Category Archives: asymmetric warfare

Marines are getting FPV drone serious

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A Neros Archer first-person view drone sits on a case during a demonstration range at Weapons Training Battalion on Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, March 7, 2025. The Marine Corps Attack Drone Team used the Neros Archer FPV drone to engage targets on the range to showcase the drone’s capabilities on the battlefield. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Joshua Barker)

The Marines have a new training program for drones, which is currently standing it up at the battalion level, and “By May 2026, all infantry, reconnaissance battalions and littoral combat teams across the Corps will be equipped to employ FPV attack drone capabilities.”

Seven organizations are designated as regional training hubs with the authority to immediately begin conducting the pilot courses, while the newly formed Marine Corps Attack Drone Team is taking the show on the road.

A recent effort with 22nd MEU Marines certified 14 attack drone operators and 11 payload specialists “fully trained, equipped and ready for contingency operations” on Neros Archers. 

From a presser: 

Six approved pilot courses will certify Marines while testing instructional methods and curriculum. These courses include training for drone operators, payload specialists, and instructors, with specific prerequisites such as simulator experience on Training and Education Command-approved systems. The courses aim to ensure proper integration and supervision of new drone capabilities. The Training and Education Command has also established a process to grant certifications to Marines who have existing qualifications and experience through an exception to policy.

The Corps is looking to pick up 10,000 American or Allied-made FPVs at $4K a pop. 

Depending on the configuration, the Archer costs about $5K and is “capable of carrying a 2 kg/4.5 lb payload over 20 kilometers.” It has already been tapped by Big Green. 

There is also a three-week counter-drone, or C-UAS, course in both soft and hard kill methods, which is equally important.

Check out this from 1st Marines at Pendleton.

The Icelandic Coast Guard sees you, and they want you to know they see you

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The Icelandic Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæsla Íslands, or LHG) was established in 1926– predating the country’s independence by almost two decades– but has roots that go back to 1859.

And, as we have talked about in the past, they are the Stan “I didn’t hear no bell” Marsh of the racing stripers.

The plucky Icelandic Coast Guard Cutter Tyr chasing off one of HM’s much larger and better armed frigates during the “Cod Wars” in the 1970s.

The closest thing the country of 200,000 has to a uniform military service, the 200-member LHG has a small but well-cared-for collection of cutters and aircraft, and runs the Skógarhlí-based Iceland Air Defence System (Íslenska loftvarnarkerfið) whose four U.S.-established radar installations–formerly run by the country’s Radar Agency (Ratsjárstofnun)– augmented by satellites, provide a full-time surveillance capability of the country’s air and waters, interfacing with NATO and commercial ship tracking services.

The service recently posted that they had 295 active vessels at sea under the watchful eyes of the LHG, and that five Russian fishing vessels were huddled up, just skirting the line of the country’s EEZ.

As noted by the LHG (mechanically translated)

Surveillance and law enforcement with Icelandic jurisdiction is carried out both with remote surveillance and satellites alongside real surveillance carried out with TF-SIF [a Bombardier Dash 8-Q-314 maritime patrol aircraft], Coast Guard cutters Thor and Freyja, as well as Coast Guard helicopters.

Coast Guard ships have been monitoring the eastern part of the country lately and have, among other things, boarded foreign ships that fish herring within the jurisdiction. The journeys of these ships will continue to be closely monitored.

You’re damnned right they are closely monitored.

Skal!

The Fake Chinese Secret Iranian Type 56

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When it comes to the AK platform, no gun writer knows more about them than Vladimir Onokoy. You’ve seen his work everywhere if you read gun mags, books, or sites. I mean, he effectively wrote the books on them.

A couple of days ago, Recoil Magazine published Onokoy’s article about Iranian AKs.

Although these rifles are used in conflict zones all over the Middle East, not much information is available, so the piece is interesting, for sure.

Clandestine Kalashnikov: The Fake-Chinese Secret Iranian AK-47

Coast Guard Mobile Afloat Bases, a historical perspective

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Last week’s post about the USCGC Waesche (WMSL 751) serving as a Forward Afloat Staging Base off Alaska during NORTHCOM’s Exercise Arctic Edge 2025 reminded me of the service’s long-standing tradition of such operations.

