Nottingham, found

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The 5,400-ton Town-class cruiser HMS Nottingham was the Royal Navy’s only remaining lost cruiser from the Great War era, whose wreck was previously undocumented.

Was.

Lost to three torpedoes from U-52 (Kptlt. Hans Walther, Pour le Mérite) on 19 August 1916 during a missed connection between the RN’s Grand Fleet and the Kaiserliche Marine’s High Seas Fleet, HMS Nottingham had an extensive service record.

She served in most of the key fleet actions, including the battles of Heligoland Bight (1914), Dogger Bank (1915) and Jutland (1916) where, at the latter, Nottingham was heavily engaged, alongside her fellow light cruisers of the 2nd Squadron, HMS Birmingham, Southampton and Dublin, in a major close-quarters battle with the cruisers of Germany’s 4th Scouting Group –SMS Stettin, München, Frauenlob, Stuttgart and Hamburg. On 20 June 1915, she even missed two torpedoes from U-6.

In April 2025, ProjectXplore divers Dan McMullen, Leo Fielding, and Dom Willis, supported by skipper Iain Easingwood of MarineQuest, loaded the dive charter MV Jacob George with a C-MAX CM2 side scan sonar and 300m or armored towing cable and documented the wreck they believed to be Nottingham on the bottom at 262 feet, 60 miles off the coast of Scotland.

Earlier this month, 10 divers from the UK, Germany, and Spain gathered, and outfitted with JJ-CCR rebreathers on trimix/O2 fills, dove the wreck, clearly documenting “Nottingham” on her stern, as well as her four distinctive funnels, which are intact, as well as gun arrangement, and other facets that solidified the discovery.

And thus we remember:

Army Special Operations, a primer

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FM 3-05, Army Special Operations, was just released.

Nothing is classified in it, and a lot of its 102 pages are “intentionally left blank” or are taken up by notes and indexes, but it is a great primer for anyone interested in how its units are organized. It also has several short backgrounders on past operations.

Thus:

Enjoy!

Members of the Hotel Alamo Rewards Club

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The campaign to liberate the Philippines in 1944-45 was divided between the U.S. Eighth Army and U.S. Sixth Army, with support from 250,000 Philippine insurgents.

Seventeen Alamo Scout teams conducted more than 70 missions in support of the two Armies– after cutting their teeth in 40 similar recon missions in New Guinea. However, it was in the Philippines that the Scouts added liaison with the guerrilla units to their reconnaissance mission.

You call these men: Alamo Scouts

The Alamo Scouts? These special recon and direct action teams, credited as one of the forerunners of today’s Green Berets, were a product of the Sixth Army’s in-house Alamo Scout Training Center. Dubbed the Hotel Alamo, the ASTC was originally on Fergusson Island, New Guinea, and then relocated to Subic Bay in 1945. Using unorthodox tactics and inserted via rubber rafts from PBYs, among other means.

The Alamo Scouts were unsung even in their day.

U.S. Army Alamo Scouts, two in HBT uniforms. William E. Nellist (middle) pictured with unidentified trainees from the 4th Class. Cape Kassoe, Hollandia, DNG. August 1944. Via Alamo Scouts website. http://www.alamoscouts.com/photo_archives/420_439.htm

A team of Alamo Scouts pose for a photo after completing a reconnaissance mission on Los Negros Island, February 1944.

Alamo Scout training was arduous and intensive, concentrating on reconnaissance techniques and honing the men’s ability to move through the jungle. Here, trainees at the ASTC at Kalo Kalo conduct a forced march on Fergusson Island, New Guinea, February 1944.

Alamo Scout trainees had to swim an underwater course under fire. Her,e 1LT Preston Richard fires at the surface with a Thompson sub-machinegun. LTC Frederick Bradshaw, ASTC Director (hands on hips), and MG Innis P. Swift, commander of I Corps (in helmet) observe the training, ASTC Fergusson Island, January 1944.

A Scout team at the 1st ASTC prepares to conduct a night reconnaissance. Front L-R, PFC Joseph Johnson, 1LT Michael Sombar, and CPL David Milda. Back L-R, SGT Byron Tsingine, SSG Alvin Vilcan, CPL John A. Roberts, CPL Walter A. MacDonal, and SSG Caesar Ramirez, 8 January 1944.

