Some 75 years ago this week, on 7 Febuary 1951, the well-mustachioed Captain Lewis L. “Red” Millett and the “Wolfhound” Infantrymen of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, conducted the last full-unit bayonet charge in U.S. Army history when they took Hill 180, later just known as “Bayonet Hill,” near the smoke-blackened village of Soam-ni, just to the west and south of Osan, South Korea.
From Millett’s official Medal of Honor citation:
While personally leading his company in an attack against a strongly held position, he noted that the 1st Platoon was pinned down by small-arms, automatic, and antitank fire. Capt. Millett ordered the 3d Platoon forward, placed himself at the head of the two platoons, and, with fixed bayonet, led the assault up the fire-swept hill. In the fierce charge, Capt. Millett bayoneted two enemy soldiers and boldly continued, throwing grenades, clubbing, and bayoneting the enemy, while urging his men forward by shouting encouragement. Despite vicious opposing fire, the whirlwind hand-to-hand assault carried to the crest of the hill. His dauntless leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild disorder.”
Millett was a bit of a fire-eater, having enlisted in the Massachusetts National Guard in 1938 at age 18, then deserted in mid-1941 to cross over into Canada, where he wound up in the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery in an AAA battery during the Blitz on London.
Transferring to the U.S. Army in 1942, he earned a Silver Star as a gunner with the 1st Armored Division in Tunisia and, after fighting at Salerno and Anzio, came clean about his 1941 desertion. Then, following a $52 fine, received a battlefield commission as Second Lieutenant. Following Korea, he attended Ranger School, served in the 101st Airborne, and clocked in on the Phoenix Program in Vietnam. He retired as a colonel in 1973, capping a wild service history.
Colonel Lewis Lee Millett, Sr. died of congestive heart failure on 14 November 2009, one month short of his 89th birthday, and was buried on 5 December 2009 at Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, CA. His grave can be found in Section 2, Site 1910.
With a story that runs nearly the entire length of the 20th Century, the iconic top-break British Webley in .455 Caliber Eley is a beast.
My personal interest in the Webley, specifically the bonkers-large Mark VI, which entered service with a 6-inch barrel standard, dates to watching old war movies and TV shows as a kid in the 1970s and 80s, and there were plenty to choose from.
According to IMFDB, they appeared in the hands of Gary Cooper, Peter Lorre, Peter O’ Toole (several times, including “Lawrence of Arabia”), Clark Gable, Richard Burton, Gregory Peck, Bob Hoskins (anachronistically in “Zulu Dawn” of all things!), Burt Lancaster, James Keach, Edward Woodward, Michael Crawford, Christopher Lee, and so on.
It was just a commanding piece.
I mean, look at it:
The Mark VI Webley .455 (All photos unless noted: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
The Mark VI runs almost a foot long, taping out at 11.25 inches. It weighs 2.5 pounds, unloaded.
Plus, the beautiful rimmed .455 rounds are short and almost comically fat. Stout like a British bulldog. A sumo wrestler compared to the more puny contemporaries such as the 8mm French used in that country’s M1892 revolver, the Russian 7.65×38 used in the Tsarist-era Nagant, and the rimmed 9mm round used by the Japanese Type 26 revolver (the latter of which only generated a velocity of about 500 fps!).
The .455 Webley (right), in this case a 262-grain lead round-nosed Mk.II bullet, compared to a 230-grain .45 ACP FMJ, a bullet familiar to readers this side of the pond. The .455 was introduced in 1891, whereas Browning’s .45 ACP dated to about two decades later.
When loaded with .455, the unmodified Webley Mark VI has a decent cylinder lock-up with minimal gap.
I recall reading a book on guerrilla warfare weapons, published in 1990, that noted the Webley was still often encountered in the hands of insurgents as flotsam from the old British colonial empire and was “a prestigious man stopper.”
Only it wasn’t really.
Sure, any time you get hit by a 218-265 grain bullet, it is going to smart, but, seeing as the projectile typically only traveled at about 600 to 750 fps, the energy imparted on impact was only in the 220-300 ft./lb. range, which is about on average to what you get out of .38 Special (and that’s not even +P loads, either). This was compounded by at least five different generations of service bullets and loads for the .455, all attempting to make it more effective, though they never came close to modern self-defense designs.
