Author Archives: laststandonzombieisland

Army’s (Don’t Call it a) Light Tank Albatross Reappears

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The U.S. Army has had problems with not wanting, but still needing, a decent light tank for generations.

World War II showed the lesson of having a decent light track in the form of the 15-ton M3/M5 Stuart, which, armed with a 37mm gun, swathed in 50mm of armor, and capable of hitting 35 mph, still proved effective if used correctly (i.e. not in fights with Tigers) in Europe and excelled in the Pacific.

A Marine M3 Stuart on Guadalcanal, 1942 “MOP UP UNIT– Two alert U.S. Marines stand beside their small tank, which helped blast the Japanese in the battle of the Tenaru River during the early stages of fighting on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Those well-manned, sturdy machines readily mopped up strong points of enemy resistance.”

This was true enough for the Army to order the M24 Chaffee, which was a 20-ton light tank with a 75mm gun and 38mm of armor that could hit 35 mph on the road, in 1944 and then replaced it post-Korea with the M41 Walker Bulldog (23 ton, 76mm gun, 31mm of armor, 45 mph) which was replaced by the M551 Sheridan, an air-droppable 16 ton track with a weird 152mm gun/Shillelagh missile launcher tube, enough armor to stop small arms rounds, and a 40+ mph road speed.

A soldier from Co. A, 3rd Bn., 73rd Airborne Armor Regt., 82nd Airborne Div., lays out equipment for an M-551 Sheridan light tank prior to the 82nd Airborne Division live-fire exercise during Operation Desert Shield.

Sheridan, which entered service in 1969, was an oddball, but at least it gave the 82nd Airborne a battalion of tanks (err, “Armored Reconnaissance Airborne Assault Vehicles”) that could be Fed-Ex-ed overseas in a hurry.

Well, Sheridan grew obsolete and needed replacement, which led to the canceled M8 “Buford” armored gun system (AGS), the Stryker M1128 mobile gun system (MGS) of which 142 were build and quickly withdrawn from service, and now the Mobile Protected Firepower (MPF) program which fielded the M10 Booker “combat vehicle.”

PD1 – Delivery of First Production Vehicle M10 Booker Combat Vehicle

Booker is a big boy, at some 37 tons, and mounts a 105mm M35 low-recoil tank gun (designed for and formerly carried by the M1128). Actually, it reminds me of the size and capability of the old M60 tank.

And with that, Booker, too heavy and too expensive, is out. The last of three (so far) vehicles that were going to replace the Sheridan, which itself was a cranky platform that nobody really liked.

But still, at least folks got paid…

Can we just pay Rheinmetall for the data set to make a modernized Wiesel here in America?

Dad’s Army: Swiss Edition

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Some 85 years ago this week, on 7 May 1940, the Swiss Federal Council authorized General Guisan to set up Local Guards (Ortswehren, gardes locales, guardie locali), a home guard organization outside the regular Swiss Army and reserves.

Whereas regular service with the Army ran to age 60, with most active requirements stopping at age 50, the Local Guard was able to enlist those young men who were not old enough to be conscripted yet, and those who had aged out at age 70. Finally, those medically unfit for service or, for one reason or another, can not serve in the Army were rolled into the Local Guard.

They typically wore civilian clothes, mixed with old uniforms from prior service, and used personal or donated rifles, with a few old Eidgenössische Waffenfabrik Modell 1889/96 rifles eventually taken from storage for the force.

As with the British Home Guard (Dad’s Army), there was a dedicated partisan in waiting vibe to the Ortswehr, especially in bicycle-equipped units.

The role of the Local Guards during the last mobilization was mentioned in the Final Report of the Chief of the General Staff of the Army as follows:

“The Local Guards contribute by their presence to reassure the population of the hinterland that no longer feels completely at the mercy of saboteurs, the 5th column, paratroopers or motorized detachments that would have pierced the front.”

The force reached 127,563 men in 2,835 units by January 1941 and then stabilized at around 155,000 for the rest of the war. Keep in mind that at the time, the country only had a population of about 4 million, of which 850,000 were on the rolls of the Swiss Army, albeit only about half of those were on active orders. Between the Army and the Ortswehr, you are looking at a full quarter of the Swiss population under arms.

