Photo of the Month August 2011

HK collection.... Photo from HK forums

Airsoft, Doublestar 1911 Combat Pistol

FEATURES:

• Full metal frame
• Enhanced removable sights
• Ambi-safeties
• Authentic serrated slide
• Authentic trigger
• Authentic 1913 picatinny rail design
• Authentic deep engravings
• Steel made thread adapter for barrel extensions

More Info: http://tinyurl.com/3dmtr9z

Support paratroopers learn advanced marksmanship from Special Forces trainers

A Special Forces officer with 3rd Special Forces Group instructs a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team on close-quarter marksmanship during field training Aug. 1, 2011, at Fort Bragg, N.C. Leadership in 307th Brigade Support Battalion arranged for the combat-support troops to receive the training as one facet of a week-long field exercise.

FORT BRAGG, N.C., Aug 15, 2011 -- Dozens of cooks, fuelers, logistics troops and medics received advanced rifle marksmanship training here from what the Army calls an Operational Detachment Alpha, or Special Forces ODA “A Team,” Aug. 1-4.
The support troops, assigned to the 307th Brigade Support Battalion in support of 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, received daylong instruction on the the M-4 carbine from instructors assigned to 3rd Special Forces Group.

The team leader of the ODA said that, what the regular Army calls Advanced Rifle Marksmanship and Close-Quarters Marksmanship, the Special Forces community rolls up into what it calls Combat Management Marksmanship Skills, or CMMS.
The training included substantial instruction on reflexive fire, during which troops learned to fire two or more controlled shots at a close target from the standing position and eventually at a slow walk.
“If I were king for a day, every Soldier in the Army would receive this kind of training,” said Command Sgt. Maj. Kurt Reed, the top enlisted soldier with 307th BSB. Reed, who took part in the training, said the course offered lessons to Soldiers of all skill levels.
It has always been critical for logistical Soldiers to understand that they are Soldiers first, said Reed. That goes for any Soldier regardless of background -- medic, aviation support, military police, etc.
When the sergeant major entered the Army, the biggest threat was the U.S.S.R, but today’s enemy no longer wears a uniform, meaning that close-quarter marksmanship has never been more important, he said.
“These guys are awesome,” said Reed, who has served over two decades in maintenance support roles. “They know how to talk to troops, which is not surprising given their role as trainers. They understand the basics, so it’s easy for them to identify where Soldiers’ weak points are and quickly bring them around where they need to be.”
“Regardless of what your background is or what your job is in the military, close-quarter marksmanship is a skill you need with the kind of wars we are fighting today,” he said.

For Pvt. Robert Adamson, who arrived at the unit just recently from initial-entry training, the weapons course was his first time firing an M-4. In basic training, he learned on the older M-16.
“Here they switched me over to firing right-handed,” said Adamson, who is left-handed but right-eye dominant. “It made a big difference, especially with my breathing,” he said.
Among the more esoteric lessons the troops learned was the theory behind zeroing a weapon.
“The idea is to take yourself out of the equation,” said Jeremy, the Special Forces noncommissioned officer who led much of the training.
It’s the weapon that’s zeroed, not the shooter, he said, so the fewer points of contact one has with the weapon during the zeroing process the better.
“Anyone should be able to pick up a zeroed weapon and hit ‘paper,’” he said, referring to the target. “They may not be ‘keyholing’ at 300 meters, but they will hit paper.”
In addition to weapons training, the Special Forces instructors also shared lessons on combat lifesaver skills.

 

Source

REVISION WINS EXCLUSIVE, CROSS-SERVICE PROTECTIVE EYEWEAR CONTRACT FOR GERMAN MILITARY

08.17.2011– Montreal, QC, Canada – Revision, the global leader in military protective eyewear solutions, announces its most recent contract award: to supply the Germany military with their ballistic eyewear needs through 2013. The project will see Revision deliver over 256,000 sets of the Sawfly Military Eyewear System for use by Army, Air Force and Navy troops. Revision was selected as the sole-supplier for this contract following a rigorous bid process and extensive in-service user trials including in-theater use in Afghanistan.

“To have been selected as the standard issue brand following one of most rigorous bidding processes we’ve seen to date, is a testament to the people, processes and technologies that we employ to advance the science and performance of this vital piece of soldier equipment. We are proud to be the German military’s protective eyewear supplier of choice,” said Alex Hooper, Vice President, International Sales.

In pursuit of this business Revision developed a Germany-specific version of their flagship product, the Sawfly Military Eyewear System. For it, a new lens shape was designed and two specialty lens tints were developed: one for specific-wavelength laser eye protection and the second for high altitude mountain operations. The 256,000 standard issue kits, available in three sizes – small, medium and large, will include clear, solar and vermillion lenses. Additional quantities of laser protective lenses and Prescription (Rx) Carriers are also included in the contract award.

