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H&I Fires* 18 AUG 2007

By Denizens on August 18, 2007 | | Comments (6)

Open post for those with something to share, updated through the day. New, complete posts come in below this one. Note: If trackbacking, please acknowledge this post in your post. That's only polite.

You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

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I've got an all-day Rotary gig today, so I'm just gonna toss this up here so's you guys can get to work on it. Since the Whatziss was a 3" mortar round, how about a pic of the Stokes round with a WWII-era 3" round - this particular one being Australian. That's a sight for the Aussie 4.2" mortar at the bottom of the pic. Someday - I'm going to have a mortar to stick that on...

3-inch mortar rounds. Top, for the Stokes mortar, bottom, standard WWII Australian round. On the bottom, a sight for the Ozzie 4.2-inch mortar.

-the Armorer

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Bob Calvert has his first set of reports on his Iraq embed: the stateside USO, arrival in Kuwait, and finally, The Green Zone (no, he won't be spending his entire time in The Green Zone; that's just where he's starting).

Valour-IT's MEGEN is on the road again. This time, she's got a Naval Whatziss for you. - FbL

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*A term of art from the artillery. Harassment and Interdiction Fires.

Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone"

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6 Comments

By Ledger on August 18, 2007 8:29 PM
Speaking of mortars, there is a discussion of the exact type of military ammunition found in Orange County California yesterday. It’s was found in a stolen SUV and detonated in the area. Some say it’s a RPG, some say a bazooka and others say it a mortar. [See picture below] If anybody can answer the question it is you guys. What exactly is it? [Pictue of RPG like ammunition] EXPOSIVE SITUATION: Orange County Sheriff bomb squad member, deputy Keith Prinzing, left, examines a piece of military ordnance with an explosive expert from Camp Pendelton [And] See: UPI description of explosive projectile
 
By John of Argghhh! on August 19, 2007 9:22 AM
1. Looks like it's a mortar round to me - not an RPG. That's a conventional blast/fragmentation round, RPGs usually are shaped charge weapons (thermobarics excepted). 2. That caption and picture don't match the article description - in that it looks to me in the pic like they're going to destroy it on the ground there, outside of the van, not inside of it. 3. They can't think it was *that* dangerous, or they wouldn't be handling it. 4. Can't tell too much more from the picture, really.
 
By Ledger on August 19, 2007 3:31 PM
John, can you tell if it is a US round or a foreign made round?
 
By Sean Osborne on August 20, 2007 9:50 AM
Looks to be very similar to a U.S.-made M301A2 Illumination Mortar sans nose fusing and propellant charge.
 
By John of Argghhh! on August 20, 2007 12:35 PM
I'd agree, Sean - except the fins don't match at all. They're too long.
 
By Ledger on August 21, 2007 1:55 PM
Hum, that is perplexing. I looked at the pictures of a M301A2 and its close but not the same. The American rounds seem to be clearly marked. I don’t see any markings on the projectile found in OC CA. Some have speculated that being in Southern California; the van was stole for transport of narcotics and the thieves left behind some spare ammo. There have been reports of some pretty powerful stuff used by Mexican gangs south of the boarder. But, who knows. The article is so poorly written that the facts are not clear.