operate in Breivika Bay during Arctic Sentry 2026. Launched in February 2026, Arctic Sentry reflects Allies’ collective understanding that NATO must do even more as an alliance to ensure security in the Arctic and the High North, and to further strengthen its ability to operate in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Cla

RAMSUND, Norway (May 12, 2026) — A Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft and Lightfish Unmanned Surface Vessel, attached to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 66, operate in Breivika Bay during Arctic Sentry 2026. Launched in February 2026, Arctic Sentry reflects Allies’ collective understanding that NATO must do even more as an alliance to ensure security in the Arctic and the High North, and to further strengthen its ability to operate in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Cla

RAMSUND, Norway (May 12, 2026) — A Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft, attached to Commander, Task Force (CTF) 66, operates in Breivika Bay during Arctic Sentry 2026. Launched in February 2026, Arctic Sentry reflects Allies’ collective understanding that NATO must do even more as an alliance to ensure security in the Arctic and the High North, and to further strengthen its ability to operate in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brandie Nuzzi)

RAMSUND, Norway (May 12, 2026) — Commander, Task Force (CTF) 66, Unmanned Surface Vessel Squadron Three (USVRON 3) Division 32, Black Sea and technical support personnel pose for a photo during Arctic Sentry 2026. Launched in February 2026, Arctic Sentry reflects Allies’ collective understanding that NATO must do even more as an alliance to ensure security in the Arctic and the High North, and to further strengthen its ability to operate in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1

Ford is Finally Back (and will be offline for longer than she was deployed)

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USS Gerald R. Ford and her two companion destroyers, USS Bainbridge (DDG 96) and USS Mahan (DDG 72), left port on 24 June 2025 for six months of scheduled deployment and exercises.

They arrived back home last week, some 322 days later.

Ford and company bested every post-Vietnam carrier deployment record, saw combat and combat support operations under both 4th and 5th Fleet, surviving a fire at sea and a myriad of persistent teething issues, earning a Presidential Unit Citation in the process, the first time a carrier did so since 1973 when USS Midway picked up one after a 332-day Vietnam tour.

Aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) arrives to Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, May 16, 2026. The Ford carrier strike group recently concluded a historic deployment, providing maritime security across four areas of operation, solidifying the Ford-class carrier’s role as the premier centerpiece of American naval power and global stability. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John Bellino)

From left to right, Congressman John McGuire, Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Carrier Strike Group 12 Commander Rear Adm. David Duff, Commanding Officer of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) Capt. David Skarosi and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle pose for a photo with the Presidential Unit Citation award and pennant aboard the Ford on Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, May 16, 2026. 

Quite an accomplishment.

Especially for the DDGs.

A supercarrier is a floating city, and you would be hard pressed to visit every compartment aboard on a cruise, even one of 322 days. On the other hand, a DDG, even a big one like a Burke, is more like a floating apartment building with guns on the roof. Those tin can guys earned their sea pay on this one, for sure.

During their historic deployment across four fleets, the crew of Mahan alone conducted 19 replenishments-at-sea and executed 25 sea and anchor details during a historic 11-month deployment to U.S. 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Fleets as part of the GRF Carrier Strike Group.

NORFOLK, Va. (May 16, 2026) – Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Mahan (DDG 72) returns to Naval Station Norfolk, May 16, 2026, following a historic 11-month deployment to U.S. 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Fleets as part of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group. During their historic deployment across four fleets, the crew of Mahan conducted 19 replenishments-at-sea and executed 25 sea and anchor details. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist David Smalls, III)

What next?

Ford is now set to begin at least a 12-month Planned Incremental Availability (PIA) that, with repairs to her berthing areas and her undoubtably huge maintenance backlog from her 322 days underway, may stretch to 24 months as there could be some serious rebuilding to be done.

Speaking of the rest of the other 10 carriers in commission:

Nimitz (CVN-68) is underway, completing her final cruise, and is scheduled to begin deactivation as soon as she arrives in Norfolk. While her official decommissioning date is March 2027, don’t count on seeing her underway on her own power again once this current Latin American hearts and minds cruise is over.

