Category Archives: weapons

Of Hickory shirts and Tiny Pistols

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Ambrotype/tintype described as follows: “May 1861. Five enlistees from Co. K, 11th Ohio Infantry Regiment, one in uniform and three in hickory shirts, at Camp Dennison [near Cincinnati], three with bayoneted rifles.”

Take note of the extensive collection of small pistols and large knives in the volunteers’ belts.

Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Photographs (Library of Congress) https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2018648144/

“Summary: Photograph shows soldiers who enlisted [from] Greenville, Ohio, identified as (left to right) Lieutenant Wesley Gorsuch, Private Francis M. Eidson, unidentified soldier, Brigadier General [Brevet] Joseph Washington Frizell, and Doctor Squire Dickey, a surgeon candidate who did not muster.”

The photo comes from the time in which the 11th Ohio was a “three-month” regiment, formed from 90-day men meeting Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers. Mustered out 20 June 1861, the regiment was reformed the same day as a “three-year” regiment and was soon assigned to Cox’s Kanawha Brigade, seeing its first combat in a skirmish at Hawk’s Nest, Virginia on 20 August.

The 11th would go on to be in the thick of it at Second Bull Run and Antietam (where they have a monument noting their action and the loss of their commander, LTC Augustus H. Coleman), then transfer out West to fight at Chickamauga, the Siege of Chattanooga, and Missionary Ridge (where three of its enlisted earned the Medal of Honor).

Original Veterans of the regiment were mustered out in Cincinnatti in June 1864, then many went on to join new recruits as a battalion in the 92nd Ohio for Sherman’s March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign.

The last of the 11th was mustered out on 11 June 1865, following the Grand Review in Washington, at which point several likely donned plaid shirts once more. 

Meet Colt SAA SN 4552

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I’ve seen, held, and help document thousands of rare guns, and the mantra is always “buy the gun, not the story,” but this one has a hell of a story to it.

Colt Single Action Army model Serial Number 4552 comes from Colt’s 5th Lot of revolvers shipped to the military in January 1874 and was then shipped from Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois where they sat until June until finally sent further West, to the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment.

You know, Custer’s outfit.

Lot Five revolvers, among which this revolver falls, are noted as issued to companies C, E, F, and L along with the staff and scouts, as well as other U.S. Army personnel in the area. Its serial number mate, 4553, has been documented as being Brig. Gen. Alfred Howe Terry’s personal revolver is recorded in Terry’s personal diary. Terry, of course, was the commander of the U.S. Army column marching westward into the Montana Territory during what is now popularly known as the Centennial Campaign of 1876–77.

The thing is, 4552 kinda dropped off the Army’s radar after that.

After the battle, at least 302 of the 632 revolvers carried into the battle by the 7th Cavalry were reported lost, and “At the minimum 252 and probably closer to 280 Colt Army revolvers were recovered by the warriors during the two day battle at the Little Bighorn” as noted by “Colt Cavalry & Artillery Revolvers.”

The authors noted, “Serial numbers 4507, 4553, 4597, 4949, 4955, 5100, 5128, 5133, 5153, 5147, 5180, and 5416 all have either documented Seventh Cavalry history or some lesser degree of Seventh Cavalry history or battle association. All of these revolvers are from Lot Five.”

Fast forward to a couple of years ago and a family heirloom came into a gun shop in Colorado. An unmodified Colt Single Action with its 7.5-inch “Cavalry” barrel, complete with Ainsworth inspector marks and an early four-digit serial.

The backstory on the gun, as noted by one of the sellers outlining the provenance says the revolver has been in her family since 1915 when it was given in trade to her great-grandfather John Tooker Henderson at his mercantile shop along the Platte River in the Denver area.

She writes, “In 1915, an old Indian came to his store and traded him this revolver for a pair of pants and a blanket. He told my great-grandfather he picked it up off the Custer battlefield.”

Boom.

Ever seen an XM-10?

