Category Archives: weapons

Yankee Kalash Updates

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While at CANCON 2023 in Savannah, Georgia a few weeks ago, I stopped by the Kalashnikov USA booth and ran into John Cason, KUSA’s director of sales. He told me that the company wouldn’t be in Vegas for the SHOT Show later this month, but he did have several sweet new models they had queued up for 2024.

Among them is the long-promised American-made 7.62x39mm AK101 sporter (KR101), a 5.56 NATO AK102 sporter (KR102), side folding wood-stocked (not a misprint) KR103s, and a tiny Vityaz.

KUSA’s “Micro 9” Vityaz, made for an Indonesian military contract but soon to come to the U.S. consumer market

Developed for an overseas military contract, KUSA had what is tentatively just called the “Micro 9” at the show. Now don’t confuse that term with a micro compact 9mm pistol such as a P365 or Hellcat. This is a 5-inch barreled semi-auto KP-9 Vityaz clone rather than the standard 9.25-incher that the company intends to market as both a pistol (that can either use a triangle brace or be Form 1’d later should the user want) and as a factory SBR.

PSA Krinkov (no, really, they say)

Palmetto State Armory has been teasing the public for years that they have an American-made Krink headed to market while not delivering.

Well, Cameron surfaced over the weekend on social media and said the company is in their final testing phase for the gun, expecting to launch it in February (yes, of 2024).

They intend to have five variants at launch– all in 5.56 with included side rails.

These will include a plum gloss, a Vudu version, a JMac railed option, a redwood version, and an SBR-ready variant. PSA says that they will work on 5.45, .300 BLK, and 7.62×39 variants after the 5.56s have been released. No pricing is available.

Color me excited.

Propping up the popgun

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How about this great image of a U.S. Coast Guardsman in winter blues on an unidentified cutter alongside a stern 6-pounder 57mm deck gun circa 1916-1920s. Note the Portland Shipbuilding Company Spar Yard sign in the background, an outfit in Portland, Oregon that operated along the west bank of the Willamette River for 70 years.

USCG Historian’s Office 220211-G-G0000-032

The humble 6-pounder, of which the Navy had over 700 examples (of 13 types) on hand in 1901, was a common anti-torpedo boat gun designed in the 1880s originally by Hotchkiss then surpassed by competing designs by Driggs-Schroeder and Nordenfeldt.

They were a ready standby of the Spanish-American War era. 

USS Newark. Electrician 1/c Sullivan with one of the ship’s six-pounder guns, in 1898. NH 80783

It was rapidly replaced during and immediately after the Great War in U.S. Navy service on all but local patrol craft, minesweepers, and auxiliaries with something larger or more effective — typically 3″/23s or 3″50s– although some models with decent elevation attributes were retained for a while as “balloon busters” and for use as saluting guns. 

Nonetheless, the little gun endured with the Coast Guard.

A simple and light mount, typically less than 900 pounds without its shield installed, it did not penetrate the deck and required no electricity or hoists to move it or its handy 6-pound shells. Still, capable of being fired at rates of up to 20 shells per minute if the crew was well-drilled and, with a range of 8,700 yards, it could still bark.

2nd LT Godfrey L. Carden instructing a 6-pounder gun crew aboard the Revenue Cutter Morill in South Carolina waters, circa 1892. Note the rarely-seen USRSC officer’s sword. Carden would become the COTP for New York City in the Great War. USCGH Photo 210210-G-G0000-1002

For a service that, in peacetime, only needed a popgun to fire shots across the bow of smugglers and poachers and to poke holes in floating derelicts that posed a hazard to navigation, the QF 6 remained a viable option, appearing on several cutters well into the start of WWII and cutters so equipped practiced against moving targets (at a range of 750 yards) at least twice a year. 

US Navy 6 pdr Service (left) and Target (right) ammunition via USN 1943 OP-4 Ord Manual

In the early 1940s, the large 240-foot cruising cutters Haida, Modoc, Mojave, and Tampa, as well as the smaller 165-foot Tallapoosa and Ossippee, along with the five new 327-foot Bibb (Treasury) class and 10 1920s construction 250-foot Cayuga (Lake) class cutters– some 21 ships in total– all still carried a couple of old 6-pounders in addition to their regular armament, with 55 service rounds and 110 “Navy” blanks per gun (the odd number as they were packed in 11-round wooden cases as all-up complete shells).
 

