Weapons Man

Er, wrong. The Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction (i.e., the “Poor Bastard who Has to Add Up All the Fraud, Waste and Abuse”) looked at our provision of about a half a billion dollars to buy Alenia G-222 aircraft for the Afghan Air Force to operate. So, the money was spent, the turboprop transports were delivered… and then they sat. For a couple years.

The Army identifies a number of potential physical security measures in AR 190-11.

Face of a Thesis Thief — appointed Senator, and disgraced officer,  John Walsh.

We still think of the Sikorsky Black Hawk as a modern helicopter, and the Bell Huey as an artifact of the 60s (it actually first flew in the 1950s as the YUH-40!). But the Marines continue to use Hueys, although theirs have been modified about as far as an aircraft can get. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard have all the “new” Black Hawks. But the Black Hawk is itself an old bird: we first saw one at Mott Lake Compound in the winter of 1981 or 1982, about 32 years ago. Since then, we’ve seen what they could do, even in Afghan density models, going into the field in ancient A-models and riding an ultramodern Q-model medevac bird back to Bagram.

The United States Marine Corps has made… we don’t want to say a “fetish,” because that word is freighted with negative connotations, but perhaps a “trademark,” of marksmanship, and Marines are resolutely old-fashioned about it. When the Army had to dig back in the doctrinal cavern for the lost beacon of sniper employment and training, in the Vietnam War and later in the 1980s, they found Marines still keeping the pilot light lit.

What do you do with an old jail? Normally the answer is, “Tear the sucker down.” But that was a nonstarter in the case of Boston’s 19th-Century Charles Street Jail. Some genius had gotten the 1848 Gridley Bryant building, with its panopticon design and irregular-octagonal central atrium, declared a National Historic Landmark.

Well, we said airstrikes were going to be ineffectual (our actual phrase was, “designed to fail.” We pointed out where others, more influential than we are, said the same thing, even as the Pentagon bungled a simple website describing the strikes. We showed you reports that the strikes were ineffectual. We quoted the enemy saying they were ineffectual.

An interesting paper from the Commander of USASOC, LTG Charlie Cleveland, draws a roadmap for the future of ARSOF. We’re going to look at one aspect of this: what it means for people.

Sandia National Labs is better known for playing around with things that go boom and make entire grid squares vanish, than it is for small arms. But the RAZAR scope (Rapid Adaptive Zoom for Assault Rifles) is right in our wheelhouse:

Another title for this blog might be, “Bubba the Gunsmith’s Wide World of Wonder.” But they call it “Impro Guns” and its URL is http://homemadeguns.wordpress.com/. This little information about who makes the blog, or why, but it features the improvised firearms often seen on The Firearms Blog.

Meet Johnny Dronehunter. Defender of Privacy.

This was a promo for SilencerCo’s shotgun silencer, but really, we’d sit for 90 minutes of Johnny blowing the $#!+ out of drones for God, Country, and the 1st, 2nd and 4th Amendments.

James D. Julia has auctioned many exotic and unique weapons, like this AR-10 prototype, over the years.

“It takes all kinds to make a world,” is an aphorism left behind for the benefit of mankind by our sainted grandmother. The wisdom of this saying seems more profound with each passing year. Like — the guy who demonstrated M1 thumb for the benefit of all of us, whose complete (high-speed and regular-speed) videos are available at this interesting post on The Firearm Blog, along with pictures of the gruesome aftermath.

In the Washington Post, epidemiologist and public-health-school dean David Dausey says, close the US to epidemic epicenters, now. Why?

No, we don’t mean “Cobrays.” We’re talking about the Asian poisonous reptile, which is also a delicacy in Guangdong Province, China. But one chef in Guangdong, and the fan, once the hard way that just killing Mr No-Shoulders didn’t render him safe… not so long as his severed head had reflexes. That’ll leave a mark:

Video first. Then, impressions.

When you find one of these cartridges — like a black plastic commemorative one, made for a cartridge collectors’ club, now up for auction on GunBroker, or the blue dummy on the left — it just looks weird. Made in several calibers (at least 5.56, 7.62, and 30mm) and simplex (one bullet) and triplex (three) versions, it offered benefits from both the standpoint of internal ballistics (in theory, more complete combustion before projectile exits from the barrel) and packaging (a substantially shorter round, a big deal with aerial cannons and other on-board weapons), and potentially lighter weights.

The PDF report attached to this page is a recent Department of Homeland Security’s “Biosurveillance Event Report” on the current Ebola epidemic. It’s not on the DHS website but it’s kicking around; we got it through DOD channels.

As of this morning, of 410 pre-order units offered for sale since October 1, 372 have been sold. (NOTE UPDATE NUMBERS BEFORE GOING LIVE)