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Founded in 1852, Smith & Wesson is one of the oldest American gunmakers, only narrowly bested by Remington who claims a circa 1816 origin. While best known for their revolvers, Smith is also one of the oldest makers of semi-auto pistols in the world, having placed Belgian engineer Charles Philibert Clement’s interesting .35 S&W blowback autoloader into production in 1913. This later morphed into the Model 35, for obvious reasons.

After selling the U.S. and British military somewhere on the order of 900,000 “Victory Model” .38-caliber revolvers during World War II, Smith took an interest in a series of pistol trials conducted by the U.S. Army between 1948 and 1954 to produce a lightweight handgun that would replace not only the service’s stocks of .38 wheelguns but also the millions of M1911 .45ACP pistols.

The resulting X100 program saw Smith & Wesson’s Chief Designer, Joe Norman, develop a 7+1 single-stack 9mm pistol with a double-action trigger like the Walther P-38 and a Browning-style unlocking system. It was lighter and more compact than the M1911, as well as being more modern by far.

In the end, the bean counters decided that the Army could make do with what they had rather than buy more handguns and stuck with the status quo until 1986. 

January 1955: U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Colonel John Rentsch visited Smith & Wesson President Carl R. Hellstrom to examine the brand new Model 39. Developed over six years and through 30 prototype changes during the Army’s XM100 program, the Model 39 became the first double-action, auto-loading pistol made in the U.S. (Photo: S&W)

However, not to let six years of R&D go to waste, Smith introduced the definitive version of the T4/X100 to the commercial market in 1955 as the Model 39, and it was the first American-made 9mm available.

Model 39 ad

With that being said, there are a few XM-100s and the later XM-10 floating around. The XM-10, of course, was Smith’s 1980s attempt at again winning the same contract to replace the Army’s .38s and .45s with a new 9mm pistol, this time a modification of the company’s Second Generation Model 459, itself an evolution of the old XM-100/Model 39.

A lesson in what could have been.

One of the few S&W XM-10 trials guns floating around, complete with its factory 20-round mag. Via Jeff Zimba (BigShooterist), Poulin Auctions

Via Poulin Auctions:

TRIALS PISTOL. Cal. 9mm Parabellum. S# A883390. Bbl. 4″. An extremely rare S&W pistol to find in public hands. This is one of only 40 total mfg. w/ a minute number finding their way to the open market. Equally as rare if not more unusual is the inclusion of the original 20 rd. mag. that accompanies it.

The alloy frame is a traditional dark black while the slide, bbl. & hammer is parkerized. The serrated slide includes all of the unique features of the XM-10 project consisting of the oversized extractor, the barrel, and the bushing plus special dedicated rear sight. The hammer spur is serrated as well as the ambidextrous safety / decocker, the slide release, and both front and backstraps. Lanyard loop below pistol grip. It is interesting to note that the traditional long-time safety mechanism that disables their pistols when no magazine is inserted is not present in this example. Checkered trigger guard. Black plastic checkered grips with S&W insignia.

A letter signed by S&W Performance Center Co-Founder & former Chief Design Engineer, Paul S. Liebenberg states that: “this particular handgun was definitely involved in the military test and the condition reflects that fact, even though in actuality, the weapon is in excellent mechanical and aesthetic condition and totally original. It was never abused or used in an endurance or destruction test”.

MAGS: 1 extremely rare 20 rd. as submitted for test trials.

UNATTACHED ACCESSORIES: signed declaration of authenticity. A blue plastic S&W foam-lined shipping case w/ partially removed side label.

CONDITION: original finish on the frame is remarkably unblemished aside from a few minute handling marks. The slide finish, upon close inspection, demonstrates a little thinning in areas of mechanical intervention which occurs almost immediately and on some high spots. Some thinning on slide release is typically associated w/ holstering. Shiny bore w/ sharp rifling. The fire control mechanism appears to function correctly when cycled by hand.

PROVENANCE: Estate collection of Fred Inganamort. (22-1639/JZ). MODERN. $5,000-7,000.

Danish Shepherds

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If you have been under a rock, perhaps you have missed the beautiful Danish frigates of the Absalon and Iver Huitfeldt classes of late. Let us catch up on that.