Manning a 5 gun on a Coast Guard Cutter, August 27, 1931. By 1940, the USCG had at least 19 large cutters that carried big (for the service) 5″/51s, and trained with them regularly. However, they were considered “war service” mounts only. NARA 026-g-046-014-001

This is because the more modern 3″/23s, 3″50s, and 5″/51s also carried by these ships were considered reserved for “war use” and were not to be used on normal patrols “unless circumstances of the case render such use highly advisable.” 
 
From the USCG 1938 Ordnance manual: 
 
 
In addition, the 6-pounders could be used for line throwing, more accurately and to longer distances than the standard Lyle gun (which was heavy and typically used ashore) and Trapdoor Springfields that were typically dedicated to the task, making them useful for rescues in high seas or from wrecks on reefs.

Coast Guard cutter Manning (1898-1930) preparing to shoot a tow line to a disabled schooner from her 6-pounder

USCGC Mojave. 11 May 1929. “Coast Guardsmen firing the Camden line-throwing a projectile from the 6-pounder. This line and gun are used in extremely bad weather, where the shoulder line-throwing gun is inadequate.” USCG Image. National Archives Identifier 205580631

For this, the service’s gunners mates made special “impulse” rounds, a much lighter charge that the regular Navy issue blank (which was typically used for salutes and “shots across the bow.”) The impulse round, containing 6 ounces of black powder, was sufficient to heave the line throwing projectile 300 yards or more with the gun elevated to 30 degrees. Of note, the standard Navy saluting/blank load for a 6-pounder used a 12-ounce charge of black shell powder, double the USCG impulse load. 
 

6-pounder and 3-pounder line throwing projectiles, via OP 4 (1943)

 
Using 6 pounder 57mm gun for line throwing USCG Ordnance manual 1938:
 

A reoccurring theme

Similarly, the Coast Guard continued to use the old WWII-era 5″/38 and 3″/50 guns, only retiring them in the late 1990s long after the Navy was done with them.

Last USCG 5 inch 38 being cut at RTC Yorktown 1993 or 1994

Last USCG 5 inch 38 being cut RTC Yorktown 1993 or 1994

Today the USCG is the final American user of the OTO Melera MK 75 76mm gun in U.S. service and has been since 2015.

That mount is likely to be retired in US service sometime in the 2030s when the final 270-foot Bear class cutters are put to pasture after 50 years of service.

The crew of Coast Guard Cutter Northland conducts a live firing of the MK 75 76mm weapons system while underway, on September 20, 2020, in the Atlantic Ocean. The cutter returned to its homeport of Portsmouth, Virginia, Wednesday after a 47-day patrol conducting counter-drug and migrant interdiction operations in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo)

One day, they will probably be the last user of the Bofors 57mm MK 110.

Break out the red coats

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Don’t get me wrong, I am no fan of the royals of any nation, but the recent life change by Denmark’s kind of quirky 83-year-old Queen Margrethe II– who abdicated her throne after 52 years over the weekend in favor of her 55-year-old son, who is now Kong Frederik X–  left a lot of great martial pageantry that you just don’t see these days, especially in minor European powers.

The Royal Danish Army’s Guard’s Hussars squadron (Gardehusarregimentets Hesteskadron) and the Vagtkompagniet company of the 365-year-old Life Guards regiment (Den Kongelige Livgarde) turned out at Christiansborg Palace in their full parade gear including seldom-seen red coats on the normally blue/black coated footguards.