It actually predates the Coast Guard itself.

City Point (1895-1913)

Due to the shifting waters near the falls of the Ohio River, the Louisville Lifeboat Station (Lifesaving Station No. 10), put into service in 1881, was afloat.

The Louisville Lifeboat Station

Successful, its 1902 replacement was of the same pattern as was its 1929 steel-hulled successor, and remained in USCG service in 1972. Today, it is preserved as the only surviving floating lifesaving station of the United States Life-Saving Service.

This sets the stage for the more blue water City Point Station.

The original USLSS City Point Station, circa 1896-1913, Nathaniel L. Stebbins photographic collection PC047.02.4110.16294

Dialing it back to 1895 (the USCG was formed in 1916), a U.S. Lifesaving Service station was originally described as a “floating station in Dorchester Bay, Boston Harbor,” was authorized as the region had suffered the loss of forty lives on the water, usually in the summer months, from 1890 to 1894. Congressman Michael J. McEttrick introduced a bill in Congress, which was finally passed, and the station was secured, and it was dubbed the “City Point Station.” 

From the USLSS 1895 Annual Report:

And duly installed, as noted from the service’s 1896 report:

The anchored wooden-hulled station, approximately 100 feet long and 33 feet abeam, was home to a 10-man crew and housed a pair of naphtha-powered launches, a dighny, and a heavy surfboat.

Equipped with a generator, they had electric wiring and a large searchlight and signal lights up top.

An innovative feature was an early well deck or “harbor room” in the stern.

As further detailed by The Toomey-Rankin History of South Boston, circa 1901:

An appropriation of $7,000 was made for the construction of the station itself, and in a short time the strange craft was growing under the hands of workmen at Palmer’s shipyard at Noank, Conn., and for 50 days the work progressed, at the end of which time the station was completed, and towed from Noank, Conn., to Boston, and on its arrival Sunday, August 3, 1896, was moored to Loring’s wharf to await fitting out.

It is needless to say that the station, being an innovation, attracted much attention. Visitors saw it as it is today, except for the doors, which were afterward cut on each side of the harbor room. Its form is that of a huge flat iron, the forward end, or bow, coming to a point, while the rear or stern is cut off short. It is 100 feet long,33 feet beam, 6 feet deep, and draws about two feet of water, and is a double-deck affair, the upper deck being about 15 feet above the waterline.

The feature of the station is the harbor at the stern, or what might be called the main entrance to the station. This harbor in which the two naphtha launches of the station are kept, is formed by having an opening 30 feet long and 17 feet wide, cut from the stern directly into the center of the station, leaving on three sides about eight feet of deck room, while the entire harbor is sheltered by the upper deck, which extends to the end of the station.

From the harbor, or launch room, a hallway extends the entire length of the station, off of which are several rooms; on the left is the kitchen, dining room and the crew’s quarters, and on the right the captain’s office, his bed room and the store room, the space at the bow being devoted to the windlass and anchors with which the station is held in position.

Leading from this hallway on the right is a small flight of stairs to the upper deck, and in addition to this are the two other flights, leading from the harbor room, one on the port and one on the starboard side. The upper deck is completely clear with the exception of a lookout, which sets about 30 feet from the bow in the center of the deck, with a flight of steps leading to it. It is surrounded by a railing and is connected with the launch room and the captain’s room by speaking tubes.

Rising from the deck is a flagpole, upon which the national emblem is displayed during the day and a lantern at night. At the stern, on huge davits, hangs the heavy surf boat, in a position to be lowered at an instant’s notice. Davits on the port and starboard sides hold smaller boats. In the harbor are the launches, one of which is 28 feet, with a speed of ten knots, and the other 25 feet in length, with a speed of eight knots.

Towed into position each April/May and then towed back to its winter berth near Chelsea Bridge in October/November, the station was manned by the same crew for the duration of the summer with no relief. The 10 men consisted of a station captain and nine surfmen (one of whom was also paid as a cook), with three of the latter on duty round the clock.

Completed too late to get much practical use in 1896, its first full season deployed was in 1897, where its crew helped 115 small craft in distress and rescued 23 persons, who were taken back to the station for care.

1898 saw 19 persons rescued, 129 persons rendered assistance, and 58 boats saved.