The two 449-foot/6600-ton Absalons (Absalon F341 and Esbern Snare F342) are more of an FF design, carrying a 100~ man crew but fairly well-armed for the type, carrying typically a long-barreled 5″/62 MK 45 (tell me again why the USN’s LCS and FFG classes do not have these?) 36 Enhanced Sea Sparrows in a MK 48/56 VLS, 16 Harpoons, 2 35mm CIWS, 4 Mk 32 ASW torpedo tubes, and two large EH-101/MH60 helicopters. They also have the capability to carry a company-sized light infantry unit for short periods. Using a diesel suite, they are kinda slow (24 knots) but have long legs, ideal for overseas expeditionary work such as in counter-piracy, blockades, and disaster response.

Speaking of which, Esbern Snare has been busy in exercises with the Finnish Navy in the Baltic…

Danish frigate Esbern Snare exercises with the patrol vessel Tornio of the Finnish fleet

…And escorting commercial vessels carrying material, vehicles, and armor from Denmark to Latvia to beef up NATO’s Baltic flank.

Importantly, this comes as the Russians warn that NATO transports found in Ukraine will be a target of war.

NATO’s vehicles transporting weapons for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Ukraine’s territory will be destroyed, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at a video conference meeting on Wednesday.

“The United States and NATO allies continue to flood Ukraine with weapons. I would like to point out that we view all NATO vehicles that arrive in the country carrying weapons and supplies for the Ukrainian Armed Forces as legitimate military targets,” he pointed out.

Then we have the newer Iver Huitfeldt FFGs (Iver Huitfeldt F361, Peter Willemoes F362, and Niels Juel F363) which use the same hull as the Absalons, but with a CODAD suite able to hit 30-knots. With better sensors (Thales/ SMART-L and APAR) they need larger crews (165) but have the ability to pack 32 SM-2s in a MK 41 VLS system, 24 ESSMs in a MK 56 VLS, 16 Harpoons, two (yes two) 76mm OTOs (still bigger than the single 57mm carried by USN FFGs and LCSs), a 35mm CIWS, and twin sets of ASW torpedo tubes. With all this extra kit, they have a reduced amount of real estate for aviation, only being able to accommodate a single MH-60-sized helicopter. Likewise, they can’t schlep an infantry company around, at least not for more than a couple of hours.

This week, Niels Juel installed her first SM-2s-– the first time such a missile has been on a Danish ship– and last night fired a couple of SM-2 Block IIIAs in first of class testing.

As noted by the Danish Admiralty:

It is a very important milestone to have the missiles tested on our frigates of Iver Huitfeldt class. When we subsequently get the missiles installed on the three frigates in the class, one can seriously utilize these units for what they were originally purchased and designed for, namely area air defense. The frigates already have radars and other sensors and a well-trained crew, which together enable the frigates to monitor an airspace closely and accurately and quickly detect enemy aircraft or missiles. With the SM-2 missiles, the frigates will be able to shoot down these possibly enemy aircraft and missiles at a longer distance, and they will thus make a significant contribution to e.g. the air force of Denmark. It simply makes the frigates better for air defense, which is important in relation to the defense of Denmark and supports the demand from NATO.

The C20, sure you’ve seen it Before (Probably not)

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From the Great North this week comes images of a rarely-seen designated marksman rifle, frolicking in the snow.

The C20 DMR was made in low numbers by Colt Canada of Kitchener, Ontario. Using an 18-inch chrome-lined barrel with a 1:10 RH twist, the 7.62 NATO semi-auto is outfitted with an LMT adjustable stock, a free-floating M-LOK handguard with a full-length top Pic rail, and a Geissele SSA two-stage trigger.

Probably less than 500 of these have been made, all for service in the Canadian and Danish military. (Photo: Colt Canada)

The funny thing is, the gun actually owes its lineage to the equally elusive Colt Modular Carbine of more American extraction.

This thing.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Warship Wednesday, May 4, 2022: Release the 30-Only-One!

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Here at LSOZI, we take off every Wednesday for a look at the old steam/diesel navies of the 1833-1954 period and will profile a different ship each week. These ships have a life, a tale all their own, which sometimes takes them to the strangest places. – Christopher Eger

Warship Wednesday, May 4, 2022: Release the 30-Only-One!

