Briefings : Sharpshooter, Trident, Naval operations

Royal Marines from 40 Commando have received the new long range Sharpshooter L129A1 rifle the UK bought earlier in the year as an urgent response to the need for a longer-ranged rifle as the SA80 was struggling with the medium to long range combat being fought in Afghanistan.

The RUSI has warned that trying to replace Trident with an alternative nuclear deterrent will likely cost more than retaining Trident unless the UK is willing to seriously dilute it's commitment to a continuous deterrent presence (which might be an option to be honest). Defence cuts (which are very likely) could affect the Army and RAF mostly with the Army being reduced to it's smallest size since the Boer War (a kind of pointless comparison though to be honest).

The French and US Navies have been conducting some joint exercises involving French Rafales landing on a Nimitz aircraft carrier and also one having it's engine removed and refitted on the US carrier to demonstrate interoperability. USN Hornets also performed landings on the Charles de Gaulle. Meanwhile the USN is asking the public for help in trying to find 4 of it's UUVs which it lost contact with during an exercise.

HMS Daring is undergoing 6 weeks of intense training as it is tested by the Flag Officer Sea Training taskmasters who make sure RN warships are fit for action. Though it can't receive the full FOST treatment as it doesn't have a working Sea Viper system yet of course.

Briefings : J-15, Dauntless, Bullets

The Russians are annoyed with the Chinese for "copying" it's Su-33 Flanker-D as the J-15 for it's own aircraft carriers which are yet to be completed. The Russians however say that the J-15 is inferior to the Su-33.

The second Type 45 destroyer has joined the Royal Navy as HMS Dauntless. It is of course great news though tempered by the fact 1/3 of the total T45 fleet is now in service.

The MOD has contracted BAE Systems to produce a better bullet. A "higher performance" 5.56mm bullet is being sought after worries the standard NATO rounds are no longer effective against such obstacles as ...er... car windscreens.

Sunday Fail : Chauchat

Some weapons seem great in the workshop or drawing board. However once they are used on the slightly less controlled situation of the battlefield then their design flaws are often shown up especially if they have been badly made. Such was the case with the FM Chauchat or Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915, a light machine gun developed by the French in the First World War.

Over a quarter of a million Chauchats (named after the man who headed the commission that accepted the gun into service) were made making it the most widely produced automatic weapon of the war and it was used by the French and seven other nations. It was one of the first light machine guns that could be carried and fired by 2 men, someone to fire it and someone to assist him, instead of needing a whole team. There was just one problem with the Chauchat. It was rubbish.

It's main problem was the open sided magazine. In a muddy environment it caused the gun to easily jam. It was used in the trenches. Enough said. It's bad ergonomics and loose bipod also made it an inaccurate weapon when it wasn't jammed. It also overheated easily if used for long bursts rendering the gun useless until it cooled down. This could take several minutes which obviously was not a good thing if the Boche were attacking.

The 8mm Lebel cartridge it had to use caused some of the problems as the cartridge's taper dictated the semi-circular nature of the magazine. It's action was also not suited for a light machine gun. It's design flaws were made worse by the gun's generally poor standard of manufacture and the poor raw materials used. The gun was quite light though which was maybe it's only virtue.

Improved guns without the open sided magazine were designed but were too late to see any service in the war. The gun itself was immediately replaced with superior guns after the war. Indeed there were superior guns like the Hotchkiss M'le'09 around before the Chauchat that should have been adopted instead. It has been described as the worst machine gun ever which is maybe a little unfair but the gun was certainly bad enough to qualify for this series.

Digital firearms

Wired looks at some of the latest new high tech personal firearms including a pistol with a wireless safety system. Unless the gun is within a few cm of a watch being worn by it's owner transmitting a signal it will not fire. One day i'm sure we'll have a pistol like Judge Dredd's that only fires if being held by someone with the right DNA!

Briefings : Gunsights, Ark Royal, Cobra

Trijicon, who supplied the gun sights containing Biblical references to the British, US, Australian and New Zealand armies, have agreed to stop putting the reference on the sights and will provide kits to allow their removal from existing weapons. The British have ordered 400 sights for use with it's new L129A1 rifles.

HMS Ark Royal will resume it's role as the Navy's flagship today after completing it's sea trials following a refit. The carrier will also become the RN's "strike carrier" and operate Harrier jets.

US Marine Corp Cobra helicopter gunships are to receive new datalinks and helmet displays in  a $24 million update. The China-US cyberwar rumbles on. An expert has claimed the Chinese used backdoors built into Gmail for the US government to spy on e-mails to launch it's own attacks. China has accused the US of "online warfare" including using a cyber army to increase unrest in Iran.

Briefings (21/01/10) : Lynx, Submarine accident, Chinese Navy

The first 4 upgraded Lynx AH9A helicopters, upgraded for service in Afghanistan, have re-entered service. Though they are currently in North Yorkshire for training before being deployed.

The Commander of HMS Superb Steven Drysdale admitted failures which resulted in the crashing of the submarine into rocks south of Suez in 2008. Other officers on aboard also admitted failures. You may wonder what the Royal Navy is doing during the Haiti disaster? Well nothing at all so far unfortunately as they have no ships currently in the Caribbean due to cost savings however RFA Largs Bay will be sent.

Following on from the gunsights used by the US Marines with Biblical references on them now it seems the British Army will also have them as they have ordered the sights for their L129A1 rifles.

With the Chinese seemingly having the upper hand in the info-war the US Office for Naval Intelligence (ONI) have not helped matters by accidentally putting a report about the Chinese Navy on a publically accessible website (or maybe it was intentional?) Report can be found here, for the moment anyway.

An Israeli company has created a sonic cannon that can potentially kill if the person is close enough.

Briefings (20/01/10) : Service chiefs clash, Weather

The head of the British Army, General David Richards, has countered the claims by the other services on the dwindling British defence budget (such as the First Sea Lord who says Britain must retain hard power) by saying the UK should concentrate on weapons for counter-insurgency and lower intensity warfare. A lot of UAV and COIN aircraft could be bought for the price of a few JSF he says. But surely you should be preparing for the next war not fighting the last one again?

The BBC are considering not renewing it's contract with the Met Office (which is part of the MOD of course) for it's weather forecasts. Geoff Hoon has told the Chilcot Iraq War inquiry that the British forces didn't have enough helicopters because of the Treasury. Now who was in charge of the Treasury back then... why i believe he is now Prime Minister.

US Marines are being issued with gun sights which include Biblical references in the sights.

Briefings (19/01/10) : New rifle, A400M, Chinese hacking

British troops in Afghanistan are to get L129A1 Sharpshooter rifles. 440 have been bought as part of a UOR. The rifle, which fires 7.62 rounds, will be more useful in long-range firefights.

Flight International look at the A400M project problems and concludes that it is too big to fail.The First Sea Lord warns against spending cuts to the Royal Navy.

In the light of the knowledge security flaws in Internet Explorer allowed Chinese hackers to attack Google the French and German governments have advised it's citizens to not use IE, however the British government and armed forces are to continue using it (IE6 too, blimey!) Meanwhile foreign reporters in China say their Gmail accounts have also been hacked. McAfee say the cyber attack was "ultra sophistocated", the most sophisticated cyber attack outside of the defence industry.

Italy is investigating what caused one of it's Predator A Plus UAVs to ditch in the Adriatic while on a training flight. India are set to buy 29 MiG-29Ks for it's Navy, no doubt for use on an ex-Soviet aircraft carrier India is still yet to receive despite paying billions.