But, when used at bad-breath range against the Kaiser’s skinny Landsers on the Western Front in 1915, or poorly clad indigenous warriors and bandits in far-off lands who are probably already fighting parasites and poor diets, it likely worked just fine.
Still, the large 2.5-pound square-butt revolver could prove a useful club when needed.
Fairburn and Sykes, who knew a thing or ten about the Webley in service, had the following passage in their 1942 “Shooting to Live” Commando primer in the chapter on “Stopping Power.”
We shall choose for our first instance one relating to the big lead bullet driven at a moderate velocity. On this occasion, a Sikh constable fired six shots with his .455 Webley at an armed criminal of whom he was in pursuit, registering five hits. The criminal continued to run, and so did the Sikh, the latter clinching the matter finally by battering in the back of the criminal’s head with the butt of his revolver. Subsequent investigations showed that one bullet only, and that barely deformed, remained in the body, the other four having passed clean through.
“Stopping Power!” as debated in 1942.
A closer look at the gun
The Webley top-break revolver itself dates to the company’s original Mark I service revolver, which was adopted by the British military in 1887, starting around £3 each, and a host of generational changes until the wheel gun seen in this piece, the Mark VI, arrived on the scene in May 1915.
A top-break six-shooter, it replaced the shorter Mark V, which had a rounded bird’s head style grip, with a much larger gun using a squared butt, 6-inch barrel, and a somewhat adjustable front sight. Best yet for His Majesty’s bean counters, the wartime finish Mark VI only cost some 51 shillings per gun, or about £2.5.
More gun for less money has always been popular.
The Webley Mark VI was the end-result of nearly 30-years of Webley top-break revolvers and shared much DNA with its predecessors.
It is akin in size to the big 5.5-inch barreled S&W DA 45, which was adopted as the M1917 by the U.S. military about the same time the Webley Mark VI entered service. The DA 45 was one of Smith’s first N-frames.
The double-action/single-action Webley Mark VI has a stout double-action trigger pull (we couldn’t gauge it; it kept maxing out), cutting to a truly short and crisp 8-pound single-action pull that is all-wall.
The hammer is very old-school. No transfer bar safety here.
The large lever, under the hammer and over the rear sight, frees up the top strap of the revolver.
The star extractor positively ejects all spent brass and live rounds when the action is opened.
Approximately 280,000 Mark VI Service models were produced during the war, starting around serial number 135,000. Our example, featured in this article, is serial number 245,288, bearing a 1917 Webley roll mark on the frame, along with corresponding Birmingham proof marks and British military broad arrow and GR acceptance marks. These weapons were not only issued to officers and sergeants but also to artillery, machine gun, and tank crews. They saw further hard use in trench raids and tunnel warfare under said trenches.
Better-grade models of the same gun, based on the old W&S Target, but with a higher fit and finish, were available for personal purchase through the Army & Navy Co-operative store. Many gentlemen officers chose to acquire their Webley in such a fashion, while others simply went with the issued revolver. Aftermarket accessories included the early Prideaux and Watson pattern speed loaders, and the Greener-produced Pritchett bayonet, although none were made in quantity.
The large lanyard ring on the bottom of the butt came in handy not only in the trenches but in mounted service. You didn’t want your Webley to bounce out of the holster while on the trot.
Second Lieutenant JRR Tolkien, the future author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” shipped off for France a year after graduating from Oxford. As a young officer with the 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, in June 1916, he saw service at the grueling military charnel house that was the Battle of the Somme, where some 57,000 casualties were suffered in the first day alone– making it the bloodiest day in British military history. Both at the Somme and a later trench raid near Thiepval, Tolkien had with him an early first-year Mark VI Service, serial number 169,710. It is now in the Imperial War Museum, complete with its lanyard.
The Mark VI also saw service in the sky and on the sea.
A British Royal Flying Corps field armory in France, circa 1918. Note the assorted Webley Mark VIs for use by pilots and observers who were frequently left walking back across No Man’s Land after their flying machines were shot down or broke down.