Naval History and Heritage Command NH 72318

Above we see the Balao-class fleet submarine USS Kraken (SS-370) tipping on the way during launching at Manitowoc Shipbuilding Co., Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on 30 April 1944.

And splash…NH 72319

During World War II, the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company built 28 submarines for the U.S. Navy and had contracts to build two more that were canceled.

Sponsored by Ms. Frances (Giffen) Anderson, wife of influential and rabidly anti-Japanese GOP Congressmen John Zuinglius “Jack” Anderson of California, Kraken’s side launched into the Manitowoc, as shown above, in April 1944 then commissioned on 8 September of the same year.

Kraken on trials in Lake Michigan circa 1944. Note she only had one 5″/25, aft, and two 20mm Oerlikons on her sail. Description: Courtesy of Alfred Cellier, 1978. NH 86955

This picture is of the crowd gathered for the commissioning ceremony of the submarine USS Kraken (SS 370) at the Manitowoc on 8 September 1944. Huge scrap piles of material for unfinished submarines can be seen in the background. The large cylindrical sections labeled “SS-379” would have formed hull portions of the USS Needlefish (SS 379). Other parts would have gone into the Needlefish or the USS Nerka (SS 380). In July 1944, with the war winding down, those contracts had been canceled and the parts for those two unbuilt boats were scrapped, as shown here. (Manitowoc Library photo P70-7-505)

USS Kraken (SS-370) running surfaced in Lake Michigan, Michigan. September 1944. NH 72321

Incidentally, Ray Young, a Manitowoc artist employed as a shipyard designer, would create Kraken’s insignia, that of a binocular-eyed sea dragon. He would do the same for the last nine subs completed by Manitowoc and for a quartet of boats built by Electric Boat.

Some of Young’s amazing insignia, with Kraken’s in the top left corner.

Off to war!

Immediately following her commissioning, Kraken steamed via Chicago to Lockport, Illinois, then was towed in a floating dry dock down the Mississippi River arriving at Algiers Naval Station, across the river from New Orleans, on 4 October.

Kraken, with crew on deck, passed inbound up the Manitowoc River through the open Eighth Street drawbridge in Manitowoc, in September 1944. NH 72323

Setting out for the Pacific via the Panama Canal, Kraken was assigned to Submarine Division 301, SUBRON 30, part of the 7th Fleet. She arrived in Hawaii on 21 November, just in time for Thanksgiving, then made ready for her inaugural war patrol.

Leaving Pearl Harbor on 12 December 1944, she made for the South China Sea for anti-shipping work. Pulling lifeguard duty for carrier airstrikes off Hong Kong on the morning of 16 January 1945, she rescued one Ensign R. W. Bertschi, USNR, an F6F-5 Hellcat pilot (BuNo 70524) of the “Jokers” of VF-20 from USS Lexington (CV-16).

A week later, on 22 January, Kraken encountered a 5,000-ton oiler and made a submerged daylight attack with three fish that resulted in no hits. A nighttime surfaced attack two days later, firing a spread of four torpedoes against a Japanese destroyer, also resulted in no damage. She ended her 1st Patrol at Fremantle on Valentine’s Day 1945, and Bertschi, in addition to his wings of gold, finally made it to shore, just falling short of earning a set of dolphins.

Her next sortie was lackluster. Kraken arrived at Subic Bay, the old U.S. Navy base that had just been liberated, on 26 April, concluding her 2nd Patrol.

Her 3rd War Patrol was conducted in the Gulf of Siam, the South China Sea, the Java Sea, and the Eastern Indian Ocean between 19 May and 3 July. She was part of a “Yankee Wolfpack” consisting of USS Bergill (Comwolf), Cobia, Hawkbill, and Bullhead patrolling the Pulo Wai-Koh Krah Line, then near the British T-class subs HMS/m Taciturn and HMS/m Thorough. By that time of the war, the seas were undoubtedly target poor.