It makes for interesting images, especially with the Canadian-made C7 (M16A2) and C8 (M4A1) rifles. Remember that these two guards units aren’t paper soldiers and, besides ceremonial duties, still train as regular armored recon and infantry units, respectively, and have deployed as such in NATO and UN operations for decades– the regiment lost Guardsmen in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Of note, they are using the older M/95 (1990s Diemaco C7A1) rather than the newer M/10 (Colt Canada C8 carbine, which is essentially an M4A1), presumably as the longer fixed stock M16A2 clone looks better on parade. However, note that they have slim little red dots (Aimpoint Duty RDS?) installed rather than bulky Elcans or plain iron rear peep sights. These guys look young and just out of school, but they are ready to rock if needed. Of interest, of the 300 Life Guards in the company, some 280 are 1-year conscripts drawn right from boot camp.

Note the standard use of infantry short swords, with different color sword knots for each platoon. 

Note the infantry short swords, dubbed the Livgardesabel M1854. Originally spoils of war captured from the Prussians in the First Schleswig War of 1848–1851, these brass-hilted 29-inch swords (with 24-inch blades) are carried by every Vagtkompagniet guardsman under arms. Meanwhile, the officers carry the more full-length M/50 saber.

Typically the Livgardesabel is carried in the leather next to the cartridge pouch (which presumably carries some 5.56 NATO these days), next to the bayonet scabbard for the M/95 rifle. Note the radio tucked in there as well, with the earpiece hidden easily under the big bearskin shako.

A video from the Danish Ministry of Defense includes the above and other units getting into the act.

And, since you have come this far, check out this circa 1932 footage of the Life Guards at drill and parade. Of note, they stood ready to fight the Germans in 1940 but were ordered to stand down by the king, who saw it as a waste of life.

Jan 1944: Two millionth SA M1 Garand is Born

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With World War II far from over, the 2 millionth M1 Garand Rifle manufactured at the U.S. Army’s Springfield Armory was crafted some eight decades ago this month. 

The below image, from January 1944, shows U.S. Army Col. George A. Woody observing Mr. Norbert R. Bonneville, who is inspecting U.S. Rifle M1 .30 caliber, Springfield Armory SN# 2000000. On the table is a framed portrait of Jean Cantius Garand, better known as John C. Garand, the designer of the rifle whose action he patented in 1932 after a decade of development. 

(Springfield Armory National Historic Site Photo 4326-SA.A.1)

At this point in the war, Eisenhower of course was busy planning the liberation of German-occupied France by landing Allied troops along the Normandy Coast when the weather broke in June, while in the Pacific the liberation of the Japanese-occupied Philippines was being planned by MacArthur along a similar timeline. 

For a deeper dive into the above photo, Col. Woody was the superintendent of Springfield Armory from Aug. 1943 to Aug. 1944, and his sought-after “G.A.W.” inspector stamp appears on correct M1 Garands made at the armory during that period. Sadly, the photo is one of the last of the colonel. Woody, a career Army Ordnance officer, and Aggie (Class of ’17), became ill in the summer of 1944 and was relieved at the armory by Brig. Gen. Norman F. Ramsey in October. Woody, suffering from a rare liver disease, spent his remaining days in Walter Reed Hospital where he passed away in November. He is buried at Arlington.

As for the younger man in the photo, Norbert Bonneville, who at the time lived in South Hadley, Massachusetts, was working the overnight “MacArthur” shift at the armory when the 2 millionth Springfield M1 receiver came down the line and the operator of an automatic numbering machine had the honor of stamping the serial at 2 a.m. “to the cheers of assembled workers who gathered to witness a historic event,” as chronicled by the New England Minute Man. 

As further described by the Minute Man: 

Final assembly into a completed weapon came later. In the stocking shop selection was made of a piece of walnut with a particularly fine grain. In finishing the stock, master craftsman at the armory lavished upon it all their skill. When the rifle was assembled, they put on a polish with the luster of an opal. A walnut mount was made for the gun and it was placed in the office of the commanding officer, later to be removed to the Springfield Armory museum to take its honored place with other historic arms that have been manufactured through the years.

Presented to Maj. Gen. Thomas J. Hayes after the war in 1946, it eventually made its way back to the Springfield Armory Museum where it remains today as catalog # SPAR 913. The Armory’s collection also contains several other key serial numbered guns, including SN# 1 manufactured in 1937, and SN# 100000, completed in December 1940 at a cost of $67.09.

