Tag: Weapons

Swarming

Wars & Other Fun Games

Many years ago, back when we were still in the “win wars with boots on the ground” mindset, and when we were battling a weak or non-state enemy (e.g. Afghanistan), I suggested that ground support for the troops could be fairly cheaply (and adequately) be fulfilled by using in-theater two hundred WWII-era P-51 Mustang fighters armed with small smart bombs.  The idea of course was that such a high number could swarm the battlefield or area of interest to overcome any poorly-armed resistance.

Of course, this was before remote-controlled drones came on the scene to the extent they have, and Doug Ross gives an excellent overview of how this has changed modern warfare.

Military drones aren’t just one thing — they come in a huge range of sizes, costs, and purposes. On the low end, you’ve got $500 disposable quadcopters that soldiers fly into enemy positions. On the high end, there are $100 million surveillance drones that fly at 60,000 feet and can stay in the air for days. The key pattern is simple: the cheaper the drone, the more of them get used. The most expensive drones exist in small numbers, while the cheapest ones are built and destroyed by the hundreds of thousands. By 2026, militaries around the world have organized their drone forces into what’s called a “drone stack” — a system where different types of unmanned aircraft are layered by altitude, flight time, cost, and mission, covering everything from a single squad’s needs to an entire war zone.

Here’s an idea of the scale:

By 2025, Ukraine was building over 200,000 small attack drones per month.

So I had the right idea, but I just wasn’t thinking small enough.  Mea culpa.

Related Actions

Military, Wars & Other Fun Games

First up, there’s this excellent thought from Bill Lehman (and read all of it because it’s excellent):

Take down their military structure. All of it. Take out their Quds Force, the entire IRGC in as far as we can find it, and leave their government, their military and their military logistics a pile of burning rubble. I would be a fan of flying a few hundred supply runs over Iran, C-17s and C-5s, full of crates of rifles, and ammunition, and dropping them, for the People of Iran to use, to finish the job. Then we need to LEAVE.

And here’s a manifestation of the above:

Thousands of Kurdish fighters have launched a ground invasion in Iran, according to a US official.  The Kurdish militias, based across the border in Iraq, began the offensive in northwestern Iran on Wednesday.  The Kurdish groups are widely seen as the most well-organized faction of the fragmented Iranian opposition and are believed to have thousands of battle-hardened fighters. 

President Donald Trump on Sunday night spoke with the heads of Kurdish militant groups in Iraq to discuss the situation in Iran.  The CIA was exploring plans to arm the Kurdish forces with the aim of sparking a popular uprising, CNN reported Tuesday. 

Yeah, I’m all over this idea, as long as we remember that sometime not so long ago we armed a group called the Taliban to rebel against the Russian invaders of Afghanistan, and that didn’t work out so well.  And I’m also a little apprehensive that these guys are coming over the border from Iraq — FFS, that whole area is a snake pit, isn’t it?

And just to remind everyone:  the PKK (main Kurdish political party) is soft-core Muslim but hardcore Marxist.  If that combination isn’t a toxic brew, I can’t think of a better one.  None of which bodes well for the future.

Me, I’d prefer to drop those rifles and machine guns into towns and villages all over Iran, after first notifying the local resistance leaders — we know who they are, right, CIA? — where and when the guns are going to arrive so that they aren’t just taken by the IRGC fanatics when the crates hit the ground.  Using history as a pointer, this would be akin to randomly air-dropping guns into Nazi-occupied Europe, only to have the SS intercept the shipments and use them for their own purposes, i.e. killing resistance fighters (and a few Jews, just for fun).

It’s all a little complicated and so on, but in this case, anything is better than dropping American boots on the ground to handle the thing.  Once again, a history lesson:  Afghanistan and a little further back, Vietnam.

Guns and ammo are cheap;  American lives are expensive, and worth more than the game.  Especially in this Middle Eastern shit pit.

Pointed Stick

Weapons

From his lair in chilly Scotland, Longtime Reader and Friend Quentin S. asks the following intriguing question:

I saw a post on Quora about swords and open carry which piqued my interest and might pique yours. I understand that open carry of swords is actually legal in many US states. So, suppose you were no longer able to carry a gun, which sword would you choose? And which would you recommend?