The Webley also saw service afloat with the Royal Navy for use in boarding parties and landing parties ashore. (Photos: Imperial War Museum)
As the RN saw extensive service against pirates, smugglers, revolutionaries, and bandits in the 1920s and 30s, you can bet the old Webley was there on the sharp end of things. Some think that the coup de grace delivered to Rasputin in December 1916 came from Oswald Rayner, a British MI6 agent in Petrograd, who used a Webley, possibly obtained from the small arms locker of a British submarine working with the Russian fleet in the Baltic.
The Webley Mark VI was officially augmented and then replaced in service with the remarkably similar but .38 caliber Enfield No. 2 in 1932 (left). Before that, the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield Lock built around 30,000 Webley Mark VI pattern revolvers between 1921 and 1926.
While officially replaced, the big .455 Webley remained in secondary service and was even preferred by many as their go-to sidearm.
By the 1930s, the leather Sam Browne style holsters had been replaced by simpler canvas holsters, typically worn butt-forward.
The old Webley saw extensive service in World War II, as well as in Korea, and anecdotally with Australian troops in Vietnam, and Rhodesian and South African troops in the Bush Wars of the 1970s.
Further, the Webley was seen with “Dad’s Army” in the Home Guard, an initially almost unarmed force that peaked at some 1.7 million volunteers ready to take on Mr. Hitler should he send his legions across the Channel. As the Home Guard often used long-retired Great War-era officers in senior positions, they brought their personally owned Army & Navy store pedigree Mark VIs back to service with them. In early units, they were often the only firearms available, save for some fowling pieces.
Ultimately, the Browning Hi-Power L9A1 would replace all top-break revolvers in British service starting in 1954.
An Irish tale
The Webley Mark VI entered Irish service in several ways, both via IRA-looted police, British Army, and auxiliary barracks during the 1919 to 1921 Irish War of Independence, and as guns handed over to the new Provisional pro-treaty government in 1922 and subsequently used against the anti-treaty IRA during the follow-on Irish Civil War. The Oglaigh na hÉireann (IRA) circulated printed training memos on the Mark VIas early as November 1921.
The new Irish Free State government received at least 7,000 Webley Mark VIs in 1922, which were used extensively to fight the IRA, who were often armed with Mark VIs themselves.
Our specimen has had its serial number on its barrel assembly and frame aggressively crossed out and replaced with a simple “N.125,” which, per Webley experts Chamberlain and Taylerson, is common for Webleys taken up by Irish forces in the 1920s.
A circa 1917 Mark VI was recovered from the late General Michael Collins after he was killed in an anti-Treaty ambush in West Cork in 1922. The same year, another circa 1917 Mark VI was used in the assassination of anti-Irish British Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson in London.
Second-hand Shaved Webleys
With the adoption of the Browning Hi-Power in British– and later Commonwealth– service in the 1950s, the final stocks of Webley Mark VIs started moving to the commercial market.
Surplus Irish guns met a similar fate when Samuel Cummings of Alexandria, Virginia-based Interarmco (Interarms) made a sweet deal with the Dublin government in 1959 for almost all of the old Republic’s unneeded hardware at scrap-per-ton cash-and-carry prices including a couple hundred Model 1921 Thompsons, 801 Lewis guns, 9 water-cooled Vickers machine guns, 17 Mark I and Mark II 18-pounder field guns, 22 4.5-inch howitzers, four 3-inch anti-artillery guns, 51 Browning aircraft machine guns, pallets of Enfield .303 rifles, and crates of Webley revolvers.
The Webleys were soon sold off through mail order outlets, Hunters’ Lodge, Potomac Arms, and others, for the bargain basement price of $14.50 in NRA Good condition and $19.95 in NRA Very Good Condition with .455 milsurp rounds at a pricy $1.50 per 24 (two, 12-round paper packets). Adjusted for inflation, that’s $165-$225 per revolver, and $17 for 24 rounds of ammo.
Eventually, the stock of Webleys outlasted the stock of surplus .455 and British ammo makers such as Kynoch and Eley trimmed back on production of new cartridges, further driving up the price of the increasingly hard-to-find rounds. To sate the demand, distributors by the 1960s hit on the concept of shaving the rear of the Webley’s six-shot cylinder to allow the rimless .45 ACP round to work* in a pinch, if used in company with half-moon clips as used with the old M1917 DA .45 revolvers. The .45 Auto Rim, made for use with the M1917 sans clips, would work as well.
