Navy Band Ringing in the Season

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For your seasonal enjoyment, how about the 90-minute annual Holiday Concert by the combined ensembles of the United States Navy Band? Held at the DAR Constitution Hall in DC over the weekend, it includes Little Drummer Boy, Fanfare Joy to the World, We Need a Little Christmas, Silver Bells, Let It Snow, Count Your Blessings, Lulla Lulla Lullay, The Night Before Christmas, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Love to Keep Me Warm, Feliz Navidad, Christmas Cookies, I’m Going Home, It’s Christmas, and others.

They sound great this year.

Of course, the SECNAV has to open it, and gives his stump speech welcoming the assorted DC types, but you can skip past that if you like.

Owen in the RVN

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Some 56 years ago this month:

“December 1967. Nui Dat, South Vietnam. 15233 Sergeant Reg Matheson of Hammondville, NSW, a member of 103 Field Battery, 1st Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery (RAA), with his gun near a sandbagged area at the 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) base.”

Photo by Michael Coleridge via the Australian War Memorial COL/66/0959/VN

Note Sgt. Matheson’s distinctive top-fed WWII-era Owen Mk 2/3 Machine Carbine (submachine gun).

Designed by 24-year-old Pvt. Evelyn Ernest Owen, with 2/17 Battalion of the Australian Army, the gun can generally be regarded as Australia’s STEN and was placed into wartime production in 1943 with some 40,000 produced. 

Production Owen Mk 1 painted in green and yellow camouflage for use in jungle fighting. The pistol grips are black plastic and the butt is wood. The 33 round 9mm magazine didn’t last long at the guns ripping 700 rounds per minute rate of fire — but “Diggers” would carry lots of spare mags to keep it stoked.

 

Late model Owen Mk 1/43 SMG complete with canvas sling mounted on the left-hand side. The butt is the skeleton frame type with a clip for an oil bottle — similar to the one found on the U.S. M1A1 Carbine.

 

The WWII era guns were refurbished at the Australian Lithgow Small Arms factory in the 1950s, which included stripping away the camo and giving them new MkIII style barrels and a safety catch. This is a good example of the latter type of “improved” Mk2/3 Owen.

As well documented in images online at the AWM, the 9mm Owen continued to see much front-line use in Korea, augmenting the bolt-action .303 Enfield with the Diggers against the Norks and Chinese “volunteers.”

20 September 1952, Korea. Informal portrait of 2400799 Private Bruce Grattan Horgan, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), standing near a trench on Hill 187. Pte Horgan is armed to go on a summer night fighting patrol, which usually consists of 15 men. His armament consists of a 9mm Owen sub-machine gun, seven magazines each holding 33 bullets, and four M36 Mills bomb hand grenades. AWM P06251.002

Owens remained in service with the Australians well into the 1960s– with Vietnam being its last hurrah, serving alongside M16s and inch-pattern semi-auto FALs– then they were replaced by the very Owen-like F1 submachine gun, which was in turn replaced by the Steyr F88 in the 1990s.
 

AWM caption: “Nui Dat, South Vietnam. 1966. A Signal Corps linesman with a 9mm Owen Machine Carbine (Owen Gun) on his back, climbing a rubber tree at 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) Base.”

Drone Swatting Duty Ramps Up

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If you don’t think the next naval war will be drone-centric, you aren’t paying attention. In fact, we are fighting one right now. 

Via CENTCOM (emphasis mine):

In the early morning hours of December 16 (Sanna time) the US Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS CARNEY (DDG 64), operating in the Red Sea, successfully engaged 14 unmanned aerial systems launched as a drone wave from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen. The UAS were assessed to be one-way attack drones and were shot down with no damage to ships in the area or reported injuries. Regional Red Sea partners were alerted to the threat.

While not disclosed by CENTCOM, it is well known that the majority of the drones used by the Houthi are locally built (with Iranian help and Chinese/German commercial components) Samad-type, which are felt to be not very technically advanced. 

Via TRADOC

However, what if that is the plan in a larger conflict? Smother destroyers and escorts with hundreds of simple yet still dangerous UAVs over the course of several days that empty the tin cans’ missile cells and magazines, then send in the tough and more advanced stuff to finish the job.

The U.S. Navy made no comment on how the swarm against Carney was splashed, whether it was one of the destroyer’s huge (and very expensive) SM-3 ABMs, smaller (but still overkill) SM-1/2 MRs that she carries, her 5″/54 MK45 mount (which has a limited anti-air capability), her 20mm CIWS (which would have meant allowing the drones to get very close) or 25mm chain guns/M2 .50 cals (which would have meant letting them get even closer).

