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Posted by: Helping Hand Mar 2 2009, 21:53

Same as the politics thread really, new thread for matters of a military nature because the Politics part of the P&M thread was such a hit it's got it's very own thread now

So...

In this thread members can discuss any new developments in the field of warfare, discuss current and past conflicts etcetera. Please keep it civil, no "What Gun Am B35T etcetera"


Please Conform To the Forum http://forum.armedassault.info/index.php?act=SR&f=12!


Also keep in mind that posts from a staff member of our website do not represent the whole site. They are posting their personal opinion, which everyone is entitled to!

Posted by: Supr3me KiLL3r Mar 4 2009, 05:00

I shudder to think what conflicts will arise when the economies of the world start to really collapse.

Posted by: gearofwar123 Mar 5 2009, 00:12

On much more intelligent note than Supreme Killer,

Posted by: Helping Hand Mar 5 2009, 00:17

What? Was there any need to flame Supr3me KiLL3r. If you can't post anything coherent and nice don't post anything at all. Next infraction gets you a lovely PR and WB combo seeing as this is not the first time you have been punished for flaming other members of the boards.

Also the Rammstein lyric in your signature should be "Mich" not "Mihsck"...

Posted by: Benoist Mar 5 2009, 00:58

Wut? Are you speaking about Supreme Killer or GearofWar?

Posted by: JynX Mar 5 2009, 02:57

Hardly a military matter Benoist...

Posted by: Benoist Mar 5 2009, 03:04

Indeed, I don't know... It seems I read everything wrong. Sorry.

Posted by: Supr3me KiLL3r Mar 5 2009, 04:27

Anyway.

The point was I wonder where the next war is going to be.

I'm guessing Taiwan.

Posted by: Benoist Mar 5 2009, 05:21

And why is that?
For me is going to spread to another Middle East and East Europe countries searching for Weapons of Mass Destruction. Or a Iran-Coalition War.
The reasons are pretty obvious.

Posted by: pMASTER Mar 5 2009, 07:25

QUOTE(Supr3me KiLL3r @ Mar 5 2009, 04:27)

Posted by: Deadeye Mar 5 2009, 10:59

QUOTE(Supr3me KiLL3r @ Mar 5 2009, 04:27)

Posted by: D@V£ Mar 5 2009, 11:13

This is the "if all else fails, just buy your enemy", right?

So, who do you think is next? Mongolia? Burma? Napal? Vietnam? Laos?! North Korea?!?!

(I hope it's Vietnam or N.Korea... they've been having it coming for a while now... granted, not as much as the Chinese... still... Borders with Thailand and South Korea might be tempting for ol' Wen...)

Posted by: pMASTER Mar 5 2009, 13:24

The Chinese do it in the US, too. Ironically, communist China is their biggest creditor. That may explain why nobody did really object against the Chinese course of actions in Tibet.

Posted by: Supr3me KiLL3r Mar 5 2009, 19:13

Posted by: D@V£ Mar 5 2009, 19:54

QUOTE(Supr3me KiLL3r @ Mar 5 2009, 18:13)

Red Communist Oppression!

Posted by: BigglesTrevor Mar 5 2009, 21:32

QUOTE(pMASTER @ Mar 5 2009, 06:25)

Posted by: Hornet85 Mar 7 2009, 20:56

NATO is stil aiming for just keeping control in the mitle east.
Not realy any new conflicts on the Red Flag

Posted by: pMASTER Mar 24 2009, 21:07

http://www.spiegel.de/video/video-57515.html

(Clip about Germans approaching Kosovo in June '99)

This video is in German unfortunately, but there are some good scenes in it.

The best moment is at 07:20 where then commander of the approaching KFOR forces, Brigadier General Helmut Harff, arrives at a village where some Serbian officers refuse to leave their posts. After short negotations they demand six hours for their withdrawal.
Harff answered: "That's impossible. I give you thirty minutes", but the Serbs still refused to leave and played for time.
"You can get all your papers in Prizren. You have to leave this place in thirty minutes. That's an order. Period.", the general replied.
Another time the serbian commander tried to cut him off.
"Now it's 11 o'clock sharp. Time is running out. You've got 28 minutes left. End of discussion."

That's old school diplomacy.

Posted by: Benoist Mar 24 2009, 22:19

Anyone knows a page or a book with good info about the 1st AVG in China?

I'm trying to make a dinamic campaing for IL-2, but I didn't find too much info about the operations, planes, etc.

Posted by: pMASTER Mar 24 2009, 22:29

QUOTE(Benoist @ Mar 24 2009, 22:19)

Posted by: Benoist Mar 25 2009, 05:18

That was fast and useful, thanks a lot.

I guess I'll use my brother's card to pay.

Posted by: pMASTER Mar 25 2009, 14:39

It's a really good book. It tells you a lot about other mercenaries in the skies as well, such as the pilots of "Air America" for example or the Swedish noble Carl Gustav von Rosen who fought for the Biafrans against Nigeria.

Posted by: Blackhawk Mar 30 2009, 10:25

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20090330/tuk-britain-to-start-iraq-pullout-on-tue-86ac183.html

Finally, we're coming out tomorrow, I was never a supporter of the Iraq war and after Saddam was captured and killed, we should have left.

The next major military conflict? That's a tricky question, It could be a Iranian conflict, could be Korean Conflict, The Japanese government are getting quite sketchy because the North Koreans may have started their nuclear missile program again, but it will probably be somewhere in Asia.

Posted by: pMASTER Mar 30 2009, 15:11

http://noergelecke.blogsome.com/2009/03/30/deutsche-marine-von-piraten-angegriffen-3/ Yesterday some pirates in a small boat approached the civilian-manned auxiliary ship "Spessart" with full speed and opened fire. A force protection unit returned fire and drove off the attackers. Then the "Spessart" pursuited the pirates and with the help of a frigate arrested them.



That's awesome.

Posted by: Jeza Mar 31 2009, 23:16

QUOTE(Blackhawk @ Mar 30 2009, 10:25)

Posted by: Hornet85 Apr 6 2009, 11:31

Yesturday April the 5th the new NATO Secretary General wher elected and his name is Anders Fogh Rasmussen the Danish Prime Minister.
At the same time Obama orderd 27000 US Marines to Afganistan, He also asked the NATO countrys to provide higher number of forces to afganistan.

What do you guys think? More soldiers to afganistan or just stop with sending tropps down ther?

Hornet: Deploying

Posted by: pMASTER Apr 6 2009, 12:55

QUOTE(Hornet85 @ Apr 6 2009, 12:31)

Posted by: I44_John Apr 6 2009, 15:40

QUOTE(pMASTER @ Apr 6 2009, 13:55)

Posted by: I44_John Apr 6 2009, 21:27

20 year old Pvt. Azdin Chadli was killed today in a rocket attack on the main Dutch base Camp Holland in Afghanistan. I'm not entirely sure, but judging from his name his family is Afghan.

R.I.P.

Posted by: pMASTER Apr 7 2009, 12:59

"Nation building" itself is an utopist and utterly lofty idea from Lala-land. Leaders from all over the world have seen the Third Reich fall and the rise of a democratic and peaceful Germany, that's why they think this concept must always work. The bitter fact is: It hasn't ever worked since.

What did it take to roll up Germany?

- Pure destruction (measured in hits per square kilometre, 45 % of Germany had been destroyed and nearly six million of its population lay dead)

- Giant financial efforts (->ERP)

- A strong politcal opposition that can be trusted with leadership positions (persons like Konrad Adenauer and the resistance factions)

- A culture that is secular and laicist and accepts democracy and humanity (as the motherland of the reformation, Germany has never been very religious; Despite the quick fall of the Weimar Republic, Germany had a longer tradition of democratic efforts such as in the Vormärz era)

- Existence of a workforce of skilled craftmen and highly educated academics (in pre-war time Germany won more Nobel prizes than any country else and was the most industrialized nation on continental Europe)

- Knowledge of wealth (feeding the will to regain it)

What does Afghanistan can offfer?

- Pure destruction: Indead this country has been laid to waste and many have died. But this was a slow progress taking quite exactly 30 years now. If you don't know what peace and prosperity are, you'll ease into their abscence. It has been a long suffering for them but it also nourised their pride and their historical bellicosity. De facto the Afghans haven't done anything than war for the last 150+ years. For the Germans, it was a rather quick but hard punch.

- Giant financial efforts: Without any doubt, they're not getting the sums they need.

- A strong politcal opposition that can be trusted with leadership positions: Do they have one? They equal politics we know with striving for power. In fact all ethnical groups in this country are strongly opposed to each other.

- A culture that is secular and laicist and accepts democracy and humanity: A literally lived Islam is incompatible with all of these aspects. PERIOD. Furthermore Afghanistan has been ruled undemocratically ever since. There was never a thing such as a democratical culture - no surprise in view of the fact that even the eldery had never seen a ballot box prior to 2004.

- Existence of a workforce of skilled craftmen and highly educated academics: Afghanistan had been a very academical society prior to 1979. Many of these young academics have fled the country in the first years of the civil war, many others have died. Some returned after 2001 such as Armin Farhang, an Afghan-born German who is now Afghanistan's Minister for Economy. Some refuse to return for obvious reasons.
But with literacy rate of only 30 percent nowadays you can't simply rebuild an economy with a click of your fingers. You need to educate the uneducated, make sure in meantime that they're not starving and that those who have graduated find a job where they can make a living. This progress alone might take decades or so.

- Knowledge of wealth: I remember a newspaper article about the reward the United States offer for Osama bin Laden. Some journalist asked a bunch of Afghan shepherds if they would betray the Sheikh for such an amount of money. They answered by calling him a liar. They simply weren't able to imagine that such a sum does exist. For sure many Afghans strive after a better life. But as desperate and aimless as they are, they'd rather try to flee the country of get into drug production and drug trafficking.

Posted by: D@V£ Apr 7 2009, 14:09

So, basically you're saying that neither US and Soviet occupation of Afghanistan worked because they didn't happen at the same time?

That would get the money there, it'd get the strong political opposition and I'll bet my bottom dollar that having them lot fighting each other to get control of your village for the sole reason that they both think the other side thinks it's important would be enough to shatter anyone's belief in a higher power

Posted by: pMASTER Apr 7 2009, 14:53

Ten-hut! Serious rants below!

