Its just a pity that we did not adopt this round back then instead of playing politics with our Allies! But now we have adopted the 6.8 round. Which is a sorta, kinda version. Oh well better late than never!
Grumpy
Category: The Green Machine
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Well I thought they were funny!
By Paul Adams & George Wright
The UK is among a number of countries with military special forces operating inside Ukraine, according to one of dozens of documents leaked online.
It confirms what has been the subject of quiet speculation for over a year.
The leaked files, some marked “top secret”, paint a detailed picture of the war in Ukraine, including sensitive details of Ukraine’s preparations for a spring counter-offensive.
The US government says it is investigating the source of the leak.
According to the document, dated 23 March, the UK has the largest contingent of special forces in Ukraine (50), followed by fellow Nato states Latvia (17), France (15), the US (14) and the Netherlands (1).
The document does not say where the forces are located or what they are doing.
The numbers of personnel may be small, and will doubtless fluctuate. But special forces are by their very nature highly effective. Their presence in Ukraine is likely to be seized upon by Moscow, which has in recent months argued that it is not just confronting Ukraine, but Nato as well.
In line with its standard policy on such matters, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has not commented, but in a tweet on Tuesday said the leak of alleged classified information had demonstrated what it called a “serious level of inaccuracy”.
“Readers should be cautious about taking at face value allegations that have the potential to spread misinformation,” it said.
It did not elaborate or suggest which specific documents it was referring to. However, Pentagon officials are quoted as saying the documents are real.
One document, which detailed the number of casualties suffered in Ukraine on both sides, did appear to have been doctored.
UK special forces are made up of several elite military units with distinct areas of expertise, and are regarded to be among the most capable in the world.
The British government has a policy of not commenting on its special forces, in contrast to other countries including the US.
The UK has been vociferous in its support of Ukraine, and is the second largest donor after the US of military aid to Kyiv.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the Department of Justice had opened a criminal investigation and he was determined to find the source of the leak.
“We will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it,” he said.
I once burned down a substantial fraction of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, while running an aerial gunnery range. It turns out that 7.62x51mm tracer rounds and dry grass make for a fulminant combination. The zillion or so acres I incinerated were, miraculously, all constrained to the firing ranges. Aside from some seriously pissed off rodents, there seemed to be little lasting harm done.
Providing effective defensive ordnance for the Army’s rotary-wing aircraft is a quandary as old as helicopters. The first dedicated helicopter gunships were actually adapted from OH-13s. The OH-13 is the bubble-canopied helicopter used in the TV series MASH. Slow, rickety, and fragile, the OH-13 nonetheless served as a starting point.
From our perspective this deep into the Information Age, it can be tough to visualize what it must have been like back in the early 1960s when the US Army was first figuring this stuff out. Nowadays helicopter gunships, assault aircraft, and heavy-lift platforms all working in synchronized harmony to accomplish complex missions day or night are simply background clutter. However, it was a rough road getting here.
The Howze Board
Human beings are tribal. In few places is this more obvious than in the military. In the early 1960’s the US Army was still a bit butt-hurt over the way the Army Air Corps had morphed into the Air Force, itself obviously its own free-standing military service. Warplanes are expensive, and a mere thirteen years earlier the National Security Act of 1947 had taken all that cash away from Army Generals and given it to the newly-minted Wing Nuts. Recent technological advancements in the world of combat helicopters demanded a significant rethink of the way Uncle Sam’s professional killers did business. Somebody needed to adjudicate who was going to own these sparkly new machines.
Helicopters had just found their legs during the war in Korea. For expeditious resupply and Casevac (casualty evacuation) purposes, nothing beat the helicopter. Despite their relative crudity, these machines could get into some of the most inhospitable places to drop bullets off and pick the wounded up. Once somebody thought to strap a machine gun to these aircraft the Air Force started to get nervous. Air Force Generals were not interested in giving up their hard-won little fiefdoms. Somebody needed to figure all this out. That somebody was LTG Hamilton Howze.
In 1962 LTG Howze was given the mandate by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to conduct a comprehensive review of helicopter combat applications “in an atmosphere divorced from traditional viewpoints and past policies.” It is rare that a General Officer is given the mandate to really think outside the box. LTG Howze ran with it.
With the war in Vietnam looming on the horizon, the Air Force tried to impose weight and armament restrictions on the sorts of fixed-wing assets the Army might employ. All involved eventually realized this was stupid. Cargo aircraft like the CV-2 Caribou ultimately went to the Air Force, while the OV-1 Mohawk reconnaissance plane stayed with the Army. Participants later stated, “The Caribou and the Mohawk were the two major symbols of Army-Air Force disagreement and more time was devoted to these systems than to the entire mobility concept itself.”