In addition to being the only eye protection supplier to Germany, Revision is the sole approved provider of ballistic eyewear to Canadian, British, Dutch, Belgian and Danish forces. The Revision Sawfly continues to be the most widely issued military spectacle amongst NATO nations, dominating the ballistic protective eyewear landscape worldwide.

Picatinny engineers develop versatile warheads

PICATINNY ARSENAL, N.J., Aug. 17, 2011 -- The shifting dynamics on the battlefield can inject variation and unpredictability at various levels.
For instance, the impact of artillery bombardments can depend on multiple factors, including the nearly infinite ways that a shell can break apart on detonation to affect its intended target.
When projectiles such as a 155mm artillery shell explode, the resulting fragments can vary dramatically in size -- from harmless, dust-like remnants to much larger pieces that can inflict great damage.
This type of "natural fragmentation" -- with such a wide variation in fragment size -- tends to make the result of shelling unpredictable and inefficient.
"When you're targeting certain things like personnel or vehicles, you're looking to get a fragment that's a particular size," said Peter Rottinger, a mechanical engineer at Picatinny Arsenal's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center.
"With natural fragmentation, you may get some fragments that are not going to be lethal and you may get some fragments that are over-lethal, like four times the size that you really needed to defeat that target, so it becomes inefficient," Rottinger added.
Designing warheads better suited to specific targets because they produce a more consistent shell fragment is one of the goals being pursued by Rottinger and his co-workers at the Force Protection and Explosively Formed Penetrator Branch here.

Research into "single mode" fragmentation, initiated by Project Manager Combat Ammunition Systems (PM-CAS) at Picatinny, was aimed at achieving a design that would create shell fragments of relatively equal size consistently.
Later, under the auspices of another organization, the research progressed to a "multi-mode" design. With this design, Soldiers could choose between either of two sizes of fragments by making an adjustment through the fuse assembly of a projectile.
On detonation, the fragments are dispersed according to a desired pattern, depending on whether they are intended for soft targets with smaller fragments, or material targets like trucks that require larger shell pieces to be effective.
According to Rottinger, the advantages of the multi-mode warhead are enhanced lethality and greater effectiveness against a wide range of targets.
Also, by eliminating the need to maintain large supplies of single-purpose munitions, controlled fragmentation is expected to reduce overall Soldier load and streamline logistics.
Moreover, test results show that the technology is scalable. Testing of projectiles ranging in size from 155mm to 40mm has shown promising results.
The Joint Services Small Arms Program provided funding for research on the 40mm grenade.

METHODICAL PROCESS YIELDS RESULTS

Early research on a single-mode projectile was methodical and tedious.
"Once modeling and simulation was complete, we came up with various candidate designs," Rottinger said. "We had limited funding and you can't test everything. So you go and pick what you think the best solutions are going to be."
Research into a "multi-mode" shell that could produce two different sizes of fragments yielded various technologies.
"Multi-mode lets you change fragment size on the fly, so if the Soldier knows that he's going to be going after personnel, he can set the warhead to produce smaller fragments," said Rottinger. "You get more fragments out there and you get higher efficiency."
The development of technology such as controlled fragmentation evolves with modeling simulation, testing and analysis. Yet determining whether a technology works is just part of the overall process of eventually sending new armaments into the battlefield.
"A lot of people don't want to get something new out there unless it's going to save them money in the long run," Rottinger noted.
"There are some advantages to having multi-mode warheads because you can reduce your logistics. Instead of having to have multiple rounds to take care of the mission now you can have a single round."
As greater scrutiny is given to controlling costs in defense spending, new technology must not only be effective but affordable and relatively easy to make. Yet certain spending up front may be unavoidable.

"It's hard for us to look at cost early on," Rottinger said. "When you're looking at research and development, everything is expensive. So you have to develop a technology and make sure the technology gives you the effect that you want to see, and then you can do more research into the producibility of the item."
"And that's basically where we are in this program now," explained Rottinger. "We're at a point where we have to show that we can make them more affordable so they are more attractive to the customer."
Henry Hsieh, a mechanical engineer at the ARDEC branch, said that even from the early stages of research, constant thought is given to how to achieve efficiency and reduce costs.
"We try to use commercially available products and existing manufacturing techniques," he said.
Driving down costs involves looking at various materials that could be used along with the different manufacturing techniques.
Rottinger said drawing the expertise of manufacturers helps to expand the number of possible options.
"The manufacturer is going to have much better ideas of what's possible and what tools are available," Rottinger said. "We're always bouncing ideas off of them.''
"Commonly used techniques such as stamping and rolling could be used to meet the requirements and shorten the product cycle," added Hsieh.
Experimenting with various techniques can yield dividends over time.
"As you become more familiar with the technology, you start developing better tools and better ways to do this so that you can speed it up," Rottinger said. "If there is a real strong desire to get it out fast, we can do it." 