The .45 ACP shaved cylinder job needed half-moon three-round clips to work. A “full-moon” six-shot clip will sometimes work, depending on the clip.
Comparing a shaved Webley cylinder (left) and an intact .455 cylinder (right) with the old GR acceptance marks and proofs giving the latter away.
Note the difference in cylinder length, with the intact cylinder on top having more “beef” around the serial number, while the shaved .45 ACP cylinder on the bottom has less room around its serial.
The lever that secures the cylinder to the barrel assembly uses a coin-slotted screw designed to use the rim of a .303 cartridge or a “bob” (British shilling/5-pence coin). We found a 1976 Bicentennial quarter to work fine.
*A word of strong warning should be imparted when talking about using .45 ACP in a .455 Webley. It is inadvisable to run full-power commercial .45 ACP in any top-break revolver, including one of those beefy, seemingly indestructible Webley Mark VIs. Special low-power loads (under 13,200 psi vs the standard pressure of 21,000 psi seen in regular loads) are now on the market, made by Steinel specifically for use in shaved cylinder Mark VIs.
Speaking of ammo, Bannerman (Graf), Fiocchi, and Steinel all make new runs of .455 Eley/Webley loads as well, running about $60-$70 for a box of 50. Other than that, running this old revolver is more in the realm of handloaders who dig heavy bullets over small loads, but it is better than just having a “wall hanger.”
No matter what the backstory on this gun, it remains a “Cool Revolver.”
Spent a down weekend unwinding from SHOT Show, taking the old lady to the Pensacola art fair, etc. In this, I was able to score a $30 box loaded with second-hand volumes at Open Books that must have formerly belonged to a NAS Pensacola instructor, judging from the eclectic subject matter (U.S. Navy aviation circa 1920s and 30s) and small Aero Club and USNI Press print runs. Well worth it!
I also visited for the first time the old Pensacola City Jail, which served from 1906 until 1954, when it was converted into an art center (the PMA) under the aegis of the University of West Florida. Of note, the two-story 12,000-square-foot Spanish Revival building just off the docks and near old downtown was the hub for not only city and county cops but also Navy/Marine Shore Patrol during both world wars, so you can almost smell the salt and beer.
Heading back to Pascagoula, we cruised by the MARS dock and saw the progress on the formerSS United States.
The old mega-liner, being prepped for reefing in a few weeks off Destin, has been stripped of her iconic funnels as well as her masts and most other topside snag points for divers. Likewise, her portholes have been torched out, and just about everything that can be removed from her thousands of compartments has been.
Still, you can read her once proud name on the bow, like a ghost from yesteryear.
With all of these polar vortices and bombs recently (I mean, we just had like 11 days in a row that hit below freezing on the Mississippi Gulf Coast), these images from roughly 107 years ago seemed appropriate.
Take a look at this photo, know it is in Northern Russia, February 1919, and ask yourself the nationality of the snow-camo-ed troopers masking themselves among the birch, pines, spruces, and larches of the region.
As the 339th, who unenthusiastically used American-made Mosins in combat against Russians, who unenthusiastically sometimes used lever-action Winchesters against the “Interventy” (Interventionists), I always thought the campaign bordered on the absurd.
The official caption for the above image:
American Soldiers on patrol wear white capes to reduce the chances of discovery while operating in the snow-blanketed forests, which line the Vologda railroad line on each side. Left to right: Bugler Charles Metcalf, Company I; Private Harold Holliday, Company M; and Sgt. Major Ernest Reed, 3rd Battalion, 339th Infantry, 85th Division, February 21, 1919. 111-SC-161113
And these others from the same period:
Blockhouse at Verst 455 on the Vologada Railway, surrounded by the forest, white with a new covering of snow. Photo taken on one of the coldest days of the year, when the temperature reached a point 50 degrees below zero. The American soldier in the foreground is Corporal Hearn of Company I, 339th Infantry, 85th. Division Verst 455, Vologda Railroad front, Northern Russia. 17 February 1919. 111-SC-161081
339th Inf in Russia Verst 455, Vologda Railway Front Feb 1919, with Mosins and Lewis guns. The Lewis was also probably chambered in 7.62x54R (30 cal Russian), drawn from U.S. Savage-made stockpiles originally contracted by the Tsar. 111-SC-161112
339th Inf in Russia Verst 455 Volgada Railway front Feb 1919 Mosins 111-SC-161090.