A Schweizer Réduit indeed.

The Swiss thought the Ortswehr important enough to keep around until 1967, and the word is still in use in the cantons today for local fire fighter organizations.

Mare’s Leg, Updated

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Rossi has trimmed down its R95 Triple Black lever-action rifle into a much more packable pistol variant for 2025.

The company debuted its new R95 Triple Black Pistol, or TBP, to the recent NRA Annual Meeting at Atlanta, and we were able to lay hands on it for a closer look. Much like its rifle-length older brother, the TBP is clad in a black Cerakote-coated finish with matching black furniture. A paracord-wrapped medium loop lever and a top-mounted Picatinny optics rail are also features that are carried over from the original.

Specific to the TBP is its abbreviation, shipping with suppressor-ready 13.25-inch barrels and a pistol grip, allowing the lever-action mare’s leg an overall length of just under two feet. Weight is 5.5 pounds, unloaded. While Rossi had the .357 Magnum variant on hand in Atlanta, the TBP will also be offered in .454 Casull, .45-70 Govt, and .44 Mag for those looking for something a little spicier.

I got to handle one at the recent NRAAM in Atlanta.

The side-loading Rossi TBP has a paracord-wrapped medium lever, which splits the difference between big loops and standard rectangular slot-style levers. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The pistols have threaded muzzles with the .357 at NRAAM fitted with a JK Armament can. All four caliber options run a four-round underbarrel magazine tube. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Note the top-mounted Picatinny optics rail. Other features include a cross-bolt manual safety and two sling swivel studs. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

With an overall length of just 23.5 inches, the Rossi TBP line is more easily stowed than a full-length carbine or rifle. (Photos: Rossi)

More after the jump to my column at Guns.com.

Bachi caps and light armor

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It happened 80 years ago.

May 1945, the Alpes-Maritimes region of France near the German-occupied Italian border. A U.S.-built Lend-Leased M5A1 light tank, White 135, of the 1er Regiment de Fusiliers Marins (1er RFM), pushes from Peira-Cava towards the 6,800-foot Authion massif, where one of the last Axis hold-outs in the region had fought hard until withdrawing into Austria. During that fight, the regiment’s 1st squadron lost five of its six officers and half of its men. Wehrmacht Generalleutnant Theobald Lieb, leading the rump of the German-Italian XXXXII. Armeekorps, had expressed surprise at seeing tanks at such altitudes– before ceding the battlefield.

Note the bachi caps, M1 Carbine, tanker’s helmet on the front running light, and mounted M1919 LMG. Ref. : MARINE 433-9488 ECPAD/Defense

The Marine tankers had been organized as a scratch battalion from some 400 French navy volunteers in England in the summer of 1940, who cast their lot with De Gaulle. Organized as an AAA unit and sent to Eritrea, they were soon fighting in Syria with the British (against their countrymen) and in North Africa, where they served with particular distinction at Bir Hakeim.

In September 1943, following a surge in recruits from the French fleet in Algeria, the battalion was expanded to a full regiment and organized as a mechanized force with Stuarts, M8 Scott 75mm self-propelled howitzers, M3 scout cars, M5 halftracks, and Willys MB jeeps.

A sister unit of tank-bound Free French sailors in exile, the Régiment Blindé de Fusilier Marins, helped liberate Paris, including the old Admiralty headquarters. It was equipped as a tank destroyer unit with M10 Wolverines. In the case of both regiments, the conversion from manning battleships and cruisers to operating armored vehicles was surprisingly simple, as the men involved included high proportions of engineering, gunnery, and radio ratings.

After fighting up the Italian “boot,” 1er RFM was pulled out of the 5th Army’s organization and joined the Dragoon Landings in Southern France in August 1944. They were on hand for the liberation of Toulon and Hyères, then went up the Rhone valley, entered Lyon, and moved into the Vosges before ending their war in the Alps.

Des chars Stuart du 1er RFM (Régiment de fusiliers-marins) de la 1re DMI (Division de marche d’infanterie) ex 1re DFL, sont stationnés sur la place Bellecour à Lyon.

