Author Archives: laststandonzombieisland

Shooting Britain’s Last Mag-Fed LMG

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In the early 1980s – just after the Falklands War – the British government moved to ditch the combat-proven inch-pattern semi-auto-only FN FAL (dubbed the L1A1) and the 7.62 NATO-chambered Bren gun (L4A1) with a new and radically different platform, the SA80 family.

Adopted in 1985 was a bull-pupped Enfield select-fire rifle in 5.56 NATO that accepted standard 30-round magazines. Fielded with the 4x fixed-power SUSAT (Sight Unit Small Arms, Trilux) optic, this new series of guns was designated the L85 rifle – with a 20-inch barrel – to replace the L1A1.

Whereas 350,000 SA80 pattern firearms of all types were made, the lion share were L85A1s, most later updated to L85A2 standard by HK, and finally to L85A3– the current standard. Besides the standard rifles, there was a comparative handful (2,500) of shortened L22A1/A2 Carbines for use by aircrew and the like produced. Training aids in the form of the L103A2 Drill Purpose, L98 Cadet Rifle, and L402A1 0.22 Small Bore Rifle were also made.

One of the more eclectic variants is the comparatively rare (22,000 made) L86 Light Support Weapon. Designed to replace the 7.62 Bren L4A1 in squad service, it had a longer 24-inch barrel, a rear grip, and a folding bipod.

The SUSAT-equipped L86 LSW (top) and the L85 rifle, are compared. Note the longer barrel with a shorter handguard and outrigger support, the rear grip, and the folding bipod on the LSW. (Graphic: MoD)

Among other features are a folding butt strap that flips up to assist with stability. (Graphic: MoD)

Now withdrawn from British service and replaced by a proper squad automatic weapon, the belt-fed FN Minimi, we recently were able to go hands-on with a retired (but still functional) L86 at BFV earlier this year.

The L86 is a beefy weapon, hitting the scales at 16 pounds with the SUSAT installed and a 30-round magazine inserted. However, it is still “light” compared to the L4A1 Bren it replaced, which hit the scales at 19 pounds, unloaded. Plus, the L86 is only a little over 35 inches long, or about the length of a Mini-14!

The L86 is probably one of the oddest Enfields ever produced.

The chunky L9A1 SUSAT, which was cutting-edge when introduced in the early 1980s, has since been phased out by the Trijicon ACOG and the Elcan Specter in British service. Note the fixed iron backup sights located atop the sight body. The SUSAT uses an illuminated inverted aiming point that looks something like the Washington Monument.

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

Oldest Cutter Not Looking Too Bad at 61 Years Young

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The seniormost blue-water cutter, the USCGC Reliance (WMEC-615), has been in service almost continuously since she was commissioned on 20 June 1964, with the only break being regular yard periods and a 20-month Major Maintenance Availability from April 1987 to January 1989.

Constructed across a 22-month period for the sum of $4,920,804 by the Todd Houston Shipbuilding Corporation, the country has gotten its money’s worth out of Hull 615.

The lead ship of her class of 16 cutters, she originally carried a CODAG propulsion system and a 3″/50 gun forward as well as weight and space reserved for ASW weapons to serve as a patrol escort in the event of WWIII.

This black and white photo shows newly the commissioned Reliance (WMEC-615) with an HH-52 Sea Guard helicopter landing on its pad and davits down with one of its small boats deployed. Notice the lack of smokestack and paint scheme pre-dating the Racing Stripe or “U.S. Coast Guard” paint schemes. She has a 3″/50 forward as well as 20mm cannons for AAA work and weight and space for Mousttraps, a towed sonar, and Mk.32 ASW tubes, although they were never fitted. U.S. Coast Guard photo.

After her $16 million MMA in the late 80s, she lost her 3-incher, replaced with an early model manned MK38 25mm chain gun, while her engines were replaced with twin Alco diesels. Keep in mind that the MMA was supposed to just add 10-to-15 years to her lifespan, with a planned retirement along those lines in 2009-2015.

Post MMA

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance (WMEC 615) interdicts a low-profile vessel carrying more than $5 million in illicit narcotics in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Feb. 15, 2024. Patrolling in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South, the Reliance crew stopped two drug trafficking ventures, detaining six suspected traffickers and preventing nearly 4,000 pounds of cocaine and 5,400 pounds of marijuana, worth more than $57 million, from entering the United States. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Reliance)

She has earned at least four Coast Guard Unit Commendations, a Coast Guard Meritorious Unit Commendation, multiple Joint Meritorious Unit Awards, and numerous USCG “E” ribbons. She has put out oilrig fires, saved at least four ships adrift on the sea, served on the Campeche Patrols for three years, picked up thousands of Haitian and Cuban migrants in the Florida Straits, bagged over 400 tons of MJ and $50M worth of cocaine, and just generally been a floating mensch.

