Category Archives: US Army

Barrett Wins Army 30mm Precision Grenadier System Competition

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Tennessee-based Barrett teamed up with Mars, Inc., and brought a radical new 30mm grenade launcher over the finish line in an Army competition.

It is planned that the new gun will eventually be fielded as part of the Army’s Precision Grenadier System program. The PGS requirement is for a soldier-portable, shoulder-fired, semi-automatic, magazine-fed, integrated system that can engage targets in defilade– such as behind a hill– as well as aerial drones at close range via programmable ammunition. Ultimately, this allows the user faster fire than a 40mm, and with more power and round capabilities than the 25mm.

First launched in 2023 as part of a xTechSoldier Lethality contest designed to rapidly fill the requirement, the PGS competition soon boiled down to two platforms: FN’s PGS-001 and the Barrett-Mars 30mm Support Rifle System, and, with the SRS announced last week as the winner.

Barrett and Mars Inc. recently put their xTech Precision Grenadier System prototype to the test in a live fire event. (Photo: Barrett) 
The Barrett-Mars 30mm Support Rifle System was recently picked for the Army’s PGS program. It uses the Vortex-made XM157 fire control system, which is also used by the Army’s planned 6.5mm Next Generation Squad Weapons, the M7 rifle, and the M250 machine gun. (Photo: Barrett) 
The ammo used by the PGS will include Programmable Air Bursting High Explosive (HE), Proximity Fuzed, and Point Detonating HE, as well as a Close Quarter Battle Round. (Photo: Guns.com)
The SRS is intended to be portable and used by a single soldier. (Photo: U.S. Army xTech Program)

We visited with Barrett and Mars at SHOT earlier this year and got the scoop on the big honking 30mm bloop gun.

Mars even had one set up at their booth in the basement that was mocked up as a Heavy Bolter from Warhammer.

Remember to remember today

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80 years ago. Memorial Day 1945 – “After four months of fierce fighting on Luzon, these 11th Airborne Division ‘Angels’ attend a Memorial Day Service for their fallen brothers held in Batangas. Their faces say it all.”

Photo via the 11th Airborne Division Association – “Angels”

Activated on 25 February 1943, the 11th entered combat in the PTO on 25 May 1944 and suffered 2,431 casualties in 204 days of combat.

Muddy Rampage

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It happened 80 years ago this week.

Official period caption: “Soldiers of the 77th Infantry Division walk past mud-clogged tanks parked by the side of the road on Okinawa. 26 May 1945.”

U.S. Signal Corps Photo SC 208600. U.S. National Archives

The “tanks” are actually one of the more rarely seen armored vehicles in American service in WWII, the M8 Scott, an early 75mm self-propelled howitzer.

Offically known as “Howitzer Motor Carriage M8,” it picked up the easier moniker in a ode to “Old Fuss n Feathers” himself, Gen.Winfield Scott– the War of 1812 vet who lead the Army during the war with Mexico and the first year of the Civil War who later passed away at West Point just shy of his 80th birthday.

The M8 HMC was an interesting stop-gap vehicle. It used the hull, engine, tracks, and guts of the M5 Stuart light tank. It then substituted the 37mm popgun and the Stuart’s tiny turret for a new open-topped turret armed with a 75mm L18 M2 or M3 howitzer—an artillery piece that was essentially just an M1 howitzer modified for use in a vehicle.

Some 1,778 Scotts were made by the Cadillac division of General Motors from September 1942 to January 1944, and they were very useful in hill fighting due to the high angle of their guns.

“Members of the 758th Light Tank Bn. (Colored) fire their 75mm howitzer in support of infantry movements on the Fifth Army front. 4 April, 1945.” SC 329839

SC 329839 758th Light Tank Bn M8 Scott April 1945 4 April, 1945

M8 Scott HMC 75 howitzer passing a knocked-out Panther

Note that this M8 HMC is named “Laxative.”

M8 troop E, 106th Cavalry Recon Group, Karlsbrunn 6 February 1945

Post-war, they were quickly withdrawn, replaced with 105mm SPGs, but they went on to serve with U.S. allies such as Mexico and the KMT Army in exile in Taiwan for another two decades. They saw particularly hard Cold War service in Vietnam, first by the French and then by the Cambodians and South Vietnamese who inherited them.

M8 Scott 75mm howitzer motor carrier, October 1950, Pingtung exercise, ROC Taiwan, KMT

May 8, 1952 – French Indochina. A 75mm M8 howitzer advances on the Lang Khe road. Ref.: TONK 52-122 R37. © Raymond Varoqui/ECPAD/Defense

Auto-Ordnance Shows off 250th Anniversary Army, Navy and Marine 1911s

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With 1775 some 250 years in the rearview, Auto-Ordnance came to the recent NRA Annual Meetings in Atlanta with a trio of special new USGI .45s.