The 339th served in Russia from September 1918 to June 1919, rather involuntarily clocking in during the Russian Civil War with their more supportable Mosins, then shipped back to a much more agreeable service in post-Great War springtime France, where they were all too happy to get their M1917 Enfields back before shipping home, arriving back in the Midwest in July, wrapping their confusing, and bitter, war.
If you got to enjoy the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics over the weekend, you were sure to catch some uniforms familiar to military history buffs and American personnel who have been stationed in Italy at any time in the past 80 years.
Task Force Olimpica, organized to support the games across eight different complexes, includes 1,928 active duty Italian military personnel– mainly from the elite “Black feathers” of the 6° Reggimento Alpini- 170 vehicles, and numerous operational assets on the ground, including radars and air defense aircraft both on QRA and over the airspace.
Add to this another 2,000 legendary Carabinieri military police (with the entire Beretta catalog in hand).
You can bet that the Carabinieri’s Gruppo di Intervento Speciale (GIS) hostage rescue team and Tuscania Regiment’s CT team, as well as the national Police’s Nucleo Operativo Centrale di Sicurezza (NOCS) team, are on-site and well-rested should there be a Munich-kinda situation.
This is all complemented by the invaluable contribution of 1,500 volunteers, aged 18-65, from the National Alpini Association (Associazione Nazionale Alpini, or ANA), the veterans group for the Alpini Corps mountain troops. These guys are doing all the support stuff, such as driving vehicles, ushering competitors, and keeping trails and slopes clear and safe.
Lots of feathers and funny hats, but don’t let the smiles fool you, these outfits are among the best in the world at what they do.
Besides being seen and unseen on the periphery, they were there at the flag raisings, with Alpini raising the Olympic flag and Carabinieri the Italian flag.
Further, one of the flagbearers for the Italian team marching into the stadium was Carabinieri MarescialloFederica Brignone. She well earned her place on the team, as the skier won the 2025 World Cup, the gold medal in the Giant Slalom, and the silver medal in the Super-G at the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach, as well as the 2025 World Cups in Giant Slalom and Downhill.
The four recently decommissioned 224-foot U.S. Navy Avenger-class Mine Countermeasures ships — the former USS Devastator, USS Dextrous, USS Gladiator, and USS Sentry — have departed Bahrain aboard the 65,000-ton Norwegian-flagged merchant heavy-lift vessel Seaway Hawk, marking their final voyage through the Arabian Gulf.
Seaway Hawk was escorted by USS Canberra (LCS 30), one of the three-pack of newly MCM-optimized Independence-class ships– the others being USS Santa Barbara (LCS 32) and Tulsa (LCS 16)-– that are currently forward-deployed to Bahrain, replacing the legacy Avenger-class ships that have served in Task Force 55 for over 30 years.
This isn’t the first time 5th Fleet MCM has passed the torch in the region with generational changes. Several circa-1950s wooden-hulled 120-foot Aggressive-class ocean minesweepers, including the USS Adroit (MSO-509) —subject of an upcoming Warship Wednesday —the USS Impervious (MSO-449), and the Leader (MSO-490), were deployed to the Persian Gulf beginning in 1990, notably supporting Operations Earnest Will, Desert Shield, and Desert Storm.
Before that, the old ‘phib USS Okinawa (LPH-3) had operated Navy RH-53D Sea Stallion minesweeping helicopters in the Gulf during Operation Ernest Will, and six small minesweeping boats (4 x 57-foot MSBs and 2x 36-foot MSLs) of Mine Group Two, Mine Division 125, had arrived in the region on USS St. Louis (LKA-116) and USS Raleigh (LPD-1) in the summer of 1987.
