I Was Mistaken

A long while ago I stated remembering that the Army kept us, arms and ammunition well separated unless we were actually on the range and going shooting.

I misremembered something.

The ammo racks of the tanks were loaded with war-shot ammo unless we were going to the range for gunnery.  I also recall, now, removing all that ammo from the tank before going to Graf and experiencing my first round of being responsible in the paperwork for anything at all thanks to my minty new stripes on one of those trips.

Literally nothing but discipline keeping us from loading up an APFSDSDU round and picking a target.

Come to think on it, literally nothing but self control keeping us from firing up a tank and rolling out the gate with it too.

The Army did make us dismount all three machine guns and keep them in the arms room.  Ammo for the MG's was kept in the bunkers a longish ways away.

Same same for our pistols and the tank's M16. 

Prepare For War With Whom

UK calls up 95,000 veterans.

They say it's just a drill, but I've noticed a couple articles about the normal British citizenry being more effective about the incoming tide of immigrants.

I can't help but wonder if this is really a precursor to quelling an incipient rebellion.

But if it is a rebellion starting, I hope they feel free to use the words from our declaration of independence to list their grievances. 

Memories

Saw a compilation of military fails.

One of them was a group of Marines looking in a grassy field for a missing suppressor.

I remember during Reforger hearing about a unit that had lost an M9 near where we were operating.

We all looked at each other in the turret for a moment and simultaneously said, "free pistol!"

Hey, it's not like we signed for it!

Sadly, we did not find it. 

Finally Some Good News

Deserter's conviction reinstated!

I can't believe this shit is still going on, nice to see resolution happening.

To Be Fair

If we're going to count all the variations of the M1816 musket as a single service weapon, then we really should count all the variations of the AR-15 as a single weapon.

The M16 series (including the M4 series) is the king of service life, 1966 to 2022 or 56 years.

56 and counting since the M7 roll-out has not been smooth by any measure and many units, INFANTRY battalions, not support units, are still rocking the M4A1.

If we count each variation as its own weapon the M1865 is still the shortest in service, but the average number of years we stick to a specific design drops precipitously.

Even within some very short lived designs, like the Krag, there's several sub-versions.

Sometimes it's hard to tell how long a weapon was the primary infantry arm because they didn't replace the old ones, just stopped issuing them in favor of the new one.

This is true of the M1816 series and the Krag.  Units might have all the same gun, they might have a few of each.

Yes Yes It Does

Reader Technomad asks, "Why would the Navy adopt a different rifle in the first place? Wouldn't that complicate things?"

Yes and no.

Back in the late 19th century, the Navy and Army used completely different and independent supply and procurement systems.

It didn't matter that the Navy adopted a different rifle and cartridge from the Army because there was no interoperability requirement.

Small arms for the Navy was often an afterthought as well.

I would not be surprised that the reason the Navy uses the same rifle as the Army now is because they bought Army rifles when the Lee didn't live up to expectations and discovered how much cheaper they were because of the bulk discount the Army got and that they didn't have to spend any money on the development.

Or they didn't bother developing their own guns for the same costs reasons while the USMC starting growing past a ship-board infantry requirement into an expeditionary force.

It should be noted that the Jarheads have reverted to having their own rifles with their adoption of the M27, phase-out of the M4, and rejection of the M7 and XM8.

A New Record!

The Krag-Jørgensen was he official service rifle of the US Army from 1894 to 1903; until replaced by the M1903.  Nine years.

The M14 was the official service rifle of the US Army from 1957 to 1966; until replaced by the XM16E1.  Nine years.

Both are noted as having incredibly short lives. 

The M7 was the official service rifle of the US Army from 2022 to 2026; until replaced by the XM8.  Four years!

The XM8 appears to have an adoption process so truncated that it makes the rushed development of the M7 seem positively sedate.

SIGH. 

203mm 2A44

The Soviets made an 8" howitzer too.  It was introduced in 1975 and it's still in service.

The 2A44 gun is mounted on the 2S7 Pion self propelled gun.