The year 1899 set a new record of 33 persons saved and 183 assisted while coming to the rescue of 97 boats, the latter valued at $63,285, or nine times the initial outlay to build the station.

From a period Roland Libbey article on City Point in the Boston Globe

From a period Roland Libbey article on City Point in the Boston Globe

City Point had its naphtha-powered launches replaced by steam launches in 1900 and was extensively rebuilt in 1913 “to replace a structure that is old and unsuited to present-day needs.”

She would be joined by other bases in the 1920s.

A half dozen floating bases during Prohibition

Speaking of which…

In 1924, with the “Rum War” afoot and the now USCG with a serious need to push assets further offshore to intercept bootleggers speeding out to usually British or Canadian-flagged “blacks” (so named as they ran at night sans flags or lights) anchored just off the three-mile limit on “Rum Row,” the service acquired five new floating bases– Argus, Colfax, Moccasin, Pickering, and Wayanda.

Four of these new bases (Argus, Colfax, Pickering, and Wayanda) were concrete boats originally commissioned for the Army Quartermaster Service for troop and supply transport between Army bases along the coast. The Army had built 16 such flat-bottomed vessels, powered by twin gasoline (!) engines, then quickly disposed of them.

The Army QM Corps concrete riverboats, Colonel J. E. Sawyer and Major Archibald Butt, at a dock in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1920. 

The other two, the reconstructed City Point and the new Moccasin, had wooden hulls. All but City Point had propulsion plants.

U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe

U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, circa 1916-1939 by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe

U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe

U.S. Coast Guard, City Point station, Boston, by Leslie Jones, Boston Globe

All had extensive cabin structures topside and served as moored motherships for the service’s 36 and 38-foot picket boats, much closer to Rum Row than the coastal bases.

The 38-foot cabin picket boat. USCG Photo

The Boston-based City Point of the era was a wooden-hulled floating platform that was rebuilt in 1913 at Greenport, New York, and was 109′ 6″ by 33′ by 3′ 6″.

Colfax was the former Army QM vessel General Rufus Ingalls and was 150 feet long, 28 feet wide, and 13 feet deep.

Argus was originally the concrete-hulled Army QM vessel Major E. Pickett. Her dimensions were: 128′ 5″ x 28′ x 12′. Commissioned as Argus on 1 December 1924 at Rockaway Inlet, New York, and was moved to New London, Connecticut, in May of 1925, she was the flagship of the Coast Guard Destroyer Force.

Pickering was the former Army QM Brigadier General O. A. Allison, and was a concrete boat built to the same plan as Major E. Pickett/Argus in 1921 for the War Department. After her acquisition by the Coast Guard, she was stationed at Atlantic City, New Jersey, as of October 1924.

Wayanda was the former Army vessel Colonel William H. Baldwin, a 128-foot ‘crete boat like Pickering and Argus. She was purchased on 21 October 1924 from the John W. Sullivan Company in New York.  She was stationed at Greenport, New York, as of 26 November 1924.

Moccasin was the former wooden-hulled Liberator, 102′ 6″ by 47’9″ by 10′, that was built in 1921 at Lybeck, Florida.  She was purchased from Gibbs Gas Engineering Company on August 20, 1924, and commissioned on November 17, 1924. She served in Miami, Florida.

With Prohibition winding down, the Coast Guard started ridding itself of these floating bases by the late 1920s, and only the concrete Baldwin/Wayanda and the wooden-hulled City Point II outlived the Volstead Act.

Wayanda was last listed in Coast Guard records in 1934, while the second City Point only disappeared from the list of USCG stations after the 1939 season.

In the meantime, the cutter Yocana served as a mothership to clusters of picket boats during the 1937 floods on the Mississippi.

A dozen Coast Guard picket boats muster beside the former CGC Yocona on the Mississippi River during the Great Ohio, Mississippi River Valley Flood of 1937. U.S. Coast Guard photo. Yocona was a 182-foot Kankakee-class stern paddle wheelers built for the Coast Guard in 1919 and stationed at Vicksburg. Click to big up

Other examples

Of course, the service’s large blue water cutters have filled the role of offshore mothership several times since then, with its CGRON3 in Vietnam clocking in to feed, bunk, and refuel both USCG 83-foot patrol boats and Navy Brown water assets such as PBRs and PCFs, as well as the sustained offshore surveillance of Grenada in 1983-84 (Operation Island Breeze).

