Category Archives: weapons

Flying Boat for the Win

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Late last month, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s 31st Air Group, 71st Air Squadron, at Iwakuni Air Base conducted an emergency airlift of an injured individual from a Chinese oceanographic research vessel off the east coast of Ogasawara, that involved a waterborne landing of a huge ShinMaywa Industries US-2 seaplane.

With a 108-foot wingspan and 109-foot length, the US-2 has a maximum take-off weight of 52 tons. They can take off and land in about 1,100 feet of relatively calm (under 11-foot seas) water. With an operational range of 2,500nm, these birds could be invaluable in the Pacific littoral in future years.

There is a dramatic, if short, video of the big blue bird while waterborne.

Too bad the U.S. Navy decommissioned its last flying boat squadron in 1967 and the USGC put the shorter-legged Grumman HU-16 “Goat” out to pasture in 1983.

Worse, the JMSDF only has eight US-2s. 

Taking a page from AUKUS, there should be a program to spin up a squadron or two of commercial off-the-shelf US-2s in NAVAIR service, with future American aircrews training alongside the Japanese while the airframes are crafted. Heck, maybe the funding could even be offset via F-35 spending. Just saying.

It’s certainly more realistic than the daffy amphibious MC-130 fever dream that SOCCOM has been suffering from. 

FN Finally Making the ‘Baby SCAR’ in .300 Blackout

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The SCAR-SC. I mean, will you just look at it? How is this thing not in 150 different movies? (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The FN 15P debuted at last year’s SHOT Show as an NFA-compliant ode to the SCAR SC, which is on the no-no list due to the Hughes Amendment (which for the record should be repealed, thanks, Ronnie). The semi-auto 5.56 chambered large format pistol is the smallest SCAR in production, going even shorter, at under 20 inches long, than the 21-to-25-inch SCAR SC.

Now, the pistol-length FN 15P is available in .300 BLK, a caliber that is much more ballistically suited to a platform with a 7.5-inch barrel.

Being fully aware that Blackout shines in suppressed platforms, FN has updated the 15P in .300 to include gas regulator settings for subsonic and supersonic ammunition, a .30-caliber flash hider, and a dedicated 30-round magazine optimized for the stubby cartridge’s geometry. Plus, replacement barrel assemblies are on the menu for those who have the 5.56 variant and want to swap out to the BLK. 

The FN SCAR 15P in .300 will be offered in both a tactical peanut butter (FDE) with black accents as well as good old-fashioned black on black.

More in my column at Guns.com.

Meet Kimber’s New CDS9

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Alabama-based Kimber has doubled the capacity of its well-liked Micro 1911 platform with a new CDS9 line – and I got a sneak peek.

The 9mm Micro 1911 began to appear in 2016, taking a page from the company’s earlier Micro Covert in .380 ACP. Well-liked, hammer-fired, slim, and with a profile that made easy friends with those looking to EDC without printing, these Micro 9s have been well-reviewed.

However, as single-stacks, they were limited in capacity to six or seven rounds.

That’s where the new CDS9 series enters the game, and changes it.

Rebuilt from the frame up with a more modern design that retains what people liked about the old Micro 9s – slim and compact profile, all-metal, hammer-fired – but with more capacity and better ergonomics, the CDS9 looks very familiar.

Stacking a legacy single-stack Micro 9 against a new CDS9. Still slim and trim but with a seriously upgraded capacity. (All photos: Chris Ege)

Kimber’s new CDS9 will initially be offered in two optics-ready models with fully ambidextrous controls, differing from each other by way of a TFS package – an extended threaded barrel. Both have an aluminum alloy frame, stainless-steel slide with a direct-mount RMSc optic footprint, an accessory rail for lights or lasers, and options for double-stack magazines with 10, 13, or 15-round capacities.

Now that’s a handful

More in my column at Guns.com.

Giving birth to a Sikorsky

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80 years ago today. 10 October 1944. Somewhere in India. Helicopter Arrives.