After a great deal of thought the final version made it back to McNamara. Rumor has it the finished document was some two inches thick. The concluding statement read, “Adoption of the Army of the airmobile concept-however imperfectly it may be described and justified in this report-is necessary and desirable. In some respects, the transition is inevitable, just as was that from animal mobility to motor.”
Film Appearances
The end result yielded, among a great many other things, the concept of the Air Cavalry Combat Brigade. If you don’t know what that is then kick back in front of the movie Apocalypse Now with special attention to the sequence where LTC Kilgore seizes the beach so he and Lance can surf. On second thought, if you spend time at GunsAmerica.com and haven’t seen Apocalypse Now at least three times I sure wouldn’t admit that to anybody. Most of us can quote the whole thing.
As an aside, Robert Duvall’s LTC Kilgore (“I love the smell of napalm in the morning…”) was originally supposed to be Gene Hackman. Sam Bottoms, who played the surfer Lance, developed a hookworm infection while filming in the Philippines that severely damaged his liver. Martin Sheen, who played CPT Willard, suffered a heart attack during filming that almost killed him. Steve McQueen was originally supposed to play CPT Willard, but the King of Cool didn’t feel like leaving the country at the time. It must be nice to be King…
Tactical Details
In short order, the 1st Cavalry Division was romping and stomping all over Vietnam sowing chaos. Over time the basic concepts of slicks (UH-1 transport helicopters carrying Infantry troops) escorted by dedicated helicopter gunships (most typically Cobras or Mike-model armed Hueys) evolved into the doctrine of vertical envelopment that inspired the modern airmobile tactics of today. Protecting those transport aircraft fat with troops while they tore about flying nap of the earth became the highest priority.
This wasn’t much like the Air Transport Command C-47s that flew during World War 2. Haters at the time claimed that ATC stood for “Allergic to Combat.” Hardly. Those guys flew big, fat cargo planes that dropped paratroopers over hostile terrain in the dead of night amidst deadly flak and enemy fighters. By contrast, however, assault helicopters consistently flew down in the trees where the Wild Things Roamed. Their primary concern was Bad Guys with rifles. Several things were attempted to mitigate that threat.
The most obvious solution was simply door guns. This began as standard ground versions of the M-60 General Purpose belt-fed machinegun suspended in the side doors of UH-1 Huey helicopters with bungee cords. This worked OK, but accuracy suffered and it was shockingly easy to shoot up your own rotor system in the heat of battle. That evolved into the M-60D, a pintle-mounted version of the M-60 equipped with spade grips and a ring sight. These mounts had built-in stops to keep you from ventilating your own airplane. These were the guns I used to nearly burn Fort Sill to the ground. Take it from me, they really sucked.
Our D-model M-60’s were meticulously maintained and greased to perfection. They were kept spotlessly clean and operated from the antiseptic world of helicopters in flight, yet they still choked all the freaking time. If I recall correctly, I had twenty-four of these guns and maybe five of them actually ran reliably. They did not inspire confidence.
The Task Force 160 used M-134 miniguns at the time, and there’s no denying the cool factor there. These electrically-powered six-barreled Gatling guns ran through ammo like Congress burns money and were quite reliable. However, when the aircraft’s power went down the guns did, too. This became an issue during the Battle of Takur Gar in 2002 as part of Operation Anaconda.
A Task Force MH-47G Chinook was shot down near the Shahi Kot Valley in Paktia Province, Afghanistan. US Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, and sundry other high-speed special ops guys fought a vicious battle around the downed aircraft. USAF Combat Controller John Chapman earned a posthumous Medal of Honor for his actions on that forlorn mountaintop. Amidst it all, however, the Chinook’s miniguns were unusable once aircraft power was lost.
Helicopter door guns are, by their nature, area weapons systems. Bullets behave differently depending upon which side of the aircraft they are fired from while in forward flight. The airflow over each spinning round transforms each individual projectile into its own little flying machine. Rounds fired on the right tend to fly upward such that the gunner must aim underneath a target to connect. Rounds fired on the left tend to plunge unduly such that extra elevation is required. This is due to a remarkable spot of Physics called the Magnus Effect. Regardless, it is really tough to be precise when firing belt-fed machine guns out of a moving helicopter.
The XM-215
As the Army was learning how to fight helicopters in Vietnam it became obvious that assault aircraft were most vulnerable as they were coming in to land or leaving a hot LZ. Under those circumstances, VC and NVA forces would engage these aircraft at close range with small arms, exacting a shocking toll. Door guns helped to a degree, but the nose of the aircraft was consistently vulnerable. Some crazy people back in November of 1968 dreamt up the XM-215 as a possible solution.
