Monthly Archives: August 2021

Ever Seen the Magazine of a MK 110?

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I thought this shot was interesting, as it shows something I personally have never seen before: the below-deck stowage of rounds aboard USS Charleston (LCS 18) for the ship’s No. 1 mount, its Bofors Mark 3/BAE Mk 110 57 mm gun. Capable of a whopping 220 rounds per minute until its 120 round automatic loader drum is empty, GMs would likely then have to refill said drum from this magazine.

PHILIPPINE SEA (Aug. 20, 2021) Mineman 2nd Class Hunter Auslander, left, from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Mineman 1st Class Danielle Epperson stow 57mm rounds aboard the Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Charleston (LCS 18), Aug. 20, 2021. Charleston, part of Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 7, is on a rotational deployment, operating in the U.S. 7th fleet area of operations to enhance interoperability with partners and serve as a ready-response force in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Adam Butler) 210820-N-WU807-1040

With a range of 9.1 nautical miles, the MK 110 gun is installed aboard both classes of LCS and the Coast Guard’s large National Security Cutters, taking the place of the 75mm OTO Melera gun in the fleet. It is also set to be used on the Constellation-class frigates and the USCG’s offshore patrol cutters.

Personally, I’d like to see all of the above carry a MK 45/62 5-incher, firing beautiful 70-pound shells, but that’s just me and SECNAV never returns my phone calls. 

USS Delbert D. Black (DDG-119) conducted the first live-fire of her Mk. 45 5in 62 Mod 4 gun, Feb 2020. (U.S. Navy photo)

Ask Yourself One Question…

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Smith & Wesson’s large N-frame revolvers are a favorite among handgun hunters, competitive shooters, and classic wheel gun enthusiasts.

With a basis in the old school circa 1908 Hand Ejector First Model “New Century” double-action revolver, the first handgun chambered in .44 S&W Special, this early S-frame morphed during World War I into the Model 1917, chambered in .45 ACP, and a series of similarly beefy descendants such as the Model 27 – the world’s first .357 Magnum – and, the subject of our tale, the hand-filling Model 29.

I recently got to handle these bad boys while I was in the Vault in Minnesota. There is a reason these have been in production for over 60 years.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Arisakas Still at Work

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The Japanese Type 38 (as in the 38th year of the Meiji period) rifle, was first adopted in 1906 by the Emperor’s troops after feedback from the recent wars with Qing-dynasty China and Imperial Russia. Almost 3 million of these simple bolt-action 6.5x50mm rifles would be made at three Japanese arsenals (Tokyo, Kokura, Nagoya) as well as one in Japanese-occupied Korea (Jinsen) and Manchuria (Mukden) until as late as 1944. While you would think that these all went into Japanese military hands, you would be incorrect as lots were exported abroad including 728,000 to Russia of all places during the Great War; 150,000 to the UK to arm British sailors in the same conflict; 200,000 to Republican China in 1917-18, and 24,000 to Estonia in the 1920s.

One of the lesser-known Arisaka rifle contracts was from the government of Siam, now Thailand, which had ordered several aircraft, naval vessels, and small arms from the increasingly powerful Asian power in the 1930s. The Thais bought 50,000 “Type 66” (Type 38s chambered in Bangkok’s domestic oddball 8x52R caliber) in 1924 from the Tokyo Army Arsenal. These were later augmented by a smaller quantity of 6.5×50-chambered guns provided as military aid in WWII. Post-war, some of each were converted to 30.06 M2, of which the government had a lot of due to close relations with the U.S., and were then dubbed Type 83/88s. They even carried them to war in Korea in the 1950s. 