This year, besides the semiquincentennial of the start of the Revolutionary War, the Army will celebrate its official 250th birthday on June 14, followed by the Navy on October 13 and the Marines on November 10. To honor the services, Auto-Ordnance has three 250th Armed Forces Anniversary 1911s on tap.

Based on the company’s standard 80-series Government format M1911A1, complete with a GI profile slide, fixed sights, and curved mainspring housing, each variant will sport a dedicated Cerakote livery applied by Texas-based Altered Arsenal.

In each variant, the left slide will carry a “250 years of Service, 1775 – 2025” crest surrounded by laurel leaf etching. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

Each pistol will have custom styling on the top of the slides that emulates the “gig line” of the respective services’ dress uniform, complete with buttons and belt buckle.

The Army variant (1911BKOC15) carries an OD Green Cerakote finish with Silver, Black, and Gold accents. The phrase “May God have mercy on my enemies because I won’t” is a well-known quote attributed to General George S. Patton.

The Navy variant (1911BKOC16) has a White, Blue, Black, and Gold Cerakote finish. The quote, “I have not yet begun to fight!” is famously attributed to Captain John Paul Jones during the Battle of Flamborough Head in 1779.

The Marine variant (1911BKOC17) has a Blue, Black, Silver, Red, and Gold Cerakote finish. The phrase “Retreat, hell – we just got here” is a famous quote attributed to Captain Lloyd W. Williams of the 5th Marines during the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I.

These 250th Armed Forces Anniversary 1911s will ship soon with one standard 7-round magazine included and have an MSRP of $1,399.

Keep in mind that you can get an actual USGI surplus M1911A1 from the CMP for less than that. Of course, it won’t be pretty, but every old vet, even those in .45 ACP, deserves a home.

What’s a little armor between friends

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Liezen, Styria, central Austria, May 1945. A Lend-Leased American-made M4A2(76)W VVSS Sherman in Russki livery (and with no muzzle brake) comes to the rescue of one of the Motherland’s T-34-85s.

LIFE Arnold E. Samuelson Photographer

Both tracks are from the Soviet 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, which had just “liberated” Vienna, some 140 miles to the East of Liezen, and was soon to be denoted as the “Vienna Order of Lenin Order of Kutuzov Mechanized Corps.”

This top image was apparently during a Victory Parade along with the U.S. 9th Armored “Phantom” Division, which they met at the demarcation line.

The 9th had just recently, in turn, liberated Zwodau and Falkenau an der Eger, both subcamps of the Flossenbürg concentration camp.

Old Ammo plants coming and going

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Two interesting pieces of news concerning WWII-era War Department ammunition plants.

The old Milan Army Ammunition Plant (MLAAP) in Tennessee, established in 1941, is finally gone. It made everything from 40mm Bofors rounds to mortar and artillery projectiles over the years.

Employees at the Milan Army Ammunition Plant inspect 81mm mortar rounds produced at the plant in this photo from the 1960s. (Photo Credit: Joint Munitions Command Public Affairs)

Closed as part of BRAC in 2005, its remaining lines were shifted to the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant by 2009, while most of its land was transferred to the Tennessee National Guard to become the Milan Volunteer Training Site.

MLAAP was formally deactivated as a federal installation on 10 April and its colors cased.

Brig. Gen. Ronnie Anderson Jr. (right), the Joint Munitions Command’s commander, Tom Nowell, the Milan Army Ammunition Plant’s commander’s representative, and Command Sgt. Maj. Christopher Reaves, JMC command sergeant major, secure the plant’s flag as the “casing of the colors” is executed bringing the ceremony to a close and formally deactivating the installation. (Photo Credit: Joint Munitions Command Public Affairs)

Meanwhile, in the Sooner State this week, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced that a major ammo maker will create 350 new jobs.

CBC Global Ammunition, which owns the brands Magtech and MEN, among others, and made something like 2 billion cartridges last year in Brazil and Germany, is opening a plant on 550 acres of the former Oklahoma Ordnance Works, which was used by the Army for munitions production during World War II.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the $300 million plant is expected in late 2025.

Magtech has been popular on the U.S. market for 20-30 years and is finally going to be made in America.