Point class refueling from USCGC Dallas in Vietnam 2

More recent mothership ops have been seen with the long-distance deployment of FRCs to the Persian Gulf in 2022 and in response to 2017’s Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

It seems the best way to kill a UAV is…with a UAV

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With the explosive rise in the use of cheap battlefield unmanned systems in the past several years, ballistic options are now the chief countermeasure.

While this has seen a resurgence of love for such simple items as shotguns with specialized ammunition— Benelli is even marketing and reportedly selling a dedicated M4 A.I. Drone Guardian model as fast as they can crank them out– and a whole new breed of SPAAGs of every stripe, it seems that drone-on-drone aerial combat is, in many cases, the most effective answer.

Ukraine began to use “kamikaze” explosive-laden drones to combat Russian UAVs at the front in early 2024 and has even advanced to the point of having shotgun-carrying drones that swat Russian Mavics in mid-air and electronic warfare jammer FPVs that zap the connectivity of enemy drones.

Now, whole new generations of interceptor drones such as the 22-pound Sting and the gently larger Bullet have been developed by outfits such as the Ukrainian non-profit organization Wild Hornets.

Simple to make with off-the-shelf parts and 3D printing, they are being assembled at blistering rates for a cost estimated as low as $1,000 a pop and can reach speeds of over 195 mph, enabling them to chase down enemy drones at anything under 10,000 feet and give them the hard goodbye.

Ukraine claims that Sting alone has killed 900 drones just in the past couple of months. Sure, it is a 1:1 kill rate, if not worse, but as the Russians are spending a reported $30K a pop on Shahed (Gerad) attack drones, the Ukrainians have the clear advantage in that equation

The Ukrainian military PAO recently released this video of the counter-UAV det of the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade “Magura” killing Russian Lancet loitering munitions, Private (STC Orlan-10) UAVs, along with Molniya and Shahed attack drones in the Sumy Region. It’s not subtitled, but no translation is needed.

It is estimated that as many as 250,000 drones are built, acquired, or imported per month in the conflict.

Billy Mitchell would eat his hat.

Bluejacket Cavalry!

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The first Navy ship named for the capital of the state of Maryland and the location of the U.S. Naval Academy, USS Annapolis (Gunboat No. 10), was laid down on 18 April 1896 at Elizabethport, New Jersey, by Lewis Nixon and commissioned at New York on 20 July 1897.

U.S. Navy gunboat, USS Annapolis (PG-10), port view. Detroit Publishing Company, 1890-1912. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. Lot 3000-K-20

She was a class leader of gunboats with three sisters (Vicksburg, Newport, and Princeton) built during the transition period of the maritime world: sail to steam and wood to steel. They used a composite hull construction of steel keel and frames, steel shell plating from main deck to waterline, and wood planking with copper sheathing to the keel.

She was designed by RADM Phillip Hichborn, chief constructor of the Bureau of Construction and Repair, with RADM George Wallace Melville, chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering, designing her power plant– the latter a triple expansion reciprocating steam engine, better known as an “Up‐n‐Downer,” using steam supplied by two early water tube boilers at 180 psi.

The 203-foot steel-hulled barkentine-rigged three-masted steam gunboat carried a wallop in the form of six 4-inch breechloading guns, four QF 6-pounders, and two 1-pounders, plus, with a crew of 130 bluejackets, she could send a platoon-sized force ashore as light infantry (which we shall see) and still fight the ship. Best yet, she could float in just 13 feet of water, which allowed her to own a coastal littoral, when needed.

The 12-gun (6×4″, 4x6pdr, 2x1pdr) Composite gunboat USS Annapolis, 1895 plan NARA 19-N-12-17-4

Within a year, she was in service out of Key West enforcing the blockade on Cuba, helping to capture an enemy merchant ship and a British steamer with Spanish contraband. She also tag-teamed the Spanish gunboat Don Jorge Juan and sank same. She then sailed for the Far East and spent four years in those waters, primarily in the Philippine Islands.