The meaning of the word "reform" is the core of the hugest misunderstanding in the history of modern politics. The latin verb "Reformare" doesn't equal a meaning that contains doing something completely new. Literally translated it means "to rearrange" existent matters. A second big misunderstanding is the widespread believe that democracy would be followed by wealth, it's just vice versa. The people as a collective will opt for anything but democracy if it finds other things more promising for their current situation. It's a great thing to be allowed to vote every four years but I bet it loses some of its attractiveness if you die from hunger within a legislative period.

Fact is: Afghanistan is a desolate country with basically no infrastructure, no working economy and with a culture that embraces radical religiousness and outrules humanity as we know it.

How could you start to rearrange the political, economical and social life in Afghanistan from this basis?
Our politicians say: We must bring them democracy, that'll help them.
Then again democracy and the Afghan culture with literally lived Islam are like the two opposite sides of a lodestone. You can't rearrange matters in a satisfying way because the matters in concern are insufficient, and you can't bring something completely new to this country because new and old are incompatible there.

So what do you do? It would met the logic of my explanation to absolutely destroy everything that represents an obstacle for the introduction of democracy. I don't promote it, but neither do I have another explanation.

Our goal can't be the construction of a new state Afghanistan in Central Asia. Hear my words, Afghanistan will not be a democratic and functioning state within the next twenty or thirty years. To hope for everything else is utopist and we have to face that fact. Our goal can only be to lay the foundations for the Afghans to construct a new state if they themselves want so. We should get the hell out of there if this foundation is laid. The Canadians and the Dutch already have announced fixed dates of withdrawal if I remember correctly.

I'm curious why politicians would not be willing to suck my scolding. It seems to me that many Nato leaders - especially the Europan ones of course - could accept a withdrawal covered up as victory or at least as a stalemate.

The war ISAF wages has no casus belli other than the existence of two factions hostile to each other, it has no aims and it lacks of a strategy. In fact Chancellor Merkel could be right with her statement that there's no war in Afghanistan; It's rather a situation that looks like a war because it involves soldiers and all aspects of modern warfare. Foreign military forces police Afghanistan and try to secure or regain a fragile peace. Reactively or preemptively they conduct combat operations solely for this purpose. Reconstruction work is only meant to pacify the Afghans, it sure-as-hell is not conducted because the folks in Washington, London or Berlin who give the money are philanthropic nice guys. But what could a military de facto functioning as an armed-to-the-teeth-police have learned from the real fuzz? The game cops versus thugs doesn't know a winner.

Posted by: pMASTER May 7 2009, 18:32

I'm posting this just because you hear and read news from the South of Afghanistan all the time and not much from other "fronts"...

http://noergelecke.blogsome.com/2009/05/04/ein-blutiges-jahr/

A bloody year

Gunbattles, suicide attacks, roadside bombs: The North of Afghanistan - often called "relatively peaceful" - turns into a powder keg in the eighth year of the war. Criminals are the main trouble makers in the province of Badakshan in Northeast Afghanistan. However the insurgency of the Taliban has already arrived in the provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan. Especially the districts of Aliabad and Charrah Darreh to the West and South of Kunduz are a war zone now. The Bundeswehr has lost the control there. That is no surprise at all though: Since the Germans have to handle logistics and administration for all allied troops in the North, they have only a small percentage of troops available for combat operations: NATO numbers their strength by categorizing them as a battle group, a reinforced battalion in German terms - not more than 600 men, which are supposed to maintain order in a region, which is as large as the German state of Schleswig-Holstein (where as many 6000 police officers serve).



A German soldier secures the outskirts of a village, whilst his platoon leader has a talk with the villages elders about security issues

That not even more German casualties in these disquiet districts had to be mourned is only because of two factors: A quantitative one, since when there are only few "boots on the ground" there are only few soldiers in danger, too. And moreover: Pure luck. Because what happens there is a war despite of all attempts of the Federal Government to downplay this fact, and German soldiers are involved into the most fierce combat operations since the end of World War Two. The past twelve months will make history as the most grim year for the Bundeswehr since its foundation. 5 soldiers killed in action, 41 wounded in action - that is the bloody result of only one year of a military operation, which cannot be taken into short definitions due to its numerous geopolitical facets. The worst losses were suffered by Mechanized Infantry Battalion 391, Paratrooper Battalion 263 and Light Infantry Battalion 292: The majority of all German casualties were soldiers of these units.

Something is often missed though: German soldiers do not simply die in Afghanistan, they fall. In combat. When a heavily armed infantry platoon is searching for Taliban fighters, gets into a firefight and sustaines casualties, then this is no coward murder and no crime like Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walther Steinmeier (SPD) put it recently. A soldier who falls in combat cannot be compared to a civilian which is killed by a bomb in a night club im Bali. It is simply war. "Instead of learning that you must fight the evil, you have learned that it is evil to fight", said Dennis Prager once about Germans. We have unlearned heroism, too: We live in a post-heroic society, which associates an inferior, innocent and helpless individual with the term Opfer, but not selfess commitment for a higher purpose and ideals [Note: The word Opfer can be translated as "victim" and as "sacrifice"]. That is no miracle though: We have lost our ideals. The entire matter is so interesting exactly because of this.

"Germany is defended at the Hundu Kush", Minister of Defense Peter Struck said once. Nowadays this phrase is regarded as an example for the bigotry of the Federal Government, which - according to certain circles - chums up with Uncle Sam and wages an illegal war for him. Many Germans think the phrase of Peter Struck was absurd, due to the absolute abscence of ideals they cannot understand how one could dedicate himself to "values of the West". At best they think it is arrogant to preach these values elsewhere. But if the Taliban pour acid over girls just because these girls want to go to school, the folks in question are angry nonetheless. How ironic: Western values would help here. This is where the circle is closed, by the way: The government is to be blamed for this situation as it denies at all that a war is waged in Afghanistan (for whatever cause). This is bloody reality. German soldiers not only fall in combat, they also kill. The government avoids this fact like the devil avoids holy water, and only journalists and semi-official sources such as the Reservist's Association still want to handle this hot potato.



Map of Afghanistan

The facts: German soldiers have been attacked numerous times in the aforesaid provinces during the past year. Most frequently with roadside bombs and suicide attacks. Barrages of 107mm rockets and mortar shells constantly hail down on the German camps in Kunduz and Faizabad: At an average, the soldiers spend every third night in bunkers because of indirect fire. More and more often they get into perfidiously planned ambushes though. Contrary to what Chief-of-Staff Wolfgang Schneiderhan said, these were militarily planned even before the April 29 and often turned into battles which lasted for hours - and often needed to be finished with close air support. On the April 23 it was that time again: But on this occasion an American F-15 breaking through the sonic wall over their heads was enough to repell the attackers. Even without planes being involved the ambushes can turn into stormy affairs: In May 2008 for example a patrol got into a firefight off Faizabad, killed two attackers and wounded nine.

In August a Master Sergeant of Paratrooper Battalion 263 fell, when his unit was ambushed at the banks of river Kunduz with a roadside bomb and small arms fire. Three of his comrades were wounded as well and the patrol had to pull back. In memory of Mischa Meier a bridge will be named after him. However, since a few weeks ago not even the surroundings of the city of Kunduz can be called safe anymore: On April 7, the day where Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the German PRT, a fierce battle for the construction site of the bridge began. German guards took heavy fire by small arms and RPGs. The gunfight lasted long into the night. In the outskirts alike a patrol was ambushed twice on April 14: On its way into the mission and when it travelled back again, while it was supposed to transport a wounded captive to the camp.

In fact the ambush the platoon of Light Infantry Battalion 292 got into last week has to be the most sophisticated one. At an unclear site the unit had been stopped by a roadside bomb and immediately took heavy fire. The soldiers broke through and tried to evade the attackers, only to get into the actual ambush: At least 50 insurgents, waiting in well prepared positions, permanently fired at the patrol. Two suicide bombers on bikes tried to blow themselves up amongst the fighting Germans. During this battle a German corporal died when an RPG directly struck his "Fuchs" armoured personnel carrier. But he did not die as a victim of a coward murder. He died fighting with his machine gun in the back hatch of the apc. At least three attackes were killed by the Germans, but probably were many more killed. Even before this incident the Bundeswehr took on the Taliban: Just a week ago a larger operation was conducted in Kunduz Province, where 4 insurgents were killed and another 40 detained.

Posted by: wipman Jun 9 2009, 00:24

Hi, a video of the spanish IDM units in our armed forces day:

http://www.vimeo.com/4979365

Let's C ya

Posted by: Blackscorpion Jun 17 2009, 21:21

Our weapon team in action (FAF photos)...

http://img359.imageshack.us/i/thumbnail.jpg/http://img81.imageshack.us/i/thumbnailr.jpg/


"Tac" stuff




NBC alert!

Posted by: Helping Hand Jul 2 2009, 17:28

Two airmen have been killed in a crash involving a Tornado F.3 from Leuchars earlier today. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8130528.stm

Rest in Piece Gentlemen.

Posted by: Helping Hand Jul 3 2009, 09:34

Of the British casualties in Afghanistan yesterday one of them was a Lieutenant Colonel. The highest ranking officer to die in a combat zone since the events that claimed Col. H. Jones' life in 1982.

Posted by: pMASTER Jul 3 2009, 09:37

Oi, that's quite a hard loss.

Posted by: AndreAce Jul 7 2009, 12:59

Just some statistics @Afghanistan & Insurgent activities:

http://cdnll-7.liveleak.com/s/18/media18/2009/Jul/6/LiveLeak-dot-com-267c7a2a7468-attacks.gif?h=168113cadd272f1c95e363c864568ae9&e=1247570922&rs=150

http://cdnll-8.liveleak.com/s/18/media18/2009/Jul/6/LiveLeak-dot-com-8640649dcf95-map.gif?h=81c0e3c4a7326724db41a63949d93d18&e=1247570922&rs=150


Edit: On July 6,four German soldiers have been awarded the Bundeswehr Cross/Medal of Honor for the first time.