USMCR Tankers get the Green Weenie, again

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Back in 2020, the Marine Commandant elected to dispose of the Corps’ four tank battalions, three active and one reserve, some dating back to 1941. That meant divesting the service of all of its heavy tracks (M1 Abrams and recovery vehicles). While most of the active duty tankers switched their MOS to other specialties, often to motor T or LAV units, those in the reserve were painted into more of a corner, with MCR units few and far between.

This led to at least 39 reservists switching branches, moving from the MCR to the Idaho National Guard’s 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team, which also has armories in Montana, Nevada, and Oregon.

The Marine Corps Reserve’s Company C, 4th Tank Battalion, deactivates at Idaho National Guard Base Gowen Field, Aug. 14, 2020. More than three dozen of the former Marines enlisted in the Idaho Army National Guard on Sept. 13, 2020. THOMAS ALVAREZ/U.S. ARMY

The 116th, one of just five armored brigade combat teams in the Guard and one of just 16 in the Army as a whole, has often taken its armor abroad, fighting in Iraq twice (OIF III, New Dawn), then sent battalions to Southwest Asia from 2021 to 2023 and trained recently in both Poland and Morocco.

Abrams Tanks from A Company, 2-116th Combined Arms Battalion, 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team, Idaho Army National Guard, conduct exercises on the Orchard Combat Training Center in the final exercise before deploying in support of Operation Spartan Shield. Photo by Thomas Alvarez/IANG

An M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank crew assigned to the Army National Guard’s 3-116th Combined Arms Battalion, 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team, conducts live-fire operations June 10, 2023, in the Tan Tan Training Area as part of African Lion 2023. Eighteen nations and approximately 8,000 personnel are participating in African Lion 2023, U.S. Africa Command’s largest annual combined, joint exercise is occurring in Ghana, Morocco, and Tunisia from May 13 to June 18, 2023. (U.S. Army photo by Capt. Jeffrey Brenchley)

Well, fast forward a bit, and the 116th, which has been an armored regiment since 1949, is losing its armor. Trading them in for (not kidding here) GM pickup trucks.

From the Army: 

The U.S. Army announced today that the Idaho Army National Guard’s 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team is among the first of the U.S. Army’s armored BCTs selected to transform to a Mobile Brigade Combat Team as part of the Army Transformation Initiative.

ATI is a strategic modernization effort by the U.S. Army designed to strengthen the military’s capabilities in response to emerging global threats by adapting fighting formations and integrating new technologies to prepare units and Soldiers to fight on the modern battlefield.

The transition will see the unit exchange its Abrams tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles for Infantry Squad Vehicles as the Army becomes more mobile and lethal to focus on future threats.

The Idaho Army National Guard’s 116th is among three other armored BCTs across the National Guard selected to convert. The 30th ABCT (North Carolina) and the 278th ABCT (Tennessee) will also undergo this transformation into a lighter, more agile fighting force.

For reference, the M1301 Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV) is a slightly upgraded Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 light pickup truck, with zero armor.

The Green Weenie sometimes strikes twice.

The 5,000-pound GM Defense Infantry Squad Vehicle was uniquely engineered to fulfill military requirements and designed to provide rapid ground mobility. The expeditionary ISV is light enough to be sling loaded from a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter and compact enough to fit inside a CH-47 Chinook helicopter for air transportability.

Army on the Logistics of an Island Campaign

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“Effective sustainment operations in an island chain campaign demand innovative planning, meticulous coordination, and adaptability to overcome unique logistical challenges. The concept of echeloned sustainment, while rooted in traditional overland operations, must be reimagined to address the complexities of distance, strategic transportation limitations, and environmental factors inherent to island warfare.

Sustainment planners must prioritize the design of a robust and agile task force, balancing competing priorities such as fuel, transportation, and mission-critical equipment.”

More here. 

CMP just reset their 1911 program for the better

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While CMP may be circling the drain when it comes to M1903s and M1 Garands, it looks like they have 1911s stacked deep, having recently finished out their Round 4 lottery fulfillment.

Related: I got mine and it turned out to be a RIA National Match (see above photo)!

Moving forward, the good news is that you don’t have to go through the drawn-out (it took me 16 months to get my Round 4 gun) process and can just jump right into the process. Further, you can now get four guns rather than two, and they plan on having three events where you can go and pick out your gun from a lot of 400 that they brought!

The presser:

With the completion of Round 4, the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is excited to announce we have begun the processing of new orders for our surplus U.S. Army 1911 Pistol Program!

Through a partnership with the Army, the CMP offers these genuine, military-issued and field-tested M1911A1 pistols to consumers. A true piece of American history, these are the perfect addition for competitors and enthusiasts alike to enhance their firearm collection.

CMP staff members have already received over 4,000 new orders and will continue accepting more, utilizing an updated ordering process.