It would seem that at least some of those (probably non-firing) Arisakas are still soldiering on in Thailand as training rifles, as witnessed by these recent photos:

The above green-uniformed/bereted troops are members of the NST, or Military Student Training Supervisory Authority. The program, which runs for five years, is coordinated by local Territorial Defense Commands in the country and trains young men and women 17-25 with some 40 to 80 hours of field/classwork per year instead of joining the military proper for a period of active service (Thailand has conscription with anywhere from 6 months to two years spent in the colors). After completion of the NST period, members transition to a non-drilling reserve, and, while college students can substitute attending Ror Dor (ROTC) classes while in university for active servce, for those not headed to post-secondary schools the NST is popular. 

Besides the Arisakas, the NST also uses lots of M1 Carbines, M1 Garands, and M60 GPMGs in their live fire and fieldwork, which is run by local cadres from active-duty units. Besides the Vietnam-era hardware, they also run locally-made ALICE gear, M1956-style bottle canteens, and the like. 

One Fine Greyhound

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Via the USS Kid Veterans Museum:

USS KIDD (DD-661) at rest in her cradle in downtown Baton Rouge, LA, USA, where she now serves as a museum — August 2021 (Photo copyright Hunter Svetanics; used by permission)

Note her five 5″/38 singles, 14 Bofors, 12 Oerlikons, five-pack of 21-inch torpedo tubes, stern depth charge racks, and 6 K-gun depth charge projectors– the same armament layout she had in August 1945. 

An early Fletcher-class destroyer named after RADM Isaac C. Kidd, who perished on the bridge of USS Arizona on December 7th, the “Pirate of the Pacific” earned 12 battlestars in WWII then continued her service in the Korean conflict and the Cold War. Her buccaneer moniker came from a giant figure of the famed privateer captain on her stack. Destroyer nose art, if you will. 
 

80-G-202517: “USS Kidd (DD-661), with an elaborate figure of the famous pirate captain painted on the smokestack, the destroyer keeps a fighting name sailing the high seas.”

After languishing on red lead row for almost two decades, she was one of three Fletcher-class tin cans set aside by the Navy– but the only one left largely in her WWII configuration (i.e., not FRAM’d)– and has been a museum in Baton Rouge since 1982. 
 

USS Kidd (DD-661) underway at the time she was recommissioned for Korean War service, circa March 1951. This image was received by the Naval Photographic Center in December 1959, but was taken much earlier. Note that the ship still carries World War II vintage radar antennas and is otherwise fitted as she was in mid-1945. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Photo #: NH 107198.

 
She is so well preserved that she served for the topside footage of the fictional USS Keeling in the recent Tom Hanks film, Greyhound, which is sadly trapped on AppleTV.

NYPD Finally Figures Out the 12# Trigger is Junk

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Do you get the joke?

The New York Police Department is reportedly moving away from its long-held and much-loathed 12-pound trigger pull on handguns.

Recent field tests by the agency found that officers fire more accurately with a trigger pull of about 5 pounds. For over a century, police in the Big Apple have used the heavier 12-pound weight, even specially ordering its standard-issue Glocks with the so-called “NY-2” or “New York Plus” trigger, which uses a heavier spring that roughly doubles the pull from the factory-normal 5.5 pounds, giving it the feel of a double-action-only revolver.

While some have advocated for the heavier springs for defensive gun use, especially in the interest of cutting down on negligent discharges, they have also long been criticized as contributing towards poor marksmanship.

More in my column at Guns.com.

53 Years ago Today: Get the Pig, boys…

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Does it get any more Vietnam that this image of Marines trying to suppress an enemy sniper, 30 August 1968?

“Firepower: Lance Corporal Harry J. Howell (left) 20, (McKenzie, Alabama) and Private First Class Pete G. Heckwine (right), 20 (Carpentersville, Illinois) fire on an enemy sniper during a sweep and clear operation 13 miles south of Da Nang. The L Company, 3d Battalion, 7th Marines [L/3/7] helped account for 55 NVA soldiers killed and numerous weapons captured during the four-day operation. The Marines also destroyed a fortified NVA complex of reinforced bunkers and trenches (official USMC photo by Staff Sergeant Bob Bowen).”