-Hauptfeldwebel Jan Berges
-Hauptfeldwebel Alexander Ditzen
-Oberfeldwebel Markus Geist
-Hauptfeldwebel Henry Lukacz

Congrats

Posted by: Blackhawk Jul 12 2009, 11:01

8 British Soldiers were killed within 24 hours yesterday, 5 were killed during a road side bomb and 3 were killed during separate events, this is bring the death toll to 15 dead within a week. The British Government is still denying that the forces are under-equipped, there by refusing orders for more Chinooks being deployed. The Leader of the Conservative party called it a "Scandal".

In my opinion our Government need to grab the tail between their legs and give our forces equipment that will make them safe but also increase the success rate in Helmend.

Posted by: D@V£ Jul 12 2009, 13:30

Posted by: BigglesTrevor Jul 14 2009, 08:00

QUOTE(D@V£ @ Jul 12 2009, 13:30)

Posted by: Blackbuck Jul 14 2009, 09:27

Wildcat will be with us soon, so new Lynxes.

Posted by: pMASTER Jul 14 2009, 10:28

QUOTE(BigglesTrevor @ Jul 14 2009, 09:00)

Posted by: BigglesTrevor Jul 14 2009, 10:40

£38.7 billion overall, 1.5 billion is for trident. The new trident plans may cost up to 25 billion to implement.

Posted by: pMASTER Jul 14 2009, 11:31

That's about 41 Bn EUR if I'm not wrong.

Explains a lot.

Posted by: D@V£ Jul 14 2009, 14:33

Yes. Because, clearly, with the global political climate what it is nowadays, a nuclear deterrent is a complete waste of money...

[/sarcasm]

Posted by: BigglesTrevor Jul 14 2009, 15:11

QUOTE(D@V£ @ Jul 14 2009, 14:33)

Posted by: pMASTER Jul 14 2009, 15:45

QUOTE(D@V£ @ Jul 14 2009, 15:33)

Posted by: D@V£ Jul 14 2009, 17:07

QUOTE(BigglesTrevor @ Jul 14 2009, 15:11)

Posted by: BigglesTrevor Jul 14 2009, 20:35

QUOTE(D@V£ @ Jul 14 2009, 17:07)

Posted by: D@V£ Jul 14 2009, 21:30

Posted by: BigglesTrevor Jul 14 2009, 23:34

QUOTE(D@V£ @ Jul 14 2009, 21:30)

Posted by: D@V£ Jul 15 2009, 01:05

Firstly, it's "Like hell I did." What you said was a question. As if you were in doubt about what you actually said.

Seriously, if you're going to attempt to argue with someone try to learn the f*cking language. I'm getting sick of your constant failures to use a keyboard properly. Do you actually understand what this mysterious device before you is? Do you think it's some kind of radio? Do you use incredibly unreliable voice detection software? Or do you just not care what people think of you as a person? To be honest, when I read your posts it only conveys to me that this is actually how you speak. I highly doubt you do talk like a caveman (though it wouldn't surprise me), so please, for the love of god, get a spell checker and just read everything through before you hit the post button in a neolithic feat of rage. Thank you.



Anyhows;

I thought Georgia was a NATO country. I know they left the Eastern Bloc equivalent (name escapes me right now) to join NATO but I wasn't aware that they hadn't been fully accepted as a member. I apologise for this mistake. They are however a prospective member of NATO, which probably gives full members more of a right to intervene. (Imagine if Russia attacked every potential member of NATO without fear of response? No one would join! )

Posted by: BigglesTrevor Jul 15 2009, 10:23

Posted by: D@V£ Jul 15 2009, 15:01

I'm aware of what a nuclear deterrent is thank you. I don't think you are though.

A nuclear deterrent is a weapon system exclusively designed to prevent a land invasion because "if you even look at me funny I'll nuke you".

Mutually Assured Destruction is the theory that if two country with nuclear deterrents went to war then there'd be nothing left at then end of it (though there's a good chance that neither group would use their devices for fear of this exact scenario, with the entire conflict becoming a ground pound)

The simple fact is that strategic weapons are so entwined in the theory behind modern warfare that simply not having them would put us in a similar situation if we suddenly got rid of our entire air force. If we don't have Nuclear weapons we couldn't effectively wage war on any country that does have them. Simple as that.

Posted by: BigglesTrevor Jul 15 2009, 15:24

Ill take your points.

Posted by: Wittmann Jul 15 2009, 16:49

Dave. If you get so offended that you need to rant, rave and insult another member again without calming down and just correcting the spelling or requesting the use of a spell checker, NICELY, I will be suspending your account for a good week or two.

Now, coming from 6 months studying Cold War British politics and also the Cold War for my IR major at uni, my opinion;

Nuclear Deterrence has its place. This is a given fact. Peace in Europe between two opposed ideological alliances was preserved. In any other situation such hostile acts, brinkmanship and build up of forces would have led to war. The advent of massive nuclear arsenals ensured peace was kept as both blocs adopted a defensive strategy believing the other would be the aggressor.

Both, until the 1980's, entertained the notion that a first strike would not win the war and that the retaliatory strike from the enemy would negate any gains from attacking first. So we had détente, MAD and then under Reagan a policy of direct confrontation in an effort to secure 'victory' via an arms race itself - using economic superiority to out-produce the opponent when it came to nuclear force.

The UK had wanted to equip itself with nuclear weapons since the Second World War. The Americans however did not want to share their nuclear monopoly. This continued until the 1960's. The UK did develop the bomb however in comparison with the US and USSR we are talking peanuts. The V-Bombers were soon outdated and would face heavy losses, Blue Streak was an abysmal and expensive failure so the UK turned to the US to save face - we want submarine based nuclear missiles. Polaris was acquired. Able but already becoming obsolete due to US advances in missile design - not to mention there is a slight issue. The UK has the missiles and no submarines that can launch them. So they have to be designed, built and fielded first...

Trident replaces Polaris. The V-Bombers are retired leaving the UKs only deterrent the SSBN force.
The 'peace dividend' following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union is of course the scaling down of the UK defence budget, which had already been cut drastically from the late 1960's until the immediate aftermath of the Falklands War. The UK is left with a military that is undergoing a drastic cut in manpower and with a doctrine focused on integration into NATO in a conflict with the Soviet Union. Almost all defence purchases were geared towards this goal which is why loses were relatively heavy in the Falklands for the RAN - the navy was designed to be the North Sea NATO ASW force in the event of war with the USSR. This is why the larger carriers were retired by 1979 and why most ships had inadequate air defence. Their primary mission was never to sail halfway round the world to reclaim a colony from an invader. Its a testament to the men of the British forces that they were able to accomplish this goal with relatively light casualties.

The RAF was geared towards supporting NATO in Europe and Norway once the V-Bombers were retired. The Army was no different. My point is; the entire force had one primary mission in mind. Deterring the USSR via integration with NATO. The nuclear deterrent was no exception.

With so few submarines and a relatively small nuclear arsenal the deterrent is hardly one at all. Those nations who pose a credible strategic arms risk to the UK continue to be the old adversaries anyhow. And any nation likely to attack NATO with nuclear weapons would face retaliation from the still vast US arsenal which consists of not only naval based nuclear missiles but the retaining of many ICBMs and two nuclear capable B52 wings at Barksdale and Minot alongside B1s and B2s.

North Korea has no weapons capable of hitting the UK.
Iran, unlikely and with the proposed NATO missile shield in Eastern Europe any such threat will soon be negated or else would be followed, once more, by swift US action.
Deterring the Russian Federation is a losing game, they retain enough Nukes to send us all to Jesus several times over.

If anything retaining a nuclear force is a 'status symbol' in the modern world. Its the implication - 'look what we have' rather than the threat of their use. So who is Britain deterring? I cannot imagine the submarine force deploying outside the Atlantic and I cannot imagine the Russians seriously contemplating a nuclear strike on Europe or the UK - once more, if they did who would be the ones to really hurt them? The US.

Why nations such as the UK and France retain their nuclear deterrent force is beyond me. Its expensive and the funding could best be routed elsewhere into defence - its a Cold War hangover from the days of realist theory and the need for a nuclear deterrent throughout NATO in the event of sudden attack from the Soviet Union.

The weapons are outdated and any conceivable nuclear exchange involving the UK is almost guaranteed to also involve the United States and its massive arsenal. If anything the UK should consider investing in tactical nuclear weapons capable of being delivered via cruise missile or aircraft - why blow a city to hell when you can level a military base, the organs of power or an industrial target? This can be as much of a deterrent, is far more easily deployed and less lethal when it comes to massive civilian casualties and fallout; not to say it is not also extensively destructive in its force despite being a smaller weapon of far less yield.

Just my two cents and something to think about.

Posted by: Blackbuck Aug 7 2009, 11:12

3 soldiers from the Parachute Regiment have been killed and one more not to my knowledge from the paras are in a critical condition after being blown up by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. My guess is they were in a Jackal or similar. Will have to see what news comes through from the MoD.
Get the news the day after it happens.
Poor sods.

Posted by: pMASTER Aug 9 2009, 15:28

It's been a very tough year for ISAF. The situation in entire Afghanistan has turned worse over the months, possibly indicating that a crucial and decisive phase of the war lies ahead. Another interesting aspect is that all regional commands have launched offensives of noteworthy size now, taking on the Taliban in all parts of the country at the same time. If the elections in August go off relatively smoothly, it would be a major blow for the insurgency.

Speaking of it, you just gotta love good German machinery kicking Taliban assess...

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=192_1248868149

Unfortunately it's only a very short clip, but you can see some MG3s and GMGs firing a couple of rounds.

Posted by: Hornet85 Aug 31 2009, 23:07

2 friends got hit yesturday by an RPG.
They survived. But f*ck i want to get down ther right now...

Posted by: Fatality Aug 31 2009, 23:31

that sucks i hope that doesnt happen to my dad he is deployin real soon but he will be in a Chinook so hopefully they wont get lucky

Posted by: I44_John Aug 31 2009, 23:32

I hope they recover soon

Posted by: Benoist Sep 1 2009, 02:49

70 years ago, Germany was inviding Poland, starting the Second World War.

Posted by: Blackbuck Sep 1 2009, 09:57

I'd rather you just of said it's the anniversary of the deceleration of war than that Benoist.

Posted by: D@V£ Sep 1 2009, 11:40

No. It's important that both the Americans and Russians acknowledge the actual start of the war. WW2 didn't start with Barbarossa or Pearl Harbour, thank you very much.