Notably, in 2016, Carney replaced her aft Phalanx CIWS 20mm Vulcan cannon with the SeaRAM 11-cell RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile launcher, which stretched the engagement envelope on that mount from 3,000m to 6~ miles.

Of course, there is also the possibility that non-kinetic, soft-kill methods were used such as the destroyer’s onboard AN/SLQ-32 Electronic Warfare Suite (a role called Enhanced Electronic Attack that is being optimized in the new AN/SLQ-32(V)7 SEWIP Block 3 fitment for Burkes) or backpack-deployable DRAKE counter-drone zappers that the Navy has been quietly deploying on both surface ships and submarines.

Carney did go kinetic during an earlier attack in October, hitting an undisclosed number of Houthi drones and three land-attack missiles headed toward Israel.

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, 2023. US Navy Photo

Carney had also shot down an Iranian KAS-04 (Samaad 3 type) drone operated from Houthi areas in late November and responded to four attacks against three merchant vessels earlier this month– adding another drone to her tally.

A little help from our friends…

The British and French are also getting into the act as well, with each one claiming a drone shot down in the same region recently.

HMS Diamond (D34) is the third of six 9,500-ton Type 45/Daring class AAW destroyers in service with the Royal Navy. She was sent to the Gulf late last month to bolster the RN’s three minesweepers and frigate HMS Lancaster. While in the Red Sea, she splashed a “one-way armed drone targeting merchant shipping” on 15 December.

The RN is citing the incident as its first surface-to-air “kill” since the 1991 Gulf War.

HMS Diamond successfully engaged and shot down an aerial system suspected to have been a one way attack drone, that appears to have originated from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen. (Pictures: MOD)

This is the first use of an Aster 30 missile (named PAAMS(S) Sea Viper by the British) in combat by the Royal Navy, although the French Aquitaine-class frigate Languedoc (D653) also fired a smaller Aster 15 missile at a similar target earlier last week. Diamond carries as many as 48 Sea Vipers in her VLS cells while the smaller (6,000 ton) French frigate carries just 16 vells.

The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Ben Key KCB CBE ADC, made the following statement:

A sixth of the world’s commercial shipping passes through the Bab-al-Mandeb and Red Sea. The RN is committed to upholding the right to free use of the oceans and we do not tolerate indiscriminate threats or attacks against those going about their lawful business on the high seas.

However, shipping companies are pulling the plug and opting to go the long way ’round the Cape. So far, MSC, Hapag-Lloyd, and Maersk have all announced a “pause.” This comes as shipping industry groups are warning against merchant vessels employing armed private security in the region for risk of “escalation.”

Wildcat Screech

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80 years ago today, we see a tragedy in slow motion, with General Motors FM-1 Wildcat, BuNo# 46744, code L12, skidding to a rough landing across the flight deck of the escort carrier USS Manila Bay (CVE 61) with her landing gear stripped away, 16 December 1943.

U.S. Navy photo in the National Archives 80-G-372820

80-G-372821

80-G-372822

80-G-372823

The above event occurred while the newly commissioned Casablanca-class jeep carrier was conducting air group training during her shakedown cruise with VC-7 and VC-66 off the coast of San Diego. Amazingly, the young pilot, Ensign E.C. Cech, survived the crack-up with minor injuries. 

From her accident report of the incident:

Still, the accident didn’t slow down Manila Bay on her rush to the front lines. By 22 January 1944, the carrier would tote VC-7 to bomb and strafe enemy positions on Kwajalein Island.

Ultimately, Manila Bay gave hard service for received eight battle stars for World War II service in just under 19 months.

Decommissioned in Boston on 31 July 1946, she was mothballed for 12 years and sold for scrap in 1958.

Her 11-page War History is in the National Archives. 

As for Ensign Cech, I can’t find anything on him. 

FN 15 Guardian, after 2,000 rounds…

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FN’s motto for the past several years is “The World’s Most Battle-Proven Firearms,” and it has the lineage to prove it. Founded back in 1889 to make Mauser pattern rifles for the Belgian government, FN promptly out-Mausered Mauser and remained in that bolt-gun business with its in-house upgraded Model 24 and Model 30 as late as the 1960s. By that time, FN had the FAL in production and later superseded it with the FNC and today’s SCAR – all of which have seen combat around the world. Much like the way it took over where Mauser left off in the 1920s, FN jumped into the M16 biz in the early 1980s and out-Colted Colt, winning a $112 million contract to produce 266,961 M16s for the U.S. Army in 1988.