Rebuilt at Mare Island from 1904-07, she would serve as the station ship in American Samoa until December 1911, when, returning to Mare Island, she was once again placed out of service.

Gunboat USS Annapolis off of San Francisco in 1912.

Then came a mission to Nicaragua, spending 11 months on a very muscular deployment to Central America, where her men logged one of the 136 instances of individual groups of bluejackets operating ashore as infantry (from squad to brigade level) between 1901 and May 1929. The spark that Annapolis was sent to contain was the coup d’état of General Luis Mena, Minister of War under President Alfonso Diaz, who thought he could do a better job than Diaz.

Amazingly, the gunboat landed a light company-sized force of Bluejackets, consisting of five officers and 90 men, under the command of LT James A. Campbell, Jr., U.S. Navy, at Corinto, which proceeded 90 miles by rail to Managua, Nicaragua, to serve as a legation guard and to protect American interests. They spent three months detached and were soon reinforced by other naval landing forces along with Major Smedly Butler’s Marine battalion, the latter consisting of 13 officers and 341 men. LCDR William Daniel Leahy (USNA 97), the battleship USS California’s gunnery officer, became the chief of staff of the expeditionary force and the commander of the small garrison at Corinto.

Expeditionary Force “Bluejackets” disembarking at Corinto, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr.

Expeditionary Force, “Bluejackets” at Leon, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr. NMUSN-P-D-2015-1-9

Expeditionary Force, “Bluejacket Calvary [sic]” at Corinto, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr. NMUSN-P-D-2015-1-11

“Insurrectos – Barricading Street, note the automatic, which seems to be a Vickers gun, at Corinto, Nicaragua, from USS Annapolis (Patrol Gunboat #10), August 29, 1912. Collection of Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy, Jr.

As further detailed by DANFS:

Annapolis remained at Mare Island until recommissioned on 1 May 1912, Cmdr. Warren J. Terhune in command.

Sometime in May, the warship moved south to San Diego, whence she departed on the 21st and headed for the coast of Central America. She arrived off the coast of Nicaragua, at Corinto, on 13 June. Conditions in that Central American republic had been unstable throughout the first decade of the 20th century, but after 1910, became increasingly worse as three factions vied with each other for power. By the summer of 1912, General Estrada, more or less democratically elected under American auspices, had been forced out of office. His vice president, Adolfq Diaz, took over his duties, but by the end of July, full-scale civil war raged in Nicaragua. Annapolis returned to the Corinto area on 1 August following a six-week cruise along the coasts of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.

The gunboat remained at Corinto for the following four months, periodically sending landing parties ashore to protect Americans’ lives and property and to restore order in areas where Americans were located. On 9 December, she departed Nicaraguan waters to return to San Francisco, where, after stops at Acajutla, El Salvador, and at San Diego, Calif., she arrived on 30 December. That same day, the warship entered the Mare Island Navy Yard for repairs.

She completed repairs late in January 1913 and returned to sea on the 20th. The gunboat made a 16-day stop at San Diego before resuming her voyage to Central American waters on 7 February. Annapolis arrived at Amapala, Honduras, on 17 February and remained there until 9 March. After a short cruise to the Gulf of Fonseca and to Petosi in Nicaragua on 9 and 10 March, she returned to Amapala on the 10th and remained there until 23 April.

Annapolis would spend the next several years poking around Mexican waters during the cyclical series of revolutions and civil wars between 1914 and 1918, after which she served in the American Patrol during the Great War.

Annapolis was placed out of commission at Mare Island in 1919, and the next year was towed via the Panama Canal to Philadelphia, where she was turned over to the Pennsylvania State Nautical School as a floating school ship, on a loan basis, for the next 20 years.

ex-USS Annapolis, Pennsylvania’s ‘schoolship’, as she looked in 1922 while anchored in the Delaware River

When WWII came, she was turned over to the Maritime Commission for disposal in 1940 and, in poor condition, was later scrapped.

By that time, a second Annapolis had joined the fleet.

But that is another story.

Romulus and Remus: Coming to a SAG near you?

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HII is pushing hard to get eyes on its new Romulus unmanned/minimally manned surface vessel concept, and for good reason, as it looks like it has potential as a “sea truck” that can act alongside a more conventional battle group to add more missiles, UAVs, and UUVs to the fight. The “high-endurance, 25+ knot” Romulus is 190 feet long and uses a commercial-standard hull “for durability and rapid production.” It has an advertised range of 2,500nm and can rearm/refuel at sea.