Source

Army rifle shooters on target at 50th Interservice Championship

Staff Sgt. Joel Micholick, U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit, fires his service rifle during the 50th Interservice Rifle Championship July 26, 2011. Micholick set a new match record in the 1,000 yard aggregate with the service rifle, a record that had been standing since 1984.

 

Hi resolution photo

MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. (Army News Service, Aug. 1, 2011) -- Soldiers from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit's Service Rifle platoon dominated their fellow servicemembers at the 50th Interservice Rifle Championships, July 17-26, proving once again that the premier marksmen in the military serve in the Army.

Despite the determination of the other services to dethrone the defending champions, the Soldiers displayed their superior skills at the annual meeting of the military's best rifle shooters, winning 18 out of 19 team and individual matches.
The USAMU won the coveted 10-man Interservice Rifle team championship match.
Team shooters included Sgt. 1st Class Lance Dement, Sgt. 1st Class Grant Singley, Staff Sgt. Tyrel Cooper, Staff Sgt. Brandon Green, Staff Sgt. Joel Micholick, Staff Sgt. Daniel Peters, Sgt. Sherri Jo Gallagher, Spc. Kevin Trickett, Spc. Augustus Dunfey, and Spc. Amanda Elsenboss.
The team's coaches included Sgt. 1st Class Emil Praslick and Staff Sgt. Walter Craig, while Staff Sgt. Scott Grant Staff and Sgt. Nathan Verbickas were team captains. Cooper was the high individual shooter during the match with a score of 496-21x.

USAMU teams swept all team matches, including the Marine Corps Combat Development Command Commanding General Match, the Infantry Trophy Team Match, and the Interservice 1,000 yard Team Match.
Two USAMU Soldiers stood out individually at the championship. Cooper won his first overall championship after posting the high aggregate score for individual matches. He won the Navy match, Army match, the 1,000 yard match rifle, and the match rifle individual long-range championship to go along with his overall championship. He also won the Lt. Col. C.A. Reynolds Memorial Trophy for high score in the 10-man team match.
"This means a lot to me," Cooper said, who returned in April from an Afghanistan deployment. "It's my eighth year on the team and my first win. You've got a lot of guys here who have won it two or three times -- it's not easy."

The longest standing record at the match was broken by Micholick. He set a new match record in the 1,000 yard long range match with a service rifle, and also eclipsed a record that has stood since 1984 by scoring a new high in the long-range aggregate with the service rifle after scoring a 397-12x.
"Staff Sergeant Micholick did not simply break a record, he crushed the longest standing record in the history of the Interservice Rifle Championships, which stood for nearly thirty years and in perhaps the most difficult match -- the 1,000-yard long range -- with a service weapon," said Lt. Col. Daniel Hodne, commander, USAMU. "I could not think of a more fitting time for one of our Soldiers to establish this new record than at the 50th iteration of this Interservice Rifle Championship."

The Excellence-in-Competition Match was won by Staff Sgt. Armando Ayala.
Green, Verbickas, Trickett and Gallagher also won individual matches. Gallagher was crowned high woman shooter.
With the overall win, the USAMU swept all individual and team championships in Interservice competition for 2011, the second consecutive year they have done so.
The competition dates back to 1960, when the value of an interservice marksmanship competition was recognized in a memorandum of understanding by the chiefs of each service. The event highlights the professional capacity and versatility of military servicemembers. 

 

Source

Anniston Army Depot converts Army’s M2s

Samuel Burnham, an Anniston Army Depot small arms repairer, overhauls an M2 machine gun, converting it to the new M2A1 variant.

ANNISTON ARMY DEPOT, Ala., Aug. 5, 2011 -- Anniston Army Depot is converting the Army’s inventory of M2 Flexible machine guns to a new variant, providing a constant stream of work for the installation’s Small Arms Repair Facility.

The variant, M2A1, has a fixed headspace, or distance between the face of the bolt and the base of the cartridge case, and timing, the weapon’s adjustment that allows firing when the recoil is in the correct position.
“In the past, every time a Soldier changed the barrel on the M2, the timing and headspace had to be changed as well. If that wasn’t done properly, the weapon could blow up,” said Sherry Young, a maintenance management specialist with the depot’s Directorate of Production Management, adding the fixed headspace and timing eliminates this risk to Soldiers.