From the Jonathan F. Abel Collection (COLL/3611) at the Archives Branch, Marine Corps History Division

Of My Time with the GX4

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Taurus announced the new micro-compact semi-auto pistol, the GX4, in May, billed as an 11+1 shot 9mm that was roughly the size of a traditional .380 pocket gun that had half the capacity. The specs of the polymer-framed striker-fired handgun– 5.8-inches long with the small backstrap installed, about an inch wide, and 4.4-inches high with the flush-fit magazine inserted– put it in the same boat as the Ruger MAX-9, Sig Sauer P365, Smith & Wesson Shield Plus, and Springfield Armory Hellcat line.
I’ve been kicking around the new Taurus GX4 over the past couple of months, having run some 500 rounds through it, and have some things to say about it.

The 11+1 shot Taurus GX4 is definitely compact. Micro compact, you could say.

The Delaware Regiment Holding the Line

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Some 245 years ago today:

Battle of Long Island by Domenick D’Andrea, via the U.S. Army National Guard’s Heritage Collection

At the Battle of Long Island, the actions of the Delaware Regiment kept the American defeat from becoming a disaster. Fighting alongside the 1st Maryland Regiment, the soldiers from Delaware may well have prevented the capture of the majority of Washington’s army – an event that might have ended the colonial rebellion. Organized in January 1776 by Colonel John Haslet, the Delaware Regiment was noted as the best uniformed and equipped regiment of the Continental Army. Delaware’s blue jackets with red facings and white waistcoats and breeches would later become the uniform for all the Continental troops.

During the Battle of Long Island, the Delaware and Maryland troops were positioned on the right of Washington’s line. They defended the most direct route from the British landing site in south Brooklyn to the American fortifications in Brooklyn Heights. Though the troops faced the fiercest fighting of the day, they held their ground long enough to allow the remainder of Washington’s army to safely retreat to the fortifications. However, the Delaware regiment was outflanked and forced to retreat, taking 23 prisoners with them, through marshland and across the Gowanus creek. Two nights later, Washington entrusted his Delaware and Maryland soldiers to be the rear guard as he secretly withdrew his army from Brooklyn to Manhattan.

Today, the 175th Infantry Regiment, Maryland Army National Guard, preserves the legacy of the 1st Maryland Regiment. The 198th Signal Battalion, Delaware Army National Guard, perpetuates the proud lineage of the Delaware Regiment.

British, American, and Japanese flattops at play

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As part of Exercise Noble Union/Large Scale Global Exercise (LSGE), units of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, U.S. Navy’s America Expeditionary Strike Group (with the 31st MEU aboard), and the Royal Navy’s CSG21 task group have been operating together this week.

Notably, this put the 65,000-ton British carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08), the 45,000-ton Lightning carrier/gator USS America (LHA-6), and the 19,000-ton Hyūga-class “helicopter destroyer” JS Ise (DDH-182) side-by-side.

Both HMSQE and America have F-35s on deck, while Ise is sticking with rotary-wing assets, although it is theorized that she and her sister Hyuga could someday operate the little 5th Gen fighter. (Royal Navy photo)

(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Aron Montano, 210824-N-BG089-0596)

Of interest, RN FAA Merlin helicopters of 820 Naval Air Squadron cross-decked from HMSQE to America during the exercise, as did Marine F-35s of VMFA-211, a historic moment for each type and class.

Happy 80th Navy EOD

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The first mine disposal class of 24 officers and enlisted Sailors graduated on 22 August 1941, marking the start of the Navy EOD community, the wearers of the “crab.” Today, more than 2,000 Navy EOD technicians serve in the U.S. Navy, carrying forward the legacy of 80 years of distinguished service.

Check out this primer about RADM Draper Laurence Kauffman, the WWII father of Navy EOD and America’s first frogman, as well as hearing from EOD vets from Vietnam and the Gulf War.

In semi-related news, the U.S. Navy announced this week that it has finished the ship-based Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) for the Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) program onboard the littoral combat ship USS Manchester (LCS 14) off of the California coast. 

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