As detailed by Michael Krivdo in his article on the Rescue at Cabanatuan, in which the Scouts played a key role.

Several members of the Alamo Scouts found their way into the ranks of Army Special Forces later in their careers. One such member, CSM Galen Kittleson, had the distinction of being in four POW rescue missions in two separate wars. Alamo Scout training, including their use of peer evaluations during training, found their way into the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC).

Royal Blue

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It happened 50 years ago today.

A great original Kodachrome with an air-to-air right side view of a “hump-backed” A-4F Skyhawk (BuNo 154975) of the “Royal Blues” of Attack Squadron (VA) 127, on 21 July 1975. Hot rods, they carried J52-P-408 engines with 11,200 lbf of thrust on an aircraft with an empty weight of 10,450 pounds.

Scene Camera Operator: PH3 Stoner. DN-SC-88-06702, National Archives Identifier 6430109

Established 15 June 1962 at NAS Lemoore with a complement of F-9F/TF-9J Cougar, VA-127 soon switched to Skyhawks. At the time of the above image, the Royal Blues were the only A-4 Replacement Air Wing squadron in the Navy, a role that switched to a primary mission of adversary training by November 1975. Switching to T-38B/F-5Es in 1987, just after they became the “Cylons” in an ode to Battlestar Galactica, they briefly flew F-18s as the “Desert Bogeys” out of NAS Fallon until they were disestablished in 1996.

As for BuNo 154975, she arrived in the fleet in 1967, then flew with VA-113, VA-192, and VA-212, seeing time on Yankee Station from USS Hancock (CV-19), before serving almost a decade with VA-127 starting in 1973, and was loaned to the Blues for a period.

It was in Blue No. 5 Livery that she and her pilot, LCDR Stuart R Powrie (USNA ’70), 34, was killed when the airframe crashed in the Imperial Valley desert near the Salton Sea following the completion of a maneuver called “the clean loop-dirty loop” while flying from NAS El Centro, on 22 February 1982.

Walke, Found

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USS Walke (DD-416) photographed soon after completion, circa 1940—official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval History and Heritage Command. Catalog #: NH 97912

The EV Nautilus has dived on the wreck of the second USS Walke (DD-416).

A Sims-class destroyer, DD-416, was laid down on 31 May 1938 at the Boston Navy Yard; launched on 20 October 1939; sponsored by Mrs. Clarence Dillon, grand-niece of the late RADM Henry A. Walke of Civil War fame; and was commissioned on 27 April 1940.

After tense service on the Caribbean Patrol keeping an eye on the Germans and Vichy French, followed by service in Icelandic waters in 1941, she was transferred to the Pacific post-Pearl Harbor. She was a plane guard and escort for USS Yorktown for several months before being detached with a damaged reduction gear that sent her home for repair.

USS Walke (DD-416) off the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, 24 August 1942. Note her camouflage. NH 97911

Patched up, she was off Guadalcanal during its worst early phases and was lost in the great sea clash in those waters on 14/15 November 1942. She went down with at least 82 men, including her skipper, CDR Thomas E. Fraser (USNA ’24), whose family was presented a posthumous Navy Cross. A Smith-class destroyer minelayer was later sponsored by his widow.

So long, Dex!

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The 5th Fleet has kept four 224-foot Avenger-class mine countermeasures ships forward deployed on the line in Manama, Bahrain, since the late 1990s. Now, their 25+ year watch is ending.

USS Dextrous (MCM-13), which has been in the Persian Gulf since August 1997, has just received word that she will decommission on 3 September, wrapping up her career just four months past her 31st birthday, which is relatively old for any warship, especially one of fiberglass/wood composite construction.

“Dex” recently sailed in formation with the other three Bahrain-based Avengers– USS Sentry (MCM-3), Devastator (MCM-6), and Gladiator (MCM-11), and they look great.

The motto of the Dextrous is ” No One Goes Before Us.”

Once the last of the Avengers leaves the fleet in 2027– just two short years from now– the Navy will not have a single dedicated minesweeper for the first time since USS Lapwing (AM-1) was commissioned in 1918.

