King’s Gurkha Artillery is officially a thing

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First announced just 10 weeks ago, the King’s Gurkha Artillery is fast becoming a thing.

The first new British Army Gurkha unit in 14 years, the first to carry King Charles’s name, and the first Gurkha “cannon cockers” since their WWII/Malaysian Emergency era field artillery units were disbanded in 1950, there are a lot of eyes on the new unit.

Members have already started to get hands-on with the now-classic 105mm L118 Light Gun and will eventually be operating the shot-n-scoot-oriented Swedish-designed BAE Archer 155mm L52 SPG system.

They have also created and issued the first batch of the new unit’s cap badges. The first of 20 new volunteers has already received them.

The badge, the first created for a Gurkha regiment in 14 years, reflects a pairing of two of the Army’s most recognized symbols – the crossed kukri of the Gurkhas and the field gun of The Royal Artillery, and bears the words “Ubique” meaning “Everywhere” and “Quo Fas et Gloria Ducunt” which means “Whither Right and Glory Lead.”

Image: 20 recruits have been selected to join the newly formed King’s Gurkha Artillery. This is the new cap badge on their berets. Gurkha recruits celebrate a cap badging ceremony at the Infantry Training Centre at Catterick. 

The unit, when fully fleshed out by 2029, will contain 400 soldiers, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that period was compressed.

Approximately 10,000 to 20,000 Nepali men eagerly compete for a position in the 4,000-strong British Army’s Brigade of Gurkhas every year. Only a few hundred, typically between 200 and 320, are selected to begin training. That’s usually 30 or so very gung-ho candidates for every slot. They have an extremely low wash-out rate.

Rube Goldberg Torpedo, Balikpapan edition

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Some 80 years ago this week.

Balikpapan, Borneo, then part of the newly liberated Dutch East Indies.

Unlike the six types/classes of Japanese Kaiten manned suicide torpedoes, the below seems more akin to the Kriegsmarine’s “Neger” attack craft, which amounted to an awash delivery torpedo carrying a coxswain instead of a warhead while a live G7e was clamped below it, albeit much more ersatz in nature.

Original historic wartime caption: “The Japanese 21-inch controlled torpedo. Usual procedure of the 21″ was as follows: Torpedos were stored in shelter; placed on rails launched into sea; wooden super-structure visible on torpedo was tied on with rope; operator rode torpedo within a striking distance of target; armed torpedo utilizing a rope; dropped axe on ropes binding super-structure torpedo and was cast free. 10 August 1945. (Two torpedoes were found, but there was no evidence of them ever being used in the area.)”

Note very excited sun-helmeted khaki-clad U.S. Navy lieutenant “riding” the torp while two Australian troops look on. US Air Force Reference Number: 63295AC (National Archives Identifier: 204953594)

Two ways to bite the frigate apple

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In June 2021, the Navy announced that Naval Station Everett would be the future home of the first 12 of 20 Constellation-class frigates. The new ships, a variant of the proven Franco-Italian FREMM multipurpose frigate, which has almost two dozen hulls in the water, teased a rapid build-up as they were more or less “off the shelf.”

Except that the Navy wanted to change almost everything on the design.

200430-N-NO101-150 WASHINGTON (April 30, 2020) An artist rendering of the guided-missile frigate FFG(X). The new small surface combatant will have multi-mission capability to conduct air warfare, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare, electronic warfare, and information operations. (U.S. Navy graphic/Released)

Four years later, and the late and over-budget first frigate of the class, the future USS Constellation (FFG-62), is only 10 percent complete— while the design is yet to be finalized by Big Navy and approved!

It is thought that she will only be delivered in 2029 if no other problems arise.

As Fincantieri Marinette Marine, the builder of the FFG-62s, is also the same yard that had massive issues with the Freedom-class littoral combat ships, which are still trying to get right 20 years into that program, the prospects for 2029 do not seem bright.

Meanwhile, the Royal Australian Navy this week announced it has gone for 10 new upgraded Mogami-class frigates from Mitsubishi in Japan.

The proposed RAN Mogami

The proposed RAN Mogami

The proposed RAN Mogami

The ships will carry the same 32-cell VLS and 16 anti-ship missiles as Constellation, and will have a phased array radar and helicopter/UAV facilities as well as an ASW capability. The Mogamis will only have a 10-cell SeaRam, rather than the 21-cell RAM of Constellation.

With longer legs than the 6,000nm ranged Connies, the RAN Mogamis will be able to steam 10,000nm. They also have a much more capable gun, a full 5″/62 Mk 45, rather than the 57mm Bofors of the Connies. Plus, they will have a set of ASW tubes, which Connie will not.

As the agreement could see steel cut as early as 2026, and MHI has a track record of building Mogamis in less than three years per hull, it is feasible that the Aussies could see their first new Japanese-built frigate in 2029.

