A Closer look at the FN 15 Guardian

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For the past couple of months, I’ve been working with FN’s most entry-level AR-15, the Guardian.

It shares a lot of FN’s M4 DNA and has a great barrel– I’m talking a 16-inch nitride-coated specimen made of 4150 chrome-moly-vanadium (CMV) steel. FN tells us it is MIL-B-11595 high-pressure tested and subjected to magnetic particle inspection after proof firing. It runs a 1:7 twist rate, which is one of the most common twists on AR-15s today and great for stabilizing heavier bullets, which have become more popular.

Now, it uses a slick-sided NBS-made billet upper, which does away with the jam enhancer (forward assist), on a forged lower, and carries the same general furniture as seen on the company’s TAC3 series which costs twice as much. Everything else (trigger, charging handle, etc) is mil-spec.

At a $999 asking price – typically much lower with retailers – the FN 15 Guardian delivers a lot of performance for half the price of the company’s $1,889 TAC 3 and likewise comes in at a fraction of the cost of the $2,439 DMR3. In fact, the Guardian is the most affordable FN 15 in the company’s catalog, coming in at a price point lower than the $1,359 Patrol Carbine, its former “budget” offering.

I’ve only got a few hundred rounds through it thus far, but it is holding up well and I haven’t had a single jam even with mixing 14 wildly different loads across four different style mags.

Point Brown, is that you?

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USCGC Point Swift (WPB-82312) likely off Florida in the 1980s, note the 50 cals

The 79 assorted 82-foot Point class patrol boats largely held the line in the Cold War for the Coast Guard, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, with some serving as late as 2003.

A whole batch of 26 served in Market Time operations off Vietnam, fighting it out with NVA armed trawlers and VC sappers.

USCGC Point Grey (WPB-82324) off Vietnam. Note her M2/81mm piggyback forward, at least three M2s over the stern, and nearly a dozen Coasties on deck preparing the away boat

Very few of these craft survive, and there is one, formerly USCGC Point Brown (WPB 82362), that is up for grabs in excellent condition. Plus, she is only $70K and would make a great little museum ship, especially for any of the dozens of coastal towns that based these 82s back in the day.

Via the ad:

Selling a unique vessel, an ex-US coast guard 82’ patrol/ rescue boat. Built in 1967 by the US coast guard as a point class cutter to serve until 1991, research online the history of these great ships. This was formerly WPB82362 Point Brown, after her service she was repurposed as a training ship at a college in RI. In 2000 she was purchased by a former USCG Commander, he bought her and had her for 20 years as a liveaboard, after 9/11 she was put back into Auxiliary CG service and patrolled NY waters.

I bought her in 2020 and my plans for use have changed due to other ships I have. All details would be better discussed to those of serious interest. Do some research, she’s a great ship, in full operation, ole faithful Cummin diesels VT12-900M, twin 2-71 Det gens. Full galley, mess. 2 heads, accommodations. My plans have changed with her, hauled April 2022 for bottom job, docked on Staten Island. Too many details to list. Negotiable open to offers. Thank you

Bulk Buying Burkes

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No less than 6 Spruance class destroyers on the way. DD Module Erection Area 24 June 1976. Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi.

I always thought the big bulk buys of the 1970s and 1980s, such as ordering the whole 31-ship Spruance class from Ingalls all at once, was a good idea. It allows the yard to forecast workloads far enough out to literally “grow” craftspeople through apprentice programs, saves time, saves money, win-win for all involved. That’s how you win a Cold War.

Well, the Pentagon just whistled up nine advanced Flight III DDG-51s this week.

A photo I took last year, showing the future Flight IIA Burke USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123), front, and PCU USS Jack H. Lucas (DDG 125), rear, at Ingalls’s West Bank, fitting out. Note the differences in their masts. The Flight III upgrade is centered on the AN/SPY-6(V)1 Air and Missile Defense Radar and “incorporates upgrades to the electrical power and cooling capacity plus additional associated changes to provide greatly enhanced warfighting capability to the fleet.”