Stennis (CVN-74) has been on her four-year mid-life ROCH since May 2021 and won’t emerge until at least October 2026, and will then require months of availability and shakedowns to be ready to deploy.

Truman (CVN-75) is set to begin her four-year RCOH in June 2026– if Stennis gets out of Dry Dock 12 in time for that start date. Once the overhaul is started, Truman will not deploy again until 2031 at the earliest.

Reagan (CVN-76) has been in a DPIA overhaul since August 2024 and isn’t set to emerge until at least August 2026.

That gives the fleet six carriers that are actually able to get underway– and most of them are.

Lincoln and Bush are deployed to the Arabian Sea. The venerable, nearly half-century-old Eisenhower is being rumored to be rushed overseas after emerging from her 15-month overhaul (supposedly her last) to backfill Ford. Vinson is in San Diego, still getting over an extended nine-month deployment that ended last August. Washington is forward deployed to Japan (yes, just a single carrier in the West Pac) while TR is in the East Pac on workups.

That’s it.

JFK (CVN-79) isn’t set to deliver until May 2027 (replacing Nimitz) for her first deployment, not likely until 2029. Enterprise (CVN-80) is supposed to come online in 2029 to replace Eisenhower. Et. al.

The Start of a Beautiful Chapter in Naval History

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Some 45 long years ago today.

First Lady Nancy Reagan christening the future USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) at Litton Ingalls’ West Bank Yard, Pascagoula, on Saturday, 16 May 1981. The lead ship of her class and the first warship designed to use the Aegis system from the keel up, was sponsored by Mrs. Reagan at a weekend event attended by approximately 9,000 people, including several former crewmen of the aircraft carrier to carry the same name. .

National Archives Identifier 6368659, Agency-Assigned Identifier DNSC8305355, Local Identifier 330-CFD-DN-SC-83-05355

She would commission 20 months later and give 21 years of hard service.

At 9,800 tons displacement and 567 feet overall length, she compared well to the Omaha-class light cruisers (9,500 tons, 555 feet oal) of 60 years prior, although with a much smaller crew and much more advanced armament and sensors unthought of in 1921.

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-10258

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-10257

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-09476

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-10255

The future Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Ticonderoga (CG-47) underway on sea trials in the Gulf of Mexico, 6 May 1982 DN-SC-83-09477

Tico was the first of the country’s final class of cruisers and, although she was decommissioned in 2004 and kept mothballed as a source of spare parts for 16 years before scrapping, seven of her Flight II sisters endure, with USS Lake Erie (CG-70) being the first U.S. Navy warship to successfully shoot down an in-orbit satellite on February 20, 2008.

Meanwhile, the Aegis system, as further installed on the Burke class DDGs that followed, is afloat in 78 hulls today, with another 21 on the schedule. Arguably, the most capable surface combatants afloat.

Not a bad legacy.

Canucks Finally Ditch the S&W Wondernine

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I love a third-gen Smith & Wesson Wondernine. I mean, have you ever seen one? They look great and shoot like they look.

Thus:

My circa 1993 S&W 5906. A functional work of art

Canada’s federal law enforcement agencies, the famed Mounties of the RCMP/GRC and the fish cops of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), have used the S&W 5946 since the early 1990s, adopting it to replace the older K-frame .38 revolvers (such as the S&W Model 10) that had been in use since 1952.

The DAO RCMP S&W 5946 has the silhouette of a horse-mounted Mountie lancer on the slide. Would be great if these made it to the surplus market

Going even further back, they carried the Colt New Service from 1905, which replaced assorted Adams and Enfield wheel guns used in the North West Mounted Police days as far back as 1873.

With the 5946 out of production since 1999 and generally not supported for the past 15 years, Ottawa has been looking to get something newer.

That search has cumulated with a $28,457,482.08 ($38,976,365.69 CAD) contract awarded to Canadian distributor Rampart Corporation to supply Canadian federal police with a new duty pistol system.

