Category Archives: modern military conflict

The sting of a modern sloop of war

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151221-N-XJ788-019 ARABIAN GULF (Dec. 21, 2015) Gunner's Mate 3rd Class Clairey Lovette, from Knoxville, Tenn., uploads rounds into an MK-38 Mod-2 25mm gun aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3). Kearsarge is the flagship for the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and, with the embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), is deployed in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Travis DiPerna/Released)

151221-N-XJ788-019 ARABIAN GULF (Dec. 21, 2015) Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Clairey Lovette, from Knoxville, Tenn., uploads rounds into an MK-38 Mod-2 25mm gun aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3). Kearsarge is the flagship for the Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and, with the embarked 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), is deployed in support of maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Travis DiPerna/Released)

Named after the Mohican-class sloop of war USS Kearsarge who helped capture the Confederate raider CSS Sumter and sent the CSS Alabama to Davy Jones, today’s Kearsarge is the fifth vessel to carry that name.

Between then and now there was the USS Kearsarge (BB-5) which was launched during the Spanish American war and endured as late as 1955, USS Kearsarge (CV-12) an Essex-class aircraft carrier that was renamed Hornet prior to launch in WWII as a tribute to that lost carrier and another Essex— USS Kearsarge (CV-33) who served in Korea and Vietnam before being scrapped in 1974.

Today’s Big K, nearly the size of the old carriers and a good bit larger than either the namesake sloop or battleship, was commissioned 16 October 1993 at Pascagoula, she is home ported at Norfolk.

Harry goes 3D

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Seagoing ships from the smallest trawler to the largest naval vessel have long dedicated precious space to repair lockers. With the 6,000 man crews of the floating nuclear-powered cities that make up the super carriers of the U.S. Navy, they have whole departments with dedicated shops that can meet electrical, sheet metal paint, DC, hull, aviation, and other needs.

Now, add a 3D printing shop.

151127-N-DZ642-052 ATLANTIC OCEAN (Nov. 27, 2015) Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class A Figert uses a #-D printer aboard aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is deployed to support maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class B. Siens/Released)

151127-N-DZ642-052 ATLANTIC OCEAN (Nov. 27, 2015) Aviation Electronics Technician 2nd Class A Figert uses a 3-D printer aboard aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group is deployed to support maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operation. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class B. Siens/Released)

From Stars and Stripes:

Within their first weeks of deploying in November, sailors already had created and “printed out” custom dust caps and a wrench. A sailor in the “fab lab” designed his own solution after he and others grew frustrated that an oil cup on a machine was too small for a funnel.

“It required at least two people to get all the oil in the cup, so I figured we have this technology here, why not try something that would make this task easier,” Petty Officer 2nd Class Raymond Lee said. “I came up with an extension that narrows the nozzle, cuts the manpower in half, ensures there’s no spilled oil all over the deck.”

Officials aboard the ship say ideas for using the printer are pouring in from sailors.

“I think the possibilities are endless,” Lee said.

The ‘fab lab’ consists of two 3-D printers, a desktop computer and a large flat-screen monitor with a wireless keyboard and mouse. The printers are similar in size and shape to a traditional desktop printer.

More here

The last of HMs majestic Sea King HAR.5s

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771 Naval Air Squadron 2
The Ace of Clubs, 771 Naval Air Squadron, who has celebrated over 40 years of saving lives from RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall, started service with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm 24 May 1939 at Lee-on-Solent flying Fairey Swordfish TSR biplanes, her pilots helped in the search for the Bismarck. Transitioning to SAR in 1961, they hung up their then DeHavland Sea Venoms for Westland Whirlwinds and have been a chopper unit ever since.

771 nas

rn 771 sar sea king ace of clubs

royal navy wessex sar sea king

Now 771 NAS and HMS Gannet’s SAR Flight, the last two military SAR units in the UK, are standing down. Their 300~ rescues per year will be the duty of civilian contractors who assumed the task from the RAF earlier this year.