How about that?

The Magic Behind the Axis II rifle

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Founded by Arthur William Savage in 1894– a polymath who also built some of the earliest race cars and invented radial tires– the company’s bread and butter for a century was Mr. Savage’s Model 99 hammerless rotary-magazine lever gun.

With over a million made in dozens of variants, the Model 99 was put to pasture in 1997 and likely is never coming back, fully transitioning to the bolt-action Model 10/110, which had been introduced in 1958.

Savage factory tour
Savage has been in business for over 130 years and in that time has produced a staggering variety of firearms. 
Savage factory tour
Besides its iconic Model 95/99 lever guns and Model 10/110 bolt guns, made Mosin 91s for the Tsar in the Great War (under Stevens-Westinghouse), Enfield .303s for the British, shotguns to train Army Air Corps gunners how to shoot down Messerschmitts,  in WWII, and even M2 “Ma Deuce” .50 cals.

Then, in 2010, Savage, building on over half a century of experience with the 110 series (as well as production of the Enfield .303 rifle during World War II), introduced the well-built yet affordable Axis series rifle. Using detachable box magazines and a smooth-operating bolt with an introductory price of around $300, the Axis was a hit.

By 2014, the improved Axis II line, with the inclusion of Savage’s AccuTrigger system, hit the market and has delivered a reputation as an accurate rifle that is accessible to a wide range of hunters and sports shooters. Upgrades in ergonomics and feature sets have seen the line expand over the years, and the rifle is now made in over a dozen calibers and variants.

While not every Savage rifle is an Axis II– the company catalogs more than 240 rifles– it is a heavyweight when it comes to production numbers. Savage is the people’s champ when it comes to rifle production. Its flagship plant in Westfield delivered 639,591 rifles of all types to the market in 2023, making it the most prolific rifle factory in the country. For reference, the runner-up was Ruger’s North Carolina plant with a comparatively paltry 321,160 rifles. To put those numbers into perspective, Savage these days is besting the century-long run of the old Model 99 every two years.

And they are doing it while keeping the craftsmen in the game and retaining accuracy and reliability.

I recently visited the Savage factory and had a chance to see how the Axis II was produced.

25-minute video after the jump to my column at Guns.com.

Vipers over Greenland

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For better or worse, with all the drama over a proposed U.S. purchase of Greenland, the Danish military has gotten aggressive over showing that it is ready to protect the massive frozen landmass.

In recent weeks– and the first such deployment to Greenland since 2014– the Royal Danish Air Force has dispatched a Bombardier CL-604 Challenger (tail C-172) and four F-16AMs (E-007, E-018, E-101, and E-605) under the control of the Arktisk Kommando.

Based at Kangerlussuaq, they were shepherded over the Atlantic, the 2,100 miles from their base at Vojens-Skrydstrup, by a French A330 MRTT tanker, which is sticking around as part of NATO.

They have been patrolling over Nuk and up and down the East Coast.

They also made a 600nm deployment across Greenland to Pituffik Space Base (formerly Thule AB) to spend a couple of hours with the U.S. personnel.

Check out this 10-minute patrol video from one of the F-16s’ cockpits.

There have also been increased visits by RDN warships and an exercise that included assets of the Specialoperationskommandoen via a C-130.

The commandos, seen in the video below, are fronted by local Territorials, who have been ramping up.

Note that the video is in English. Just saying.

The Danish Home Guard (Hjemmeværnet), which numbers some 44,000 volunteers in Denmark, has activated small groups to support operations in exercises in Greenland in recent years, but doesn’t have HJV units among Greenland’s cities and towns.

The new six-month Arktisk basisuddannelse (Arctic Basic Education) civil defense/auxiliary police style course, also based in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland, and staffed with a dozen instructors and support personnel, has been stood up.

The six-month Arktisk Basisuddannelse course, open only to Greenlanders, mimics the Danish military basic training course and blends field and classroom instruction

The program has been recruiting youth from among 13 towns and settlements across Greenland and graduated its first 19 students in November 2024.

Arktisk basisuddannelse (Arctic Basic Education) students, Greenland’s first “home guard” style class. While many may go on to join the Arktisk Kommando or Greenland police and fire agencies, it isn’t a requirement. 

The country has also just entered into an agreement to purchase four MQ-9B SkyGuardians for use in Greenland.

Coming soon: Danish MQ-9B SkyGuardians over Greenland

You have to admit, at least Copenhagen is trying.

Tigershark on the move!

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Here we see a great image of the Dutch Zwaardvisch class submarine Hr.Ms. Tijgerhaai (S 812) in West Indies waters, 1957, with the good Prof. Vening Meinesz and his team on board, conducting gravity research using special equipment during the voyage.