Probably a mistake.

Likewise, the fleet’s final dedicated HM (Helicopter Mine Countermeasures) Squadron, the “Blackhawks” of HM-15, will say goodbye to their beloved MH-53E Sea Dragons in 2027, and the final “Dragon Drivers” were minted last November.

The service’s 20~ operational MH-53E Sea Dragons, four of which are forward deployed to Bahrain, will leave the fleet in FY27.

The service’s counter-mine solution moving forward will be surface and subsurface drones operating from a few rotating LCS hulls and some Archerfish-equipped MH-60Ss.

At least there goes the theory.

The Navy earlier this year said it has four Mine Countermeasures (MCM) Mission Package (MP) sets “supporting LCS deployments in the 5th Fleet Area of Responsibility (AOR) and follow-on MCM MPs will support 7th Fleet operations by the end of FY 2027.”

Dutch AMX Days

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It happened some 50 years ago. 1975, somewhere in the Netherlands.

Antitankwapen TOW mounted on the camouflaged superstructure of an AMX Pantser Rups Anti Tank (PRAT). The vehicle’s radio antenna is tilted to the side for a better field of view.

Defensiebladen Objectnummer 2044_061411

During the Cold War, the Dutch were big fans of the compact 15-ton French AMX tracked platform.

Big fans.

Staring in the 1960s they ordered no less than 800 assorted hulls including 26 of the tank killing PRATs seen above, 345 infantry carriers (PRI=Pantser Rups Infanterie, armed with the Browning M2HB heavy machine gun), 131 light tank (AMX-13 PRLTTK=Pantserrups Lichte Tanks), 82 self-propelled guns (PRA= Pantser Rups Artillerie) carrying the 105mm L30 howitzer, 67 mortar carrying AMX PRMRs, 46 PRGWT ambulance models, 46 PRVR cargo carriers, 34 engineering/recovery vehicles (PRB=Pantser Rups Berging), and a command (PRCO) version.

AMX-PRI and AMX-13 of the Dutch Army’s Armored Infantry Driving Training Centre (Pantser Infanterie Rij Opleiding Centrum, PIROC). 1963-1970 2155_032884

A pantserinfanteriecompagnie of AMX at the De Ruyter van Steveninck barracks in Oirschot, circa 1965. Dig those dismounted infantry squads, armed with a mix of FALs, FN MAGs, UZIs, and 90mm M20 Super Bazookas. 2001_N0003854-02

Billed as holding as many as three crewmen and 10 well-armed dismounts, it was anything but comfortable due to the low ceiling of its hull.

Dig those 1970s Dutch Army conscript hair standards. Official caption: Tijdens oefening PANTSERSPRONG in 1975 zitten infanteristen in een gepantserd rupsvoertuig AMX-PRI ( Pantser Rups Infanterie). De achterdeuren van het voertuig staan nog open. 2000_064611

The Dutch maintained their AMX fleet into the early 1980s when, going heavier, they were replaced with 889 M113s (YPR-765 in Dutch parlance) and 468 Leopard 1 series platforms, the latter of which replaced both the AMX-13 and British Centurion Mk5s.

USCG Updates: Moves in Pacific as Large Cutter Programs Struggle

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There has been a lot of quiet yet noteworthy news concerning the Coast Guard in the past couple of weeks.

Blue Water ops abound

First, it should be noted that things are definitely in motion in the Pacific.

The 49-year-old 210-foot USCGC Resolute (WMEC-620) just arrived back in CONUS yesterday, following a 59-day patrol in the Eastern Pacific under JIATF-South, and offloaded over six tons of coke, showing she is still capable of interdiction duty in blue water.

The crew of USCGC Resolute (WMEC 620) poses for a group photo during a drug offload at Coast Guard Sector St. Petersburg, July 17, 2025. Resolute deployed in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South (JIATF-South), an interagency and international task force that conducts counter-illicit trafficking and security cooperation operations in the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Riley Perkofski)

The aging 270-foot Bear-class USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC 903), the only member of her class stationed on that side of the globe, just wrapped a 73-day 15,000 nm patrol of Oceania around the Hawaiian Islands, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, and American Samoa.