The rounds weigh 227 lb. or 240 lb.

A nuke round was developed. 

I have ranges from wikipedia. 

Ukraine managed us US 8" projectiles. 

This is just about all I know about this gun.

I assume there's an HE round, because every howitzer has one.

FASCAM?  DPICM?  Chem?  Smoke?

Base bleed?  Rocket Assist?

Who knows!

A copy of Jane's Artillery '95-96 is en route.  Maybe it will have some answers.

Sort of related:  There's scanty information online about the gun on the M110 and M110A2 SPG's too.  Still digging there too.

I Can Think Of Several Finer Groups Of People

Pat Harrigan (R-NC) wants LEOSA style carry for current and former Special Forces personnel.

He says he can think no finer group of people...

First, fuck you Pat.

Second, I can think of a finer group who is far more deserving of national reciprocity.

Everyone.

I've been opposed every and all LEO sop law ever proposed or passed.

We don't need more "only ones" legislation.  We need more everyone's.

I especially love the quote, "If enacted, the law would represent a significant expansion of gun-carry rights for service members and veterans, creating a new nationwide benefit not currently available to most civilians."

Let me amend that:

If enacted, the law would represent a significant expansion of gun-carry rights for SOME service members and SOME veterans, creating a new nationwide benefit not currently available to most civilians. 

An infinitesimally small portion of service members and veterans, I might add. 

For Future Reference

 

A Modest Proposal

First, since the Department of War gets substantial exemptions from the evironmental bullshit laws...

Let's build some nuclear power plants!

Call them training centers for the Navy and use standardized designs they are already using in subs and carriers.

Yes, they are teeny reactors compared to the "real thing," but we can compensate by building lots and lots of them.

Electricity production is a byproduct and we can sell it to the local electrical monopoly or direct to customers at cost.  Or at the local rate.  Doesn't matter.

Any protesters get stroppy and they're threatening a military base not a Department of Energy facility.

I think we could do the same thing with refineries in places like California.  Fuel production is a vital national defense necessity.

Run it like Lake City and let them sell overruns to the public. 

Hmmmmmmmmmm

 

Illuminating

The deep dive into artillery for GURPS led me to discover something neat.

We have IR illumination rounds now.

That is really cool!  Hot?

Not sure if they would have had them for T2K or not, but it's still neat. 

Blacked Out

Harvey and I were out back watching movies last night and we could clearly hear helicopters.

Definitely 4+ blades. 

Normally that means a Coastie Jayhawk, the sheriff's 406 or a Lifeflight EC145.

I always go out to look.  Just in case it's a Hind sneaking up on me.

No lights.

Sometimes the sheriff's helo will do that.

Look up the ADSB.

The only thing in the area was a Cessna 152 that I'd seen and they were in the opposite direction of the rotor sounds.

The closest helo on ADSB was the county to the south's sheriff helo and that was way too far away and the wrong direction.

I am wondering if we're hearing training from MacDill up and around here.

They've done it before. 

I'm Much Cheaper

It turns out I did more about 155mm shells than General Dynamics did last week, and I didn't spend $500 million to do it.

Ooops! 

Though it appears that GDOT did a, "we think this might work, but we won't know until we try to actually do it," deal by using older machinery to make newer rounds.

Well, we now know that the machines that made M107 rounds don't make M795 rounds.

Reading between the lines, to me, it seems that they're getting a handle on it, but the worst case scenario played out. 

Oh My God

Linky

During a routine inspection in 2026, museum staff uncovered a shocking secret hidden inside a WWII Panzer III tank that had gone unnoticed for more than 80 years. Beneath an internal floor panel was a 7.92×57mm Mauser round, the same ammunition used by the German MG 34 machine gun mounted on the legendary armored vehicle. The discovery stunned experts because the aging bullet was potentially dangerous and had to be carefully deactivated before being added to the collection. This rare Panzer III, one of only two surviving examples still running, carries a mysterious history dating back to the North African campaign and the Battle of Alam el Halfa in 1942.