Posted by: Blackbuck Sep 1 2009, 11:58

I didn't say that the war started in 1941 now did I. It wouldn't be 70 years this week if it was would it Dave...

Posted by: pMASTER Sep 1 2009, 15:32

QUOTE(I44_John @ Sep 1 2009, 00:32)

I hope they recover soon

QUOTE(Blackbuck @ Sep 1 2009, 10:57)

Posted by: Blackbuck Sep 1 2009, 16:15

No not the Nazi invasion itself, what followed shortly after. The 'Phoney War' and declaration of war by the Allied Powers.

Posted by: I44_John Sep 15 2009, 23:17

Our newest babe has landed!



And when I say "Our", I really do mean our, since we bought 3 of them together with 11 other countries (NATO - Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, United States - and Sweden and Finland) and are getting one on loan from the USAF to form HAW (Heavy Airlift Wing).

http://www.luchtvaartnieuws.nl/pictures/militair/haw_ein.asp

Posted by: pMASTER Sep 16 2009, 13:36

We'd desperately need a couple of these, too.

In other news, we've got 9 casualties in Kunduz province again. Also according to the ISAF commander's statements, Kunduz has really become the Helmand of the North. Coalition troops excluding ANSF had some 90 casualties there this summer alone.

Posted by: LT. Drake Jackson Nov 10 2009, 18:50

QUOTE(I44_John @ Sep 15 2009, 19:17)

Our newest babe has landed!

[Plane pic, I just remembered that I cant post the same image when quoting, ]

And when I say "Our", I really do mean our, since we bought 3 of them together with 11 other countries (NATO - Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, United States - and Sweden and Finland) and are getting one on loan from the USAF to form HAW (Heavy Airlift Wing).

[Link, click the link on the author's post]

Posted by: pMASTER Nov 10 2009, 19:51

McDonnel Douglas. Nowadays it's built by Boeing.

Posted by: pMASTER Nov 15 2009, 15:26

It's National Mourning Day, our equivalent to the Armistice/ Remembrance Day.
I'd like to use the opportunity to honour all who have given their lives for all that is good and just in the world.



Our own list has grown longer and longer. We don't hear the names very often, but it can't cause harm to read them once again.

Staff Sergeant Alexander Arndt, killed by hostile fire in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 10-14-93

Petty Officer 3rd Class Steffen Behrens, perished by drowning in the Adriatic Sea, 12-21-95

Master Sergeant Herbert Stakmann, died in an accident in Bosnia, 05-15-97

Lance Corporal Matthias Koch, killed by friendly fire in Rajlovac, Bosnia, 05-23-97

Corporal Torsten Stippig, killed by friendly fire in Rajlovac, Bosnia, 05-23-97

Sergeant Pierre Zechner, died in an accident in Bosnia, 09-09-97

Captain Harald Leyh, died from natural causes in Bosnia, 07-06-98

Sergeant 1st Class Dieter Bösel, died in an accident in Rajlovac, Bosnia, 09-06-98

Sergeant Patrick Wieshoff, died from illness in Bosnia, 01-25-99

Major Sven Eckelmann, died in an accident in Durres, Albania, 05-30-99

Corporal Dennis Winter, died in an accident in Skopje, FYROM, 06-17-99

Master Sergeant Christian Falk, killed by a landmine in Kosare, Kosovo, 10-12-99

Staff Sergeant Thomas Grubert, killed by a landmine in Kosare, Kosovo, 10-12-99

Sergeant 1st Class Kay Jürgensen, died in an accident in Prizren, Kosovo, 10-31-99

Private Andrej Majutchin, died in an accident in Prizren, Kosovo, 01-31-00

Major Andreas Schäfer, died from illness in Prizren, Kosovo, 01-20-00

Staff Sergeant Ed Rönkes, died from natural causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 01-21-00

Corporal Andre Horn, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 01-31-00

1st Lieutenant Uwe Möller, died from unspecified causes in Rajlovac, Bosnia, 02-27-00

Lance Corporal Thorsten Neumest, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 04-22-00

Sergeant 1st Class Uwe Lodyja, died from unspecified causes in Strumica, FYROM, 05-06-00

Private 1st Class Ronny Irrgang, died in an accident in Katlanovo, FYROM, 06-08-00

Staff Sergeant Werner Strobel, died from natural causes in in Prizren, Kosovo, 07-03-00

Sergeant Volker Göttert, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 07-09-00

Sergeant Bernd Merhof, died in an accident in Tuzla, Bosnia, 08-29-00

Sergeant 1st Class Franz Peter Heimann, died from unspecified causes in Rajlovac, Bosnia, 09-12-00

Major Karl List, died from natural causes in Rajlovac, Bosnia, 09-22-00

Sergeant 1st Class Knut Leopold, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 01-31-01

Sergeant 1st Class, Michael Schwerin, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 03-12-01

Private 1st Class Kim Reinhard, decided to end his life in Filipovici, Bosnia, 03-15-01

Private 1st Class Sebastian Harz, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 03-21-01

Private Michael Redl, died from unspecified causes in Prizren Kosovo, 06-11-01

Private 1st Class Marcel Erlkamp, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 08-01-01

Staff Sergeant Jens Klüner, died in an accident in Sarajevo, Bosnia, 10-01-01

Sergeant 1st Class Dirk Hage, died from unspecified causes in Kosare, Kosovo, 09-11-01

Major Dieter Eising, killed by hostile fire in Abkhazia, Georgia, 10-07-01

Private 1st Class Sascha Schmidtke, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 12-15-01

Sergeant 1st Class Thomas Kochert, killed by unexploded ordnance in Kabul, Afghanistan, 02-15-02

Sergeant 1st Class Mike Rubel, killed by unexploded ordnance in Kabul, Afghanistan, 02-15-02

Sergeant 1st Class Werner Feindt, died from natural causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 05-10-02

Lance Corporal Corinna Dittrich, decided to end her life in Sarajevo, Bosnia, 11-11-02

Private 1st Class Enrico Schmidt, died in a helicopter crash in Kabul, Afghanistan, 12-21-02

Sergeant Frank Ehrlich, died in a helicopter crash in Kabul, Afghanistan, 12-21-02

Master Sergeant Heinz Hewußt, died in a helicopter crash in Kabul, Afghanistan, 12-21-02

Master Sergeant Thomas Schiebel, died in a helicopter crash in Kabul, Afghanistan, 12-21-02

Master Sergeant Bernd Kaiser, died in a helicopter crash in Kabul, Afghanistan, 12-21-02

1st Lieutenant Uwe Vierling, died in a helicopter crash in Kabul, Afghanistan, 12-21-02

Captain Friedrich Deiniger, died in a helicopter crash in Kabul, Afghanistan, 12-21-02

Captain Holger Nippus, died from unspecified causes in Kabul, Afghanistan, 03-20-02

Major Alexander Hofert, died from unspecified causes in Kabul, Afghanistan, 05-17-03

Private 1st Class Stefan Kamins, killed by a landmine in Khayrabad, Afghanistan, 05-29-03

Sergeant Jörg Baasch, killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan, 06-07-03

Sergeant Major Andreas Beljo, killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan, 06-07-03

Staff Sergeant Helmi Jimenez, killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan, 06-07-03

Master Sergeant Carsten Kühlmorgen, killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan, 06-07-03

Sergeant Marco Heling, died in an accident in Suva Reka, Kosovo, 10-03-03

Oberfeldwebel Michael Zirkelbach, died in an accident in Suva Reka, Kosovo, 10-03-03

Captain Tilo Mende, died from illness in Rajlovac, Bosnia, 12-19-03

Sergeant Alexander Schapuschankov, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 03-04-04

Sergeant Thomas Hafenecker, killed by hostile fire in Falluja, Iraq, 04-07-04

Sergeant Tobias Retterath, killed by hostile fire in Falluja, Iraq, 04-07-04

Sergeant 1st Class Ingo Claar, died from unspecified causes in Prizren, Kosovo, 11-28-04

Master Sergeant Andreas Heine, killed by an improvised explosive device in Rustaq, Afghanistan, 06-25-05

Sergeant 1st Class Christian Schlotterhose, killed by an improvised explosive device in Rustaq, Afghanistan, 06-25-05

Private 1st Class Boris Nowitzki, died in an accident in Kabul, Afghanistan, 08-07-05

Lieutenant Colonel (Reserve) Armin Franz, killed by a suicide bomber in Kabul, Afghanistan, 11-14-05

Sergeant 1st Class Christian Kopp, killed by unexploded ordnance in Kabul, Afghanistan, 12-17-06

Sergeant 1st Class (Reserve) Michael Neumann, killed by a suicide bomber in Kunduz, Afghanistan, 05-19-07

Sergeant 1st Class (Reserve) Michael Diebel, killed by a suicide bomber in Kunduz, Afghanistan, 05-19-07

Captain (Reserve) Matthias Standfuß, killed by a suicide bomber in Kunduz, Afghanistan, 05-19-07

Sergeant Alexander Stoffels, killed by an improvised explosive device in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 08-15-07

Sergeant Mario Keller, killed by an improvised explosive device in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 08-15-07

1st Lieutenant Jörg Ringel, killed by an improvised explosive device in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, 08-15-07

Unknown soldier, decided to end their life in Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan, 09-08-07

Unknown soldier, died in a helicopter crash in Banja Luka, Bosnia, 06-19-08

Unknown soldier, died in a helicopter crash in Banja Luka, Bosnia, 06-19-08

Master Sergeant Christian Cermz, died from illness in Termez, Uzbekistan, 08-25-08

Specialist Patric Sauer, died 10-05-09 from wounds sustained in a suicide bomber attack in Chahar Dara, Afghanistan, 08-06-08

Master Sergeant Michael Meier, killed by an improvised explosive device in Chahar Dara, Afghanistan, 08-27-08

Sergeant Patrick Behlke, killed by a suicide bomber in Chahar Dara, Afghanistan, 10-20-08

Private 1st Class Roman Schmidt, killed by a suicide bomber in Chahar Dara, Afghanistan, 10-20-08

2nd Lieutenant Alexander Janelt, died from injuries sustained in action in Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan, 02-11-09

Private 1st Class, died in an accident in Fayzabad, Afghanistan, 03-14-09

Private 1st Class Sergej Motz, killed by hostile fire in Chahar Dara, Afghanistan, 04-29-09

Private 1st Class Alexander Schleiernick, killed by hostile fire in Chahar Dara, Afghanistan, 06-23-09

Private 1st Class Oleg Meiling, killed by hostile fire in Chahar Dara, Afghanistan, 06-23-09

Private 1st Class Martin Brunn, killed by hostile fire in Chahar Dara, Afghanistan, 06-23-09


Ruhet in Frieden.