U.S. Coast Guardsmen assigned to medium endurance cutter USCGC Harriet Lane (WMEC 903) prepare to moor the cutter on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, July 9, 2025. The crew returned from a 73-day patrol during which they exercised partnerships with the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, and New Zealand through bilateral maritime law enforcement agreements. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Jennifer Nilson)

They did a lot of “hearts and minds” outreach stuff with allied militaries as well as “interagency and Pacific Island partners to reinforce the rules-based international maritime order in the region.”

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane (WMEC 903) approaches the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands during a passenger transfer and ship resupply on June 13, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Austin Wiley)

Next, the frigate-sized USCGC Stratton (WMSL 752) has been busy on a Westpac cruise under the control of 7th Fleet’s DESRON 15. With an embarked ScanEagle UAV detachment and Navy/Marine ship riders, she has been conducting in-port and at-sea engagements with Japan Coast Guard (JCG), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), and other “racing stripe” forces in the region.

The Legend-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) steams alongside the Japan Coast Guard Patrol Vessel Asanagi (PLH-43) and the Philippine Coast Guard vessel BRP Teresa Magbanua (MRRV-9701) during a trilateral search and rescue exercise in Kagoshima, Japan, June 20, 2025. Stratton is deployed and assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. Stratton is deployed to the Indo-Pacific to advance relationships with ally and partner nations to build a more secure and prosperous region with unrestricted, lawful access to the maritime commons. (Japan Coast Guard courtesy photo)

Philippine and Japan Coast Guard members observe a ScanEagle long-endurance unmanned aerial system aboard the Legend-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) during a trilateral search and rescue exercise in Kagoshima, Japan, June 20, 2025. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy)

She just arrived in Guam with ship riders of the maritime forces from Australia, India, and Japan aboard, and you can spot a few USN Bluejackets among the crew.

Quad partners from the U.S. Coast Guard, Japan Coast Guard, Australian Border Force, Indian Coast Guard, and the command and crew of the Legend-class U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) take a photo on the flight deck during the first Quad at-sea mission while Stratton patrols the Pacific Ocean, July 1, 2025. Stratton is deployed and assigned to Destroyer Squadron (DESRON) 15, the Navy’s largest DESRON and the U.S. 7th Fleet’s principal surface force. Stratton is deployed to the Indo-Pacific to advance relationships with ally and partner nations to build a more secure and prosperous region with unrestricted, lawful access to the maritime commons. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Kate Kilroy)

Meanwhile, in Alaska, where the USCG counts more than 2,500 active duty, reserve, civilian, and auxiliary personnel, a new (to them) face on the beat has arrived.

The 87-foot USCGC Blacktip (WPB 87326) just reported for duty in her new homeport of Valdez, replacing the recently retired 110-foot Island-class WPB, USCGC Liberty. A key takeaway on that is that she self-deployed there after transiting approximately 2,800 miles.

On an 87-foot boat.

You learn to sail in the Coast Guard, dammit.

Blacktip in Valdez, her new home. A big change from Oxnard. 250708-G-GM914-0001

Speaking of Liberty, the 39-year-old cutter and her two sisters, ex-Mustang (WPB-1310), and Naushon (WPB-1311), completed their final sail, arriving in San Diego from Alaska under USCG crews to be handed over to the Colombian Navy. Other members of the 49-member class have been transferred to Costa Rica, Georgia, Greece, Pakistan, Tunisia, and Ukraine. Only 14 have been scrapped. Not a bad run considering the last unit was delivered from Bollinger in 1992, and they had a 15-year planned lifespan.

A Ukrainian Island-class patrol boat in dazzle camouflage. 2024, with a bit of up-arming from when she was in USCG service. Photo credits: Ukrainian Navy

Also headed to Alaska, eventually, is the recently commissioned “icebreaker” USCGC Storis (WAGB 21), which arrived last week at her temporary homeport in Seattle alongside the service’s other ice crunchers. The service says that “The arrival of Storis marks a milestone in the Coast Guard’s Force Design 2028 initiative and broader Arctic strategy.” She is slated to move to Juneau once a facility is constructed there to berth her.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Storis (WAGB 21) transits through Puget Sound en route to Coast Guard Base Seattle, July 11, 2025. The newly acquired polar icebreaker will conduct missions in the Arctic and aims to strengthen the U.S. presence in the region. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Annika Hirschler)

Large Cutter Program Blues

And in “whomp-whomp” news to cheer you on down, the Coast Guard recently did what it probably should have done two years ago and canceled the planned Heritage-class offshore patrol cutters (OPCs) number three and four from Panama City’s Eastern Shipbuilding Group.