Now, with over 40 years in the AR game, FN has the game figured out and tends to market a lot of more top-shelf options such as the FN15 DMR3, which costs almost SCAR kinda money. That’s where the FN-15 Guardian comes in, as a more mid-shelf offering with an MSRP of $999 and a cost at retailers usually a bit lower than that.

I’ve been kicking one around for the past several months, passing 2,000 rounds drawn from 20 different brass and steel-cased loads through it, including shooting it suppressed, with assorted optics, a dozen different types of mags, the works.

It may be “budget” but it holds up.

See my column at Guns.com for the full review.

All I want for Christmas are my Mackerel Grenades

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“1st Marine Division, Vietnam, December 1969: NVA Chi Goms, M-16 rounds, grenades found in the hooches.”

Photo by LCpl R.L. Pearson, Marine Corps photo A372861, NARA 127-GVB-Vietnam-Marine 002035

Note the improvised shrapnel sleeves on the Chinese Type 67 grenades— minus their “potato masher” wooden handles ala the old German Stielhandgranate— via the use of empty cans of Ace of Diamonds A1 mackerel, likely crammed with rocks, dust, and screws.

The use of the fragmentation jacket sleeve dates back to the old Russian RDG-33 of Stalingrad fame, albeit with a fishier aftertaste.

Vale, Major Wycoff

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Titan I missile emerges from its silo at Vandenberg Operational System Test Facility in 1960.

In June 1960, the first flight of armed and operational silo-based SM-68A/HGM-25A Titan I ICBMs, part of the newly-formed 850th Strategic Missile Squadron at Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, came online.

This sparked a new breed of Cold Warrior: the Missileer. Otherwise known as missile combat crew (MCC), or missilemen, missileers have stood their underground posts quietly and with honor for the past 73 years and will continue to do so into the future– still with their patented “30 Minutes or Less, or your next one is free” guarantee.

Their watch is remembered in the poem Missileer:

Missileer
Major Robert Wycoff, USAF (Ret.)

In vacant corners of our land,
off rutted gravel trails,
There is a watchful breed of men,
who see that peace prevails.
For them there are no waving flags,
no blare of martial tune,
There is no romance in their job,
no glory at high noon.

In an oft’ repeated ritual,
they casually hang their locks,
Where the wages of man’s love and hate,
are restrained in a small red box.
In a world of flick’ring colored lights,
and endless robot din,
The missile crews will talk awhile,
but soon will turn within.

To a flash of light or other worldly tone,
conditioned acts respond.
Behind each move, unspoken thoughts,
of the bombs that lie beyond.
They live with patient waiting,
with tactics, minds infused,
And the quiet murmur of the heart,
that hopes it’s never used.

They feel the loving throb,
of the mindless tool they run,
They hear the constant whir,
of a world that knows no sun.
Here light is ever present,
no moon’s nocturnal sway.
The clock’s unnatural beat,
belies not night or day.

Behind a concrete door slammed shut,
no starlit skies of night,
No sun-bleached clouds in azure sky,
in which to dance in flight.
But certain as the rising sun,
these tactic warriors seldom see,
They’re ever grimly ready,
for someone has to be.

Beneath it all they’re common men,
who eat and sleep and dream,
But between them is a common bond,
of knowledge they’re a team.
A group of men who love their land,
who serve it long and well,
Who stand their thankless vigil,
on the brink of man-made hell.

In boredom fluxed with stress,
encapsuled they reside,
They do their job without complaint,
of pleasures oft’ denied.
For duty, honor, country,
and a matter of self-pride.

Major Robert Appleby Wyckoff passed in Santa Barbara earlier this month, at age 83. He penned more than 100 poems and the Colgate University English major got into ICBMs in sort of a funny way.

As recalled by his obit:

Bob would consider us remiss if we did not start this writing with some irony and close it with a sense of pride. The trajectory of his life was changed by a typo. As a graduate from Colgate University with a degree in English Literature, and as the cold war was heating up, he chose to enlist in the United States Air Force. He abbreviated his degree as “Eng,” which was misinterpreted as “Engr” by the Air Force, and he was assigned to an engineering position in ballistic missiles. He was dispatched to Malmstrom Air Force Base, MT, to defend our great nation as a combat crew commander, missileer. While at Malstrom, he earned a master’s degree in Systems Management from USC. He continued his missileer career at Randolph AFB, TX, and Vandenberg AFB, CA. To his credit, Bob was smart enough to learn engineering, engaging enough to become a leader, and loving enough to be the quintessential family man until his last breath.