The new system includes the Glock 45 MOS 7 pistol with Ameriglo suppressor-height night sights, a 725-lumen Streamlight TLR-7X white light, an Aimpoint Acro P-2 enclosed red dot sight, a NANUK 910 storage case, and a Safariland 6360RDS duty holster. The contract also included blue training guns, spare parts, at least three mags per pistol, lanyards, etc.

The choice came as zero surprise to me.

I wrote a series of articles for the Glock Annual between 2020 and 2024, primarily profiles of LE agencies that recently went Glock, and by far the most popular combo for the departments I interviewed was the G45 with an ACRO.

It has quickly become the gold standard for LE use.

So much so that Glock released a G45 MOS with a factory-direct mounted Aimpoint Acro P-2 already installed to the consumer market in February 2024.

Further, while I like a 650-lumen/66,000 candela Surefire X300T for heavy lifting with a duty pistol, the TLR-7 series flush fits on G19/45s and makes an easy and flush-nosed holster fit, and its 725-lumen/9,500 candela throw is surely better than nothing.

Retail per outfitted gun is around $1,800, not counting spare parts and training guns, with wholesale closer to $1,400, so you can imagine between 15,000-20,000 equipped pistols will be acquired. This tracks as the RCMP has 19,000 sworn officers while the FO/DFO has about 600.

The Canadians made a good choice.

Would be nice to see those old 5946s on the surplus market, however.

Albuera at 215

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“The Flag, Albuera, 16 May 1811.” Painted by William Barns Wollen. In the collection of the British National Army Museum.

NAM Accession Number NAM. 2001-04-325-1

The scene depicts the destruction of Col. John Colborne’s British 1st Brigade (part of the 2nd Infantry Division) by the Polish Vistula Lancers, supported by the French 3rd Hussars (d’Hubert’s outfit), during the battle of Albuera in the Peninsula Campaign.

In particular, Wollen portrays the last stand of the 3rd (East Kent) Regiment of Foot (The Buffs).

The 1/3rd Foot entered the battle with 755 men and had only 112 men left standing at the end of the day, with at least 216 killed, a loss of some 85 percent.

As one says, “It was a bad day for the regiment.”

The four British regiments of Colborne’s brigade, the Buffs, 2nd/48th (Northamptonshire) Foot, 2nd/31st (Huntingdonshire) Foot, and 2nd/66th (Berkshire) Foot, were struck from the flank and rear, and were all but destroyed, with the 2/48th suffering 75 percent casualties, the 2nd/66th Regiment 62 percent, and the 2nd/31st 38 percent.

The Poles captured five British standards and five cannons from the KGL battery that day, in an action now all but forgotten.

In March 1961, after 389 years of service, the Buffs merged with The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment to form The Queen’s Own Buffs, The Royal Kent Regiment. Then further amalgamated with The Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment, The Royal Sussex Regiment, and The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) in 1966 to form The Queen’s Regiment, which in turn was merged with The Royal Hampshire Regiment in 1996 to form The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (Queen’s and Royal Hampshires), the senior English line regiment of the British Army.

Jetting around the Baltic littoral

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Aurora 26 just wrapped up in the Baltic, with 18,000 soldiers from 13 countries participating in the Swedish-led NATO exercise. It notably included some Ukrainian drone operators to serve as, among other things, a very capable and modern OPFOR.

Images released by the Swedes are stirring, highlighting two battalions (2.amfibiebataljonen and 5.amfibiebataljonen) of the Swedish Navy’s Amphibious Corps, are great.

Photos: Bezav Mahmod and Hampus Andersson/Försvarsmakten

They also include shots of a couple of massed CB90 (Stridsbåt 90H) waves, with each of the highly maneuverable 52-foot shallow-draft (31 inches) jet boats capable of toting 20 troops at 40 knots.

Sure, they would usually move in much smaller groups, at night, but the photo op is amazing, and sends a bit of a point.

Genom styrka håller vi kriget borta (Through strength we keep war away). Indeed.

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