A large payload deck behind its superstructure has enough space for six 40-foot ISO shipping containers, which logically allows for six Typhon SMRF (Mk 70 Mod 1 Payload Delivery System) erector launchers, each of which can hold four Tomahawks or SM-6 missiles.

There is also enough open deck over the stern for a vertical launch drone system– a Shield AI MQ-35A V-BAT is depicted lifting off– as well as twin deployment cradles for HII’s Remus series UUVs. As the Navy is currently running an undisclosed number of Remus 100 (Mk 18 Swordfish) and at least 90 larger Remus 600 (Mk 18 Mod 2 Knifefish) models for UXO/EOD/MCM, this is not a stretch.

While shown as part of a carrier battle group, I think it could be interesting to pair up 2-3 of these with a Flight IIA/III DDG and perhaps a couple of Independence-class LCSs for extra helicopters as a surface action group.

With just 500~ bluejackets, you would have as many as six embarked MH-60s, room for a few vertical-launched drones, some decent UUV capability, a 5-inch gun, two 57s, 144-168 strike length VLS cells, three Sea RAMs, and potentially eight NSMs (on the Indies), as well as smaller weapons. Add to that three VBSS teams if on an interdiction mission.

That’s a lot of sea control at the fingertips of an O-5/O-6.

By the numbers, Port-au-Prince edition

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For eight weeks this summer, 15 women and 128 men– the first element of 700 of the new Haitian Armed Forces (FAD’H) — were subjected to basic military training at Mexico’s Regional Center for Individual Combat Training (CRCTI) in San Miguel de Los Jagüeyes, north of Mexico City, where they practiced personal defense and shooting and “learned about human rights.”

They arrived back home in late September.

Dressed in woodland BDUs with Haitian flag shoulder patches, they seem to have been “trained by the numbers” with donated Mexican HK G3s.

The training is part of an expanding defense collaboration under a 2018 agreement between Mexico and Haiti, with Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and France also conducting similar but in smaller 20-50 member courses.

The program is part of Haiti’s effort to rebuild its army, disbanded in 1995 by Aristide in an effort to consolidate control after deposing (with massive U.S. help) the military council of School of the Americas-trained Gen. Raoul Cedras that previously ran the country.

Revived in 2017 by now-slain President Moise, the FAd’H only numbers about 1,300 soldiers alongside 9,000~ thoroughly demoralized national police officers tasked with protecting nearly 12 million people. They are facing open street violence against an estimated 200 organized criminal gangs, with the country running 1,500 violent deaths per quarter.

In 1994, the lightly armed FAd’H numbered 41 companies (6,200 men) while the paramilitary Haitian Gendarme had 11 companies (1,000 men).

A 900-strong (of 2,500 pledged) Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSSM) was deployed last year to help fight the gangs, but it has stalled and is to be replaced, with the U.S. shopping around its allies for a follow-on, theorized 5,500-strong force to pick up the pieces.

Volunteer countries have been scarce.

‘They told me you’d never load 8 missiles on an F-15E’

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The USAF recently released an amazing 36-minute doc, “Dangerous Game” about the 13 April 2024 overnight air-to-air swirling fight involving a squadron of F-16Cs (D.C. Air National Guard’s 113th Wing) and two of F-15Es (335th and 494th FS) vs 185 Shahed loitering munitions, followed by at least 30 cruise missiles, and 120 ballistic missiles.

“I can’t emphasize how dangerous this mission set is. At times, I’m 1,000 feet above the ground. Minsafe altitude was 4,000 feet. I am 3,000 feet below the altitude that is going to keep me alive because I can’t see the ground. There’s not enough ambient light.”

They even tried to get a hole-in-one shot on a moving drone with a LJDAM, as they were out of missiles, with the concept of hitting the ground ahead/around the low-flying UAV and knocking it out with the blossom.

Screaming across the desert to get back to base with all their ordnance expended, they wound up flying through a 360-degree hailstorm of Iranian ballistic missiles being launched ahead of them while IDF ABMs were reaching out and intercepting them in flight above them, leaving green flaming shrapnel to rain down on the F-15Es.