In the predawn hours of 20 June, Kraken surfaced alone off Japanese-occupied Java to shell the Merak roadstead, following up on a report from Bullhead. This resulted in a surface gun action with two anchored “Sugar Charlie” type coasters, reportedly sinking one (later confirmed to be the 700-ton Tachibana Maru No.58) and damaging the other.

Two days later, Kraken shelled the Anjer Point Lighthouse just after midnight and got into an artillery duel with a Japanese coastal battery for her trouble.

However, she did stalk a small coastal convoy of five Marus and three escorts, then followed it through the next day before taking a run at it during the bright moonlight on the morning of the 23rd in a combined torpedo and gun attack.

In the swirling four-hour engagement, Kraken expended five MK XIV-3A and four MK XVIII-1 torpedoes at ranges just over 2,000 yards along with 54 rounds of 5-inch HC, 116 rounds of 40mm, and 474 rounds of 20mm at ranges as close as 1,500 yards. The Japanese escorts, small subchasers, fired back and bracketed Kraken but caused no damage.

Kraken was credited at the time with sinking a 1,600-ton transport oiler and a 700-ton coastal steamer, as well as damaging two ~400-ton escorts, although this was not borne out by postwar boards.

She ended her 3rd, and most successful, Patrol at Freemantle, steaming some 11,926 miles in 45 days.

Kraken (SS-370) with Ray Young’s “Sea Dragon” and WW II sinkings on the conning tower. USN photo courtesy of Scott Koen & ussnewyork.com via Navsource.

Further detail of the Kraken’s “Sea Dragon” and WW II sinkings on the conning tower. Note three Maru sinkings, three ships damaged including two Japanese naval vessels, two shore bombardments, and Ensign Bertschi’s rescue. Courtesy of ussubvetsofwwii.org via Navsource.

It was in Australia that she was given a quick overhaul that included doubling her armament to make her one of the late war “gunboat submarines.”

However, her following 4th War Patrol did not gain any kills, although Kraken suffered one of the last active Japanese air-and-naval pursuits of the war, logged on 13 August. The Patrol ended after just 23 days when Kraken was signaled to halt hostilities on 15 August due to the Japanese surrender and proceeded to Subic Bay.

She would linger there for a few days before being ordered stateside as her crew was made up of several very experienced officers and men that had been drawn from other boats, some having as many as 15 war patrols under their belts.

Setting out for California, Kraken would be one of the escorts for the famed battleship USS South Dakota (BB-56), as she carried Admiral Halsey under the Golden Gate Bridge in October.

The crew of USS Kraken (SS 370) unloads their torpedo stores at the end of World War II in San Francisco. An MK18 is shown. Note the camo on her 5″/25.

Kraken received just one battle star (Okinawa) for World War II service. She was initially credited with sinking three ships, totaling 6,881 tons.

Kraken is listed as one of 15 Manitowoc Balaos in Jane’s 1946 entry.

Peacetime

Placed out of commission on 4 May 1946, Kraken languished in mothballs with the Pacific Reserve Fleet until August 1958, when she was ordered partially manned and towed to Pearl Harbor NSY for snorkel conversion.

She emerged much changed, with a streamlined profile, no deck guns, and a very modern appearance.

Kraken remained at Pearl for the next 14 months, heading to sea for brief exercise periods.

Her final deck log was dated 24 October 1959 and closed quietly.

El Inolvidable Treinta y único

The reason for her USN deck log ending was that Kraken had been transferred on loan to the Spanish Navy as SPS Almirante García de los Reyes (E-1). While Franco, the old fascist buddy of Mussolini and Adolf, was still in power, the 1953 Madrid agreements thawed the chill between the U.S. and the country, opening it to military aid in return for basing.

The Spanish at the time only had two circa 1927 EB-designed pig boats (C1 and C2) that had survived the Civil War but were in poor condition, two small 275-foot/1,050-ton boats (D1 and D2) constructed in 1944 at Cartagena that were both cranky and obsolete, and G-7, the latter a partially refirb’d German Kriegsmarine Type VIIC U-boat, ex-U-573, which had been interned after receiving damage and sold to Franco’s government.