Mine Division 125 personnel watch as a yard crane lifts the minesweeping boat MSB 16 from the Cooper River. The boat will be placed on a skid for loading into the well deck of the amphibious transport dock USS Raleigh (LPD 1). August 1, 1987. MSGT Dave Casey, USAF. 330-CFD-DF-ST-88-03132
These brownwater boats were later augmented by the Aggressive class bluewater boats USS Fearless (MSO-442), Inflict (MSO-456), and Illusive (MSO-448), towed by USS Grapple (ARS-53) to the region. The epic nearly 10,000-mile journey began on 6 September 1987 and lasted roughly eight weeks, arriving in the Gulf of Oman on 2 November 1987. Upon arrival, the Inflict discovered and destroyed the first underwater contact mines in the northern Persian Gulf countered by an American minesweeper since the Korean War.
The salvage ship USS Grapple (ARS 53) tows the ocean minesweepers USS Inflict (MSO 456), USS Fearless (MSO 442), and USS Illusive (MSO 448) to the Persian Gulf to support US Navy escort operations. September 1, 1987 PH2 C. Duvall. 330-CFD-DN-ST-88-01143
The ocean minesweeper USS INFLICIT (MSO 456) heads towards the Persian Gulf to support US Navy escort operations, 9/1/1987
Led by its regimental band, the 11th U.S. Cavalry is shown passing in review on the parade ground of Fort Des Moines, in the summer of 1904. The unit is three years old in this image and had just returned from fighting overseas in the Philippines. Via Mike Brubaker. http://temposenzatempo.blogspot.com/2010/05/11th-us-cavalry-band.html
Founded on 2 February 1901 as a horse-mounted cavalry unit, the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment has served the nation for over a century across nearly every major era of conflict.
Blackhorse troopers first saw action during the Philippine-American War and the 1916 Mexican Expedition.
11th Cavalry Regiment in garrison at the Presidio of Monterey, 1932. They retired their horses for armor shortly after, inactivating as a mounted unit in July 1942.
Later, charging into history in World War II during the Normandy invasion and the liberation of Europe, picking up five battle honors as the 11th Cavalry Group, Mechanized.
M-4 Sherman tanks of the 11th Cavalry Group (Mechanized) in Europe during WWII. (US Army 11th ACR Museum)
The Regiment continued its legacy through Vietnam, stood watch at the Fulda Gap against aggression during the Cold War, and answered the call again in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Members of the 11th ACR talk with West German border police during the Cold War, 1986 DA-ST-86-06121
In every generation, Blackhorse has adapted to meet the demands of modern warfare while preserving its proud cavalry heritage.
Today, the Regiment carries that legacy forward as the Army’s premier Opposing Force at the National Training Center, forging combat-ready formations and sharpening the force for future conflict as, through the years, the 32nd Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment, or the Krasnovian local forces in the Mojave Desert of Fort Irwin.
This started life as an M113
OPFOR.. the NTC Fort Irwin, CA.. It’s an M113 dressed as a Warsaw Pact BMP-2
Sadly, the 11th ACR’s Horse Detachment is scheduled for retirement this year, making this week one of its final unit rides.
The poster from the 11th ACR’s 100th birthday, now a quarter century in the rearview and lacking the most recent honors from the Sandbox. DA-SD-03-07553
The future USS John F. Kennedy (CVN 79) has returned to HII-Newport News Shipbuilding following successful builder’s sea trials. A team of shipbuilders and the CVN 79 crew spent a week at sea testing important ship systems and components for the first time.
The good news is that she was able to complete the trials without having to be towed back halfway through, and no apparent fires were observed.
Still, she looks beautiful.
The second Gerald R. Ford-class super carrier has cost some $11.4 billion thus far and, ordered in January 2009, is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in March 2027, a gestation period of “just” 18 years, somehow twice as long as the class leader, Ford.
The plan is for the third Ford, the future USS Enterprise (CVN-80), to be delivered in 2030, only 14 years after HII was given the first award for her advanced planning.
How about these images of a three-pack of American maritime assets steaming into the Bay of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, this week under Operation Southern Spear. They include the 509-foot grey-hulled Flight IIA Burke, USS Stockdale (DDG 106), the 418-foot Berthoff-class National Security Cutter USCGC Stone (WMSL 758), and the old-school all-diesel 210-foot Reliance-class medium endurance cutter USCGC Diligence (WMEC 616).