Reliance just completed a 60-day patrol in the Florida Straits, Windward Passage, and Gulf of America, and managed to have a short video captured of her underway in the Gulf.

At some point in the coming years, she will be replaced by the future USCGC Reliance (WMSM-925), a Heritage-class 360-foot Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPCs), and will be the fifth vessel to bear the distinguished name going back to 1861.

Perhaps the old girl will be retained as a museum, with the new National USCG Museum in New London being a good candidate.

Diorama worthy Phantom

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I though this was a very well done scale model scene until I found the original photo in the NARA and zoomed in enough to see expressions on faces. It was taken 40 years ago today in the coldest stretch of the Cold War.
Official caption: “An elevated view of the refueling of an F-4E Phantom II aircraft undergoing maintenance. The aircraft belongs to the 81st Tactical Fighter Squadron, 52nd Tactical Fighter Wing. Spangdahlem Air Base, Rheinland-Pfalz, West Germany. 18 March 1985″

USAF Photo DFST8511926, National Archives Identifier 6389752

The photographer was TSGT Jose Lopez Jr., who was seriously skilled. NARA has over 200 images of his that are digitized and several of them are incredibly stirring, especially when you remember they were all snapped back in the analog manual camera days when you had to be in touch with your F-stops and film speeds.
Check these two out:

“An air-to-air right side view of two F-15 Eagle aircraft from Detachment 1, 318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron, passing the rear of Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.” January 1, 1988. DFST8808317. National Archives Identifier 6427662. TSGT Jose Lopez Jr.

“A moisture cloud forms on the wings of a 96th Bomber Wing B-1B bomber aircraft as the plane executes a tight turn.” March 9, 1987. DFST9110024. National Archives Identifier 6462842. TSGT Jose Lopez Jr.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

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Here we see, some 80 years ago this month, four leaf clover-wearing General Motors FM-2 Wildcats and Grumman TBM-3 Avengers of Composite Squadron (VC) 93 aboard the Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Petrof Bay (CVE-80) as they prepare for their first mission supporting the invasion of Okinawa, 25 March 1945. It was VC-93’s inaugural taste of combat. 

Image from Storm of Eagles: The Greatest Aviation Photographs of World War II, by John Dibbs, Kent Ramsey, and Robert “Cricket” Renner (Osprey Publishing), via Navsource

Petrof Bay’s war diary for the above day, March 25, 1945

Built under a Maritime Commission contract by the Kaiser Shipbuilding Co., Vancouver, Wash., Petrof Bay was laid down on 15 October 1943; launched on 5 January 1944; and commissioned on 18 February 1944 with Capt. Joseph Lester (“Paddy”) Kane (USNA 1923)– formerly the skipper of the Clemson-class seaplane tender (destroyer) USS McFarland (AVD 14)— in command.

With VC-76 aboard, Petrof Bay had already seen extensive combat in the Philippines with RADM Felix Stump’s Task Unit 77.4.2 (“Taffy II”) that included one probable hit on Yamato, two probable hits on Nagato, two on Kongo, and one on an unidentified cruiser, plus strafing runs on Yamato, the cruisers, and destroyers, going far to avenge the slaughter of Taffy III.

Battle off Samar, 25 October 1944 Japanese battleship Yamato (foreground) and a heavy cruiser in action during the Battle off Samar. The cruiser appears to be either Tone or Chikuma. Photographed from a USS Petrof Bay (CVE-80) plane. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-378525

VC-76 went ashore at Guam in early March 1945 to re-equip and retrain after conducting a grueling 786 sorties over Iwo Jima, tapping in the newly formed and above-seen VC-93, which had only a few months prior made their carrier quals off California on sistership USS Matanikau (CVE-101).

Established at NAS Seattle on 23 February 1944, VC-93 had embarked on their trip from California to Hawaii on USS Shamrock Bay (CVE 84) in December and from there to Seadler Harbor, Manus, aboard USS Long Beach (CVE 1) in January 1945, and finally, via USS Barnes (CVE 20) for Guam via Ulithi in February.