1er RFM lost no less than 195 personnel, including two commanders, in combat, with another 600 men wounded. In return, they earned over 200 croix de guerre, 70 médailles militaires, 32 Légion d’honneur, and 31 croix de la Libération, with roughly a third of those decorations being issued posthumously. In total, it was enough for the regiment to earn the rare Ordre de la Libération designation.

The regiment was disbanded in August 1945, but its lineage is preserved in the training battalion at the École des fusiliers marins de Lorient.

One of the regiment’s knocked-out Stuarts remains near the crest of Mt. Authion, on eternal vigil.

Zumwalts’ New Teeth May Actually Work

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The bright shining promise of the Zumwalt-class DDGs– the largest and most expensive class of destroyers ever built for the U.S. Navy– was in their pair of 155 mm/62 (6.1-inch) Mark 51 Advanced Gun Systems carried forward.

The talisman that allowed the Navy to finally retire the battleships and scuttle the 31 still-young Spruance class destroyers (each with proven twin 5″/45s), the AGS had the mythical ability to fire as many as 10 rounds per minute, per mount, to a range of 83 nmi through the use of an un-fielded Long Range Land Attack Projectile.

AGS would have been beautiful.

However, due largely to the fact that 32 Zumwalts were planned, each with two mounts, but only three hulls ever built, the AGS shrank from nearly 100 mounts including spares and test guns to single digits. This unsustainable program was, essentially, stillborn.

Now, with the Zumwalts only armed with 80 Mk 57 peripheral VLS cells and a pair of 30mm Mk 46 mounts (paltry for a 16,000 ton ship of any type) the Navy has been sending the class to Ingalls in Pascagoula to land their inoperable 6.1-inch guns in exchange for four Advanced Payload Modules (APMs), each holding three Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) hypersonic missiles. In short, swapping two guns that don’t work for a dozen huge and unstoppably fast (that’s the plan, anyway) missiles.

The rub is that CPS isn’t a thing yet either, but the Navy at least now has vetted the concept of launching these big birds from a surface warship without melting its upper decks via the concept of a cold-gas launch.

U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducts a cold-gas launch of a conventional hypersonic missile on the path to Navy fielding in Cape Canaveral, Fla. This test informs the Navy fielding approach for the Conventional Prompt Strike offensive hypersonic capability, as well as the continued development and production of the common hypersonic missile that is being developed in partnership with the U.S. Army. (U.S. Navy Photo 250502-D-D0439-1234)

According to the Navy: 

The U.S. Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs is continuing on the path toward the nation’s first sea-based hypersonic fielding with a successful end-to-end flight test of a conventional hypersonic missile from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. This test marked the first launch of the Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) capability utilizing the Navy’s cold-gas launch approach that will be used in Navy sea-based platform fielding.

“The speed, range, and survivability of hypersonic weapons are key to integrated deterrence for America,” Secretary of the Navy John Phelan said. “When fielded, Conventional Prompt Strike will deliver unmatched capabilities to our warfighters.”

This test was the next step in the Navy’s flight testing program of the common All Up Round (AUR) that is being developed in partnership with the Army’s Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office. In 2024, the programs completed two additional end-to-end flight tests of the AUR that will be fielded to both the Navy and Army.

“The cold-gas approach allows the Navy to eject the missile from the platform and achieve a safe distance above the ship prior to first-stage ignition. This technical achievement brings SSP one step closer to fulfilling our role of providing a safe and reliable hypersonic capability to our Navy,” said Vice Adm. Johnny R. Wolfe Jr, Director, Navy’s Strategic Systems Programs, which is the lead designer of the common hypersonic missile.

Modern Pirate Pistol!

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Rossi has expanded its Brawler series of modern break-action single-shot pistols for the better with new models to include variants in .300 Blackout and 5.56 NATO.

The company in 2023 debuted the $300 Brawler line with a dual-caliber .410 bore/.45 Colt offering outfitted with a single-action trigger and a cross-bolt thumb safety. It’s simple. Just load the chamber, close it, cock the hammer, fire, and reload. Takes about five seconds to figure out.

Now, Rossi has upped the ante and was on hand at the recent NRA Annual Meetings in Atlanta with the new Brawlers, each carrying a more serious punch.