On 1st January 2016, the baton of responsibility will be passed onto the Maritime and Coastguard Agency contractor Bristow Helicopters, based at Newquay airport.

771 Naval Air Squadron

Most powerful and glorious Lord God, at whose command the winds blow, and lift up the waves of the sea, and who stillest the rage thereof; We, thy creatures, but miserable sinners, do in this our great distress cry unto thee for help; Save, Lord, or else we perish. –Prayers to be used in [all Ships in]* storms at sea, 1892.

Naval Special Warfare rumored to be dropping SIGs for G19s

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Increasingly, rumors are filtering through the interwebs, confirmed by those close to the shadowy Navy Seal community that the nation’s preeminent special operators are going Glock to phase out a number of SIG pistols they have carried for generations.

Unofficial use by the Uncle

Using personal funds, Glocks to include the G22, G17 and G19 series have been used by numerous individual soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines deploying downrange since 9/11. There has long been an NSN for the Glock 19, which allows for small-scale buys with unit funds (such as inside AFSOC units), which, coupled with personal weapons, would explain numerous images of U.S. joes and aircrew with Glocks.

Further, troops seem to love getting their hands on them with Allies overseas.

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Ansil Lewis, Weapons Training Battalion Sgt. Maj., fires a Glock 17 pistol the Royal Marine Operational Shooting Competition (RMOSC), hosted by the British Royal Marines at Altrar Training Camp, Hightown, England, Sept. 9-16, 2015. The purpose of the RMOSC is to evaluate the marksmanship skill, and physical and operational abilities of American, British, French, and Dutch Marines in combat related shooting matches by utilizing realistic structures, fast-moving targets, and movement to contact drills. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Timothy Turner/Released)

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Maj. Ansil Lewis, Weapons Training Battalion Sgt. Maj., fires a Glock 17 pistol the Royal Marine Operational Shooting Competition (RMOSC), hosted by the British Royal Marines at Altrar Training Camp, Hightown, England, Sept. 9-16, 2015. The purpose of the RMOSC is to evaluate the marksmanship skill, and physical and operational abilities of American, British, French, and Dutch Marines in combat related shooting matches by utilizing realistic structures, fast-moving targets, and movement to contact drills. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Timothy Turner/Released)

Joseph Trevithick over at War Is Boring in September detailed an extensive move by special operations elements inside the military to acquire Glocks by any means necessary.

This included the transfer of 2,500 Glocks from the Dept. of Homeland Security to the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in 2010.

“The transfer allowed DHS to divest itself of excess weapons and fill a USSOCOM requirement,” a public affairs officer at SOCOM told War Is Boring in an email. “USSOCOM incurred no obligation to DHS in return.”

This was followed up this year by orders from the Marines of Gen. 3 and 4 Glock 19s for certain units of MARSOC, the Leatherneck’s special operations command.

Trevithick did the digging on the fact that the Army has ordered 1,600 G19s of their own and (wait for it) three select-fire Model 18s. There is also a contract believed to be worth some $12 million for even more Glocks for Big Green.

In short, the commandos and raiders who make up the sharpest end of the spear dig the Glock. Then there is…

Naval Special Warfare Command, whose East Coast teams have apparently picked up some Gen 3 G19s for testing to replace both the Sig P239 and P226R/Mk25, and like what they see.

SEAL training

Read more in my column at Glock Forum

Israel retires their last A-4s

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Ed Heinemann’s “Tinker Toy Bomber”, the go-cart-like Douglas A-4 Skyhawk was a child of the 1950s and so good at what it did almost 3,000 of them were made. Although the U.S. military put these little scooters in the boneyard for good in 2003, the largest export customer for Skyhawks was Israel, who picked up more than 300 of the attack plane starting in 1967– dubbed Ayit (Hebrew: עיט‎, for Eagle).