“The fuselage of a helicopter is unloaded from a transport plane by men of the First Air Commando Group in India. The little ship was loaded aboard the big transport in the U.S. only a few days before.”

USAAF photo from the Allison collection, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History.

While pioneered by the British and the U.S. Coast Guard in late 1943, the Tenth Air Force’s Air Jungle Rescue Detachment, using “the lightest pilots available” started flying early Sikorsky YR-4 helicopters in early 1944, with the first documented CSAR “skyhook” mission occurring n April when 2LT Carter Harman picked up the pilot of a downed L-1 liaison aircraft and three wounded British soldiers– over two days and four flights.

By the end of the war, the 1st ACG, constituted on 25 March 1944, had become perhaps the most experienced “chopper” unit of WWII. They operated four YR-4s “in-country” with two other aircraft destroyed en route.

Today, the USAF SOW commandos look to them as their historical predecessors. 

Canada’s Answer

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110 Years Ago. October 1914. RN LCDR Norman Wilkinson‘s depiction of the sailing of Canada’s First Contingent of troops, the Canadian Expeditionary Force, over 31,000 strong, from Canada to England to fight the Germans.

Beaverbrook Collection of War Art Canadian War Museum, Ottawa, 19710261-0791

“After taking soldiers, horses, and equipment on board in Quebec City, the liners carrying the First Contingent formed up with British warships in Bay of Gaspé, Quebec, before leaving for England. Along the way, they were joined by another liner carrying soldiers from Newfoundland and by several other warships, including one of the Royal Navy’s largest battlecruisers, the 26,000-ton HMS Princess Royal, seen here in the foreground.”

The force, including the whole of the 1st Canadian Division and supporting units, comprised 1,547 officers; 29,070 men; 7,679 horses; 70 guns (QF 18-pounders), 110 motor vehicles, 705 horsed-pulled vehicles, and 82 bicycles. They were the first tranche of what would be more than 650,000 Canucks sent “Over There.” To put those numbers into perspective, Canada in 1914 had a population of just 8 million. The current Canadian Army is authorized at just 22,500 active personnel (and is 13 percent short of those numbers), drawn from a population of some 39 million. 

The flotilla of 31 merchantmen was protected by seven battleships and cruisers under convoy commander RADM Robert Phipps-Hornby CMG, Commanding North America and West Indies Station, with his flag in the old 14,000-ton Canopus class battlewagon HMS Glory. Several flotillas of destroyers would join once the convoy was nearing the sea area of maximum U-boat threat southwest of Ireland.

As for the artist. Wilkinson achieved fame for inventing the dazzle-painting technique, a form of camouflage applied to a ship’s hull to make it more difficult to detect.

In his April 1917 proposal to the British War Office, he described it as “large patches of strong colour in a carefully thought out pattern and colour scheme.

My decade with a funky Krink that takes AR mags

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I’ve owned several Kalash over the years, including some Arsenals and Norincos of various stripes, but never really considered myself an AK guy and at several times during my firearms collecting journey voluntarily got out of the AK game altogether – including getting rid of their ammo, parts, and accessories.

On the other hand, at any given time over the past 30 years, I tended to have a safe or two full of AR-pattern rifles as well as the mags and ammo stacked in bulk to support them. 

So in 2014, the Century-imported Zastava M85 NP caught my eye. It was cheap (sub-$500) and, as large format pistols generally escape 922 regulations, I knew that it would be more or less complete when it left Zastava’s factory in Serbia rather than be subjected to an infusion of questionable parts here in the U.S.

Taking a closer look at it, there was a lot to like. 

The M85 line is based on the old Yugo M70 short rifle, which itself was patterned after the Soviet AKS-74U. It has a 10.25-inch chrome lined cold hammer forged barrel and a 21.5-inch overall length. (All photos here to bottom: Chris Eger)

And I liked it even more after it was SBR’d.

More in my column at Guns.com.