Posted by: Benoist Dec 10 2009, 20:53

I may leave a, possibly, good future as a Navy officer to join as a regular seaman. I don't know why I hate myself. But after a lot of thinking, I don't know if I want to be a militar for the rest of my life.

What do you think?

Posted by: pMASTER Dec 10 2009, 21:42

You need to find out how much responsibility you want to take. If you have no problem with taking the responsibility for dozens of people, then you might enjoy the challenge. If you don't like it, you may come to more self-fulfillment as a "grunt". That doesn't make either choice better or worse though.

Posted by: Blackscorpion Jan 21 2010, 16:50

A Finnish F-18D Hornet, HN-468, crashed slightly before midday today near the FAF Flight Test Center (close to the place where I got my military training, too). The pilots were testing recovery from error moves when the plane went out of control at 30000 ft. Apparently the Hornet entered a dive which the pilots were unable to pull up from. The pilots ejected safely at around 15000 ft, although both received minor injuries.
The Hornet wasn't part of FAF inventory yet, as it was recently rebuild from the parts of 3 Hornets by Patria and was being test flown by Patria, albeit with military crew.

Posted by: pMASTER Jan 22 2010, 15:19

Glad to hear they're safe.

In the other news, two German soldiers were awarded the nation's highest honour today for bravery and distinguished service in Afghanistan. A Master Sergeant led a dismounted attack to relieve a German recce unit that took heavy fire and was whipsawed by a superior insurgent force. He and his troops killed at least ten Taliban and saved the recce soldiers from certain death. The other soldier, also an NCO, rescued a seriously wounded comrade from incoming fire during an ambush and he continued his efforts after having taken a bullet to the head. He and his troops killed at least seven attackers.

This is amazing.

Posted by: LT. Drake Jackson Feb 11 2010, 02:14

Posted by: Blackbuck Feb 11 2010, 11:56

They feel they need it so they'll put all their effort into it. It's what you get in the world.

Posted by: D@V£ Mar 16 2010, 18:53

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1258249/Company-boss-compares-troops-paedophiles-refusing-request-provide-jobs-soldiers.html

What an arsehole.

Before I say anything else, I'm not going to say we were right to go into Afghanistan or Iraq. I believe we were, but I know any attempt to justify this will be noticed more than the actions of this c*nt.

Long Story Short: Karl Winn, some bigwig at some company, isn't going to employ anyone who's served with the British Military because he's a bit of a twat. (Any "justification" he might have can effectively be boiled down to that)

I shouldn't have to say why this guy is wrong, but here's what I will say:

I'd rather employ a paedophile than Karl Winn.

Posted by: wipman Apr 12 2010, 13:27

Hi, a video of Segway robots used for Advanced Sniper Training in Australia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNoJrIOREeo

Looks like a great idea and good method for train snipers and also for infantry or damn cops to fire at single targets without use too much fire volume and minimizing the civilian or friendly casualties; i like this thing, seems to be a very good training. Let's C ya

Posted by: The Bavarian Apr 12 2010, 13:42

And here was me, expecting something like this...

Posted by: JdB Apr 15 2010, 15:06

Another 4 Germans have died in Baglan.

Ruhe in Frieden

Posted by: The Franconian Apr 15 2010, 15:10

ZITAT(JdB @ Apr 15 2010, 16:06)

Another 4 Germans have died in Baglan.

Ruhe in Frieden

Posted by: JdB Apr 30 2010, 18:56

Yesterday the Dutch DoD released a video boarding by Dutch SF that ended in the arrest of 10 Somali pirates.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcqZKBJMNhI&feature=player_embedded

(I said "arrest of 10 Somali pirates", but obviously what I meant to say was "rounding up and congratulating the 10 -poor Africans that have not had a fair chance in life due to our racism- winners of the first prize, a worry-less life freeloading on welfare and crime paid for, in blood and money, by the naive humanity-loving people of peaceful green Germany")

Posted by: The Franconian May 6 2010, 13:45

Indeed they've won the first prize. They will be tried in Germany, sentenced to at least the minimum sentence of five years in prison - and then become German citizens as our authorities may not deport criminals to non-constitutional states. Most likely lacking of proper education for a job anyway, they will continue to live here on public expenses for the rest of their bloody lives.

I'd burst out in laughter if it wasn't so sad.

Posted by: The Franconian Jun 2 2010, 13:34

Due to economic crisis, the German Bundeswehr is about to be drastically reduced. Observers suggest the armed forces might be reduced to only 100,000 men! I cannot believe how short-sightened my government is.

Posted by: JdB Jun 2 2010, 14:02

QUOTE(The Franconian @ Jun 2 2010, 14:34)

Due to economic crisis, the German Bundeswehr is about to be drastically reduced. Observers suggest the armed forces might be reduced to only 100,000 men! I cannot believe how short-sightened my government is.

Posted by: The Franconian Jun 2 2010, 15:05

The average Hans thinks zere iz no need for wehrmacht so we can save billns zere.

Posted by: The Franconian Jun 7 2010, 22:23

Not yet asleep but quite angry:

It turned out to be not that bad but it will still be bad enough. Conscription remains in effect - a worthless six month mandatory service - and the forces are cut by 40,000 personnel to a strength of then 215,000. We will not get the MEADS anti air defence system, only 45 of the desperately needed A400M airlifters and less Eurofighters. It is unclear yet what will happen to the Tiger attack helicopter and the NH90 transport helicopter but as for the latter, they consider the Blackhawk instead. Two fighter wings and virtually the entire army air defence service will probably be shut down. Also the new F125 destroyers frigates are in jeopardy.

And the best news is, the police forces will see severe cuts just as well. 15,000 federal officers are about to be dismissed.

So we make our entire defense and public security apparatus impotent but we do pay for the fucking lies of the Greek government and we continue to pump billions into our rotten social welfare system.

I could puke.

Posted by: Wittmann Jun 9 2010, 10:34

Move to Australia

The ADF are getting quite the overhaul.

Unfortunately for the first time since 1971 we also lost 2 servicemen in action on the same day.

Posted by: MiniMark Jun 21 2010, 10:10

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/21/royal-marine-300th-british-death-afghanistan 300th British fatality in Afghanistan, and http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia_pacific/10363351.stm Australian / US forces killed in a helo crash. Bad times.

Posted by: wipman Jul 13 2010, 10:52

Hi, a funny video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsDLjfA1Ylw

Let's C ya

Posted by: D@V£ Jul 13 2010, 12:31

QUOTE(wipman @ Jul 13 2010, 10:52)

Posted by: Blackscorpion Jul 14 2010, 11:40

SMLE was starting to get outdated by WWI and was to be replaced, but, well, WWI happened. Same thing for WWII. The P13 rifles and their derivate P14 and US M1917 rifles were some of the best rifles out there (combining Mauser style action with a few British features), but didn't receive that much attention. Having handled but not fired both the P14 and M1917... love them.

SLR too is a nice rifle "but" it's clearly a battle rifle, yet slighly over-engineered in some parts. With better sights and stock, wouldn't mind owning one, though. Mind you, ye Brits had the EM-1 and EM-2 rifles with the .276 cartridge - but Yanks pushed the adoption of 7.62 NATO.

Oh, and spotted a few factual errors in that video:
1) 8 mm Lebel introduced smokeless gunpowder in 1886 and boat-tailed spitzers in 1898. Springfield was chambered in .30-03 originally and updated with a spitzer bullet to create the .30-06 in 1906.
2) M1 Garand was replaced by M14 in 1957, 21 years after it's adoption, although it saw use up until 1966 and is used as a drill rifle today. Mosin-Nagant rifles, designed in 1891, are still used by some forces, and alledgedly formed a part of Russia's arsenal up until the 1990s.

Posted by: MiniMark Aug 5 2010, 11:37

http://i919.photobucket.com/albums/ad34/rsjenkinson/002-2.jpg

This caught my attention earlier. Thoughts?

Posted by: The Franconian Aug 5 2010, 11:46

Lots of nations are giving up on their crown jewelry lately to cope with the financial crisis... what a shame. That being said, I'm not too sure if the JSF was the cleverest selection in the first place.

Posted by: MiniMark Aug 5 2010, 12:01

No. Especially the B model.

Posted by: Operation_Human_Shield Dec 11 2010, 23:07

I just thought someone could be interested in this, altough it is several months old. Video from Czech Army Day called Bahna (I suppose it can be translated as "Muds", plural included:). This video is not mine, btw, I have not been there this year (this happens every year).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP7-PD-GZXQ

Posted by: Wittmann Jan 24 2011, 20:40

Second Victoria Cross for Australia awarded recently;

Here is the citation.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/corporal-benjamin-roberts-smiths-citation/story-e6frf7l6-1225993174364

And part of an interview with the corporal;

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2011/s3119463.htm

Posted by: pMASTER Feb 18 2011, 23:47

Three German troops were killed and several wounded in Baghlan today when an Afghan Army member unloaded his assault rifle into the unsuspecting soldiers.

Rest in peace!

And in combat operations an infantry fighting vehicle got struck by an RPG today. Four crewmen were wounded in action, the vehicle is severely damaged.

Posted by: Blackscorpion Feb 19 2011, 14:20

FDF's ISAF unit suffered it's second KIA in Afghanistan. A Finnish peacekeeper was killed on Tuesday, 15th February, in the Samangan region of Afghanistan. The body http://www.puolustusvoimat.fi/wcm/8da3c50045d3254cac9dffc155f24ffd/IMG_0937-1.jpg?MOD=AJPERES during late Thursday.

Rest in peace.

The senior lieutenant's vehicle, apparently an RG-32M, was struck by a powerful IED explosion whilst en route to a firing range with another similar vehicle, causing the vehicle to turn over. The other 2 soldiers in the vehicle were unharmed.


pMaster, any idea what happened to that Afghani bastard afterwards? RIP... sucks when you can't even trust your "allies".