The Brawler in 300 BLK runs a 6-groove, 1:8 RH twist, 9-inch barrel and has an overall length of 14 inches. The 5.56 has a 1:7 twist with everything else being the same. Note the threaded barrel. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

While the .45/.410 Brawler has a high blade front sight; the rifle caliber variants only run the integrated top Picatinny rail for optics. (Photo: Rossi)

The possibilities for such a pistol as a trail gun are obvious. Paired with a suppressor, it seems ideally suited as a Form 1 candidate to transform into an SBR running Rossi’s $59 LWC/Tuffy folding pistol grip stock.

Drones Give and Take in Unusual Ways These Days

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A few interesting stories that help add color to what warfare is in 2025.

In Poland, Soldiers of the 15th Giżycko “Zawiszy Czarnego” Mechanized Brigade have been “testing new technologies for MEDEVAC procedures, notification systems, and modern teleinformation tools for planning and managing medical evacuations during both operations and emergencies.”

This includes using a large quadcopter UAV with a Stokes litter slung underneath for casevac.

Looks fun unless you are in the litter…

The Poles, who are continually keeping active tabs on what is going on in Ukraine, are all in on drones moving forward.

Drone troops are the future of the Polish army, the future of all types of armed forces. They will have hundreds of thousands of drones: flying, ground, surface, and underwater – said Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on Wednesday during the annual task and settlement briefing of the management of the Ministry of National Defence and the command staff of the Polish Army.

Now, flash to the Sinai along the Israeli-Egyptian border, where the IDF recently intercepted and captured a UAV entering Israeli airspace. After downing the drone (which still looks intact, so it was probably via a soft kill ECM device) 10 M-16 style rifles and ammunition were recovered, no doubt being smuggled to Palestinian militant groups.

The rifles appear to be ChiCom Norinco CQs, which have been widely used and are available for sale in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and Libya. The Iranians even make a variant of the CQ domestically (as the Sayyad 5.56) for the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

And from the wastes of the Mojave Desert, where the 11th “Blackhorse” Armored Cavalry Regiment has been routinely beating the tracks off folks as the OPFOR at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin for the past 30 years, drones are well in hand to shake things up.

According to the Blackhorse’s social media team, they have been integrating FPV drones of the type often seen in use as simple munitions droppers and unmanned kamikazes in Ukraine and Syria, drone-deployed minefields, and their own legacy systems to lay waste to visiting units and making it look easy.

This Glorious Pilgrimage

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Hamburg, Germany, at the Großer Burstah corner to Rödingsmarkt with the Hindenburghaus in the background, 4 May 1945. Official wartime caption: A “Firefly” 17-pounder Sherman tank on guard at the corner of Adolph Hitler Plasse.”

Mapham J (Sgt), No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, IWM BU 5255

The Firefly belongs to the British 7th Armoured Division, the famed “Desert Rats” who went a long way to chase Rommel out of North Africa before taking part in the Italian campaign and the drive across Northwest Europe. Hamburg would be the “Rats'” final combat of the war.

THE BRITISH ARMY IN NORTH-WEST EUROPE 1944-45 (BU 5284) A Sherman Firefly of 7th Armoured Division in Hamburg, 4 May 1945. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205203358

Summoned to Berlin in July 1945 to take part in the great Victory Parade through the ruined city, Winston Churchill addressed the division, saying:

Now I have only a word more to say about the Desert Rats. They were the first to begin. The 11th Hussars were in action in the desert in 1940 and ever since you have kept marching steadily forward on the long road to victory. Through so many countries and changing scenes you have fought your way. It is not without emotion that I can express to you what I feel about the Desert Rats.

Dear Desert Rats! May your glory ever shine! May your laurels never fade! May the memory of this glorious pilgrimage of war which you have made from Alamein, via the Baltic to Berlin never die!

It is a march unsurpassed through all the story of war so as my reading of history leads to believe. May the fathers long tell the children about this tale. May you all feel that in following your great ancestors you have accomplished something which has done good to the whole world; which has raised the honour of your country and which every man has the right to feel proud of

Today, they are remembered in the 7th Light Mechanised Brigade Combat Team, garrisoned at Kendrew Barracks, Cottesmore. And they still wear “The Rat” proudly.