Put to good use in Yom Kippur War in 1973 where Skyhawk aircrews took off to about 1000 operational sorties in the southern front– saving the day there by most accounts– and over Syria and Lebanon in the 80s and 90s, the type has slowly been replaced in service as a combat aircraft with the F-16 by 2008 and now, by the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master in a training role.

The last Israeli A-4s were retired this month.

israeli a4 retirement skyhawk

“Ayit pilots marked great historical events in the history of aerial combat,” Air Force Commander Amir Eshel said, “Many of the force’s achievements are the outcome of the combination between the small plane and the greatness of its pilots.”

This leaves Brazil, who operates a dozen highly modified ex-Kuwaiti A-4s for use off thier 1960s-era Clemenceau-class aircraft carrier NAe São Paulo (A12), as the last Scooter drivers in service. They are expected to remain operational until 2025.

The special Navy Seal gun you never hear about

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For the past half-decade the U.S. Naval Special Warfare community has quietly used a device unique to its service– the Battelle Plummet Gun– and its half-Batman, half-Star Wars, and all-cool.

The problem

While after the recent activities in the Global War on Terror in which we see Navy Seals roping out of choppers and moving around on land a lot, they are actually first and foremost combat swimmers. These fighting frogmen, who evolved from the old Underwater Demolition Teams of World War II and Korea, are tasked with taking over suspect ships at sea, sinking the bad guy’s ships in port, and seizing offshore islands and structures such as oil platforms.

Commonly termed Visit Board Search and Seizure (VBSS) operations, its these actions from small boats against platforms and vessels at sea that sometimes put these special operators behind the proverbial 8-ball as the bad guys often don’t leave a ladder down to allow the frogmen easy access.

U.S. Navy SEALs board a ship from a Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boat as they conduct a joint Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) exercise alongside U.S. Marines assigned to Force Reconnaissance Platoon, Maritime Raid Force, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), during composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX) in the Atlantic Ocean, July 20, 2015. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Andre Dakis/26th MEU Combat Camera/Released)

U.S. Navy SEALs board a ship from a Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boat as they conduct a joint Visit, Board, Search, and Seizure (VBSS) exercise alongside U.S. Marines assigned to Force Reconnaissance Platoon, Maritime Raid Force, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU), during composite training unit exercise (COMPTUEX) in the Atlantic Ocean, July 20, 2015. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Andre Dakis/26th MEU Combat Camera/Released)

This means special devices such as a backpack-sized magnetic ship-climbing device that would “drive” up the side of a ship’s steel hull to the top, where an operator would anchor it and drop a rope ladder to the other team members below.

NSW ship climbing device at the U.S. Navy Seal/UDT Museum, Image by Chris Eger

NSW ship climbing device at the U.S. Navy Seal/UDT Museum, Image by Chris Eger

However, these are big and bulky– not to mention noisy and complicated to employ.

What would be ideal would be a grappling hook gun like the one Luke Skywalker used to escape the Stormtroopers on the Death Star with Leia in tow, or that Batman used repeatedly. Hey, about that…

Meet the 25 pound Battelle Plummet Gun, and yes, it is as big as the M60 shown next to it for scale. Image via Chris Eger

Meet the 25 pound Battelle Plummet Gun, and yes, it is as big as the M60 shown next to it for scale. Image via Chris Eger

So suffice it to say, this is one piece of kit you aren’t going to add to your turn out bag just yet.

Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk

Carter lowers boom on LCS program

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140423-N-VD564-013 PACIFIC OCEAN (April 23, 2014) The littoral combat ships USS Independence (LCS 2), left, and USS Coronado (LCS 4) are underway in the Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Keith DeVinney/Released)

140423-N-VD564-013 PACIFIC OCEAN (April 23, 2014) The littoral combat ships USS Independence (LCS 2), left, and USS Coronado (LCS 4) are underway in the Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Keith DeVinney/Released)

Apparently, SECDEF Ash Carter is the Grinch who stole Christmas from the Navy’s surface fleet (and gave it to Naval Aviation) by trimming its total buy of Littoral Combat Ships/Fast Frigates from 52 to 40 and ordering big blue to select a single shipbuilder and design for the class as part of its fiscal year 2017 budget.