But what about Springfield SN# 1000000? That one, completed in November 1942, was put back in storage until Mr. Garand retired in 1953 and was presented to him as a gift. It made it back to the museum on loan in 1994 and was later sold by its owner at auction in 2018 for $287,000.  

Mr. Garand, seen with an M1 on the Springfield assembly line in 1940, and sometime later with what looks to be the millionth rifle.

In all, Springfield Armory manufactured over 3 million Garands through 1945 when WWII ended, and, as noted by firearms historian Scott Duff, its production peaked in January 1944 – the period the 2 millionth gun was made – “with 122,001 M1s produced that month. This translated to 3,936 rifles per day or 164 rifles per hour.”

Springfield was the last government armory in the Garand-making business, and their final M1 .30-caliber rifles came off the line in May 1957, at which point it had been replaced in front-line service by the M14 rifle. By then, the serial number range was in the region of 6,099,905.

A graying and smiling Mr. Garand, then several years in retirement, was on hand for that moment as well. 

Official caption: “Group of men surround the last M1 .30-caliber rifles off the production line. Col. Hurlbut stands on the left. Lt. Col. Septfonds stands second from left. John C. Garand stands second from right and he holds the last rifle.” (Springfield Armory National Historic Site Photo 12808-SA.1)

CMP Has Enfields!

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Watch on the Rhine: sentry of the 310th Signal Bn, Moselle, Germany, armed with an M1917 “American Enfield ” with others stacked nearby for the rest of the guard force. (Signal Corps Photo 111-SC-45142 via the National Archives)

The M1917 Enfield was often regarded as an “also ran” when it came to American martial rifles.

Pressed into service when the official infantry arm– the M1903 Springfield– couldn’t be made in enough quantity to arm a 3-million-man American Expeditionary Force headed “Over There” in 1917-18, once the Great War wrapped up the Army spent the next 20 years trying very hard to get rid of them.

They gave thousands away to the Philippines Constabulary and other allies before, during, and immediately after WWII– the Danish Navy still uses a handful of them in Greenland.

Boom. Danish Slædepatruljen Sirius with Enfield M1917, circa 2022

Thousands more were sold off as milsurp or scrapped, with the Enfield widely available at rock bottom prices in the 1950s and 60s.

Others were relegated to drill status, including use by ROTC units, military academies, and Veterans organizations such as the VFW and American Legion.

This latter silo is where the CMP has been getting their Enfields from over the past decade or so, being guns typically returned by closed VFW halls that used them for firing parties for decades. As such, don’t expect really bright, crisp bores, but DO expect lots of coats of linseed oil on the furniture. Those guys liked to keep them shiny.

Price is $1,000-$1,100 depending on the grade, which is about right for an intact (still in military configuration and not “sporterized”) M1917 Enfield.

For comparison, check out these recently sold Enfields on Gunbroker, with final prices:

Anywho, the CMP presser on the Enfields:

Beginning January 9, 2024, CMP will have a very limited quantity of 1917 Service and Field Grade rifles available for mail orders. CMP Stores will also have a limited quantity this week as well. These are sold AS-IS with no returns or exchanges. Once these are sold out, we will not backorder these. Please keep in mind the yearly limit of one (1) 1917 per year, per person. If you have already purchased one this year, you are not eligible until January 2025. For more information on the 1917 rifles, please visit this link https://thecmp.org/sales-and-service/m1917-enfield-rifle-information/. Ordering information may be viewed at https://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/ordering-information/.

They also have some Expert Grade M1 Garand Rifles up for grabs:

CMP currently has a selection of Expert Grade M1 Garand Rifles available for mail orders, including .308 rifles. Once they’re sold out, we will not accept any more orders. View details on the Expert Grand M1 Garand Rifles at https://thecmp.org/sales-and-service/m1-garand/. Ordering information may be viewed at https://thecmp.org/cmp_sales/ordering-information/.

Back Again: Inglis Hi-Powers

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The original John Inglis and Company dated to 1937 (and even further back to the 1850s as the Mair, Inglis, and Evatt concern) and was based in Toronto.