Posted by: pMASTER Feb 19 2011, 14:35

The incident occured inside a combat outpost when German Panzergrenadiers were working to fix battle damages done to an IFV. The Afghan perp was able to gun down 9 troops from behind (! ) before he was turned into Swiss cheese by the surrounding Germans.
One German was killed instantly, two others died of injuries in the aftermath.

The worst part of this whole mess is that the incident could have easily prevented. German troops had a history with these ANA guys who were doing pot and had a reputation of being highly untrustworthy in combat. A couple of days ago, the alleged perp was involved in a harsh argument about the shocking fact that the food of the German troops in Afghanistan contains porc meal.

Posted by: MiniMark Feb 19 2011, 14:53

How hard would / is it whilst doing this sort of work to have 2 or 3 of your own men in a elevated position or somewhere with a good field of view in case the shit hits the fan.

Posted by: pMASTER Feb 19 2011, 15:01

The outpost is small, but usually the guards are busy enough with guarding the surrounding area.

Posted by: JdB Feb 19 2011, 16:24

QUOTE(MiniMark @ Feb 19 2011, 14:53)

Posted by: mp33 Feb 21 2011, 19:27

It's not known if he actually was ANA or a Taliban with a stolen uniform, afaik. I don't know the infrastructure of the outpost or where the soldiers were standing when it happened but if one of the Afghans in a uniform suddenly starts firing even someone in an elevated position couldn't have stopped him right away.

Then again, even if you can't trust them (and I heard the same stories as well from US and German troops) the NATO needs the Afghans if they really want to give control back in 5, 10, 20 or 50 years. That's why our soldiers shouldn't point a rifle at them while doing the job down there.

If the guy really was ANA then the allied forces down there should start thinking about pumping more money into the ANA and making sure they receive more money (I think I read somewhat about 30€ a month - correct me if I'm wrong - while Germans earn almost four times as much in a day).

Posted by: pMASTER Feb 21 2011, 19:54

The pay for German troops in Afghanistan is their regular salary plus a bonus of 110 bucks a day, so a Private First Class makes a 160 daily.

Having said this, even salaries on that level wouldn't transform the Afghan security forces into a trustworthy body. I understand money can hardly break up the tribal bonds and the allegiance to what most Afghans regard as the "true way" of living.

Authorities say the perp was a fanatic and probably went rambo after smoking some pot.

Posted by: Daniel Jun 18 2011, 14:43

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13820124



This one really has me scratching my head. I guess it's fortunate they were only firing their rifles and not some serious air defence kit.

Posted by: Deadeye Jul 19 2011, 09:40

Stumbled upon this on MP.net and had to share it :

NSFW Iraq Morgue: Female mortuary assistant's account :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aaxC7pbuT0&feature=feedu&fmt=18

Posted by: Mark-HH Aug 6 2011, 12:57

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14430735 That was quite an unfortunate happening.

Posted by: pMASTER Aug 6 2011, 15:12

British understatement? We are not amused.

Rest in Peace.

Posted by: Mark-HH Aug 6 2011, 15:43

Biggest single loss of life since OEF started. One wonders what the US media is saying over there about the event.

Posted by: Toadball Aug 20 2011, 22:48

RIP Flight Lt. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-14602900?utm_source=twitterfeed.

Posted by: Elliot Carver Aug 23 2011, 15:01

Now that NATO has climbed into bed with the Rebels its about time they slept in it and did some hard work instead of hiding behind a UN resolution. Fed up with our military being run by bureaucratic cowards who are happy to plink targets way out of their 'protect civilians' mandate but when it comes to actually getting involved they sit on the fence umming and ahhing and when it all goes to sh*t they blame someone else. Get a backbone and get in there, wipe the floor with any resistance and actually support the rebels not just now but later on when you call for democracy. Yes you need to give the rebels their victory but in 13 months time when break away rebel factions are denouncing the infidel west and attacking polling stations this statement will be right! and NATO/West will only have themselves to blame! :/

needed to get that off my chesty [/rant]

Posted by: Toadball Sep 13 2011, 13:25

Some photos from the airshow up at RAF Leuchars -> http://photobucket.com/RAFL2011

Posted by: Elliot Carver Sep 16 2011, 10:42

Love the pics - and only the 8 Red Arrows too

Posted by: Mark-HH Sep 16 2011, 11:03

They've just taken on three new pilots for next year I do believe.

Posted by: pMASTER Sep 30 2011, 17:58

http://youtu.be/xzSphdtgQeQ A helicopter of the German Navy's Frigate "Köln" gives a leaden welcome to a bunch of pirates near the Somali coast.

The modern equivalent of having them hanging from the highest masts.

Courtesy of augengeradeaus.info.

Posted by: pMASTER Oct 6 2011, 23:24

Today is the 7th of October and the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the Afghanistan war. A good point to commemorate the almost 3.000 allied soldiers who fell in combat there.

Posted by: JdB Oct 6 2011, 23:55

QUOTE(pMASTER @ Oct 7 2011, 00:24)

Posted by: Elliot Carver Oct 7 2011, 00:29

They estimate that over the last 10 years nearly 50 tonnes of sand has been bought back in soldiers boots from tour. You know, out of interest what would the world be like today if 9/11 had never happened?

Posted by: Daniel Oct 7 2011, 11:19

Just read a pretty poignant piece at the BBC website. $120 billion US dollars and £18 billion UK sterling sank into Afghanistan over ten years. Imagine what that could have paid for at home had we not gone to war, or had we sorted Afghanistan properly without taking on Iraq too. But, I guess when you start to talk about trillions in debt and bailouts, the numbers start to seem pretty pointless.

Posted by: D@V£ Oct 7 2011, 14:33

QUOTE(Daniel @ Oct 7 2011, 11:19)

Posted by: Daniel Oct 7 2011, 17:51

We're also talking direct civilian deaths caused by the war by all sides of being at least between 14,411 - 17,208 since 2001. Was that worth killing Bin Laden too? I don't mean to take sides by the way and i'm don't think "pulling the troops out" is exactly the answer either. In fact I wish the bastards would stop advertising projected dates for pulling troops out, it just gives the Taliban moral boost after moral boost.

Posted by: D@V£ Oct 8 2011, 15:57

QUOTE(Daniel @ Oct 7 2011, 17:51)

Posted by: pMASTER Oct 8 2011, 16:04

QUOTE(Daniel @ Oct 7 2011, 18:51)

Posted by: Daniel Oct 8 2011, 16:43

Sorry, didn't mean to come across like that. I think "Was that worth killing Bin Laden too?" was more in response to D@V£ suggesting that the billions spent on the war effort was okay as long as it ended up killing bin Laden, which is certainly no bad thing. You're probably right, the way the system is at the moment the money would have just been squandered elsewhere.


Actually looking at it again, post #126 is a bit of a rant from me, disregard.

Posted by: Elliot Carver Oct 28 2011, 21:36

BBC News on stats about the RAF mission in Libya:

Posted by: Mark-HH Oct 28 2011, 21:46

It means that although scrambled or sent up for strike work targets may have not materialized or may have entered areas where collateral damage would have been a big concern.

Posted by: Elliot Carver Oct 29 2011, 08:29

too true > could you imagine flying from Italy to Libya only to be told you got to take your metal home again ... if only the uk had some sort of runway in the sea we could have flown from the Libyan coast. Even the French have that advanced aquatic runway technology!

Posted by: Mark-HH Oct 29 2011, 09:41

Could of been worse, imagine flying a 617sqn bird from here all the way to Libya and back without doing anything.

Posted by: pMASTER Oct 29 2011, 12:58

In times of dire straits when it comes to financials, pilots will be happy about every flight hour they can get.

Posted by: Mark-HH Oct 29 2011, 14:20

Indeed or you end up like Russia where your pilots can't legally fly because they haven't got the requisite hours.

Posted by: pMASTER Oct 29 2011, 14:32

That's okay. They're drunk most of the time anyway.

Posted by: Mark-HH Oct 29 2011, 15:36

That's what makes them able to fly in the first place (like Raj from The Big Bang Theory can only talk to women whilst drunk)...

Posted by: Toadball Oct 31 2011, 14:45

There is an easy solution to lacking a runway owned by the UK in the area...we annex Libya...

Posted by: JdB Oct 31 2011, 17:35

QUOTE(Toadball @ Oct 31 2011, 14:45)

Posted by: Blackscorpion Nov 4 2011, 22:39

QUOTE(Mark-HH @ Oct 29 2011, 16:36)

Posted by: Elliot Carver Dec 22 2011, 18:05

Posted by: pMASTER Dec 22 2011, 18:29

Never understood how the US society, usually giving lots of props to America's troops, could tolerate DADT. I think it was outrageous that people who merely wanted to serve their nation were treated so badly just because of their sexual orientation.

Just out of curiosity, why is it that homosexuals are called "gay" in English? In all honesty I've always been wondering about that.

In other news military, things have finally been settled with regards to the German Army reform. In the future we will maintain a "force" of about 100 combat companies in 2 mechanised divisions and 1 light division with just about 250 Leopard 2, 350 Puma and roughly 3000 armored vehicles. Air Defence and some other core capacities such as mine laying will be given up entirely.

Posted by: Elliot Carver Dec 22 2011, 22:05

At a guess 'gay' was used as a offensive term which became a common word, much like the name 'Bo-Starr, son of Crow-Starr, Grandson of Po-Starr'

Tell you what i've got a lot of respect for the German military. They are the only western force with the balls to modernise towards a future battlefield with future techs and weaponry unlike the rest of us who just replace the existing platforms with shinier ones. Bit of a gamble if ww3 kicks off tho.

Posted by: JdB Dec 22 2011, 23:25

QUOTE(pMASTER @ Dec 22 2011, 18:29)

Posted by: JdB Feb 18 2012, 02:47

http://noergelecke.blogsome.com/2012/02/16/verteidigungsminister-will-veteranen-tag-einfuhren/

I commend PM Wulff for falling on his own sword to keep this political suicide attack by one of his ministers out of the mainstream news ...

I suspect the argument in the press between the CDU and die linke will go something like this:

ZOMFG NAZIS!!!

ZOMFG NAZIS!!! vote for me!

