(video behind the click)
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Looks like Ivan should get one of these with birdshot:
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That’s just silly. We already have a Benelli M4 in service, which would do perfectly well. Plus we have M-79 grenade launcher tubes fitted under some M-16/M4. They have a shotgun round that is more effective than a 12 ga.
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I was wondering if shotguns would become a necessary carry given drones? I also wondered if a type of flak round would be adequate for defense of ships, vehicles and installations against mass drone attack?
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The Phoenix system of ship borne defense is a self-guided system using a Gatling gun and radar I believe. It would be adequate to take down a drone, seeing as it works to take down incoming missiles.
As for the dogfaces, like I mentioned, there is an M-79 launcher tube that can be attached under the barrel of a regular M-16, which made the old “Thumper” obsolete. But that can shoot a 40mm shotgun-like shell. It was used for close-in defense. I think I mentioned when I had the combined unit, patrols would be a squad of PF’s and a fire team of Marines. If I went out on patrol with them, I would borrow the grenedier’s Thumper and vest and leave him my stuff. I would then walk the patrol with a shotgun shell in the chamber, as a reaction to a close ambush (anything else there would be time to change shells).
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A standalone shotgun makes no sense, because it would deprive the soldier of his rifle.
An under barrel grenade launcher is probably overkill. If other combat considerations favor having a such a grenade launcher, it may make sense to create a special birdshot round. But a soldier can only carry so many of those rounds. And they will be single shot firing.
Contrast an under barrel semi auto 12 gauge with at least five rounds. You are firing close to straight up at a vertical range of only about 50 feet, and the pellets do not have to be going fast because the speed of the drone rotors may do the damage
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You are thinking too much like the mud-Marines. Shotguns can be very effective at shorter ranges, and those who might be armed with them would not be rifle-toters to begin with. So platoon sargeants, platoon commanders, staff officers making some trip to the field. Think WWII and who got issued M1 & M2 carbines. The Garands went to the line, but the carbines went to those not so likely to be in full contact - and if so, usually as a command or leadership position. Think also about ammo weight AND space. For the average grunt, his backpack is already somewhere north of 125 lbs. Now you want to add 12 ga on top of all the other stuff he carries. At least if he has the under barrel thumper adapter, his load out would include some ammo for it.
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10 years ago in Gaza:
Between July 2013 and August 2015, Egyptian authorities demolished at least 3,255 residential, commercial, administrative, and community buildings in the Sinai Peninsula along the border with the Gaza Strip, forcibly evicting thousands of people.
These demolitions rapidly accelerated after October 24, 2014, when the Sinai-based armed group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or Supporters of Jerusalem, carried out an unprecedented attack on an army checkpoint in North Sinai governorate, reportedly killing 28 soldiers. The following month, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis pledged allegiance to the extremist group Islamic State, also known as ISIS, and changed its name to Sinai Province."
Maybe these ‘human rights organizations’ should side with the victims of terrorism rather than with the propagators of terrorism, for greater good.
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The DIANA challenge programme began in June 2023 with a competitive call for proposals targeting three strategic focus areas: energy resilience, secure information sharing, and sensing and surveillance. Derived from defence and security needs across the Alliance, informed by the state-of-development of commercial technologies, and designed for deep tech innovators - the programme asked innovative solutions addressing critical dual-use (civilian and defence) challenges.
The process of comprehensive evaluation of proposals was concluded in November 2023, with DIANA announcing the names of the 44 companies selected to join its pilot accelerator programme.
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Modern missile tactics:
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US intelligence indicates that President Xi Jinping’s sweeping military purge came after it emerged that widespread corruption undermined his efforts to modernize the armed forces and raised questions about China’s ability to fight a war, according to people familiar with the assessments.
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The US assessments cited several examples of the impact of graft, including missiles filled with water instead of fuel and vast fields of missile silos in western China with lids that don’t function in a way that would allow the missiles to launch effectively, one of the people said.
The US assesses that corruption within the People’s Liberation Army has led to an erosion of confidence in its overall capabilities, particularly when it comes to the Rocket Force, and also set back some of Xi’s top modernization priorities, the people said. The graft probe has ensnared more than a dozen senior defense officials over the past six months, in what may be China’s largest crackdown on the country’s military in modern history.
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Evidence of Xi’s corruption purge has bubbled to the surface in recent months.
In the latest round on Dec. 29, China’s top legislative body unseated nine defense figures, including five linked to the missile force and at least two from the Equipment Development Department, which is charged with arming the military.