Primarily a maker of home appliances – the firm was bought in 1987 by Whirlpool, Canada, and still operates there under the old banner – during World War II they did their part to help win the war and produced Bren light machine guns and Hi-Power pistols, making over 100,000 of each for the Allied cause, largely for KMT China and the Commonwealth. 

The Canadian Browning-Inglis production was aided during WWII by FN’s exiled staff, with the BHP’s co-designer, Dieudonné Saive, helping with the technical package, making these guns unofficial clones. Ultimately, an agreement was reached to pay FN a royalty of 25 cents after the war for each gun produced. (Photos: Library and Archives Canada/City of Toronto Archives/Canadian Forces)

A WWII-era Canadian-made Browning-Inglis No. 2 Mk1* Hi-Power, as found in the Guns.com Vault. Note the internal extractor and “thumbprint” slide, hallmarks of 1940s BHPs. These were imported in the 1980s by Navy Arms for like $300

Browning-Inglis No. 2 Mk1* Hi-Powers that had been produced in Toronto during the conflict remain in service with the Canadian military and are set to be retired shortly by a variant of the SIG Sauer P320, which will be type classified as the C22 in Canadian service.    

Other Inglis Hi-Powers went to the British military, who liked the pistol so much that it went on to adopt a slightly improved Belgian-made model in 1963, type classified as the L9A1, to finally kick the wheel gun habit the Brits had picked up back in the Crimean War with the Adams revolver. These Hi-Powers remained in service with the Brits until very recently when they were replaced by the Glock 17 while the Australians opted to go with a SIG-based replacement in 2022. 

The British (and Australian) L9A1 Hi-Power was generally more along the lines of the post-WWII Browning “T” series Hi-Power, typically with an external extractor and plastic grips. (Photos: Imperial War Museum/Australian War Memorial)

Now, SDS Imports, the Tennessee-based firm that includes the brands Tisas USA, Tokarev USA, Spandau, and Military Armament Corporation (MAC), has rebooted Inglis and intends to bring some period-correct Hi-Powers to the American consumer market.

The new company plans an L9A1-ish clone to include a black Chromate finish and plastic grips as well as three more commercial models: a black Inglis P-35B with walnut grips, the satin nickel Inglis P-35N with black G10 grips, and a color-case hardened Inglis GP-35. 

The planned Inglis L9A1 clone. Likely made by Tisas in Turkey but, if their past work is anything to judge, it is probably well-done

“The market demand has not been met for historically accurate Hi-Powers,” said Military Armament Corporation/SDS CEO Tim Mulverhill. “We’re planning for the L9A1 to influence the Hi-Power market the way the Tisas U.S. Army did in the 1911 market.”

Prices will range from $489 for the L9A1 to $649 for the GP-35. 

I’ll have the full details from SHOT Show later this month.

The Roar of the Four Lions

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The modern Indian dates to 1947 although it has a lineage with the Maratha Navy and old East India Company to 1612 and then has a basis as far back as the sea-going civilizations in the region some 6,000 years back. After much WWII service as a sister to the Royal Navy, the Indian Navy today has been in the aircraft carrier business since 1957 (the Vikrant, formerly HMS Hercules) and in submarines since 1967 (the Foxtrot Kalvari).

Today, the fleet includes two large operational flattops, two dozen frigates/destroyers, another two dozen smaller escorts, and 18 subs (including Scorpènes, Kilos, and German Type 209/1500s)– well outclassing the British in terms of tonnage, torpedo tubes, and carrier aircraft (45).

The Indian Navy has 45 MiG-29KUB carrier-based multirole fighters and is looking to replace them with the French Rafale instead.

Moreover, the country plans a 175-ship force by 2035, to include another carrier.

They operate the P-8I Poseidon, MH-60R helicopters, and have Rafales on order.

Besides Harpoon and Exocet, they field the massive BrahMos anti-shipping missile.

Indian Navy destroyer INS Kolkata steams during Malabar 2020.(U.S. Navy photo by Drace Wilson)

The Indian Navy has 12 P-8Is operating with INAS 312-A out of INS Rajali (above) and with INAS 316 out of INS Hansa. They replaced old Russian Tupolev Tu-142M Bear Js and were the first overseas Posedon sales.