During conversion, parts of the weapon that controlled the headspace and timing will be replaced with upgrades. Each weapon will also be overhauled by small arms repairers.
The biggest benefit in the change will be time given to the Soldiers who carry it.
“It only takes 30 seconds to change out the barrel on the M2A1 and you’re back in business. The M2 Flex version could take three to five minutes, depending upon your situation,” said Jeff Bonner, weapons division chief.
Bonner said this is the first major change to the M2 weapon system since the machine gun was fielded in the 1930s.

This fiscal year, the Small Arms Repair Facility expects to overhaul 1,700 M2 machine guns. An additional 3,600 are planned for fiscal year 2012 and the program is slated to continue for several more years.
“This is a lot of good work for the small arms facility,” said Bonner. “This work is going to last for several years.”
Approval for the conversion program included a pilot overhaul and conversion in February and March. In June, the first of the 1,700 weapons for fiscal year 11 were inducted.
Shortly after those weapons began the overhaul and conversion process, the shop instituted a lean event to standardize work procedures and improve the flow of work.

“The improvements employees are making will be compatible with the new building as well,” said Bonner, referring to the 83,385-square-foot Small Arms Repair Facility being constructed on the west side of the depot.
Plans are for small arms to move into their new building later this year.
“When we move into the new building, we will be able to pick everything up and the process flow will work the same in the new facility,” he said.
As part of the lean process, employees are finding the most efficient way to serialize certain parts. Several components on the M2A1 will have to be marked with serial numbers tying them to a particular weapon. 

Source

Fire Scout in Afghanistan

Fire Scout continues to prove its ability to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions and provide real-time data to troops in Afghanistan. Operating in the harshest weather conditions, the system has flown more than 600 hours since May.

"Our goal was to fly 300 hours per month and we are exceeding that," said Capt. Patrick Smith, Fire Scout program manager. "We are on track to fly almost 400 hours by the end of July which is exceptional. The feedback we are getting from our users is very positive. They continue to tell us that the Fire Scout is an absolute success and it is a critical asset for our troops in the field."

CAA MAGW3 polymer magazine

MAGW3 polymer magazine with 3 windows to show remaining rounds.

• High impact polymer 30 round .223 magazine 
• Non-tilting follower
• Corrosion resistant stainless steel spring
• Light weight and rustproof

Fits: .223/5.6
Measurements: Weight(lb): .35 lbs

New to the AR market is the innovative Three Window Magazine by CAA for weapons that accept standard AR/M16 magazines. The three built-in windows allow an operator to see how many rounds remain in the mag, and it facilitates timely magazine changes. Simply glancing down at the back of the magazine from your cheekweld shows the approximate number of rounds remaining.

When the magazine is full, you will see the brass round casings in the top and middle windows. The orange follower will appear in the bottom window. indicating a full magazine of 30 rounds. As rounds are fired, you can glance at the middle window. When the middle window is empty, only 19 rounds remain in the magazine. Then you should notice the top window. When the top window is empty, only 11 rounds remain, indicating only one-third of the rounds remain in the magazine.

U.S. Army orders 10,000 additional Trijicon TA31RCO-M150 ACOG units.

Trijicon, Inc., global provider of innovative Brilliant Aiming Solutions™ for hunters, shooters, military and law enforcement personnel, is pleased to announce that the U.S. Army has commissioned an additional 10,000 TA31RCO-M150 Rifle Combat Optics to fill its TACOM IDIQ contract. The Army-designated TA31RCO-M150 is known by many simply as the 4×32 ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight®.)

“The M150 is a battle-proven weapon sight that our soldiers on the ground have come to trust. That the U.S. Army has called for 10,000 more units only validates this fact.” said Bill Taggart, Trijicon Director of Military and Law Enforcement Division. “Trijicon is proud that it can help in the effort to protect our great nation at home and on battlefields overseas.”

The Trijicon ACOG is a compact telescopic sight with a tritium-illuminated reticle for use in low light or at night. It also utilizes the Bindon Aiming Concept (BAC) by way of a bright daytime reticle that uses advanced fiber optics to collect ambient light. In this way, ACOG combines precise, distant marksmanship with close-in aiming speed. Every feature of its mechanical and optical design was chosen for a single purpose: to provide increased hit potential in all lighting conditions.

The fixed 4-power M150 sight differs from ACOG units supplied to the U.S. Marine Corps in that its external windage and elevation adjusters allow the unit to be fully waterproof to an astounding 11 meters, even without its turret caps in place. This proven durability is one reason why the ACOG was awarded the Army’s demanding M150 contract.

This new order is in addition to existing 43,000 M150s already ordered through TACOM IDIQ contract, as well as the original IDIQ contract from the U.S. Army for 135,000 M150 units, placed in 2007.

Source: Trijicon