Spanish submarines in Barcelona, 1966. Almirante García de los Reyes (S-31) ex-USS Kraken (SS-370), two D Class units including S-21– already modernized with the Spanish version of the GUPPY conversion– and in the foreground the domestically built midget submarines Foca (SA-41) and Tiburon (SA-42).

This made Kraken/Almirante García de los Reyes the only relatively modern sub in the Spanish Navy in the Atomic era as she had the fleet’s first snorkel, guided torpedoes (Mk37s), and submarine sonar. As such, after her pennant number shifted to the more NATO-compatible S-31 in 1961, the boat was termed “El Treinta y único” or “Thirty-Only One” as she was the sole submarine in the force considered battle-ready.

This would endure for more than a decade.

Visiting New York

Melilla August 1971 El treinta y unico El Mejor Spanish S-31 submarine Admiral Garcia. Note the old light carrier USS Cabot as Dédalo with Sikorsky S-55 Pepos on deck

In July 1971, USS Ronquil (SS-396), a Guppy’d Balao-class smoke boat became SPS Isaac Peral (S-32) and allowed the old Kraken some backup. The next year two more Balao Guppies, ex-USS Picuda (SS-382) and ex-USS Bang (SS-385), would arrive in October 1972, renamed SPS Narciso Monturiol (S-33) and Cosme Garcia (S-34), respectively.

Kraken/Almirante García de los Reyes’s 1973 entry in Jane’s.

Sold to Spain and struck from the US Naval Register, on 1 November 1974, Kraken would endure in operation until April 1981, when she was finally removed from service and scrapped.

By that time, Spain had a force of four brand-new French-built Daphné-class submarines in service.

Epilogue

Kraken’s plans and deck logs are in the National Archives but as far as I can tell little else remains of her.

Sadly, her name, possibly the most epic sea creature there is, has not been repeated on the Navy List.

Eight Balao-class submarines are preserved (for now) as museum ships across the country. None are Manitowoc-built boats.

Nonetheless, please visit one of these fine ships and keep the legacy alive:

-USS Batfish (SS-310) at War Memorial Park in Muskogee, Oklahoma.
–USS Becuna (SS-319) at Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
–USS Bowfin (SS-287) at USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park in Honolulu, Hawaii.
–USS Clamagore (SS-343) at Patriot’s Point in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. (Which will not be there much longer)
–USS Ling (SS-297) at New Jersey Naval Museum in Hackensack, New Jersey. (Which is hopefully in the process of being saved and moved to Kentucky)
–USS Lionfish (SS-298) at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Massachusetts.
-USS Pampanito (SS-383) at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California, (which played the part of the fictional USS Stingray in the movie Down Periscope).
–USS Razorback (SS-394) at Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum in North Little Rock, Arkansas.

Specs:

Displacement: 1,525 surfaced; 2,415 submerged.
Length 311′ 9″
Beam 27′ 3″
Draft 15′ 3″
Main machinery: 4 x General Motors diesel model 16-278 A, 4 x General Electric electric motors
Speed (knots): 23 surfaced, 11 submerged.
Range (miles): 11.000 at 10 knots (surfaced), 95 at 5 knots (submerged). Patrol endurance was 75 days.
Complement: 70 (10 officers)
Sonar: Passive: AN/BQS-2 B. Active: AN/BQS-4 C.
At the end of his career used an updated BQR-2 taken from stricken SS-382/S-33.
Guns:
1 x 5″/25 (second added in July 1945)
1 x 40mm/60 Bofors (second added in July 1945)
1 x 20mm Oerlikon
All were removed when she entered service in Spain.
Torpedoes:
10 x 533mm tubes: 6 forward, 4 aft
24 torpedoes: 16 forward and 8 aft.
Initially armed with Mk14/18 torpedoes, in the last years of her career changed to Mk37

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Army Spends $1B on Sci-Fi Weapon Sights

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Massachusetts-based FLIR Systems Inc. and Leonardo DRS of Melbourne, Florida last week pulled down a shared $1 billion Pentagon contract for advanced weapon sights.

Terme the Family of Weapons Sights-Individual, when coupled with the new ENVG-B night-vision goggles, the FWS-I gives the user the ability to accurately engage targets via offset shooting without shouldering the weapon. This includes shooting in daylight or no-light, through smoke, and under adverse weather such as rain and fog.

