tag:www.thedonovan.com,2012://1/tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928- 2012-03-24T15:07:26Z We're the Military and Airpower Guys of Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online + a stray we found wandering around looking lost. All original material JHD, BHD, JR, WT, and KA 2003-2010 Movable Type 4.12 tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928 2010-02-05T13:18:55Z 2010-02-06T13:22:56Z

Oh, about eight or so zeroes to the left of the decimal in your defense budget. The whatzis, revealed.

The Armorer http://www.thedonovan.com

Not that several of you guys hadn't already gotten there - you just hadn't connected the final dots. This was a fun one.  Alan scored close early on when he suggested a field expedient weapon rest - he just kept his scale too small.  Roy was sniffing around the target, too, then Blake swept in at the end of day one and essentially nailed it, at least part one.  Then I twisted the knife with part two, and all y'all went down some rabbit holes, with Og actually talking himself out of the correct answer, if only briefly.  On to day three, where John (Not The Armorer) was closing in, and you guys were all circling the target, though stuck in the weeds.  Part four, and Og is getting downright testy, even though he's essentially correct.  BTW - the pulling wings off flies thing was just what it was - a metaphor for the ebil Armorer watching all y'all run around.  No hidden meanings...  Old Fat Sailor showed up with a pretty good answer, too.  All in all, I think you guys did pretty well and had some fun doing it.   

Two things inspired this Whatzis.  One was the passing of the Auld Soldier, which caused me to go through his Vietnam photos, the other was the acquisition of the rocket launcher.  Which is World War II, Australian, and while documentation on usage is sparse, while they could launch bombardment rockets, the single-rail launchers like this one were apparently used mostly to launch smoke markers and flares.



The Auld Soldier, before he assumed command of the 6th Battalion, 15th Field Artillery, was the  II Field Force Deputy G2.  One of the projects he was involved in was "people sniffing" - using chemical sensors on helicopters and OV-1 Mohawks that would look for human scents.  Dietary differences between US, ARVN, and VC/NVA troops were sufficient that the systems could distinguish between them... except when it pinged on monkeys...  but that's a story for another time.  It was during one of these missions that the Auld Soldier took these pictures.  This one,showing a triple-stand of 122mm rockets in the jungle, and this one,a much clearer shot of those same rockets.  The picture above is one of the rockets close up after they air assaulted in.  Two of the Auld Soldier's four Vietnam Purple Hearts were caused by 122mm rockets.

As this picture of the launcher I built with about 5 minutes worth of work (mostly involved in finding wood), all you need for this is a rocket (the hard part), something to measure the angle (in my case, that gunner's quadrant resting on the rocket), some rope/wire, and two pieces of wood.  If you're really fancy, a compass, otherwise you just eyeball it in. Some wires, batteries, and an timer/remote control of some sort and you're ready to go.  Many of you and our own Bill have dodged love notes like that whether in Vietnam or in the current operating environment.

The Australian launcher is what you have when you've got some money.  Adjustable bipod legs, secure electrical hookups, a built-in quadrant...  It is an easy one-man portable launcher.  I can only imagine what it would look like and cost if we were to make something similar today, with our penchant for bells and whistles. 

But if you're an insurgent... which would you rather have - at least in the early phases of an insurgency?   Based on how they both look in the bed of the truck - I know which one is going to raise fewer eyebrows at a checkpoint.

Thank you all for playing.  This was a fun one.

Oh - and no, my folding-fin aerial rocket isn't a good choice for this launcher, really - but it's the only kind of rocket I have...  Not too many dummy 4.5 inch bombardment rockets out there, oddly enough.
]]> tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98481 John of Argghhh! http://www.thedonovan.com
Geoff - no conscious visual shenanigans - I just took the picture of the Arms Room for the update before I put the FFAR back where it usually resides...]]> 2010-02-06T13:26:18Z 2010-02-06T13:26:18Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98463 Old Fat Sailor 2010-02-06T01:18:55Z 2010-02-06T01:18:55Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98462 agimarc ]]> 2010-02-06T01:04:47Z 2010-02-06T01:04:47Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98457 SezaGeoff 2010-02-05T22:51:29Z 2010-02-05T22:51:29Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98447 Old Fat Sailor 2010-02-05T19:46:47Z 2010-02-05T19:46:47Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98446 John of Argghhh! http://www.thedonovan.com 2010-02-05T19:04:36Z 2010-02-05T19:04:36Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98445 og Incidentally, werry snicky to make it a twofer. 2010-02-05T18:55:52Z 2010-02-05T18:55:52Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98421 John of Argghhh! http://www.thedonovan.com Blake - like any insurgent, I'm waaaay too lazy to go building a field expedient quadrant when I have about 15 examples on a shelf... 2010-02-05T15:59:02Z 2010-02-05T15:59:02Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98417 Mike L http://hvuhuh ]]> 2010-02-05T15:02:09Z 2010-02-05T15:02:09Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98416 Blake Kirk 2010-02-05T14:48:27Z 2010-02-05T14:48:27Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98415 John of Argghhh! http://www.thedonovan.com
Come to think of it - that's what Blake's bubbas did, too!]]> 2010-02-05T14:47:01Z 2010-02-05T14:47:01Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98414 Heartless Libertarian
A piece of angle iron, or a couple of planks nailed into a v-form will greatly increase the accuracy of that field expedient rig.  Seen pics of those from NGIC...as well as an example of a Chinese equivalent to your Aussie toy, captured from the TB.

107mm rockets are by far the most common used in Afghanistan, but those 122mm ones are nasty - they can fly over 20 km from a proper launcher, which a few of the bad guys have.  On at least one occasion that I know of, one of our FOBs near Khowst city took indirect fire - with a POO inside Pakistan, almost 20kms away.  Bad guys were probably a bit surprised when the FOB returned fire...  ]]> 2010-02-05T14:45:19Z 2010-02-05T14:45:19Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98413 Blake Kirk
Come to think of it, John, I may have sent you a photo of the things a few years back.]]> 2010-02-05T14:41:51Z 2010-02-05T14:41:51Z tag:www.thedonovan.com,2010://1.11928-comment:98411 og Where's the coyote? 2010-02-05T14:17:59Z 2010-02-05T14:17:59Z