A graphic showing the poem “Missileer,” by Mr. Robert “Bob” Wyckoff, who passed away in early December 2023 at the age of 83, and was best known for his poem, “Missileer,” which serves as an introduction and inspiration for those in the profession of Air Force missile operations. The background is of a launched unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test reentry vehicle at 11:01 P.M. Pacific Time Feb. 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. This test launch is part of routine and periodic activities intended to demonstrate that the United States’ nuclear deterrent is safe, secure, reliable and effective to deter twenty-first century threats and reassure allies (U.S. Air Force Photo by Airman 1st Class Landon Gunsauls) (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Staff Sgt. Shelby Thurman)

Moto Video, PLAN edition

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I’ve got to admit that the Chinese Navy’s PAO has fairly high production values.

The below includes lots of close-up shots of a couple of the country’s 8 new gleaming and advanced Type 055 destroyers (NATO/OSD Renhai-class cruisers), hulking 13,000-ton warships with 112 VLS cells (16 more than a Burke), a 130mm gun (three mm’s bigger than a Western 127!), a cloned 30mm Goalkeeper Type 1130 CIWS, and a Chinese SA365 (Harbin Z-9).

The premise is keeping scary foreign warships from crossing into China’s declared territorial waters. 

People’s Liberation Army Navy Promotional Video: Always Ready, via the USNI:

Of course, they never mention the 688i which is probably just under the task force.

Ruger and Rabbits from Hats…

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You may not remember this, but FN coughed up the 5.7x28mm round in 1990 after nearly a decade of R&D. The Belgian gunmaker had a wrap on the cartridge and the guns– the Five-Seven pistol and P90 PDW– that used it for decades. This made it very niche and, by 2019, was close to falling out of production.

Then swooped in Ruger with their 57 pistol and it became a hit.

Soon, everyone was talking about 5.7 again.

In the past few years since, CMMG, Diamondback, KelTec, PSA, and S&W entered the 5.7 game while Ruger expanded their offerings to include carbines, forcing FN to release an updated Mk3 variant of the Five-Seven pistol. In the same period, ammo makers saw the writing on the wall and started making the rounds in quantity and variants never seen in the caliber, both increasing supply and halving the cost.

Amazing what can happen when someone takes an almost forgotten round and, through the introduction of a new gun, breathes life back into it.

Well, Ruger may be trying to do a repeat with a new chambering for an old revolver. Last week they announced a new variant of the vaunted double-action Ruger Super Redhawk in .22 Hornet.

I did not see this coming, at all

That’s an odd move for a wheel gun that was typically chambered in big hunting grade/counter bear calibers such as .44 Rem Mag and .454 Casull. Heck, Ruger created the .480 Ruger in 2003– then the largest-diameter production revolver cartridge– just for the Super Redhawk.

Further, it is the only new .22 Hornet handgun on the market anywhere. The last was the old bolt-action Savage Arms Striker bench gun that went out of production in 2005.

What’s so special about the .22 Hornet?

Developed by Townsend Whelen a full century ago, the .22 Hornet is not rimfire like the .22 Magnum and .22 LR but is instead a centerfire round that is about a half-inch shorter than a .223/5.56. The longer 35mm case of the .22 Hornet (the .22 Mag has a case length of 26mm) allows it to carry a heavier bullet at a faster speed, typically twice the velocity of a .22 Mag, while generating almost three times the energy downrange. In short, the .22 Hornet is a blistering fast little round (Hornady’s 35-grain VMax load has a released spec of 3,060 feet per second) and is ideal for use by varmint hunters and in survival guns– a use the military had for it for years.

The old M6 Aircrew survival weapon, which was a .22 Hornet over a 410 shotgun

However, today, the .22 Hornet is still around but should be listed as being on life support.

As far as I can tell, the only production guns in the .22 Hornet these days are bolt action rifles: the Savage 25 in several different finishes and barrel lengths, and the Ruger 77/22. Browning-owned Winchester still markets a Japanese-made Model 1885 Low Wall Hunter in the caliber, but production can’t be very brisk, and odds are they just pulling from a batch made years ago that is sitting in a warehouse somewhere.