Via DOD today, emphasis mine:

Bath Iron Works, Bath, Maine, is awarded a fixed-price incentive (firm target) multiyear contract for construction of three DDG 51 class ships – one each in fiscal 2023, 2024, and 2026. This contract includes options for engineering change proposals, design budgeting requirements, and post-delivery availabilities on the awarded firm multiyear ships. This contract also includes options for construction of additional DDG 51 class ships, which may be subject to future competition in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract. Therefore, the dollar values associated with the multiyear contract are considered source selection sensitive information and will not be made public at this time (see 41 U.S. Code 2101, et seq., Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101 and FAR 3.104). Work will be performed in Bath, Maine (69%); Cincinnati, Ohio (4%); Walpole, Massachusetts (4%); York, Pennsylvania (2 %); South Portland, Maine (1%); Falls Church, Virginia (1%); and other locations below 1% (collectively totaling 19%), and is expected to be completed by December 2033. Fiscal 2022 and 2023 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was procured via a limited competition between Huntington Ingalls Inc., and Bath Iron Works pursuant to U.S. Code 3204 (a) (3) (A) and FAR 6.302-3 (Industrial Mobilization), with two offers received. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-23-C-2305).

Huntington Ingalls Inc., Ingalls Shipbuilding, Pascagoula, Mississippi, is awarded a fixed-price incentive (firm-target) multiyear contract for construction of six DDG 51 class ships – one in fiscal 2023, one in fiscal 2024, two in fiscal 2025, one in fiscal 2026, and one in fiscal 2027. This contract includes options for engineering change proposals, design budgeting requirements, and post-delivery availabilities on the awarded firm multiyear ships. This contract includes options for construction of additional DDG 51 class ships, which may be subject to future competition in accordance with the terms and conditions of the contract. Therefore, the dollar values associated with the multiyear contract are considered source selection sensitive information and will not be made public at this time (see 41 U.S. Code 2101, et seq., Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 2.101 and FAR 3.104). Work will be performed in Pascagoula, Mississippi (77%); and other locations below 1 percent (collectively totaling 23%), and is expected to be completed by June 2034. Fiscal 2022 and 2023 shipbuilding and conversion, Navy funding will be obligated at time of award and will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was procured via a limited competition between Huntington Ingalls Inc., and Bath Iron Works pursuant to U.S Code 3204 (a) (3) (A) and FAR 6.302-3 (Industrial Mobilization), with two offers received. Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00024-23-C-2307).

Beware Japanese destroyer bows if you are in a plywood boat…

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I’m on the road this week and don’t have time to do a proper Warship Wednesday but I would be remiss if I missed the 80th anniversary of the loss of an Elco-built 80-foot motor torpedo boat, lost when she was split in two by the Japanese destroyer Amagiri (LCDR Kohei Hanami)— whose name means “mists in the heavens”– in the predawn darkness of 2 August 1943 east of Gizo Island in the Blackett Strait, on the southern side of Kolombangara Island.

The loss of PT-109, 2 Aug 1943, to the Japanese destroyer Amagiri, as portrayed by Gerard Richardson, courtesy of the JFK Library

The skipper of the lost PT boat was one Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, USNR, later president

USS PT-109, 1943. Lieutenant John F. Kennedy, USNR, (standing, far right with the survival knife) with other crewmen onboard USS PT-109 at a South Pacific Naval Base, 1943 U.S. Information Agency Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Accession #: 306-ST-649-9

PT-109 was lost. Two sailors, TM2 Andrew Kirksey, and MoMM2 Harold Marney, were never seen and presumed killed in the collision with Amagiri. The Japanese tin can was later sunk by a mine in the Makassar Strait in April 1944.

Meanwhile, the young Kennedy, after an epic survival story that involved natives, coconuts, and coastwatchers, along with the rest of his crew, were all eventually rescued and returned to service.

Paging Mr. Turtledove

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Remember that time Japanese and German troops hit the beach in Northern Australia?

Well, relax, we aren’t speaking about an alternate reality from 1942, we are talking about the events of the last week.

Among the 30,000 troops from 13 countries taking part in Talisman Sabre 2023 in “Sunny Queensland,” Australia is a group of 200 Germans including a platoon of marines from the Küsteneinsatzkompanie of 1. Seebataillon and a reinforced company of paratroopers from the 31. Fallschirmjägerregiment in Saxony.