“The ENVG III/FWS-I integrated solution uses a wireless connection that transmits the weapon sight’s aim point and surrounding imagery directly into the soldier’s goggle,” notes the Army’s Program Executive Office Soldier.

Yup, around corners, under obstacles such as cars, etc., all while giving you thermal “Predator vision”

Weight on the FWS-I is under two pounds, giving an 18-degree field of view and a range of almost 1,000 meters. The runtime on a trio of AA Lithium batteries is seven hours, which means you really need to carry some spares, but hey, these things allow you to fire from cover and concealment, and ignore the night, weather, and smoke grenades.

More in my column at Guns.com.

45 Years Ago Today: Harrier Carrier (Cruiser?), Ahoy!

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Carrying the name of the Great War battlecruiser whose design flaws saw her blow up and sink at Jutland after taking a hit from the German battlecruiser SMS Lützow, the “anti-submarine cruiser” HMS Invincible (R05) slid down the ways of Vickers Shipbuilding Limited, Barrow-in-Furness, on 3 May 1977, sponsored by Queen Elizabeth herself.

Importantly, Invincible was the closest thing to an aircraft carrier laid down by the Royal Navy since HMS Bulwark in 1945, although she had been pitched to Whitehall as more of a replacement for the  Blake and Tiger, aging converted light cruisers who had been given extensive aviation facilities over their stern quarter.

1973 Jane’s. Note her intended air wing would be only 15 helicopters and Harriers.

Some 22,000 tons when fully loaded, she had a suite of four Rolls-Royce gas turbines that gave 97,000 shp on tap, enabling a speed of 28 knots. Armed with a pair of GWS30 Sea Dart missile twin launchers, the same as fitted to the state-of-the-art Type 42 anti-air destroyers of the era, with the ability to carry as many as 26 ready missiles capable of hitting a target out to 40 nm, she was designed to be self-escorting to a degree, with her mixed airwing of Sea King helicopters and Sea Harrier strike aircraft providing further ASW and AShW/Air Defense capabilities.

By the time Invincible was launched, the Brits already had almost 20 years of R&D in the Harrier and were 14 years past the aircraft’s first landing on an RN flattop. 

Hawker P1127 making the first ever vertical landing by a jet aircraft an a carrier at sea on HMS Ark Royal in February 1963. IWM A 34711

As noted by the above Jane’s listing, the original concept would have seen her take to sea with 8 anti-ship missiles as well, likely Exocet MM38s, worked into the top of her islands, although these were never fitted. 

Sea Dart launch from Invincible. These systems would be removed post-Falklands, replaced with CIWS.

“Vince” would go on to commission in July 1980 and, shortly after her shakedown and post-delivery overhaul were complete, sail off to war unexpectedly against the Argentines in the Falklands– cutting short a planned sale to the Royal Australian Navy to replace their aging carrier HMAS Melbourne.

The first of an ultimately successful three-ship class, Invincible went on to serve a solid 25 years with the Royal Navy. In 2005, she was decommissioned and was eventually sold for scrap in February 2011.

Army & Air Force Sniper Rifle Updates

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The Army’s Picatinny Arsenal earlier this month announced it has ordered an additional 485 of the service’s newest bolt-action sniper rifles, the MK22, from Barrett Firearms in Tennessee. Also known as the Advanced Sniper Rifle and the Precision Sniper Rifle, the MK22 is based on Barrett’s Multi-role Adaptive Design, or MRAD, platform. It is part of a program to replace the service’s existing Remington-made M2010 bolt guns, as well as the M107 .50 cal.

The MK22 is a version of Barrett’s popular MRAD bolt gun, which can be swapped between three different calibers on the fly, hence the “Multi Role Adaptive Rifle” abbreviation. The MK22 is part of the Army’s Precision Sniper Rifle Program, which also includes the Leupold Mark 5HD 5-25×56 optic – complete with a flat dark earth coating and the Army’s patented Mil-Grid reticle – on a Badger Ordnance mount, along with a suppressor and a sniper accessory kit. (Photo: U.S. Army)

Meanwhile, the Air Force is almost done fielding 1,500 new M110A1 Squad Designated Marksman Rifles. The SDMR is a variant of HK’s 7.62 NATO G28/HK417 rifle that includes offset backup sights, a Geissele mount, OSS suppressor, Harris bipod, and Sig Sauer’s 1-6x24mm Tango6 optic.