The Java Frog

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Here we see the Free Dutch Navy’s onderzeeboot Hr.Ms O 19 (N 54) as she enters Dundee, Scotland during WWII, circa October 1943 to June 1944. Note the oversized frog emblem on her conning tower, specially made for her skipper, the grinning Luitenant ter Zee 1e klasse (LTZ 1c= LCDR) Armand van Karnebeek.

Fotoafdrukken Koninklijke Marine, via NIMH Objectnummer 2158_016200

Note the 88mm Bofors deck gun and a British sloop in the background. NIMH 2158_016202

Born in Soerabaja, Java, in 1909, Van Karnebeek earned the nickname “De kikker” (The Frog), reportedly for his large mouth, while a naval cadet in the late 1920s. Opting for the submarine service, by October 1939 he was the skipper of Hr.Ms. K XV (N 24) in the Dutch East Indies.

Taking command of O 19— which was in the Far East when the War started and pulled six combat patrols against the Japanese before catching orders to shift to Scotland for refit– in 1943, Van Karnebeek had the self-designed frog emblem applied to his boat.

Onderzeeboot Hr.Ms. O 19, in Loch Long, Scotland, NIMH 2158_016211

O 19, a near sister of the Dutch-made Polish subs Orzel and Sep, under Van Karnebeek, deployed back to the Far East via the Med and the Suez then completed her 7th and 8th War Patrols out of Freemantle in 1944, bagging several small Japanese coasters and sampans in the Java Sea via naval gunfire.

When Van Karnebeek left the boat in December 1944, replaced by LTZ 1c Jacob Frans Drijfhout Van Hooff, the new captain ordered the toad painted over.

It may have taken the boat’s luck with it, as, less than six months later, Van Hooff grounded O-19 on a reef in the China Sea so hard she had to be destroyed via demolition charges, torpedoes, and gunfire from USS Cod.

As for The Toad himself, Van Karnebeek retired from Dutch naval service as a vice admiral in 1961 after 32 years of service and passed in 2002, aged 92.

Toddy break

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Private Ken Williams, 2nd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR), is seen below in his winter fighting gear, as he takes time off from battle training in Korea for a refreshing drink from a can of chocolate-flavored Toddy, October 1953.

Photographer: Phillip Hobson, AWM Accession number: HOBJ4610

Note Williams’ Australian-made Owen sub gun, with its distinctive top-loading magwell, tucked under his arm. He also sports a camouflaged Mk III “Turtle” helmet, a lid rarely seen in Aussie service.

While the Owen and Turtle have long faded into history, Toddy is still very much around.

Australians served as part of the UN forces in Korea until 1957. As noted by the AWM, over 17,000 Australians served during the Korean War, of which 340 were killed and 1,216 wounded. A further 30 became prisoners of war.

Plastic Perfection at 40

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How about this blast from the past from 40 years ago this month: the first (as far as I can tell) review published in the U.S. on the new Glock pistol from the October 1984 SOF, penned by the esteemed Peter G. Kokalis, one of the most underrated firearm experts of our time. Of note, this came before the gun was even imported. 

For reference, the first Glock ad was published in the U.S. in July 1986, from the pages of American Handgunner:

‘America’s Battle Cruiser’ strikes her flag

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The ninth Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, the Ingalls-built USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55), was disestablished as a command on 21 September 2024, 37 years and 1 day since “America’s Battle Cruiser” was commissioned.

USS Leyte Gulf (CG 55), 27 September 2024

In those nearly four decades, she accomplished 17 deployments around the world, ranging from fighting and capturing pirates off Somalia, sending TLAMs to Qaddafi, and, just earlier this year while on Fourth Fleet orders for JIATFS, capturing a narco sub.

The self-propelled semi-submersible vessel intercepted by Leyte Gulf, April 2024 (Photo provided by the US Embassy in Georgetown)

She will be towed next month to the Navy’s Inactive Ships facility in Philadelphia, where the old girl will be retained as a Logistical Support Asset status for a few years.

Just nine Ticos are left on active service, less than one per CVBG. 

The last American cruisers are set to withdraw from service in FY27.

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