BOOM!

The cash saved will go to buy a few more F-35s– but its all good as Navy didn’t need dem boats anyway.

From USNI

“This plan reduces, somewhat, the number of LCS available for presence operations, but that need will be met by higher-end ships, and it will ensure that the warfighting forces in our submarine, surface, and aviation fleets have the necessary capabilities and posture to defeat even our most advanced potential adversaries,” read the memo.

“Forty LCS/FF will exceed recent historical presence levels and will provide a far more modern and capable ship than the patrol coastals, minesweepers, and frigates that they will replace.”

goodfellas

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Marc Lee

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Much as once a week I like to take time off to cover warships (Wednesdays), on Sundays (when I feel like working), I like to cover military art and the painters, illustrators, sculptors, and the like that produced them.

Combat Gallery Sunday : The Martial Art of Marc Lee

If you don’t know this amazing artist, you should.

norwegian spec ops marc lee god grant me

Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale

Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale

More here

Thank you for your work, sir.

A blend of 19th and 21 Centuries

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The brand-spanking new destroyer USS Zumwald (DDG-1000) sailing by Fort Popham at the mouth of the Kennebec river in Maine, on it’s way to sea trials. All images by Ed Rice.

Destroyer USS Zumwald sailing by Fort Popham at the mouth of the Kennebec river, on it's way to sea trials. Images by Ed Rice 4 Destroyer USS Zumwald sailing by Fort Popham at the mouth of the Kennebec river, on it's way to sea trials. Images by Ed Rice 3 Destroyer USS Zumwald sailing by Fort Popham at the mouth of the Kennebec river, on it's way to sea trials. Images by Ed Rice 2 Destroyer USS Zumwald sailing by Fort Popham at the mouth of the Kennebec river, on it's way to sea trials. Images by Ed Rice
If you are curious, Fort Popham dates back to the 1850s when the granite block coastal defense post was constructed over what was an old  American Revolution and later War of 1812-era battery. Named for Popham colony leader George Popham, the Fort was armed in time for the Civil War (though never fully completed) and mounted 36 Rodman guns and some 10-inch Parrott rifles arranged in two tiers of vaulted casemates.

In latter part of the 19th Century these were replaced by some 15-inch Rodman “shipkillers” and a single 8-inch M1888 breechloader and the fort was maintained through the early 1900s when it was placed into caretaker status with the construction of more modern nearby Fort Baldwin (who in turn mounted 3x 6-inch M1900/M1905 guns and 2x 3-inch M1903s for use against minesweepers for her locally planted fields; later replaced by four 155 mm M1918 guns on Panama Mounts in WWII).

Both Baldwin and Popham were fully decommissioned by the Army by 1949 and turned over to the state of Maine who maintains them as historic sites.

A copy, of a copy, of a copy…

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Looks like a M16, yeah? Well about that...

Looks like a M16, yeah? Well about that…

The “Terab”, the standard-issue rifle of the Sudanese armed forces, is a copy of the Chinese Type 311 rifle (Norinco CQ/CQ-A), which in turn is a blatant and unlicensed copy of the American Colt M16A2, which was originally designed as an improvement of the M16 which in turn began life as the Armalite AR-15. It is manufactured by the Military Industry Corporation of Sudan and is more or less identical to the standard M16, with small modifications made in regards to the stock, handguard and iron sights (in other words, you can bet nothing is in spec to a U.S. AR). The Terab has replaced the aging Armalite-designed and Dutch-built AR-10 in Sudanese service– which is the predecessor to the AR-15, and in a way makes this all about even.

Hattip augfc

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