So, a live round was rolling around under the floorboards for 84 years, and the lack of men in the UK caused a panic?

Potentially dangerous?

Maybe if you tried to swallow it.  It's not like it's an HE round where the explosive's stabilizers have been slowly breaking down leaving something behind that makes nitroglycerine seem easy to juggle.

I love the line about carefully deactivating it.

In America a quick poll would have been taken among the workers to see who had a 98k and they'd have shot that round to see how badly the powder had degraded. 

"Historian Ian Hudson said he could not definitely say the round was a wartime artefact but “it’s certainly very likely”." 

Are you fucking shitting me, Ian?

A fucking historian doesn't know to look at the headstamp?

I am ever more convinced that we should have helped the Germans in 1918. 

110 Years

110 years ago at The Somme, the tank made it's combat premier!

Seconds later, a tanker asks a crunchie an infantryman to hand them something they'd dropped to the ground because "death before dismount!" 

New Book New Stats

Now that I have Gun Stats instead of what Douglas Cole developed for damage and I kludged for range...

More information about the rounds themselves has come to light as well. 

Oh, and if you have $2500 laying around you can just BUY XM1168 ammo from SIG in 920 round crates.  Use the M250 damage and range stats for firing from your MCX Spear. 

Gun Stats doesn't offer the +P Extra Powerful modification to the rounds because you enter the performance directly, but I kept the 1.5 cost modifier from High Tech.

Commercial 135gr loads from a 16" barrel: 

.277 Fury 6d+2 pi, 1,190/5,000.  G$1, 0.043 lb. per round.

.277 Fury Match 6d+2 pi, 1,190/5,000, +1 to Acc.  G$1.25 per round.

.277 Fury Match HP 6d+2(0.5) pi+, 1,190/5,000, +1 to Acc.  G$1.25 round.

.277 Fury Hybrid Match +P 7d+1 pi, 1,300/5,500, +1 to Acc.  G$1.88 per round.

.277 Fury Hybrid Match HP +P 7d+1(0.5) pi+, 1,300/5,500, +1 to Acc.  G$1.88 round.

In the M7 rifle you get: 

6.8x51mm XM1168 AP 4d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100.  G$2.25 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1184 APHC Match 6d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100, +1 to Acc.  G$3.75 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1186 AP Match 4d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100.  +1 to Acc.  G$2.81 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1188 Reduced Range AP 4d+1(2) pi-, 880/3,700.  G$1.5 per round.

In the M250 LMG you get: 

6.8x51mm XM1168 AP 5d(2) pi-, 1,040/4,400.  G$2.25 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1184 APHC Match 7d(2) pi-, 1,040/4,400.  +1 to Acc.  G$3.75 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1186 AP Match 5d(2) pi-, 1,040/4,400.  +1 to Acc  G$2.81 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1188 Reduced Range AP 4d+1(2) pi-, 930/3,900.  G$1.5 per round.

These rounds appear to have been abandoned, but I've included updated stats for the M7 anyways. 

6.8x51mm XM1169 AP Match 4d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100.  +1 to Acc.  G$2.81 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1170 APHC 6d+2(2) pi-, 970/4,100.  G$3 per round.

6.8x51mm XM1184A1 APDU 8d(2) pi- inc, 970/4,100.  G$3.83 per round.

6.8x51mm Aeroshell SLAP APDS 10d(2) pi-, 1,460/6,150.  G$4.50 per round.

6.8x51mm HAPI API AP Incendiary 4d+2(2) pi- inc, 970/4,100.  G$2.50 per round.

6.8x51mm NM142 HEIAP:  APHEX Incendiary 4d+2(2) pi- inc follow-up 1d-3 cr ex, 970/4,100.  G$5.25 per round.

6d+2 pi will do an average of 23 points of damage.  This will almost penetrate NIJ III armor.

4d+2(2) pi- will do an average of 16 points of damage.  This will almost penetrate NIJ IV armor.