Last week, the Indian Navy made waves in the region by responding to the hijacking of the MV Lila Norfolk in the North Arabian Sea.

With an Indian P-8 and Predator drones shadowing the vessel after it had been boarded by suspected Somali pirates, the advanced new Kolkata-class stealth guided missile destroyer INS Chennai (D65) (9,000tons, 32 Barak 8 SAM, 16 BrahMos, 76mm OTO, 4x 533mm tt, 4 CIWS) closed to the vessel and landed Marine Commandos via her Sea King. The MARCOs sanitized the vessel, with the pirates had left, and retrieved the crew from their protected citadel/safe compartment.

The Indians have been stepping up their naval game in the region after the attack on the MV Chem Pluto in late December.

Now, India is moving to escort Indian-flagged merchant vessels through the Red Sea past Houthi-contested waters.

While not joining Operation Prosperity Guardian outright, they will at least apparently be OPG adjacent.

Last of ‘The Originals’ has grabbed his Sun Compass and Set Off Across the Desert

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Major Willis Michael “Mike” Sadler, MM, MC, the last survivor of both the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG), and David Stirling’s original L Detachment SAS, has marked his map for the last time at age 103.

A Rhodesian, Sadler’s WWII service including 4 Rhodesian Anti-Tank Battery (ranks), ​Long Range Desrt Group (S Patrol) 1942 (Cpl)​ award M.M. with LRDG​, L Detachment SAS July 1942-September 1942 (CR/3514 Sgt)​, 1 SAS (A Squadron) 1942-43 (2 Lt)​, Special Raiding Squadron 1943 (Lt)​, and 1 SAS (HQ + A Squadrons) 1944-45 (Cap)– recommended MC 1945, ret Maj.

Sadler joined SAS in 1941 and was the group’s primary navigator across the featureless Libyan desert, successfully guiding their gun trucks and war jeeps to success, among others, at Wadi Tamet where his team famously destroyed 24 aircraft and a fuel dump.

Using “very blank” maps and a sun compass — and sometimes not even that!– Sadler got it done long before the days of GPS.

A 2016 interview with Sadler:

Sadler is portrayed by Tom Glynn-Carney in the new BBC series Rogue Heroes.

 

Post-war, he served with the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (now the British Antarctic Survey) and Sadler’s Passage in Stonington Island, Antarctica was later named after him in 2021 in recognition of his work there.

And thus, we remember.

Freemantle, ahoy!

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In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the idea to keep the Japanese Combined Fleet fenced in its home waters was through investing a lot in submarines. Admiral Hart’s Asiatic Squadron, based in the Philippines, had no capital ships and just a few old cruisers and destroyers, but it did have subs– 29 of them!

As noted in IJNH:

Following his arrival as CinCAF in 1939, Hart had steadily increased the number of submarines assigned to his small fleet from six to seventeen, including the first modern fleet-type boats. As the war clouds gathered in November 1941, another squadron of twelve modern fleet boats with their submarine tender Holland sailed into Manila Bay from Pearl Harbor as reinforcements.

Likewise, the Dutch spent a bunch of guilders in buying Koloniën (“colonial”) submarines for use in barring the door to the Dutch East Indies.

Of course, events soon proved that almost nothing was enough to stop the Japanese juggernaut in December 1941-April 1942 and (almost) all of these boats soon found themselves forced to withdraw to the best friendly option available at the time— Freemantle in Western Australia.

Freemantle was a submarine hub in the West Pac during WWII, with Allied boats of all stripes including British and Dutch vessels, mixing with locals and Americans. In all, some 170 Allied subs at one time or another passed through Fremantle between 1941 and 1945.

In fact, during the war, no less than 127 American submarines operated out of Fremantle at one time or another, carrying out 353 patrols. Added to this were 10 Dutch boats and, after August 1944, an increasing number of British Pacific Fleet boats. All told the Allies mounted something like 416 submarine patrols from Fremantle during the war.

“From 1943 to 1945 Fremantle-based boats sank over 273,000 tons of enemy tankers as well as 19 destroyers, 16 frigates, 4 minesweepers, 9 submarine chasers, and 6 patrol craft.”