Posted by: pMASTER Feb 18 2012, 03:59

If I remember correctly there was some Dutch "artist" who installed a memorial to "Taliban fighters" in Berlin on September 11 2011 to protest the new memorial to fallen Bundeswehr soldiers. Berlin is not only the capital of Germany but also of militant pacifism, violent leftism and utter idiocy in general.
As for the proposal at hand, I'd leave political correctness out of this. Both my grandfathers served in WW2 simply because they had to and I'm quite sure they wouldn't want to be "honored" within the framework of a German veterans memorial day.

Posted by: Blackscorpion Apr 28 2012, 00:51

Today, 27th April (well, yesterday to be exact, for Finland and most of Europe), is the Veteran's Memorial Day in Finland.

Thank you for your sacrifice, paying a heavy price for my current safety. And RIP for those who have fallen, whether in combat or in their own bed peacefully.

Posted by: pMASTER May 15 2012, 20:18

Rumor has it Germany is about to ditch the G36 for another service weapon. It appears as even though the freshly produced rifle is a grand piece of equipment, the perfomance of older or heavily used (->Afghanistan) G36s deteriorated enormeously. Weapons which were only a few months old would show a 1,2 m drop on 200 meters (!).
The military and the government have successfully withheld reports on this issue for a pretty long time - but now not anymore.
I was aware of a call for bids for a supplementary weapon but it seems it is actually being planned to look for a replacement. Ironically, the competitors are all (but one) based on the American assault rifle system: Schmeisser AR-15, Heckler& Koch HK416, Heckler& Koch HK417, Swiss Arms SIG 516 and Swiss Arms SIG SAPR (basically a Sig550 in 7.62 NATO) .

QUOTE(Blackscorpion @ Apr 28 2012, 01:51)

Posted by: Blackscorpion May 16 2012, 00:03

What the hell? Using the standard SS109 at around 15°C and normal air pressure, that means a muzzle velocity of slightly under 450 m/s... at the normal ~920 m/s muzzle velocity, the drop shouldn't be that much until at around 400 meters with normal 5.56 military ammo. Sand grinding the barrel and gas system, leading to huge leaks, perhaps?

Posted by: D@V£ May 16 2012, 00:20

I seem to recall hearing the polymer handguard denatures from prolonged use, causing the barrel to be misaligned. Apparently this issue got fixed by HK, but it wouldn't surprise me if the climate over there exacerbated the issue.

Posted by: pMASTER May 16 2012, 00:49

The problem appears to be related to the locking mechanism's bedding (I'm translating litterally here, having no idea what the correct English term might be). It's made from scarcely heat conducting plastic and can suffer an irreversible deformation after as few as 120 consecutive shots under combat conditions. Another flaw - also related to the used material - is that the rifle's deployment under combat conditions in a hot and arid environments such as Afghanistan can cause a distortion of the sight-containing carrying handle, thus leading to decreased accuracy. This problem was dealt with by replacing the carrying handles and other sensitive parts with aluminium-made replacements but of course that's no desirable situation either.

Posted by: Wittmann May 16 2012, 07:51

Buy Steyrs from the Austrians, worked for us

Posted by: Mark-HH May 16 2012, 09:11

Speaking of military things http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2012/05/16/338-nm-lightweight-medium-machine-gun-lwmmg/. Anybody fancy a .338 M240 / MAG? D:

Posted by: Wittmann May 16 2012, 12:13

DO WANT

Posted by: JdB May 16 2012, 14:37

QUOTE(Wittmann @ May 16 2012, 07:51)

Buy Steyrs from the Austrians, worked for us

Posted by: pMASTER May 16 2012, 19:48

The bitter irony is that the AUG was a competitor in the very same bidding the G36 would eventually win.
A deeper look into the matter reveals that H&K isn't to blame for this developing situation, though - they simply built a rifle in accordance to very detailed perfomance specifications (and those were crap). With the G28 DMR (an enhanced HK417) just being introduced and the G27 (another variant of the HK417) already in service with the special forces, I venture to guess H&K would win the contract for another service rifle as well.

Posted by: Blackscorpion Nov 23 2012, 13:16

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/usmc-stands-up-first-operational-f-35b-squadron-operational-testing-in-2015-379271/ it has begun... the machines will rise...


Then again, the definition of "operational" is still a bit unclear, but...

Posted by: pMASTER Nov 23 2012, 19:10

OMFG.
Actually, I'm kind of unimpressed. New enhancements of the radar technology are about to render conventional stealth features moot. So in the end they - and other future operators of the F-35 - will pay horrendous sums for an aircraft that's not drastically more capable than the one its meant to replace.

Posted by: D@V£ Nov 23 2012, 20:41

QUOTE(pMASTER @ Nov 23 2012, 18:10)

Posted by: Mark-HH Nov 23 2012, 21:03

Short of China? Not many.

Posted by: JdB Nov 23 2012, 21:41

QUOTE(Mark-HH @ Nov 23 2012, 21:03)

Posted by: pMASTER Nov 24 2012, 20:32

QUOTE(D@V£ @ Nov 23 2012, 20:41)

Posted by: JdB Nov 25 2012, 03:46

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20422340, or rather they didn't do a damn thing like usual.

How can anyone seriously be suprised that the UN again failed to protect civilians, the last effective UN force was United Nations Command (Korea) ...

Service as a peacekeeper in the United Nations: All the trauma of war like a soldier in a real army without the satisfaction knowing that at least the other bastard can't feel them, since you killed him.

Posted by: D@V£ Nov 25 2012, 13:04

QUOTE(pMASTER @ Nov 24 2012, 19:32)

Posted by: pMASTER Nov 25 2012, 18:27

I don't think so, Dave. Russia and China for example have access to state of the art technology and contrary to our governments their regimes always get the defence budget they want.

QUOTE(JdB @ Nov 25 2012, 03:46)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20422340, or rather they didn't do a damn thing like usual.

How can anyone seriously be suprised that the UN again failed to protect civilians, the last effective UN force was United Nations Command (Korea) ...

Service as a peacekeeper in the United Nations: All the trauma of war like a soldier in a real army without the satisfaction knowing that at least the other bastard can't feel them, since you killed him.

Posted by: Hornet85 Dec 14 2012, 18:35

ther have also been, Swedish and French Special Forces in and out of Congo since 2005 i have hered

Posted by: Blackscorpion Jan 1 2013, 19:21

Came across this while browsing, so might as well share it. If nothing else, well, at least a 2013 present for pMaster.

G3 soldiers on in Afghanistan!
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?32014-Afghanistan-Germany-s-contingent-%2856k-be-gone%29-!!!&p=6491616&viewfull=1#post6491616

Also, lots of other nice stuff about the German contingent in Afgh.

Posted by: pMASTER Jan 1 2013, 20:09

Thanks!
Oh boy... I've been so trying to get a licence for one through the shooting club I'm still a member of... unfortunately they're a bunch of spineless wussies who want to reduce full caliber shooting sports in favour of air rifle and small caliber pistol shooting. Bah.
And why? "The public thinks ill of us already"... Bah!

Posted by: Hornet85 Jan 2 2013, 10:24

thank god i dont live ther i have a M110 for hunting and a STI Duty One for fun

Posted by: Hornet85 Jan 3 2013, 15:34

RIP my dear friend, il see you in Odins great hall. In Valhalla we will meet again.

Tonight Task Force 7 lost a good soldier, and a grate guy. RIP Sgt 1cl René Brink Jakobsen, KIA, age 39.

Left behind a wife and 3 kids.

Posted by: Fr3eMan Jan 4 2013, 11:39

Rest in peace.

Posted by: pMASTER Jan 4 2013, 18:35

Hvil i fred.

Sorry to hear about your comrade, Hornet.

Posted by: JdB Jan 4 2013, 21:53

Rest in peace

Posted by: Hornet85 Jan 9 2013, 18:15

God bye!

Posted by: pMASTER May 23 2013, 18:08

Pretty interesting (and maybe a sign of things to come?): Germany's government says that with 99% certainty the Netherlands's 11. Luchtmobiele Brigade (11th Air Assault Brigade) will permanently become a combat brigade of the German Army's Rapid Reaction Division from 2014 onwards - not in the sense of one of these rather toothless bilateral cooperation thingies but of a serious assignment. Both countries also plan to have their paratroopers trained at a single, jointly operated training center.

Posted by: pMASTER Aug 27 2013, 18:36

Any bets on who'll be in on the looming strike against Syria? Not Germany of course... we're pacifists... but how about you guys?

Posted by: Mark-HH Aug 27 2013, 20:29

Bets on USA, UK, France, Canada and Italy for starters.

Posted by: Hornet85 Aug 27 2013, 20:33

we are in

Posted by: Elliot Carver Aug 27 2013, 20:55

With todays technology having a bunch of countries involved really just means they support the US in their actions. Considering two B2 could strike upwards of 120 targets simultaneously having a 30 year old British Tornado flight sat in Akrotiri (landed on an hour ago according to AFP) is just showmanship.

What i'm interested in is if Russia will come through on its threat to use its S-300s if the West launches an attack.

Posted by: Mark-HH Aug 29 2013, 12:26

6 Tiffies have deployed to Cyprus in the air defence role it seems. Here we go gents.

Posted by: Daniel Aug 29 2013, 13:42

My bet is that nothing happens this time, at least not until the weapons inspectors report back, or some other event unfolds.

Posted by: Elliot Carver Aug 29 2013, 14:04

Curse AFP and their lack of research lol. Still the design is the same age just they took 3 decades to build the Typhoon [BURN]

Any Syrian action has nothing to do with protecting civilians or punishing the use of chem weapons. Its to cover up failures of security agencies - Looking past the propaganda what this really is is the Wests inability to control the flow of larger weapon systems onto the black market. The UN is now defunct as Russia has its finger (weapon systems including chems) in too many loony pies and has to veto any action to stop the West finding out the weapons are Russian. The West has backed itself into a corner with no option but to strike to stop these weapons falling into the wrong hands having to wreck further the credibility of the UN in the process or risk larger scale attacks on home ground.

Posted by: pMASTER Aug 29 2013, 18:08

The Russians have deployed missile destroyers to the Mediterranean. Putin really is craving for status.

Posted by: Elliot Carver Aug 30 2013, 00:32

Well there goes any military credibility the UK had left. If the UN / NATO had a backbone it'd demote the UK from key membership status. Still, not engaging in military action was the correct course.