5d(2) pi- will do an average of 17.5 points of damage.  This is the damage that NIJ IV is designed to stop and it stops it exactly!

6d+2(2) pi- will do an average of 23 points of damage and handily penetrates NIJ IV armor with 6 penetrating for 3 points of damage to the target. 

7d(2) pi- will do an average of 24.5 points of damage and handily penetrates NIJ IV armor with 7.5 penetrating for 3 points of damage to the target.  Rounding sucks!

Cross Purpose Compromise

The answer is always, "More Dakka."

But how much?

Infantry rifle selection is a compromise.

On one hand you want the round it fires to go out as far as possible and hit hard when it gets there.

On the other, you want to carry a lot of rounds.

On the gripping hand, almost every round you fire isn't hitting the enemy.

You can see these three hands going on with the M7 selection and the decision to use an electronic wonder optic:  "What if almost every round DID hit?  Then the reduction in rounds carried doesn't matter so much!"

The digital optic is supposed to make every round be the round with someone's name on it. 

Except, suppressive fire is sending rounds downrange with all the rounds labeled, "to whom it may concern."

If you can get the enemy to keep their head down while you're carefully aiming, it's a lot easier to carefully aim.

None of that is new.

But if you're going to take away 1/3 of the ammo, you have to teach the troops different suppression schedules.  They're not gonna learn that without doing some shooting in training...

Which brings us to something that a lot of shooters already know viscerally.

That bigger round is more expensive.

So getting training where rounds are expended will be more expensive.

Units in the Reagan Largesse were deferring live fire for budgetary reasons when 7.62 was a dime a shot, not a buck.  6.8x51mm is a LOT more than a dollar a round for the, lower powered, training ammo; and budgets are tighter.

So we've adopted a more expensive, and heavier, "rifle"; that uses very expensive, and heavier, ammunition; that's dependent on a very expensive, and cantankerous, optic; and all that requires more live fire training to learn how to use it because it's so very different from the weapon it replaces.

Americans, traditionally, are good at learning WARRE on the fly.

Yaay? 

By the way, there's nothing about that whiz-bang computerized optic that couldn't be applied to 5.56.

The entire justification for the 6.8x51mm round is to be able to punch our own body armor and we appear to be the only nation issuing such armor at scale.  What makes the 6.8x51mm round so damned expensive is using a 13" barrel because we're insisting on every infantryman carrying a suppressed rifle and trying to keep the overall length manageable.

It's 3" longer than the M4, and 3" shorter than the M16A2.  Winning?

I can't help but think that if we're going to insist on .270 Winchester performance, it'd have been simpler to just skip the suppressor and hang a 20" barrel out front and have $1.28 a round ammo instead of $2.60 a shot; because that bullet can be loaded into a conventional brass case at normal chamber pressures too.

That $2.60 a shot is 3,200 fps from a 16" barrel, not sure if that's the same cartridge that does 3,000 fps from a 13" barrel. 

For The Fallen

 

 

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children, England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.


Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.


They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.


They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.


They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.


But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;


As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

-- Laurence Binyon

Today is not about sales. It is not about summer starting. It is not about grandma.

It's is about those who served and have passed beyond the veil.

I want them all back.

To:

Bernie Canniff (Korea, in a car club together).

Carol LeFon aka Neptunus Lex (patiently explained both real world and flight sim military aviation to this tanker).

Davy McGuire (COB USS Whale, originally a friend of my Dad's, later me).

Fred Gabow (we served together, his wife hired someone to murder him).

Jerry Pournelle (you do read, don't you? Willing to be wrong and listened to my correction!).

Kevin O'Brian aka Hognose (our beloved Weaponsman).

Paul Harrell (he taught me a couple things about guns and how to reply to dicks).

Rabbi (Uncle Ben, another friend of Dad who got me a ride in an F-14A).

 

Rich (brother of my Father in law).

Robert (uncle by marriage to Mom's sister).

Standing Bear aka William Dawkins (WW2 and Korea, who taught me gaming).

The world is better that you were in it and worse that you have left.