The Luftwaffe flew the task force from Cologne-Wahn military airport in mid-July via two A400Ms and they have been working both with the Australians and aboard the gator USS New Orleans (LPD-18), gelling with the 31st MEU then participating in landings via LCU and LCAC.

Hanging out on USS New Orleans

German infantry members ride in a truck supplied by the U.S. Marine Corps’ 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit during Talisman Sabre 23 at Midge Beach, Australia, July 26, 2023. David Vergun, DOD VIRIN: 230726-D-UB488-011

German Army Soldiers conduct a MOUT(Military Operations on Urban Terrain) movement to tactically clear buildings during the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center (JPMRC) rotation at Townsville Field Training Area (TFTA), Townsville, Australia, July 23, 2023. Talisman Sabre is the largest bilateral military exercise between Australia and the United States advancing a free and open Indo-Pacific by strengthening relationships and interoperability among key Allies and enhancing our collective capabilities to respond to a wide array of potential security concerns.(U.S. Army photos by Spc. Mariah Aguilar)

Besides the above-mentioned troops, there are also elements from the United Kingdom, South Korea, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, Tonga, Fiji, France, and Indonesia, so there is a certain irony for WWII buffs in seeing Japanese and German paratroopers in Northern Australia, something worth of a Turtledove novel.

Japanese defense forces participate in Talisman Sabre 23 at Midge Beach, Australia, July 26, 2023. 230726-D-UB488-012C

If you hold your ear close, you can almost hear a gearshift…

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In my travels around New Orleans, I tend to come across old French Foreign Legion insignia in antique and curious goods shops. My guess is that francophiles and Cajuns in the area often at one point would sign up for life in the old Legion then return home at the end of the contract and, holding their old insignia as souvenirs of places long gone, they would eventually ebb away from them when they passed on to the great barracks in the sky. Echoes of history, I suppose.

This one is appropriate today.

It belongs to the 2nd Foreign Legion Transportation Company, 519th Transportation Group (2e Compagnie de Transport de la Legion Etrangere du Groupe de Transport No 519) which only existed from June 1949 to 31 July 1953– disbanding 70 years ago today.

Rushed into battle, it had been created from 120 members of the 1er REI based at Sidi Bel Abbes following a crash course (no pun intended) in truck driving.

After forming in Algeria, CTLE 2/519 spent its life in Indochina. While there, it was largely based in the Cholon district of Saigon, and ran troops, ammunition, food, mail, and vehicles throughout Cochinchine, working primarily with the famed 13e DBLE and the Legion’s 1er REC.

Collecting Foreign Legion Badges tell us that CTLE 2/519’s badge was approved on 20 April 1950, and that “many variants of the badge exist, the normal version of the badge is made by Drago, Paris.”

Hawk guts

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How about this great view of the Raytheon MIM-23 Hawk X-band CW mono-pulse semi-active radar seeker guidance system, taken a few years ago from a display at the excellent Alabama Veterans Museum in rural Athens. The museum’s nearby location to Redstone Arsenal obviously has some benefits.

What could go wrong?

Hard to believe, but Hawk, developed in the 1950s and initially fielded in 1960, remained in U.S. Army service (as Improved Hawk) until 1997 when the final Ohio ARNG battalion equipped with it was deactivated, while the Marines retired them in favor of Avenger in 1999.

In all of that nearly 40-year run, no U.S. manned Hawk battery engaged an enemy aircraft in combat (at least in acknowledged incidents.)

However, American-supplied Hawks made kills with the Israelis (the first combat use for the system occurred in 1967 when the IDF successfully fired the missiles during the Six Day War with Egypt), the Iranians, and the Kuwaitis, with the latter reportedly downing an impressive 22 Iraqi aircraft and one combat helicopter during the blitzkrieg invasion of that country on 2 August 1990.

And it seems that the old and “obsolete” Hawk is still hard at work, with launchers and missiles being sent to Ukraine in the past couple of years to field against its traditional Cold War foe: red-starred MiGs and Sukohi fast movers.

Hold your horses

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In 1919, the peacetime British Army was authorized to retain three regiments of household guards cavalry and 28 regiments of line Dragoons, Hussars, and Lancers– all horse-mounted, including three full brigades based in the home islands and others stationed around the Empire. This didn’t even include 14 volunteer part-time mounted Yeomanry regiments in the Territorials, or units in the British Indian Army.