While aboard Petrof Bay, VC-93 quickly got broken in, and during the March-April 1945 Okinawa operation, shot down at least 17 enemy planes in addition to flying close air support missions ashore and neutralizing the Japanese airfields on Sakashima from where kamikaze was operating.

In 70 operational days aboard Petrof Bay, VC-93 logged 1,143 Wildcat sorties (in 20 FM-2s) and 598 in the squadron’s 12 Avengers. 

FM 2 Wildcat VC 93 “White 20” over USS Petrof Bay (CVE 80) off Okinawa 1945

Disembarked in Pearl Harbor in June as Petrof Bay headed to California for an overhaul after being 16 months at sea, the Shamrocks crossdecked to the Westbound sistership USS Steamer Bay (CVE-87) where they remained until the end of the war.

VC-93’s war, between Petrof Bay and Steamer Bay, accounted for some 8,500 logged hours in the air across 2,360 sorties. 

VC-93 was disestablished in August 1945 while Petrof Bay, who received five battle stars for World War II service, was placed out of commission, in reserve, in the Boston Group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet in July 1946 then later sold in 1959 for scrap.

VC-93’s excellent 39-page War History is in the National Archives as is the ship’s own 90-page History. 

An FM-2 (White 29, Bu No. 74512) that had served on Petrof Bay with VC-93 somehow managed to survive and has been on public display for the past 25 years, in her period four-leaf clover livery, on loan from the National Naval Aviation Museum at The Museum of Flight, Boeing Field, Seattle.

Classic Walther Burp Gun Spotted in the Wild

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The Portuguese Navy’s Marine Corps has deployed a 170-strong reinforced company (about a quarter of the service’s strength) to the Baltics. Dubbed the Força de Fuzileiros Lituânia (FFZ LTU) it is on a roughly three-month mission under the auspices of NATO and is the largest deployment of the Corpo de Fuzileiros since Portugal evacuated its African colonies more than 50 years ago. Notably, it includes two UAV elements.

The Portuguese Marines are also sort of old-school, in many ways being stuck in the 1960s-70s when it comes to small arms, still using HK G3 battle rifles, and Walther MP subguns. They only recently retired the P-1 (P-38) pistol in favor of the Glock 17.

Everyone knows the Walther brand, and for good reason. The company makes great guns that are often extremely innovative. The PP/PPK, P-38, P-99, PPQ, PDP, the OSP, and Olympia – the list goes on. However, Walther only made one production submachine gun: the Maschinenpistole, or MP.

Designed in the late 1950s and entering production around 1963, the MP is a blowback action 9mm select-fire SMG with a tubular receiver that fires from an open bolt. It beat the much better-known Heckler & Koch MP5 to production by a few years and was made in two different variations: the MP Lang (Long), or MPL, and the MP Kurz (Short), or MPK.

The difference in size between the two was negligible. The more full-sized MPL ran a 10.2-inch barrel for an overall length of 29.4 inches with the side-folding wire stock extended, whereas the MPK went about 3.5 inches shorter with a 6.8-inch barrel.

Seen at Walther’s in-house museum in Ulm last year…

Although well-made, the MP never really caught on. Its only European customer, besides some German police units as the MP4 (they made several on-camera appearances during the Munich Olympics in 1972), was the Portuguese Navy as seen above

Overseas, it was bought by a few third-world users and the U.S. Army, picked for use by the elite Delta Force commandos in the 1970s and the secretive Detachment A “stay behind” Special Forces unit in West Berlin.

Whereas the MP5 is a bit of a race car that needs special tools for in-depth maintenance, the MP is made simply of metal stampings. For instance, the barrel on the Walther can be swapped out by a user in the field with no tools. Plus, its 550-round cyclic rate, slower than that of the HK, was closer to that used by the M3 Grease Gun and earlier MP38/40, allowing a more familiar learning curve to those already used to those platforms. Little wonder it was adopted by the early U.S. Tier 1 counter-terror operators when Delta Force was first stood up. (Photos: U.S. Army, National Archives, Springfield Armory National Historic Site)

We recently got to shoot one earlier this year and can see why Delta dug it. 

Behold, the MPK

It is ambi and is set up kind of funny. The safety (Sicher=safe) is to the rear of the grip, full-auto (Dauerfeuer= continuous fire) straight down, and semi-auto (Einzelfeuer=single fire ) with the switch rotated forward toward the magazine well. The HK MP5 has a similar S/E/F marked switch for Sicher-Einzelfeuer-Feuerstoss

Could Indonesia be the last Harrier operator?

