Army searching for a new rifle

Our NROTC instructor covered the water cooled vs air cooled issue too. Interesting topic.

For the WW1 static defenses the water cooled guns worked well. They never wasted good water on them though -- they always just used pee.

With the evolution of the tank (invented by the British during WW1) warfare during WW2 (re-invented by the Germans) became very mobile and so the water cooled guns were too bulky and the water was too precious to waste on them.

The main weakness of the air cooled guns was and still is overheating the barrels. So a thick glove and a spare barrel came with all the new air cooled designs. Unfortunately the snuffies (low ranking infantrymen) had a bad habit of losing the spare barrels (as with the base plates for 60mm mortars).

Amphibious warfare history in NROTC was fascinating. It taught me a whole new love for history.

The first amphibious assault in history is dated to 1250 BC with the storming of the beach at Troy as told to us by Homer the ancient Greek bard. Western history and literature begin with that book.

 

You have no idea how tedious your participation is to deal with.

That's why I keep you on iggy and only have to view your drivel when I choose the all-posts feature in a thread.

 

"Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet."

Gen. "Mad Dog" James Mattis

 

I'm not the one who made an obvious lie and then doubled down rather than admitting I was wrong.

When was Whitman in Vietnam again?

 

"Modern warfare" ???

The first "modern war" was the American Civil War.

Actually the current infantry tactics being used today aren't modern but are over 156 years old tactics.

If you research the arguments that the U.S. Army was making during the early 1960's opposing the M-16 and adopting new tactics how the M-16 would be deployed they were saying that the Army was being taken back 100 years. When soldiers on the battlefield would send a volley of fire towards the enemy.

The current tactics are very effective on the battlefield but because to the high volume of ammunition expenditure you have to have a logistical support in place to resupply the infantryman on the battlefield.

During WW ll in the European theatre, infantrymen were resupplied at night.
In the Pacific theatre, soldiers and Marines were resupplied when ever they could be resupplied.

The wars we have been fighting for the past 16 years have been low intensity wars and for the past 8 years really stupid politically correct rules of engagement being forced upon our troops that favored the enemy and caused American troops to bleed and die.

The next war is likely to be against a power that has a real army, air force and navy.

If the next war is in Korea and the commies still use old Soviet tactics of massive frontal assaults with thousands of commies coming over the hill, you are going to start engaging the enemy from 800 yards away like we did from 1950 -1953 before they are on top of you. It's going to take a "battle rifle" not an "assault rifle" to stop the assault.

Urban warfare...the lat time American troops properly fought in an urban environment was during the Battle of Hue during Tet of 68 when the ROE were thrown in the crapper and the entire city was declared a free fire zone.
The weapon of choice for clearing buildings was the 12 ga. shotgun and the Thompson submachine gun.
The weapons platform that was given credit foe eliminating an entire NVA division from the NVA order of battle and winning the Battle of Hue was the ONTOS.

 

Back in the day commie civilians were fair game.

Are we not killing civilian jihadist today ?

 

Really? We use tactics from the Civil War?

Pray tell, when did Union or Confederate soldiers use armored tactics or MOUT or CQB?

BTW, go **** yourself for insulting the deaths of my friends in Najaf and Fallujah. I guess I can tell their families those were "real" MOUT.

 

@APACHERAT , I do hope someone at the Pentagon is listening to you. I believe you are right on.

 

UBL's son is also clear and convincing evidence of why letting the vermin grow up just kicks the can down the road. This little Arab mattress-stain want's his own 4 wives and 72 virgins now.

 

So is this you admitting you committed war crimes in Vietnam?

 

Did you just advocate killing children?

 

After getting a bloody nose in both Iraq and in Afghanistan I suspect American expeditionism is dead there now since it is no longer politically popular.

That means the US will turn its attention to the next threat, away from the oil, and to the latest newcomer to the nuclear arms race -- Kim Jong Oon in N.Korea.

That country is wide open and treeless. We will need battle rifles again. This is precisely where the Japanese Arisaka was born. Some semi auto version with a selector switch in this caliber and cartridge is probably the future of the US Army and Marine Corps.

 

... pig after pig, cow after cow, village after village, every man woman and child ... .

The Will -- there must be the Will To Win.

 

If we need to engage in Korea at 800 yards, the Koreans aren't going to be launching a massed infantry assault where battle rifles will do any good.

It'll be a mechanized attack and our weapons will be 25mm Bushmasters, Javelins, and 120mm tank guns.

 

I hope you get committed somewhere where you can't harm another person before this degree of psychosis leads you kill someone.

 

During the early years of WW ll the U.S. Navy had water cooled M-2 Browning heavy machine guns on their ships.

The U.S. Navy's A/A 40 mm Bofore guns (1940's - 1960's) were also water cooled. -> http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNUS_4cm-56_mk12.php

 

A ship is a perfect platform for water cooled guns.

There is sea water all around.

Makes perfect sense.

The old Army colonel who taught our military history class in NROTC did not know much about warships however.

I can still remember the old guy and his lectures.

Don't know what happened to him but if still living then he is over 100.

Unlikely.

 

You are aware that Lt. Calley didn't commit any war crimes. He was tried under the UCMJ after the Saigon government refused to ask for prosecuting Lt. Calley for carrying out an unlawful order killing VC civilians.

 

So how many civilians did you kill in Vietnam?

 

Why do ships need water cooled guns when powered Gatling weapons exist now?

 

If the US Army had a few more Calleys they'd have mopped up Charlie and ended the war in no time..
I like Calley's reply when a hovering chopper pilot radioed to tried to stop him, and Calley radioed back- "Down here I'm running the show!"
Another couple of Nam-era quotes I like are-
"If it's dead and Vietnamese, it's Cong"
"What happens in the field stays in the field"..

 

Yeah, if only we'd murdered more civilians, it would have made the Vietnamese love us more than the VC.

 

Korea is about as much as tank country as Vietnam was.

There were tank vs. tank battles up in l-Corps. But these were kept secret from the American public back in the day. Most were tank platoon size battles

What most Americans weren't told when the Special Forces base at Lang Vei was over run by the NVA during the Battle of Khe Sanh that the base was over run by 12 NVA tanks.

During the Easter Offense of 1972 Gen. Giap thought he was another Gen. Patton or Field Marshal Rommel and launched a massive armor assault across the DMZ. 400 NVA tanks were destroyed mostly by USAF F-4 Phantoms and even for the first time in history tank columns were destroyed by naval gunfire.

During the Easter offense the USN had 3 gun cruisers and around 30 destroyers on the gun line.

That was Gen. Giap's second major defeat since getting his butt whooped big time during Tet of 68 and he was soon fired.

 

The villagers were Cong-sympathisers so Calley kicked their ass!
Sure, a few chickens were collateral damage but so what, they were commie chickens..

 

I having a 0849 MOS only kept track on how many Marines and soldiers lives I saved.