This thing was called the Multiple Barrel Gun or the Suppressive Fire Weapon System for Helicopters. In an acronym-obsessed organization that became either the MBG or the SFWSH. No matter what you call it, the XM-215 was pretty radical.
The XM-215 looked like a honeycomb mounted under the chin on a UH-1 helicopter facing forward. This honeycomb consisted of four modules containing 1,224 individual 2-inch .22LR barrels oriented in a fan shape. A control module in the cockpit allowed the crew to select a variety of firing states from ripple fire to one massive volley. At its maximum rate, the XM-215 could be emptied in ten seconds, theoretically sleeting the area in front of the aircraft with an impenetrable cloud of tiny little 40-grain bullets.
While that is an intriguing idea, it simply didn’t work. Barrel length was inadequate to produce much muzzle velocity, so the little bullets tended to be swept downward by rotor wash and rendered ineffective at all but the most intimate ranges. The system was also fairly cumbersome and had to be reloaded one barrel at a time. I can only imagine how tedious that might be.
After a few prototypes and a boatload of .22 rimfire rounds expended the XM-215 went the way of the dodo. Nowadays superior battlefield intelligence, thermal and night vision systems, and helicopter gunship support combined with crews who can fly their machines at speed while down in the grass all tend to make air assault operations survivable, even in a contested environment.
For a time back in the 1960’s, however, some really smart guys tried to figure out a way to improvise a Claymore mine of sorts on the nose of a Huey helicopter. The XM-215 that resulted qualifies as one of the weirdest weapons of the modern age.
Are helicopter pilots highly regarded in the US Army especially since most are warrant officers? How are they viewed by others in the army or by pilots in say the Air Force or the Navy who are all commissioned?
Army helicopter pilots are very highly regarded, regardless of rank. They bring firepower, food, ammunition and mail. They evacuate the wounded and remove the tired from the battlefield. They are braver than lions, fiercer than tigers, gentle as lambs. They have nerves of steel, the eyes of eagles, the cunning of a snake and can drink like its the end of the world. And on top of all that, we are ever so humble and modest.
Finally! An accurate description of an Army helicopter pilot, as seen by the people in his life:
As seen by himself:
An incredibly intelligent, tall, handsome, innovative, and highly trained professional killer, idol to countless females, and Gentleman Adventurer, who wears a star sapphire ring, carries a hair-trigger .45 automatic in a specially designed, hand-made quick draw holster along with his trusty survival knife, who is always on time thanks to his ability to obtain immediate transportation and the reliability of his Rolex watch.
As seen by his wife:
A disreputable member of the family who comes home once a year all bruised up, driving a stolen jeep up to the back door carrying a B-4 bag full of dirty laundry, wearing a stained flight suit, smelling of stale booze and JP-4, wearing a huge watch, a fake ring, and that damn ugly beat-up pistol in that stupid holster, who will three months later go out the front door, thankfully for another year.
As seen by his commander:
A fine specimen of a drunken, brawling, jeep stealing, woman corrupting liar, with a star sapphire ring, fantastically accurate Rolex watch, an unauthorized .45 in a non-regulation shoulder holster, and trusty survival knife.
As seen by Division Headquarters:
The embodiment of a drunken, brawling, jeep stealing, woman corrupting, lying, zipper-suited Sun God, with a ring, a proscribed 1911A1 .45 in a non-regulation shoulder holster, a Rolex watch, who for some reason carries a survival knife.
As seen by the DoD:
An overpaid, rule-ignoring, over-ranked tax burden, who is unfortunately totally indispensable simply because he has volunteered to go anywhere, and do anything, at any time, only so long as he can booze it up, brawl, steal jeeps, corrupt women, lie, and wear a star sapphire ring, Rolex watch, and carry an obsolete hand gun and a survival knife.
As seen by the enemy:
The implacable inescapable face of death!
America must keep faith with its military veterans. We owe the greatest debt to those who risked their lives to keep us free.
But the promises America has made to the women and men who have served in uniform are due for a review. The budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs has grown at a dramatic pace since 9/11 — from roughly $45 billion in 2001 to more than $300 billion this year.
None of these steps would be politically easy. Proposing and voting for new benefits for veterans have long been among the few policy areas that both Democrats and Republicans support. We also know that the array of benefits offered by the VA plays an important role in attracting and retaining the all-volunteer force — especially in an era of low unemployment and rising wages in the civilian sector.
But the moral responsibility Americans have to those who fought for the country is of diminished value if it does not align with the fiscal responsibility Americans have to keep their financial house safe and sound.
I haven’t been enraged reading a news article in a long, long time. Why am I enraged? Because of these Ivy League, snot-nosed fucks at the Washington Post.
These ones.