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Other than prototype airframes going back to the P.1127 in 1957, between 1969 and 2003, just 824 Harrier variants of all types were delivered to end-users.

That’s not a lot of aircraft.

This is the same subsonic strike fighter that scared the Guatemalans enough for Belize to gain (and keep) independence, liberate the Falklands, give Italy, Spain, and Thailand their first operational aircraft carriers; provide the Soviets a moment of pause in their plans to sweep through the Fulda Gap, give India a strong naval upper-hand over Pakistan since 1983, and deliver ordnance on the “X” in combat sorties over the Balkans, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Oh, yes, and led Pepsi into a pretty legit lawsuit. 

Talk about a little plane that could!

However, a dated design, surpassed by the F-35 and several generations of helicopter gunships (keep in mind the AH-1 Cobra was only just coming online when the AV-8A was introduced), the Harrier has been on its way out for the past two decades.

The Royal Navy folded their birds into the RAF which ditched the type in 2010.

India completed 33 years of jump jet operations in 2016.

The Thai Navy’s handful of surplus Spanish Matadors have been long out of service.

The USMC– the largest Harrier operator– plans to retire the last of its birds in 2026/27 (the fleet largely living off British spare parts and through cannibalizing 72 retired airframes acquired in 2011). The Marines are already shifting airframes to museums. 

That just leaves the navies of Spain (12 EAV-8B Plus and 1 TAV-8B operated by 9 Escuadrilla) and Italy (14 AV-8B Plus and 1 TAV-8B of Gruppo Aerei Imbarcati along with 15 stored airframes) as the keeper of the Harrier flame outside of the U.S. with the Spanish planning on putting the type to bed in 2030 (no doubt inheriting the final couple of pallets of parts from the USMC) and the Italians doing the same sometime this year.

Speaking of which, word comes that Indonesia may acquire its first aircraft carrier, the soon to be retired ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi.

Italian Navy ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi (C-551) with nine AV-8B Harrier II and one Sea King in the flight deck carrier

While smaller than the 22,000-ton British Invincible class jump carriers and even the 17,000-ton Spanish Príncipe de Asturias, the 14,000-ton Garibaldi is newer than all of those (now scrapped) flattops. Don’t get me wrong, she had a full career, having retired last October after 29 years of service that included combat sorties off the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Libya, and can carry a mixed airwing of some 20 helicopters and AV-8Bs from her 570-foot flight deck.

Will the Indonesians get Harriers as part of the deal?

Maybe, but do they really want to try operating them? The learning curve is steep on the aircraft, and it is even more unforgiving in old age, so that may not be the best idea, especally for planes so long in the tooth. One method of getting into a type for which no conversion training program exists would be to have contract foreign maintainers and aviators (ex-USMC, Italian etc.) which is a whole different can of worms that may be politically unpalatable.

My bet is that the juice won’t be worth the squeeze and the Indonesian Navy will use Garibaldi, if she is acquired, as a host for its helicopters (they have a mix of about 50 AS565 Dauphin, AS332 Super Puma, MBB Bo 105, EC725 Caracal, and other types) while bringing on a wing or two of navalized drones– which is what all the cool kids are doing.

The old spaghetti carrier could eke out another 10-20 years in low-impact UAV operations, not underway in a traditional aircraft carrier sense, but shuffling around the Indonesian littoral and operating as a mobile drone airfield and heliport that can be parked in any bay or cove that will accommodate her 27-foot draft.

A concept roughly akin to the way seaplane tenders were deployed in the first half of the 20th Century.

KAMIKAWA MARU (Japanese seaplane tender, 1936) Anchored off Amoy, China, 16 July 1939, with a deck load of KAWANISHI E7K-2 and NAKAJIMA E8N floatplanes both forward and aft. I can count at least 14 aircraft. This vessel, the first of the class converted to a seaplane carrier, saw extensive service in Chinese waters from 1938 to 1940, with her planes often bombing and strafing key Chinese positions. NH 82154

Irish Tommies in British Army finally get the local nod

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“For the Queen and old Ireland”, circa 1900 by Frank T Copnall, depicts the Irish soldier. NAM. 1973-12-55-1

A new museum is to be established to tell the story of Irish soldiers in the British Army down the centuries. The £13.6 million project will be developed across two sites in Northern Ireland, in Belfast and Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. Keep in mind that over 300,000 Irishmen fought with the British Army in the Great War alone, with some 35,000 never coming home.