Who can order during the new round?

Anyone – even if you have just received a 1911 from Round 4, all those who fill out an application will be eligible to purchase during this upcoming round. We’re also excited to share that the Department of the Army has increased the lifetime limit from two to four pistols per person. Orders will be processed in the order they are received.

What’s new?

The CMP has introduced a new eStore payment method for 1911 pistols to better serve our customers.

Why the change?

The change addresses the difficulty we face reaching customers during the day while they are at work and the challenge customers experience trying to reconnect with our sales team once we’ve moved on to assist others. This new method allows customers to complete their purchases at their own convenience, anytime, without the constraints of business hours. Additionally, it significantly speeds up the overall purchasing process, ensuring a smoother and more efficient experience for everyone.

How does it work?

  • When the CMP 1911 sales team reviews a customer’s order packet, they will identify and note any discrepancies.
  • An email from 1911orderstatus@thecmp.org will then be sent to the customer detailing the specific information required to complete the packet. This process puts control back into the hands of the customer, allowing them to quickly address any issues and return the corrected order packet without unnecessary delays.
  • Once all required documentation and attributes have been satisfied, the customer will receive another email containing a secure link and a unique code. This will grant them access to the CMP eStore, where they can conveniently purchase their pistol by selecting the desired grade and quantity.
  • The entire transaction is conducted through a safe and secure purchasing process, offering customers the flexibility of 24/7 access to complete their orders at their own convenience.

NEW STOREFRONT FOR IN-PERSON 1911 SALES!

Entry to each 1911 sales day will be available to individuals that have purchased tickets (open to those registered for either Talladega D-Day or the National Matches, respectively), with a maximum of 20 customers per 50-minute time slot. The sale will feature approximately 400 pistols – organized and displayed by grade (Service, Field, and Rack) as well as by specialty categories that include select items normally reserved for auction.

Along with online ordering, individuals may now purchase CMP’s 1911 Pistols at one of three in-person sales events at our CMP Store locations! These one-day events will be held during the upcoming Talladega D-Day event at Talladega Marksmanship Park in Alabama and during the National Matches at Camp Perry in Ohio.

Dates include:

  • Friday, June 6 – Anniston, Alabama (CMP South Store)
  • Tuesday, July 15 – Camp Perry, Ohio (CMP North Store)
  • Saturday, August 2 – Camp Perry, Ohio (CMP North Store)

Ticket sales for our upcoming in-person events will go live within the next week. Be sure to check your email for an announcement with exact dates and registration details. Not on our Sales email list? Click here to sign up and stay informed!

Upcoming CMP Auction Highlight: 1911s

Keep an eye out for a select few 1911s that will be featured on the CMP Auction site in the coming weeks. A few “specialty categories” will be highlighted for our Auction page. Visit https://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/guns-on-auction/ for more details and to view current auction items.

See more on the CMP’s 1911 Program, including how to purchase, on the CMP website at https://thecmp.org/sales-and-service/1911-information/. Specific questions may also be sent via email to cmp1911@thecmp.org.

Chopping it up along the Verde Trail

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It happened 80 years ago.

8 May 1945. Caballero Mountains, Luzon. While peace of a sort had come to Europe, WWII continued to roar in the Pacific.

Here we see a M15 Combination Gun Motor Carriage “Special” that, in lieu of the standard M1 37mm gun/. 50 cal combination normally seen, was modified with a 40mm Bofors. It is also shown with an M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage, which is essentially an M3 half-track chassis carrying an M45 Maxon “Meat Chopper” quad .50 cal.

A closer look at the M15. During Korea, this modification was solidified in the M34 with 102 M15s converted in Japan in 1951. The M34 mounted a single 40 mm Bofors gun in place of the M15’s combination gun mount. This was due primarily to a shortage of 37 mm ammunition, which was no longer manufactured. M34s served with at least two AAA (automatic weapons) battalions (the 26th and 140th) in the Korean War.

And a close-up of the M16/50 Quad.

M16 firing on Japanese position on the Villa Verde Trail in the Caballero Mountains, Luzon, PI, May 8, 1945

All of the above tracks are assigned to A Co, 209 AAA (Aw) Battalion of the 32nd “Red Arrow” Infantry Division, and are being used on Yamashita Ridge during the Battle of Villa Verde Trail.

As noted by the Army’s CMH, “In brief, the battle for the Villa Verde Trail became a knock-down, drag-out slug fest.”

The 32nd– which logged 654 days of combat during WWII, more than any other U.S. Army division– suffered 4,961 casualties in the Luzon Campaign.

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