Audiovisuele Dienst Koninklijke Marine (AVDKM), NIMH 2009-003-012_010

Laid down at Vickers in 1943 as the future Third Group T-class submarine HMS Tarn (P326), she was instead transferred before commissioning and entered Dutch service on 28 March 1945.

After working up out of Holy Loch with several of her British sisters, Tijgerhaai left Scotland some 80 years ago this week, on 5 August 1945, bound for Fremantle, Australia under the command of LTZS1c (LCDR) Arie van Altena, RNN(R), to get into the Pacific War.

NL-HaNA_2.24.10.02_0_137-0326_1

Of course, the war would end while Tijgerhaai was en route to fight the Japanese, and she would, instead, clock in for the next five years off the coast of the Dutch East Indies to combat weapon smugglers and insurgents during the Politionele Acties in the colony that led to Indonesian independence.

She retired from Dutch service in 1964 following a nearly 20-year career and was sold for scrap.

Heavyweight Match

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A special Warship Wednesday today. A moment frozen in time, some 80 years ago today.

The afternoon of 6 August 1945.

President Harry S. Truman and his party aboard the Northampton-class “medium-heavy” cruiser USS Augusta (CA-31) for the return trip from the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference are seen watching boxing bouts. 

The bespectacled Missouri National Guard artillery colonel and Great War veteran is seen ringside, wearing a driving (newsboy) cap. He is flanked by Secretary of State James F. Byrnes (left) and Fleet Admiral William D. Leahy (right). Note the crew in crisp summer whites and an obsolete Curtiss SOC-1 Seagull floatplane on the catapult above.

NARA 80-G-700302, National Archives Identifier 521002

Laid down on 18 December 1924 as a “treaty” light cruiser, Augusta was nominally a 9,000-ton ship with a veneer of armor plate (as thin as 0.75 inches on the turrets, only 1.25 inches on the Conning Tower, and a maximum belt of 3.75 inches). She was later reclassified as a heavy cruiser because she and her sisters carried 8″/55 guns.

USS Augusta CA-31 in her pre-war livery. NH 57459

Serving with the Asiatic Fleet pre-war, a 1940 refit saw her as one of the first dozen warships to receive the early RCA CXAM-1 radar, and she was sent to the Atlantic in 1941 where ADM King used her as a flagship and she was pressed into service as FDR’s flagship for the Newfoundland conference, tied up next to the much larger battleship HMS Prince of Wales which had carried Churchill to Argentia.

Very active during WWII, she remained a ship that “stars fell upon,” carrying Patton during the Torch Landings in North Africa, Bradley during Overlord off Normandy, Chidlaw to Corsica, and hosted Forrestal during the Dragoon landings in Southern France (during which she also fired all but the last 50 rounds of 8-inch in her magazine during NGFS ashore).

Augusta carried the Truman party from Norfolk to Antwerp and back, with the leg from Belgium to Berlin carried out by the 8th Air Force

Augusta was further key to history as Truman was on the ship when he got the news that Hiroshima had been hit by the first atomic bomb (Little Boy) used in warfare, and held the first press conference on the matter with embarked war correspondents. 

The news hit right before the above boxing match.

Besides all the American “who’s who,” Augusta also hosted King George VI at least twice while in Europe for the conference.

She put into Norfolk on 7 August 1945 to disembark Truman and company, spent several months in “Magic Carpet” operations, bringing GIs home from Europe, and decommissioned on 16 July 1946.

USS Augusta Description: (CA-31) Anchored in the Hudson River, off New York City, at the time of the Navy Day Fleet Review, circa late October 1945. Collection of Warren Beltramini, donated by Beryl Beltramini, 2007. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 105561

Augusta was lucky; three of her five sisters– Northampton, Chicago, and Houston— were sunk in the Pacific during the war.

Laid up in mothballs at Philadelphia while Truman was still in office, Augusta was disposed of in 1960 and sold to the breakers.

Augusta received but three battle stars for her World War II service. Her name has been recycled for an Independence-variant littoral combat ship (LCS-34) that was commissioned in 2023.

The Big E Takes Napoli

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Some 70 years ago today.

The hulking 46,000-ton Audacious-class aircraft carrier HMS Eagle (R05) and her escort, the aging County-class heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland (57) of Graf Spee near-miss fame, visit Naples, 5 August 1955. The warships called at the Italian port city for a week’s operational visit in line with NATO.