This would soon change dramatically.

Most British regular cavalry regiments were mechanized between 1928 and the outbreak of World War II, with younger men and officers moving on to the new type of service and older ones, well, not.

This sunsetting led to Brig. Gen H. Clifton-Brown, Tory MP for Newbury and the former commander of the 12th Lancers, lamenting in March 1935, “I am sorry that we cannot go on clinging to the horse, but I hope we shall cling to him as long as we can.”

The last British line cavalry to hand over their horses was the 2nd Dragoons (The Royal Scots Greys), who were seen as a sort of household Scottish cavalry regiment and treasured their nationally renowned grey mounts, famous for their role at Waterloo.

While the more or less “English” household cavalry was allowed to keep at least some of their horses, a lobbying campaign by Scottish Members of Parliament, bowing to public opinion against the War Office’s plans, kept the Greys mounted into May 1941, only then moving to American-made Grant medium tanks.

By this time, even the household regiments had moved over, keeping just a few horses for the Guards’ ceremonial duties.

Riders in the “Farewell Grey Horse Race” in Ramle, Palestine, 1941, where the Greys were based at the time.

Ironically, the last British mounted force to unsaddle was a territorial yeomanry unit, the Queen’s Own Yorkshire Dragoons, which were converted to an armored role on 1 March 1942. 

While the BEF lost 28,314 War Department vehicles and another 20,588 impressed civilian vehicles at Dunkirk, they had no horseflesh to leave in France.

Well, enter the world of stranger things, where everything old is seemingly new again, from NATO Battle Group Poland, –a U.S.-led battle group, in partnership with Great Britain, Romania, and Croatia– comes these images of the British Army’s Royal Lancers on Op CABRIT, conducting a “low profile mounted recce” with elements of the Polish 2nd Lubelska Brigade.

PBY Catalina making a comback?

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The Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina first flew in 1935 and, in a short decade, over 3,300 were built at four factories in the U.S., Canada, and the Soviet Union.

Onto the Ramp PBY seaplane Catalina Joseph Hirsch. Lot 3124-3: Paintings of Naval Aviation during World War II: Abbott Collection. #47.

The big flying boat was a classic of naval air power and provided the backbone of maritime search and rescue, reconnaissance, commando/stay behind support, and anti-shipping/ASW missions for the Allies in WWII, with the type only fully retired in military service (by the Brazilians) in 1982.

Not a bad run.

Well, a Florida-based Catalina Aircraft has been supporting civil PBY-5 fleets for the past two decades and just unveiled a new Next Generation Amphibious Catalina II variant of the classic flying boat at the AirVenture Oshkosh air show in Wisconsin this week.

They plan both a civilian variant with a maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of 32,000 pounds and a capacity for 34 passengers or six tons of cargo. The military version will have an expanded MTOW of 40,000 pounds. Deliveries are planned to begin in 2029.

Katum Leprechaun

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With yesterday’s AH-1G Cobra gunship references in relation to the Spanish Navy’s carrier Delado (ex-USS Cabot), after all, the Spanish were the only country outside of the U.S. that operated the variant, this seemed appropriate.

Original Caption, circa May 1970: “Katum, South Vietnam…Side view of a U.S. Army AH-1G helicopter gunship landing for refueling during the Cambodian offensive. The helicopter is nicknamed “Leprechaun.”

Photographer: Staff Sgt. Harry G. Giffen Jr.. NARA NAID: 176246898. Local ID: 342-C-KE-40435

Note the 1st Cav “Hell for Leather” flash on Leprechaun’s tail and the Hughes OH-6A Cayuse “Loach” just beyond it. What looks to be the hub and rear wheels of a Sikorsky CH-54 Tarhe seems to be beyond that.

Over 800 G model Cobras flew in Vietnam, with 303 lost while chalking up over 1.3 million hours in theatre.

As most of the survivors were either scrapped or reworked into AH-1S birds, the classic Cobra Golf is a rare thing these days.

Two of them are preserved in the collection of the U.S. Army Aviation Museum, which I recently visited and highly recommend.

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