The planned Belfast Gallery is a new development and is set to open in 2027. The museum will tell the stories of men like Private James Duffy from Gaoth Dobhair in County Donegal who won a Victoria Cross as a stretcher bearer during the First World War.

During the 19th Century around 40 percent of the British Army was made up of soldiers from across the island of Ireland.

The traditional Irish folk song, As I Roved Out, recalls this tradition of service to the Crown.

As it is, the “Micks” of the Irish Guards are set to celebrate their 125th anniversary in just a few days.

Quis Separabit!

Air Force Drops $2B (more) on Long Range Strike Game

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From yesterday’s DOD Contract announcements, emphasis mine:

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Florida, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $1,925,877,406 firm-fixed-price, undefinitized contract action modification (P00003) to a previously awarded contract (FA8682-24-C-B001) for Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) Production Lot 23 and Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) Production Lot Nine, as well as economic order quantity for JASSM Lot 24 and LRASM Lot 10. The modification brings the total cumulative face value of the contract to $5,180,154,533. Work will be performed in Orlando, Florida, and is expected to be completed by July 31, 2029. Fiscal 2024 missile procurement funds (Air Force) in the amount of $684,233,360; fiscal 2025 missile procurement funds (Air Force) in the amount of $612,699,675; and fiscal 2025 weapon procurement funds (Navy) in the amount of $149,250,015, are being obligated at time of award. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, is the contracting activity.

Lockheed has been steadily ramping up production of JASSM and LRASM, as the long-range strike missiles and ship killers have been vetted for the Air Force’s B-1B and Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. B-52, P-8A, F-18C/D, and F-35 are on the way.

In related news, LRASM just began flight tests with F-35Bs at Pax River. The Bravo model is the STOVL that is being used by the Marines expeditionary units.

BF-3 flt 752 WAC Envelope Expansion

Lockheed says more than 1,100 F-35s are currently operational around the globe, and the fleet has surpassed a cool 1 million flight hours. 

Achilles and the Leopard

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“Destruction of the German Raider Leopard by HMS Achilles and the HMS Dundee,” by maritime artist William Lionel Wyllie.

IWM collection Art.IWM ART 15814

The piece portrays the “Action of March 17, 1917,” a surface battle with the Warrior-class armored cruiser Achilles (14,500t, 505 ft oal, 23 knots, 6x 9.2 inch, 4×7.5 inch, 3 tt.)in the foreground firing on SMS Leopard (9,880t, 390 ft oal, 13 knots, 5x 155mm SK L40, 4x88mm SK L45, 2 tt.), shown smothered in flames in the background. Meanwhile, the armed boarding steamer Dundee (2,187t, 290 ft oal, 15 knots, 2x 4 inch, 1x 3 pdr) is shown as the grey smudge to Leopard’s left.

Leopard, formerly the Mackill Steamship Co’s SS Yarrowdale, had been captured by the German commerce raider SMS Möwe in the Atlantic just before Christmas 1916 then sent through the blockade safely back to Germany with 400 interned Allied mariners aboard.

Converted to become the final commerce raider that the Kaiserliche Marine sent out in the Great War, her only sortie began on 7 March and ended just nine days later in the above action.

It took less than an hour and even though Leopard fired at least three torpedos at Dundee (who in turn fired every shell she had in her magazine at the German) and several salvos at both Dundee and Achilles, the Brits suffered no damage and six MIA (a boarding party sent by Dundee that never returned) while Leopard went down with all 319 souls aboard.

Zouaves and surfboats!

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From Osprey’s upcoming title, American Civil War Amphibious Tactics, by Ron Field, illustrated by Steve Noon:

Hawkins’ Zouaves At Hatteras Inlet, August 28, 1861

Elements of the 9th New York Infantry, also known as Hawkins’ Zouaves [or the New York Zouaves, Little Zouaves, and Zoo-Zoos], land via surfboats on Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, on August 28, 1861. The first major amphibious landing of the Civil War was disrupted by gale-force winds and high surf that stove many of the boats and caused the landings to be called off, leaving 323 troops stranded on the beach overnight. Re-forming at the point where they had struggled ashore, these men spent a miserable night ashore in a driving rain. Although vulnerable to attack from the Confederate garrison at Forts Hatteras and Clark, Colonel William F. Martin, commanding the Confederate defenses in the forts, overestimated their numbers and lost the initiative, surrendering to Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham, USN, the next day.

Yup, I already have it on pre-order.

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