HMS Eagle, seen from her helicopter, shows the ship’s company fallen in on her flight deck as she steams into Naples Bay. Her wing shows 12 Seahawks of No. 804 squadron, the Wyverns likely of No. 830 Squadron, a few AEW Skyraiders of 849 Squadron, and at least one Westland WS-51 Dragonfly. She carries a recently-modified 5.5-degree angled flight deck, later changed to 8.5 degrees in 1964. Also note the 8×2 QF 4.5-inch Mk III guns in BD ‘RP10’ Mk II mounts. IWM (A 33319A)

“Twelve Sea Hawks of 804 Squadron form an avenue demonstrating British Naval Air Power in the Mediterranean.” IWM (A 33321)

HMS Eagle, HMS Cumberland in Naples, August 1955. One of the last three-funneled heavy cruisers, Cumberland would pay off just three years after this photo. IWM A 33318A

A period Kodachrome of Eagle’s airwing circa 1955, including Skyraiders, Seahawks, and Wyverns.

Laid down in 1942, Eagle only entered service in March 1952 (the 15th Royal Navy ship to carry the name) and was primarily known for her service in the Suez Crisis four years later and later the Aden Emergency.

HMS Eagle at Fremantle, Western Australi,a around 1968, with her late 8.5-degree deck and Buccaneers

She was paid off in 1972 to allow her hulk to be stripped of parts to keep her sister, HMS Ark Royal, in service for a few more years.

The “Big E” was scrapped in 1978.

PoW CSG heads to Japan

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HMS Prince of Wales (R09) and her Battlegroup 25 have left Australia, wrapping up Talisman Sabre, and, linking up with her Spanish escort ESPS Mendez Nunez (F-104), has been joined by the Japanese ships Kaga (DDH-184) and Teruzuki (DD-116) to continue Operation High Mast.

It will be the second British carrier to visit Japan in recent years, following up on sister HMS Queen Elizabeth’s 2021 deployment.

The below from Japan’s MoD.

She carries 19 F-35Bs: 9 from the “Dambusters” of 617 Squadron RAF, 9 from the “Immortals” of 809 Naval Air Squadron, plus a singular U.S. Marine Corps aircraft from the “Bats” of VMFA-242. She also has at least six Merlin Mk2 helicopters of 820 NAS and two HMA2 Wildcats of 815 NAS. This gives her 27 aircraft, the largest wing she has operated thus far.

She has also been conducting night ops, which have produced some great imagery.

Lady Lex Clocks in to Cap TH-57 Career

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The Essex-class fleet carrier USS Lexington (CV/CVA/CVS/CVT/AVT 16) had a legendary service career.

The fifth American warship to carry the name, she was commissioned in 1943 and took the name of CV-2, which had been lost just nine months prior– like a phoenix of old. Lexington went on to collect the Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars for her World War II Pacific service.

After receiving her angled deck and new catapults in 1953, she continued to serve with the fleet through the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Then, in January 1962, she transitioned to the Atlantic to relieve her younger sister, USS Antietam (CVS-36), as the dedicated aviation training carrier in the Gulf of Mexico– a mission she held down for almost 30 years.

USS Lexington (CVS-16) underway on 15 July 1963, with twenty-six T-28 training planes parked forward and amidships. At this time, Naval Academy midshipmen were riding the ship to observe carrier qualifications. Official U.S. Navy Photograph. USN 1086588

After steaming some 209,000 nm in her 48-year career and logging 493,248 arrested landings, she retired in 1991 and has since become a floating museum in Corpus Christi.

Aerial starboard bow view of the training aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CVT-16) underway. Although the photo is dated 1985, it must have been taken before 1970, as the ship is still fitted with Mk.24 Mod. 11 5-inch 38-cal open gun mounts. DN-ST-86-02002.

Lex unofficially added to her statistics on 30 July, and came to Flight Quarters when a Navy TH-57C Sea Ranger training helicopter arrived on deck and landed to end the type’s service with a Transfer Ceremony. The TH-57C was then decommissioned and moved into the museum’s collection, and her escort, a TH-73A Thrasher, the next-generation training helicopter poised to advance the future of rotary-wing aviation, lifted off to return to its duties with HT-28.

A TH-57C Sea Ranger and a TH-73A Thrasher attached to Helicopter Training Squadron (HT) 28 land on the flight deck of decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Lexington (CV 16), Museum on the Bay, in Corpus Christi, Texas, July 30, 2025. This landing commemorates the legacy of the TH-57 training helicopter while showcasing the future of naval aviation with the TH-73. (U.S. Navy photo by Morgan Galvin) 250730-N-KC201-1016

The TH-57C, BuNo 162684 (Bell 206 SN 03779), joined the fleet in 1984, served a decade with HT-8 at NAS Whiting Field (while Lex was in Pensacola), was transferred to Customs in 1994 for use as a Blue Lightning asset (N62646), then returned to the Navy in 2007 and has been flown out of Whiting Field ever since.

While in service over the past 52 years, the TH-57 platform has trained more than 30,000 naval aviators.

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