Keeping these new guns and legacy models fed is likewise slim-picking but not impossible. The round is still in commercial production both in the U.S. by Federal, Hornady, and Winchester, and overseas by PPU and Sellier & Bellot.

Has Ruger been reading the tea leaves on this one and seen an opportunity to pull another rabbit out of the hat, caliber speaking, when it comes to the fading .22 Hornet? We’ll see.

Red Tails and Immortals Share a Ride for First Time

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The Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm’s 809 Naval Air Squadron, “The Immortals,” have been shuttered since 1982, after being stood up to fly Sea Harriers from HMS Invincible during the Falklands.

Before that, they operated the Blackburn Buccaneer from RAF Lossiemouth– as well as from the decks of HMS Ark Royal, HMS Hermes, and HMS Eagle— in the 1960s and 1970s including a famous show of force over Belize in 1972 to deter Guatemalan threats.

British Buccaneer XT283 of 809 Squadron arrives aboard HMS Ark Royal. Museum of Science, by Michael Turner, 1972

Going even further back, they operated Sea Venoms aboard HMS Albion in 1956 during the Suez Crisis while in WWII they flew Fairey Fulmars from the Med to North Russia and Seafires covering the Torch, Avalanche, Dragoon, Dracula, and Zipper landings from Casablanca to Malaya.

This week, 809 NAS became the first Royal Navy squadron to stand up to operate the F-35 Lightning.

The recommissioning sees the number of UK squadrons operating the Lightning expand to four, two front-line– the Dambusters of 617 Sqn plus 809 NAS– along with 207 Sqn (Operational Conversion Unit) and 17 Test and Evaluation Sqn.

As noted by the RN:

Of the more than 100 historic Fleet Air Arm units whose numbers are currently dormant, 809 was selected more than a decade ago as a F-35 Lightning formation, largely due to its illustrious history as a strike and attack squadron having received battle honours from operations in the Arctic, Mediterranean, Burma, Suez and South Atlantic over a 41-year period.

The Venerable Andrew Hillier addresses guests and personnel from RAF Marham on parade for the 809 Naval Air Squadron Recommissioning Ceremony. A second frontline F-35B Lightning stealth fighter squadron has been stood up at RAF Marham. 809 Naval Air Squadron, known as the Immortals, has a long and distinguished history and has been recommissioned as the nation’s second front-line fighter unit operating the F-35B Lightning stealth fighter. At the parade at RAF Marham, Norfolk, Commander Nick Smith formally received the Squadron Crest from his predecessor, Cdr (Ret’d) Tim Gedge, close to 41 years to the day since 809 NAS decommissioned as a Sea Harrier squadron.

While British industry will build 15 percent by value of each of the more than 3,000 planned F-35s, by 1 May 2023, the UK had only received 31 of the planned 48 F35-Bs from its Tranche 1 initial order. A subsequent Tranche 2 order will bring an additional 27 aircraft, totaling 74, down from the originally planned 138. The RAF owns all of these STOVL birds and lets the RN operate some.

Redtails receive F-35s

Meanwhile, the “Red Tails” of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 187th Fighter Wing, of the Alabama Air National Guard, out of Dannelly Field, Alabama, last week received its first F-35s, becoming only the third ANG unit slated to transition to fifth generation fighter.

An F-35 Lightning II parked on the flight line at Dannelly Field, on December 6, 2023. The 187th Fighter Wing received their first aircraft from Luke AFB, Ariz., and will begin transitioning to their new mission. Photo by 1st Lt. Michael Luangkhot

Of course, the 100th FS, dating back to December 1941, is one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen squadrons of WWII.

USAAF armorer of the 100th Fighter Squadron, 332nd Fighter Group, 15th U.S. Air Force checks ammunition belts of the 12.7 mm machine guns in the wings of a North American P-51B Mustang in Italy, ca. September 1944.

Flying P39s then P-40s, P-47s, and finally P-51 Mustangs during the war, the 100th became first a tanker squadron (in 1953) then transitioned to a training squadron in 1999 before chopping to replace the 160th FS in 2007, driving fighters again, this time F-16s.

187th Fighter Wing, the Alabama Air National Guard unit at Dannelly Field ANGB in Montgomery, deployed to Romania in August 2012 to participate in Dacian Viper 2012, a three-week joint exercise with the Romanian Air Force.

They hung up their Vipers earlier this year and will receive 20 F-35s between now and 2026 when they will be fully staffed.

The word is, a paint job is inbound.

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