Days earlier, China’s main political advisory body publicly removed three executives from state-owned missile manufacturers. That spate of purges came after the October ousting of China’s former defense minister, Li Shangfu, who was only in the position for seven months.
The German V-2 rocket in World War II used fuel of 75% ethanol and 25% water or, if you like, 150 proof vodka. This led to “mysterious” disappearances of fuel, particularly among launch crews deployed in the field who were often observed to be rather more jolly than one would expect for those engaged in such a hazardous and grim assignment.
Have Red Chinese Rocket Force troops developed a taste for hypergolic propellants?
Update: It isn’t just liquid fuel.
Rampant corruption and funding shortfalls are eating away at the People’s Liberation Army’s ability to equip its own forces, according to a former People’s Liberation Navy Lieutenant Colonel, who described air force personnel taking away chunks of solid missile fuel to use as fuel for meals of traditional Chinese hotpot during his time as a serving officer.
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“When we would eat hotpot, we would take out the solid fuel in the missiles piece by piece, because there were insufficient supplies,” Yao said. “I would often go along to the armory and ask them for a small round piece of solid fuel when we wanted to have hotpot.”
Traditional Chinese hotpot is eaten out of a communal table-top pot that is kept constantly on the boil, as guests throw in raw meat, seafood and other delicacies to cook on demand. Pots can be fueled with anything from electricity to camping stove fuel.
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Logic suggests that peacetime militaries will always be ripe targets for corruption. After all, we don’t know if any of that expensive gear is going to work until it is put to test against a real adversary. And the peacetime assurances citizens are given about the effectiveness of the weapon systems and militaries they pay for are based on tests which are strictly under control of the very people who might be tempted to cut corners – as the West is finding out with the unspectacular performance of the wonder-weapons delivered to Zelensky.
Given that the potential for corruption always exists, there is much to be said for the Chinese approach to stamping out corruption (which appears to involve prompt death penalties). That may work out better than the Western approach of putting retired top military professionals on the Boards of arms manufacturers.
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DARPA Moves Forward on X-65 Technology Demonstrator
In third phase of CRANE program, Aurora Flight Sciences will build X-plane with no moving control surfaces
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Whenever I see comparisons such as these, I cannot help but wonder exactly what the DOD is doing with all the money. Wouldn’t someone ask how is it that China with its much lower defense spending out produce us? How could you show your face when you have outspent the Chinese by a factor of 4 or 5 and they now have a bigger navy?
Maybe Afghanistan wasn’t a great idea. Maybe throwing money and sophisticated weapons at a country without the training or infrastructure to utilize them isn’t a great idea.
Maybe spending money in the name of defense is actually wasting money and is putting the country at risk.
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China has a great advantage, though. Their shipbuilding industry is reportedly about 200 (that is, two hundred) times the size of the US shipbuilding industry. Size matters! And, to quote Stalin, Quantity has a quality all of its own.
Maybe China is trying to do to the US what President Reagan did to the old Soviet Union with Star Wars – frighten them (us) into spending money they (we) don’t have, leading to economic collapse? At least that form of warfare has a low body count.
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I am reminded of Robert Zubrin’s observation about NASA (paraphrased from memory): “NASA used to spend money in order to fly missions. Now, they fly missions in order to spend money.”
Much the same may obtain when it comes to the Pentagon, except you move the decimal point a couple of places to the right. (Actually, less than than: in fiscal year 2022, the U.S. defence budget was around 35 times that of NASA.) If you think contractors snorting at the public trough on NASA cost-plus procurements are grotesque, with money shoveled into subcontractors in every influential congressreptile’s district or state to buy their vote, that is Little League compared to defence contracting, which is The Show.
If you’re thinking in terms of prudent stewardship of taxpayers’ (coerced) “contributions” to defending their country and family from malefactors, it may seem completely insane to go firing off million US$ missiles to knock down what amount to model airplanes launched by savages in the armpit of the world. But if you manufacture these missiles (hello, Raytheon!) it’s sweet. And if you’re a politician who has the factory in their district who makes the paper clips (US$117.45 each—cheap!) that are used to bind the print-outs of the PowerPoint presentations distributed to congressional oversight committees crowing about the “victory record” of these missiles, why it’s not only sweet but lucrative.
The reason they can’t take out the corruption is that it’s the only thing that’s holding the whole illegitimate racket together.
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