 

Roland would be smiling, if he ever found his head

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I would be remiss to observe that, among this year’s inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is Warren Zevon.

While not a household name, Zevon had a crazy life and, while hanging out with an Irish bar owner in Spain in 1973– one who had worked in the Congo as a mercenary in the 60s– teamed up to write possibly the best merc song ever penned.

Yup, Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.

It became one of his most enduring songs, and he often performed it on Letterman, where he was a fixture. In fact, his 2002 Letterman appearance, which he closed with Roland, was his last public performance before he passed far too young of mesothelioma.

While the song has been covered dozens of times in the past 50 years, and tons of art abounds, Lorin Michki’s depiction, which hangs in my office, is perhaps the best.

Pour one out for Warren this weekend, my friends, and keep your DPM smock clean.

Last of the 110s

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The crew of the Coast Guard Cutter Liberty prepares to moor at their homeport of Juneau, Alaska, March 13, 2018. The crew of the Cutter Liberty, a 110-foot patrol boat homeported in Juneau, Alaska, was completing tailored ship’s training availability, a biennial readiness assessment of the cutter and crew. Coast Guard photo by Lt. Brian Dykens.

The 110-foot U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Liberty (WPB 1334) was decommissioned during a ceremony in Valdez, Tuesday.

Commissioned on 19 December 1989, Liberty was the 34th Island-Class cutter to join the fleet and the final member of her 49-strong class in USCG service.

Assigned to Auke Bay (Juneau) as her homeport, she has served in Alaska her entire career and, besides hundreds of unsung LE patrols– she made several surprisingly large drug busts in Alaskan waters– she also repeatedly came to the rescue of those at peril on the sea.

She was notably involved in at least three different missions involving stranded passenger liners (Spirit of Columbia, Empress of the North, and Spirit of Glacier Bay).

05.11.2008. Juneau, Alaska – USCGC Liberty (WPB-1334), responded to a call from a disabled 143-foot cruise ship, Spirit of Columbia, with 89 passengers onboard that reportedly lost power to both generators and was operating on one of two propellor engine’s two miles from Warm Springs Bay at 8 p.m. Saturday (USCG photo by Petty Officer Karl Schickle)

Built at Bollinger to a modified Thorneycraft design, class leader USCG Farallon (WPB-1301) commissioned on 21 February 1986 and, with the last of the series, USCGC Galveston Island (WPB-1349), delivered 17 January 1992, Liberty’s exit brings to a close the 39 year run of the class in U.S. service.

In typical Coast Guard acquisition lore, the vessels in the class were intended to have a 15-year life span.

Circa 1980s 110-foot island class cutter spec sheet via Bollinger

Commissioned with a 20mm Mk 16 gun (as seen above) as the main gun (augmented by two .50 cals), they later ditched the 20mm for a Mk 38 25mm Bushmaster, one of the first classes to use the chain gun. There was also a Bolt On Weapons System (BOWS) program that, in place of stern towing equipment, would add a second Mk 38 cannon with ammo storage, and a launcher for FIM-92 Stinger MANPADS anti-aircraft missiles.

The class was everywhere since then, with six of the cutters even spending two decades in the Persian Gulf, having almost daily interactions with the Iranian Republican Guard. These boats were typically up-armed with several additional .50 cals.

180201-N-TB177-0211 U.S. 5TH FLEET AREA OF OPERATIONS (Feb. 1, 2018) Island-class patrol boats USCGC Wrangell left, USCGC Aquidneck (WPB 1309), middle, and coastal patrol ship USS Firebolt (PC 10) patrol the open seas. Wrangell, Aquidneck, and Firebolt are forward deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations in support of maritime security operations to reassure allies and partners and preserve the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce in the region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kevin J. Steinberg/Released)

As with many of her class, Liberty will likely see continued service under a new flag. Her sisters are already serving in Georgia, Costa Rica, Greece, Pakistan, Ukraine, and Tunisia– with the latter just picking up two of the surplus 110s earlier this month to mark “220 years of maritime cooperation.”

17 April 2025, two retired 110-foot USCG cutters transfer to Tunisia. 250417-N-N0901-1003

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