I’m guessing that you personally would choose a sword-stick, but how about for someone younger and fitter? A rapier? A cinquedea?

The fact that I had to look up “cinquedea” to see what it was reveals my abysmal ignorance of cutlery.  For those of similar ignorance, here’s what it is (with a link in the pic should you want to buy one… hmmm):

I have to say that as a gunnie, I’d never given much thought to what I might select should the bitter question ever come to pass (“If we aren’t allowed to carry guns, how about swords?”).

If it came to just a bladed instrument I already own, I’d be caught short because my interest has confined itself to knives.  Although my Fox 685 survival machete (also of Italian origin, coincidentally) might do in a pinch:

…it’s a tad short and much too heavy for (shall we say) those social occasions.

No;  just as one night choose a rifle over a handgun in order to keep an enemy at a distance, a sword would definitely be preferable to a knife — and that cinquedea, lovely as it is, is more of a dagger than a sword and to be honest, I have that area covered, in spades.

So which long-bladed implement would I choose?

At first impulse, I might indeed chose a sword-stick, as Quentin surmises.  Here’s an example (once again, link in pic):

I have to tell y’all, that looks extremely tasty.  Hmmmmm…  (Yeah yeah, I know:  “Wait a minute Kim;  you mean you don’t own a sword-stick already?”  Shuddup already;  I carry a 1911, FFS.)

Here’s my problem, though.  While that sword looks lovely, and in a pinch the stick could even be used as a light cudgel, I don’t have the faintest idea how to use one.  Never got interested in swordplay outside childhood, so here we are.  And I’m not sure I’d want to learn, at this my advanced age.  It does strike me, however, that if you don’t know how to use a weapon, it could prove to be problematic should you actually be required to use one in extremis.  And if I’m about anything, it’s about training and practice when it comes to lethal weapons.

So if not a dagger or rapier-type of sword, what next?

How about a more slender, slashy version of the Fox 685:  a cutlass?

But it’s kinda long (nearly 3 feet) and clanky, innit?  I’d want something just a tad more controllable, something that would be as handy for slashing as for stabbing.  As always when I’m searching for answers, let me learn from history:  what was used in antiquity, back when they didn’t have SMLEs or 1911s?

Ha!  When in doubt, see what the Greeks used, when slaughtering Persians and other assorted fuzzy-wuzzies.  Here’s the xiphos (linked):

OMG I think I just fell in love.  24 inches of sharpy goodness, curves that would make Sophia Loren envious, and all the heritage and history rolled into one.  It’s like the E-type Jag of swords:

…only a lot more reliable.  I think I may just sell one of my seldom-used guns to get my hands on a xiphos because it’s beautiful and also unlike the E-type, affordable.

Any reason why I shouldn’t?

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

The RUD [ rapid unscheduled disassembly] got started last week with Israel’s three-part virtual decapitation of Hezbollah’s organization. That is, if “decapitation” is the correct word when exploding pagers removed Hezbollah bits a bit further down than their large heads. That was followed up, as I’m sure you know, the next day by exploding walkie-talkies. When Hezbollah’s remaining leadership began to meet in person to overcome their crippled comms, the Israeli Air Force bombed the meetings.

 

Also:

Papieren, Bitte

Bureaucracy, Mocking Furriners

…or however they say it in French.  This story made me howl with laughter, although I still think the paras should just have turned their little Fairburn-Sykes stickers on the bureaucrats.

If they’re still allowed to carry them, that is.

I see that the above is actually a replica, the FOX Fairbairn-Sykes FX-5934.  I love Fox knives, already have their 685 bush knife, and now I want this one really badly.

If anybody else is interested (and who wouldn’t be?) it’s apparently on sale here (as above) and here (in “tactical” black).

MIA

Traditions

Spot the missing part(s):

Begging the question:  what is Schrodinger’s Swiss Army Knife?

Well, that would be the above, which contains every possible mini-tool except for the implement in its title.

And Victorinox is now party to this silliness.

I’m just glad I already possess a number of the original knives, all of which contain one or more blades.

And anyone who thinks that a Swiss Army knife could be used as a weapon is a fucking moron.

Mind you, that razor-sharp mini-saw would sure leave a mark if dragged across some scrote’s face…

Just sayin’.