Thursday, April 28, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
A tour of COP Margah in Paktika
First Lieutenant Jason Wright with Third Platoon, Fox Company 2-506th Parachute Regiment gives reporter David Axe a tour of Combat Outpost (COP) Margah in Paktika province along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Wright discusses how insurgents out of Waziristan train fighters in indirect fire, using the COP as a target.
"The Waziristan Agency, they have a handbook ... almost exactly like our Ranger handbook that goes over advanced infantry tactics and small unit ambush raids, that sort of thing. [In a captured copy of the book] they had drawings of the COP and the OP, measurements, distances, all that sort of thing, and it was pretty high speed stuff for them. You wouldn't think they'd have anything like that, but they did."
A-10 Warthog weapon system
The cannon takes about half a second to come up to speed, so 50 rounds are fired during the first second, 65 or 70 rounds per second thereafter. The gun is precise; it can place 80% of its shots within a 40-foot (12.4 m) circle from 4,000 feet (1,220 m) while in flight.[53] The GAU-8 is optimized for a slant range of 4,000 feet (1,220 m) with the A-10 in a 30 degree dive.
The fuselage of the aircraft is built around the gun.[55] The gun's firing barrel is placed at the 9 o'clock position so it is aligned on the aircraft's centerline. The gun's ammunition drum can hold up to 1,350 rounds of 30 mm ammunition but generally holds 1,174 rounds.[54] The damage caused by rounds firing prematurely from impact of an explosive shell would be catastrophic, so a great deal of effort has been taken to protect the 5 feet 11.5 inch (1.816 m) long drum. There are many armor plates of differing thicknesses between the aircraft skin and the drum, to detonate an incoming shell before it reaches the drum.[43] A final layer of armor around the drum protects it from fragmentation damage. The gun is loaded by Syn-Tech's linked tube carrier GFU-7/E 30 mm ammunition loading assembly cart.
A burping noice is the last thing you hear...
Saturday, April 23, 2011
AC-130 Spectre Gunship
Operation in Afghanistan
The AC-130H Spectre gunship's primary missions are close air support, air interdiction and armed reconnaissance. Other missions include perimeter and point defense, escort, landing, drop and extraction zone support, forward air control, limited command and control, and combat search and rescue.
Apache guncam Iraq
New rules of engagement require that all missiles must now knock three times and ring the doorbell before entering a building.
Sweden in final negotiations for Black Hawks
We got a Black Hawk down, Black Hawk down!
Sweden's Defence is in final negotiations to buy 15 Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters from the US government, with first deliveries expected early 2012.
Swedish defence minister Sten Tolgfors says pilot training should start in the USA "this summer", and that the entire fleet would be fully operational by 2017.
The UH-60A entered service with the Army in 1979 as the Army's tactical transport helicopter. This was followed by the fielding of electronic warfare and special operations variants of the Black Hawk. Improved UH-60L and UH-60M utility variants have also been developed. Modified versions have also been developed for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force. In addition to U.S. Army use, the UH-60 family has been exported to several nations. Black Hawks have served in combat during conflicts in Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Somalia, the Balkans, Afghanistan, and other areas in the Middle East.
Unit cost US$ 14 million
Restrepo
One of todays best documentary of the war in Afghanistan. Very sadly one of the filmmaker of Restrepo where killed while covering the conflict in Libya april 20th 2011. RIP Tim Hetherington, you where the best!
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/2011/04/sebastian-junger-remembers-tim-hetherington-201104
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