Talk about a high-low-low mix.
Note that Stockton has an ODIN laser system in place of her forward CIWS
Of course, all the heavy lifting in the little SAG falls on the shoulders of Stockdale, while Stone and Diligence (the latter with a 10.5-foot draught) are more (wait for it) more littoral constabulary assets that can operate closer in-shore while still under the DDG’s protective umbrella.
Still, this can point to the detached SAG of the future.
Pacific Slug Fest Limitations: It all comes down to VLS
The Navy currently has around 8,700 VLS cells across 81 surface ships (7 x CGs, 74 DDGs) and 28 submarines (24 x SSNs, 4 SSGNs), but at least 1,470 of those cells will vanish in the next four years as the final seven Ticos and the only four SSGNs are removed from the fleet after 30-40 years of service.
That’s bad.
New incoming DDGs and SSNs in those four years will make good about half of those lost cells (in the best-case scenario), meaning that, no matter how you slice it, the Navy is facing a drop of something like 600-800 VLS cells by the end of the decade.
The first of 12 building 10,000-ton Block V Virginias, carrying 40 VLS cells up from the standard 12 cells (an idea to counter the loss of the long-in-the-teeth SSGNs), will start to arrive in 2028-29 and hopefully will help address some of the shortfall but even with that the Navy is still going to be light on cells at a time in which it should be growing the number, not struggling to (almost) maintain it.
Plus, there is the problem of reloading a VLS cell with more munitions as soon as possible, preferably without having to return to, say, 1,700nm to Guam or 5,000nm Pearl from an event off Taiwan. After all, once a DDG fires off its 96 cells, it is just a gunboat. A $2.5 billion LCS.
The Navy is aware of that and, in the past couple of years, has been advancing at-sea VLS replenishment, recently testing the Transferable Rearming Mechanism (TRAM) to reload Mk 41 VLS cells from supply vessels (e.g., USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE 11) and USNS Gopher State (TACS-4)). t but it is far from standard.
This could lead to a new class of VLS-rearming destroyer tenders, a concept that should have been fielded in the 1980s along with the first Burkes and Flight I Ticos.
Sailors from Navy Cargo Handling Battalion One (NCHB-1) onboard USS Chosin (CG-65) work with the ship’s force to complete a demonstration of the Transferrable Rearming Mechanism VLS Reloading At-Sea with the USNS Washington Chambers (T-AKE 11) on Oct. 11, 2024, in the Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Navy Photo.)
Another option is MODEP, which is proposed by Leidos to repurpose surplus oil rigs into mobile missile defense and resupply bases that can be moved forward. Concepts have them carrying as many as 512 VLS loads.
MODEP:
The bad news on this is that swapping out empty VLS canisters for full ones can be time-consuming, meaning it could take as long as four days to refill an empty DDG. And that is if the weather and seas permit.
New frigates to the rescue
Another bite at closing the VLS gap, while putting more hulls in more places, is to add a 30-40 foot plug to Flight II of the Navy’s new fast frigate, which is based on the Coast Guard’s 418-foot NSC, as exemplified by the USCGC Stone above. The plug would only transform the length-to-beam ratio from its currently tubby 8:1 closer to a more svelte 9:1, but would add enough room to wedge a 64-cell strike-length VLS into the cutter/frigate and its ancillary wiring/support/venting space.
Plus, Ingalls has been spitballing such concepts for years, so you can bet they have guys already doing the math on this.
Ingalls Shipbuilding VLS-equipped Sea Control Patrol Frigate based on National Security Cutter. This was a concept as far back as 2017. It has the same length as the current NSC, but just add a 30-foot plug (maybe not even that long), and you could make a 64-cell VLS a thing
Yes, the ship doesn’t carry the sensors to wring the capability out of SM-2/3 anti-air missiles, but, pairing one of these Flight II NSC/FFs with a DDG could be the ticket, running cooperative engagement to bring many more missiles to the fight– akin to how 24 of the 31 Spruance-class destroyers were converted to feature a 61-cell Mark 41 in place of their original forward Mk 16 ASROC launchers during the 1980s and 90s. That upgrade allowed the VLS Sprucans to fire (lots) of Tomahawks and carry vertical-launch ASROCs instead of their old Matchbox launchers, which were limited to just eight ready rounds plus eight reloads.