That’s the publically available editorial staff’s information about the board who wrote one of the most disrespectful articles I have ever seen about veterans. There are so many awful opinions in this opinion piece that it’s difficult to break down each and every one. I’ll lead with some words from the VFW, ya know, the VFW that helps in leading the charge against bullshit like this. The VFW that was a huge driver in getting the PACT act passed.
It is laughable that the employees of one of the richest individuals in the world have the audacity to suggest disabled veterans should be the persons responsible for balancing the federal budget – instead of their wealthy billionaire benefactors who notoriously skirt their tax liabilities.
You would think with all the collective Ivy League degrees held by The Washington Post Editorial Board they would understand basic economics. Instead, they recommend that veterans be subjected to means tests or outright forfeit their earned benefits if they manage to constructively cope with these life-altering disabilities.
If you don’t remember, the PACT Act was established to secure health care and entitlements for thousands of veterans who are being diagnosed with various cancers, lung diseases, and much much more. Health care was also improved for dozens of other causes and ailments.
We have been making great strides in helping or honoring those who served in the longest fucking war in American history. We went to a place where we could have been blown up at any moment. We went to a place where we had to watch someone point a gun at us before we were allowed to return fire. We fought in places where we had to put our battle buddies on choppers in body bags and watch them head back home to their families without breath or a heartbeat.
Vast numbers of us have terrible back problems, difficulty breathing at times, PTSD, Traumatic brain injuries, and on and on and on. These are things that we did for our country and we only ask for what was promised which is payment for the sacrifices to our bodies and minds that no reasonable government or dumb-ass editorial board could ever imagine stripping away with a means test.
Just like the VA’s motto until a few weeks ago, the terminology is what is outdated, not the benefits. Over the years, entitlement has become a bad word that implies laziness or the wanton use of funds by the government. The VA is the opposite of that. The VA provides entitlements based on the injuries you sustained while serving. Those injuries do not go away simply because you got a job. Veterans are entitled to these payments in the purest sense of the word.
Those injuries do not go away simply because the fiscal state of the United States is in dire shape. The injuries remain and will remain for the rest of our natural lives. Injuries like the aforementioned are something those entitled- the bad version now- people who have cushy jobs writing nonsense about some of the hardest working people in this country.
People that while they were typing or doing some kind of financial news stories, we were in sands above 100 degrees for months at time with packs that weighed over 60lbs on the regular. People who while the WP Board was polishing their Pultizers were calling family members on satellite phones from the rooftop where another person was standing watch with a machine gun ready to protect you while you talked to your kids.
People that had no problem walking near and over IEDs so that we could locate, close with, and destroy the enemy by fire and maneuver while you were at the latest James Beard award-winning restaurant. While they were in their posh environments, many of us were marching to the sounds of the guns.
The injuries sustained by veterans and active duty members should be one of the last wells that we fill our buckets with simply because the well is closer and easier to draw water from. Walk to the next village over and look in that well of governmental waste. While I type this blog, my hands shake. My hands aren’t shaking because I am mad, which I am, my hands shake because I sustained an injury to my fucking brain when I was blown up by an IED. Does that change because I have a good job? No.
Does the veteran with PTSD lose it when she works in an accounting job now? No.
Does the Washington Post editorial board deal with any of that? I’d imagine not. While we were going to MOS schools, they were going to Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and Cornell. There is absolutely nothing wrong with going to one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
There is something wrong, however, when you sit there on your ivory fucking tower and scoff your nose at those with injuries, whether you believe they are true or not because you read a congressional budget office proposal and were bored on a Friday afternoon.
While I dont think this type of idea has or ever will get any legs, it’s beyond insulting when a huge newspaper like the Washington Post writes an opinion piece that can mislead and manipulate readers with a lesser understanding of the inner workings of both the VA and the veteran service organizations.
There are plenty of ways to improve the VA, the costs associated with the care of veterans, and the budget without ripping away the entitlements veterans are owed.
It is not only insulting but it also is completely untenable. Homes would go into foreclosure, cars would be repossessed, and families would struggle even more to put food on the table, a concern I’d imagine those Harvard, Yale, and Cornell graduates have never felt in their entire fucking lives.
The Washington Post editorial staff is an abomination to veterans. The Washington Post editorial staff seemingly are terrible people who target those who have served while not being personally impacted in any way. The Washington Post deserves to be shamed on the corner of every street in America. Still though, the military members who have served, are serving, or will serve are going to continue to serve so organizations like the Washington Post can write utter rubbish.
Freedom of the Press is a right guaranteed by the Consitution and those who you are trying to remove benefits from are the guarantors of that right. While invoking your absolute right to free speech, sometimes it’s better to invoke your Fifth Amendment right of shutting the fuck up.