And, in this edition of Everything Old is New Again, an American sub-tender is headed to HMAS Stirling, just outside of Freemantle.

From Navy Times:

The Navy plans to conduct its first-ever submarine maintenance work in Australia this summer using the sub tender Emory S. Land, with 30 Australian sailors embarked to learn how to repair the Virginia class of submarine.

This step will help establish a nuclear-powered attack submarine maintenance capability at the HMAS Stirling naval base in Western Australia in the next few years as part of the trilateral AUKUS arrangement.

And the beat goes on…

Prosperity Guardian Counts 19 (of 61) Cyclops/Vampires

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231206-N-GF955-1026 U.S. 5TH FLEET AREA OF OPERATIONS (Dec. 6, 2023) Sailors assigned to the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) responds to a simulated small-craft vessel during an anti-terrorism drill, Dec. 6. Carney is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to help ensure maritime security and stability in the Middle East region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Aaron Lau)

The latest press briefing by the Pentagon has the CENTCOM commander, VADM Brad Cooper, remarking that the U.S. Navy alone has splashed 61 incoming Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea since late October in now some 25 attacks on merchant shipping. This apparently doesn’t count drones and missiles shot down by the British RN or French fleet.

Of that number, 19 have been swatted down since Operation Prosperity Guardian kicked off on 18 December 2023, expanding “Of the 19 drones and missiles, 11 have been uncrewed aerial vehicles. There have been two cruise missiles and six anti-ship ballistic missiles.”

OPG has also zapped three small boats while a large boat-borne IED was released offshore earlier this week. 

While at least two vessels have been hit by Houthis, Cooper said that “1,500 vessels have safely transited through the Bab al-Mandab,” since OPG started with none by UAVs. Notably, Maersk Hangzhou was hit by a missile which caused no casualties. Speaking of which, the only injuries thus far are to Houthi smallboat crews, with at least 10 killed.

Nonetheless, on 2 January, both Maersk and Happag-Lloyd announced that the Red Sea route would once again be avoided moving forward.

While it hasn’t been released just what kind of missiles are being sent up from coastal batteries along the Yemeni coast, the Houthis have developed a modified version of the Iranian Quds-1 and Quds-2 cruise missiles, with Iranian assistance. Iran also has Chinese C802 and C700 series AShMs and a whole series of domestically produced variants, such as the Noor, Ghader, and Ghadir.

Many of these are set up to be very mobile– and thus hard to target.

Transporter erector launcher (TELs) for Iranian Noor/Qader missiles. The TEL can be disguised as a civilian truck. (Wiki Commons)

Carney Going Home

231019-N-GF955-1104 RED SEA (Oct. 19, 2023) The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Carney (DDG 64) defeats a combination of Houthi missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles in the Red Sea, Oct. 19. Carney is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to help ensure maritime security and stability in the Middle East region. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Aaron Lau)

The American ship with the most documented “kills,” including 14 drones shot down in a single day (16 December), is the modernized Flight I Burke, USS Carney (DDG-64).

Before that incident, Carney had counted at least a 22-0 score on the eve of the Army-Navy game in early December.

Carney, which is headed home, just hosted VADM Cooper aboard who presented the whole crew with a CAR while some individuals picked up a NAM and the skipper a Bronze Star.

For now, the Ike carrier group is in the region with her DESRON 22 tin cans keeping watch along with the British Type 45 frigate HMS Diamond while other countries are promising a couple grey hulls as well.

With Denmark set to send a frigate to the Red Sea to take part in OPG, the Royal Danish Navy just released a video of the air defense frigate Iver Huitfeldt undergoing Fleet Operational Sea Training, preparing to fight while underway.

Since you have come this far, take a look at these two semi-related videos, featuring the Army’s new 1-3 week counter-drone school– including the use of a Smart Shooter device for M4 carbines, and a sit down with some Ukrainian soldiers who are manufacturing 3D-printed parts for reconnaissance and kamikaze drones on the cheap– which is the future of warfare as we are seeing it today.

 

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