Does raise one very key question:
What would stop the US from attacking a country it sees as 'a danger to US national interests'?

The UN no longer has any strength to its 'word' and the US ignores it (again). Western Allies like Spain, Holland, Germany, Italy ... and now the Uk ... are all opposed to military action but we, like the UN are being ignored. If the UN decided to boot the US out and impose sanctions how long would it take for the House of Reps & The Senate to impeach the White House or would it side with the President in support for its ideals? ... Then what? If words fail and the US is ignoring all reasonable diplomacy from the UN and its allies do you turn to military action to protect the Americans target? This is the position the Russians are in at the moment. Were left with the possibility that a NATO member state will attack (or be attacked) by another ... effectively toying with the idea of a WWIII. How much of the words forces would it take to defeat the American War Machine in the name of 'whats right' Vs 'Freedom' and how much of the world would be left habitable?

The idea of Dave in a cut half red dress with a G36 scares me

Posted by: D@V£ Aug 30 2013, 01:58

If history has taught us anything, it's that this doesn't mean we won't invade Syria. Just this time every "activist" will be complaining about it facebook instead of myspace

I don't know why everyone thinks a war between Russia and America would be some kind of apocalyptic event; the US would suffer a single casualty to a faulty spring in an AR-15 and loose all public support, while the Russians would mobilize their entire army for about 20 seconds, then run out of money.

Posted by: Elliot Carver Aug 30 2013, 08:57

Post apocalyptically speaking were all f*cked

Posted by: Mark-HH Aug 30 2013, 09:47

Hey, maybe Dave will let those MPs go to Syria like they asked to go see if there's anything worth invading for and then get MI5 or someone to make sure they don't' come back and then invade as a result...

Posted by: pMASTER Aug 30 2013, 15:09

QUOTE(Elliot Carver @ Aug 30 2013, 01:32)

QUOTE(D@V£ @ Aug 30 2013, 02:58)

If history has taught us anything, it's that this doesn't mean we won't invade Syria. Just this time every "activist" will be complaining about it facebook instead of myspace

QUOTE(Elliot Carver @ Aug 30 2013, 01:32)

Posted by: Hornet85 Aug 30 2013, 17:33

I heard some long range surveillance teams are deployed to the area around Syria

Posted by: pMASTER Aug 30 2013, 18:47

Greetings from cloud-cuckoo-land! Today the German government announced Germany will not participate in military strikes against Syria. "A hundred hours of negotiations" would still be better than "one minute of shooting" (easy to say when it's not you who is being shot at). It was to be expected since we're in an election, still I don't know whether to " " or to " ". Does anybody honestly believe the rebels and Assad would be ready to talk to each other? The hatred runs incredibly deep down there and both sides have committed unspeakable atrocities. Why would they even enter negotations?

Posted by: D@V£ Aug 30 2013, 20:12

QUOTE(pMASTER @ Aug 30 2013, 18:47)

Posted by: pMASTER Aug 31 2013, 17:12

QUOTE(D@V£ @ Aug 30 2013, 21:12)

Posted by: Mark-HH Aug 31 2013, 23:34

But the majority of people don't want them to have another term (they're dicks, all three parties).

In military news, looks like the US are up to something 10+ C-17s have overflown here today throughout the day compared to the usual 0-1 for a Saturday.

Posted by: Wittmann Sep 1 2013, 01:28

And the French are more than happy to strike.

Though being an ex French mandate I suppose they consider it somewhat their issue to resolve, much as with ex French territories in Africa.

Posted by: pMASTER Sep 1 2013, 15:47

Hollande is a dud and now that he's seen his popularity with the French has risen after the successful Mali intervention (albeit only from "bloody asshole" to "asshole") he wants another war to catapult him out of his hole.

Posted by: Elliot Carver Sep 1 2013, 16:01

The difference is the financial impact of the Iraq / Afghanistan war on public spending had a direct impact on the British general publics daily lives. Dumping 100bn from the GDP on the war, 120bn bailing out the banks and 50bn selling off our Gold reserves cheap at the height of a recession has crippled literally everything. Transport fares are hugely expensive, hospital A&Es are closing, schools are overcrowded and wages are falling as inflation rises. All we've had for 5 years now is massive cuts in basic services whilst the cost of those services left have doubled ... all this hardship caused by the lies of a few men that Iraq had chemical weapons it could use to strike British interests within 40 mins.

Everybody (including war loving muppets like me) sat up and said hang on a minute, we've been down this road already, we know where this leads. Lets sit this one out and finish clearing up the mess from the last war at home first

Its taken the entire country, 3/4 of the MPs, the UN, NATO and half the worlds leaders to stop Cameron from single handedly dragging us all into anther war. Doesn't get much more dangerous or tyrannical than that!

Posted by: pMASTER Oct 30 2013, 22:37

As of today Germany has withdrawn all her troops from the last forward operating base in Kunduz province, putting an end to four years of resolute operations in Afghanistan and another eight years filled mostly with pointless inaction and politically-induced asshattery.
Even in the view of the latter and although the military involvment never exceeded 6000 troops at any given time, the human and material costs of the past 12 years are rather staggering...

58 German soldiers, police officers and civilian officials lost their lives,
359 German soldiers, police officers and civilian officials were wounded*,
65% of which due to hostile activity.

* definition: physical injury requiring 72 or more hours of hospitalization.

About 1000 soldiers have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder. No numbers exist on how many suicides have been related to the war.

57 ground vehicles and 2 aerial vehicles have been written off as total losses. No totals exist on how many times (reparable) combat damages was inflicted on equipment.

The direct costs of the Afghanistan deployment amount to 7.2 billion EUR. The indirect costs - for example the acquisition of military equipment not explicitely meant for but as a reaction to the Afghanistan war - added another 2 billion EUR to the aforesaid figure.

The war spawned 25 recipients of the Ehrenkreuz für Tapferkeit (in international protocol equivalent to Conspicuous Gallantry Cross (UK) or Distinguished Service Cross (US)). Even though no "kill counts" or comparable official figures exist, non-government organizations estimate ((debatable)) German military operations led to the deaths of 649 insurgents and to the capture of 160, moreover to the deaths of at least 150 civilians and 6 Afghan troops (friendly fire).

Posted by: Hornet85 Oct 30 2013, 23:27

"58 German soldiers, police officers and civilian officials lost their lives,
359 German soldiers, police officers and civilian officials were wounded*"

Any numbers on blue on blue?

Posted by: pMASTER Oct 31 2013, 02:42

Afghan -blue on blue attack> German: 5 KIA, 12 WIA
German -friendly fire accident> Afghan: 6 KIA

Posted by: JdB Oct 31 2013, 15:14

QUOTE(pMASTER @ Oct 31 2013, 02:42)

Posted by: pMASTER Oct 31 2013, 15:24

True that. I merely anticipated what Hornet was getting at.

Posted by: Hornet85 Oct 31 2013, 18:12

No one trust ANP or ANA with good reasons... Been ther done that burned the t-shirt

Posted by: pMASTER Oct 31 2013, 20:51

What say you - is the source of the problem a cultural one or rather actual sympathy for the insurgency and its "ideals"?

Posted by: Hornet85 Oct 31 2013, 22:09

90% cultural, they just have another way to look at honor and stuf then we do.

Posted by: JdB Oct 31 2013, 23:03

QUOTE(Hornet85 @ Oct 31 2013, 22:09)

Posted by: Hornet85 Nov 1 2013, 17:45

i have seen ANP/ANA trying to kill western soldiers just becus the soldiers say hello to them or becaus a femalw soldier hugged a male soldier goodbye befor rotating home.
i sleept with my handgun in the bed

Posted by: JdB Nov 1 2013, 18:54

QUOTE(Hornet85 @ Nov 1 2013, 17:45)

i sleept with my handgun in the bed

Posted by: Hornet85 Nov 1 2013, 19:58

Holster

Posted by: Daniel Nov 8 2013, 17:49

You can lob 30mm HEDP at them until their limbs come off, but you can't off them with a 9mm pistol after they've hung bits of your dead mates from trees. Funny old world. Strikes me as someone making the mistake of getting caught on camera.

Posted by: wipman Mar 26 2014, 19:30

Hornet, man... we two know that the ANP/ANA are talibans with pants and a helmet or a cap instead a towel in most cases, and sure that we think the same about their presence in this world; but aside of that... have you heard or seen something about the DAF buying M60E6 in replace the GPMGs?, on the paper looks like a good deal, but we also know how the yankees sell their crap; the only good thing that they've done was the M1911, that was made by an english and a gelgium. What you think about that deal?, you trust in an M60E6 as a better support weapon than an MG5?.

Posted by: Hornet85 Apr 19 2014, 18:07

Dont realy know i got out befor we changed to MultiScam and M60 MGs hehe i work in the privet sector today

Posted by: JdB Apr 19 2014, 22:10

Fairly ironic I'd say. They've gone from using one of the best MGs in the world, the MG42 (MG3) to using it's retarted offspring the M60 otherwise known as "sh*t it broke in two again, need to exit the field to drop by the spare parts container. What? We're in close contact with the enemy? Well too bad for the rest of the squad because during sustained fire I need three replacement extractors a minute since it keeps cracking after the first 25rds". How on earth do you take the MG42 and end up with the M60 after millions spent on redesigning something that didn't need redesigning in the first place ...

Posted by: D@V£ Apr 20 2014, 01:27

Likely procurement procedure:
1. We need a new machine gun
2. Hey, what was that gun in Rambo?
3. Get that.

Posted by: Hornet85 Apr 20 2014, 13:16

In the testing they fired 28000 rounds in 2 days in the field, with all tested guns and the M60 only missfired 2 times do to foulty ammunition.
That and the price made them buy the M60 in front of the MG5 that also made it to final testing.

Posted by: pMASTER Apr 20 2014, 18:25

In other news, a small German company has started to produce MG3s again.

Posted by: JdB Apr 20 2014, 19:38

QUOTE(Hornet85 @ Apr 20 2014, 14:16)

Posted by: Hornet85 Apr 21 2014, 08:56

They gave guns to real MG gunners in the army and asked them to try them out in the field, i know some of the soldiers and i trust they did a realy good testing