The Sprucan USS Deyo, after her ASROC Matchbox launcher was removed and replaced with the 61-cell VLS. Also note the Phalanx CIWS mounts port and starboard.
A run of 20 of these theoretical Flight II NSC/FFs, built in 4-5 ship batches, awarded all-up to 2-3 yards, could backfill 1,280 VLS cells to the fleet. Fast.
Further, as these new frigates, just good for 27-28 knots (and only in bursts) likely won’t travel with the carrier battle groups all the time, by taking two Flight II NSC/FFs with their combined 128 VLS cells, and adding them to a DDG, then you have a task group capable of independent operation as a SAG that can count 228 VLS slots as well as four MH-60 airframes, assorted UAVs, 1 5-inch Mark 45, two 57mm guns, two (or three) 21-cell RAM launchers, 32 NSM anti-ship missiles, and assorted 25mm/.50 cal mounts.
In short, they could control a lot of sea and air space while only tying down three “little boys” and about 600 bluejackets. Plus, they could call at a lot more ports than a CVBG or ARG.
Nine such SAGs, operating on the periphery of the nine active carrier battle groups and nine active amphibious ready groups, could really add a wild card to naval tactics, especially in any sort of 2030s peer clash in the Western Pacific.
Beretta has been quietly bringing one of the coolest .22LR semi-auto pistols to the market for the past couple of years, and we can finally talk about it.
But first, a little background.
The Jaguar name goes back to 1958 when Beretta introduced a series of gently larger rimfire semi-automatic pistols to complement its pocket .22s like the Model 418 Panther and tip-up barrel Minx. Like today’s Jaguar, the Beretta that carried the name last century was primarily intended for use as a plinker and target pistol, although it went on to be used by covert kinda folks in covert kinda operations.
The original Beretta Jaguar series 70 pistols were introduced in 1958 and remained in production into the 1980s. They are old school cool, for sure. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Meet the new Jaguar B22
We first saw the pre-production Jaguar B22 at a Beretta range event in 2025, but were sworn to secrecy on it. Like the original, it was cool and sleek. However, where the old 71 was art deco and classic, the new Jag was a rimfire muscle car, dripping with factory standard go-fast accessories from Tandemkross and built to go fast and perform while doing it.
The pre-production Jag, spotted in January 2025. Almost ready to be let out of its cage and shown to the public.
Fast forward to SHOT ’26 last month and the Jag was back at Beretta’s range event– but this time soft-launched and ready to purr.
The new platform, designed for plinking, target shooting, and training the next generation, will be offered in a Tac Metal (MSRP $749) and a Metal Competition (MSRP $969) model, with sub-variants in standard (15-round magazines) and state-compliant (10-round) versions of each, at the same price.
Both are built atop an innovative new modular chassis system and an M_LOK barrel shroud with a detachable accessory rail, making the B22 easy to disassemble, clean, and customize. Featuring dual-side ejection with a fixed barrel, it is designed to be reliable and accurate. They are internal hammer-fired (SAO) and blowback action.
The Jaguar B22 Tac Metal runs a 5.25-inch barrel and is 8.85 inches overall. Weight is 33.6 ounces. Equipped with adjustable fiber-optic sights, an extended barrel, and a 1913 Picatinny rail, it is suppressor and optics-ready, as you can tell.
The Jaguar B22 Metal Competition has a 5.5-inch barrel, giving it an overall length of 9.8 inches and a weight of 36.4 ounces. It comes standard with all the features of the Tac Metal but also adds A Tandemkross fiber front fiber optic, Tandemkross Steam Demon single port compensator, Tandemkross Accelorator thumb ledge gas pedal, and an adjustable Tandemkross semi-flat faced trigger with pre- and post-travel adjustments. It looks fast just sitting on the table.
Beretta says the Jaguar B22 Metal Competition is the first .22LR pistol explicitly developed in partnership with the largest educational shooting program in the world for youth, the Scholastic Action Shooting Program (SASP), in a process that has taken four years.
More direct from Tandemkross and SASP on the background of the new generation of Jaguar:
We hope to have a review of these in the coming weeks.