Still not here: the Heritage-class Offshore Patrol Cutter/Maritime Security Cutter.

The Florida shipyard won a contract for what should have been the first eight of 25 OPCs in 2016, and, almost a decade later, just two are nearing completion. ESG’s delivery of the first OPC, the future USCGC Argus (WMSM-915), was initially due in June 2023 but will now be completed by the end of 2026 (!) at the earliest. The second OPC, the future USCGC Chase (WMSM-916), was supposed to be delivered in April 2024, and no one really knows when that will actually happen.

Odds are that the future USCGC Ingham (WMSM-917) and Rush (WMSM-918) will likely be re-awarded to Austal in Mobile, which is already working on a second flight of eight OPCs itself. The service needs a second yard on board for these.

I would say that nearby Ingalls had the bandwidth to crank out some of these white hulls, but the USCG last month terminated their contract for the 11th and final National Security Cutter last month, clawing back $260 million in long-lead funds already awarded for that long-overdue vessel. The service will use the parts and materials to keep its 10 other Ingalls-built NSCs running.

It’s a shame as the NSCs are the most functional cutters ever to sail under Coast Guard tasking, and, like Stratton above, are a favorite in the Westpac to fill frigate missions that the Navy has few other assets to accomplish.

Meanwhile, the nearly year-old Icebreaker Collaboration Effort (ICE) Pact between the USCG, Finland, and Canada has produced little in the way of concrete results, although Trump said in a news conference recently that the country may buy as many as 15 icebreakers from Finland (hold your breath).

The first modules for the planned U.S. Coast Guard Polar Security Cutter (PSC) were only cleared in April, and that program was awarded in 2019.

Semper paratus, indeed.

New S&W Axe AR line includes as many SBRs as carbines

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Featuring “Ambi X Enhancement,” Tennessee-based Smith & Wesson debuted a new line of 5.56 NATO M&P15 rifles this week.

Besides full ambidextrous controls on the receiver, the new AXE line utilizes Gemtech GVAC technology in the uppers to minimize gas blowback when shooting suppressed. They also have a Gemtech ETM flash hider system; an improved BCG with a Carpenter 158 steel bolt, 8620 steel carrier, and a chromed firing pin; an Armornite-finished 4150 steel barrel with 5R 1:8 rifling; and an M&P grip with interchangeable palm swells.

Other standard features include a Radian Raptor charging handle, Williams folding sights, M-LOK slots on a Midwest Industries free-floating handguard, and Magpul stocks.

The Smith AXE series is introduced in four models, including factory SBRs with 11.5 and 14.5-inch barrels, a standard carbine with a 16.1-inch barrel, and a more upscale Performance Center rifle. The first three are all black with a Magpul CTR adjustable carbine stock, while the Performance Center model sports a Gray Cerakote and a Magpul DT stock. (Photos: S&W)

More in my column at Guns.com.

Kamaishi Wake Up Call

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It happened some 80 years ago this week

“Battleship X,” the class leader USS South Dakota (BB-57) fires her forward 16-inch guns of Turrets I and II at the Kamaishi Steel Works on Honshu, Japan, 14 July 1945.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. Catalog #: 80-G-490175

A young ship turned old pro that saw her first action off Guadalcanal in October 1942, SoDak by this stage of the war was earning her 13th battle star and was an expert at using her radar to target centrally controlled 16-inch guns.

In bombarding the Kamaishi plant, she plastered it with 231 16-inch shells (that’s 219 tons of ordnance!) in 42 salvos between 1211 and 1415, a span of just over two hours. Adding the ship’s on-board Kingfisher spotter planes to the mix to correct shot fall made it cake.

From her report.

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