A sergeant with the 44th Infantry Brigade Combat Team fires the M110A1 Squad Designated Marksman Rifle (SDMR) at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst (Photo: Spc. Michael Schwenk/New Jersey National Guard)

Why does the Air Force need 1,500 SDMRs?

More in my column at Guns.com.

How time flies when you don’t need ADA

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U.S. Army paratroopers assigned to the 173rd Airborne Brigade fire an FIM-92 Stinger during an air defense live-fire exercise alongside soldiers with the Croatian Air Defense Regiment. This training is part of Exercise Shield 22 at Kamenjak near Medulin, Croatia on April 8, 2022 (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. John Yountz)

Air Defense Artillery has been a facet of the modern battlefield since at least 1911 when 2LT Giulio Gavotti of the Italian Air Flotilla, lobbed four small Cipelli grenades over an Ottoman camp in Libya, from his Taube monoplane during the Italo-Turkish War. In the U.S. Army, this meant the birth of AAA, moving from early 3-inch M1916/M1917 “balloon guns” in the Great War to the .50 cal in various mounts (M2, M16, M45), 37mm (M1), 40mm Chrysler Bofors (and its later M19 and M42 SPAAGs), and the 3-inch M3 in WWII.

By the Cold War, we had the radar-directed 120mm M1 Stratosphere, the 90mm M1/M2/M3, the 75mm M51 Skysweeper, and the 20mm M163/M167 VADS, with all but the latter replaced by missile systems evolving from the Nike family to Hawk (augmented by Redeye) and, finally, the Patriot.

The only late Cold War-era SPAAG on the chart was the disastrous Sgt. York system which was never fielded, and it was left to the M48 Chaparral, a stripped-down M113 APC chassis carrying four modified Sidewinders, to provide an umbrella over the immediate battlefield in what was termed Short-Range Air Defense (SHORAD) until it was withdrawn in the 1990s.

Since full-capability Patriot batteries are not small things that can be shlepped around easily, and are typically a division or corps-level asset except under special circumstances, this left brigades to make due in the SHORAD mission with light ADA battalions consisting of man-carried Stingers MANPADS or, in the case of mechanized units, the Avenger system which was just a Hummv with a few Stingers and a .50 cal M3P. The typical TOE for an ADA battalion since Chaparral was retired in the early 1990s was for 36 Avengers or 24 MANPADS teams to defend a brigade or about one system per 150 or so Joes.

The thing is, once the Cold War ended, the wheels fell off ADA in the U.S. Army.

Facing no realistic and immediate air threat since the IFOR/SFOR mission ended in 2004 and Saddam’s air power had been destroyed the year prior, ADA at least at the brigade level and below got the same treatment that the CBW guys have always had. Chaparral and Hawk had long been retired, even from the National Guard. VADS was gone as well. Of the more than 1,100 Avengers delivered, fewer than 400 remained in inventory by 2017, and a lot of these were dry rotting in Guard armories.

After all, South Korea can largely take care of its own air defense needs in the event of an all-out war with the stuck-in-the-1960s Norks, and if China went for Taiwan, that was clearly going to be a problem for the Navy, so why bother? I mean, the Air Force says there will always be air superiority, right? 

In a more staggering bit of news, it was just detailed by Raytheon that the Army’s stockpile of Stingers is at least 18 years old for the newest models and, with a potential need to replace “over 1,400” Stingers sent to Ukraine courtesy of a drawdown from U.S. war reserves, the pipeline could take months if not years to reopen.

“We’re going to have to go out and redesign some of the electronics in the missile and the seeker head,” Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told investment analysts Tuesday during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “That’s going to take us a little bit of time.”

Because time is always the thing you have the most of when suddenly needing air defense.

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