Then came 32-minute Integrated Combat Turnarounds (ICT) to get refueled and rearmed aircraft back in the fight– as Iranian missiles were inbound to their base.

It is well worth your time.

Remembering, Hannah

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We are amid the 250th anniversary of the service of one of the most criminally forgotten naval vessels in history, with a family tree that gives it the roots of the U.S. Navy.

The 104-foot 78-ton schooner, Hannah, was the first armed vessel to sail under Continental pay and control.

Acquired on August 24, 1775, she was originally owned by patriot merchant John Glover of Marblehead and named after his wife.

Her first skipper was Nicholson Broughton, a captain in the Army, while her 42-man crew was recruited from Glover’s Marblehead Regiment, which later became the 21st Massachusetts Regiment and the 14th Continental Regiment. These Marblehead men, sailors all, were described as “soldiers who have been bred to the sea.”

Her armament was just four four-pounders, as the Continental Army was cannon-poor in 1775.

She was utilized to aid General Washington in his siege of Boston by capturing British provision ships making for the harbor from British ports.

The incentive, in Washington’s orders to Broughton, was prize pay:

For your own Encouragement & that of the other Officers & Men to Activity & Courage in this Service, over & above your Pay in the continental Army you shall be entitled to one third Part of the Cargo of every Vessel by you taken & sent into Port (military & naval Stores only excepted, which with Vessels & apparel are reserved for the publick Service)—which sd third Part is to be divided among the Officers & Men in the followg Proportions:
  • Captain 6 Shares
  • 1st Lieutt 5 Do
  • 2d Lieutt 4 Do1
  • Ship’s master 3 Do
  • Steward 2 Do
  • Mate 1½
  • Gunner 1½
  • Boatswain 1½
  • Gunner’s Mate & Sergt 1½
  • Privates 1 Share each

Schooner Hannah. Caption: Painting by John F. Leavitt. The original painting was donated by Mr. Reynolds Girdler to USS Glover (AGDE 1). John Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts, was the owner of Hannah, and she was “the first armed vessel fitted out in the service of the United States, 5-7 September 1775.” NH 51097-KN

Model of the schooner Hannah, the first ship commissioned by the authority of the Continental Congress, September 1775. NH 51098

She outran two British ships in a short action on 5 September, the chief of which was the 20-gun post ship HMS Lively.

“Continental Navy Schooner Hannah Evades British Ships” Caption: Depicting action off Cape Ann, Massachusetts on 5 September 1775, in which the Continental Navy schooner Hannah evaded two British ships of war. The Hannah, under the command of Captain Nicholson Broughton, was one of the three schooners built by General George Washington for the purpose of intercepting ships with British supplies headed for Boston. Published in Origin of the American Navy by Henry E. White. NH 56403

Her sole success was on 7 September, when Hannah captured the hoy (sail-powered barge) HMS Unity with a cargo of naval stores and provisions.

“Capture of British Supply Ship Unity” depicts the action off Cape Ann, Massachusetts, on 7 September 1775, in which the Continental Navy schooner Hannah, under the command of Captain Nicholson Broughton, captured the British supply ship Unity. It was the first capture made by a Continental Navy vessel. NH 56405

While sailing on a similar mission, she ran ashore on 10 October by the sloop HMS Nautilus near Beverly. Her charter rate had been $1.00 per ton per month, and she was in service for two months and 21 days, at a total cost of $208.06.

Saved from destruction and capture, Hannah was “soon decommissioned as Washington found more suitable ships for his cruisers,” notes DANFS.

Washington’s fleet would grow to six cruisers, and fly the famous, Appeal to Heaven “pine tree flag. Beverly would prove the site for outfitting the second, third, fourth, sixth, and eighth vessels in Washington’s fleet, several of which were outfitted by Glover.

Meanwhile, Capt. Broughton later became regarded as the first commodore of the United States Navy when he led two armed schooners, Hancock (sometimes seen incorrectly as Lynch) and Franklin, on a not very successful raid along the Nova Scotia coast in October 1775.

And of course, all this before the recognized birthday of the Navy, which is 13 October 1775, with the authorization by Congress of the Continental Navy.

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