The answer to the Whatziss of Saturday.

Yer slugs. Most of you didn't even try, sigh.

But those that did went down the path I thought you would.

If you're new to this one, start here, and then go here.

Click here to see the assembled version.

It *is* an arming vane, just not for an air-dropped bomb, but rather for the British Grenade, Rifle, No25, also known as the Sangster grenade.

With its 15 inch rod (keep a lid on it, W-K) and high quality of construction, this grenade was able to achieve good ranges, and functioned well enough in optimum conditions. The problem was what you might expect - the soldier had to carry that vaned fuze in the trenches... and *that* was a problem. The grenade worked well, at a time when many Brit grenades didn't - except for that "robustness" problem of Tommy having to flop on the ground and crawl around, which was bad for the vanes.

The answer to the Whatziss of Saturday.

Yer slugs. Most of you didn't even try, sigh.

But those that did went down the path I thought you would.

If you're new to this one, start here, and then go here.

Click here to see the assembled version.

It *is* an arming vane, just not for an air-dropped bomb, but rather for the British Grenade, Rifle, No25, also known as the Sangster grenade.

With its 15 inch rod (keep a lid on it, W-K) and high quality of construction, this grenade was able to achieve good ranges, and functioned well enough in optimum conditions. The problem was what you might expect - the soldier had to carry that vaned fuze in the trenches... and *that* was a problem. The grenade worked well, at a time when many Brit grenades didn't - except for that "robustness" problem of Tommy having to flop on the ground and crawl around, which was bad for the vanes.

Okay, let's answer that whatzis, and pose a new one.

Watching the comments is like using silent interrogation. Just stay quiet, and you guys will just keep talking and talking and talking... and you usually find, and sometimes reject, the correct answer.

Casey, Trias, and ibm all were mostly correct. This is the guts of an "offensive" anti-personnel grenade. Ya, ya, all grenades are offensive to their targets. In milspeak, an "offensive" grenade is one designed to be tossed by a fellow who might not be able to take cover from it's effects, such as an attacking soldier, so those effects are minimized, both blast and long-range fragmentation. Defensive grenades are presumed to be thrown from cover, and hence are designed to have greater local and longer-range effects.

The whatzis are the guts of an unidentified euro version, which would have a plastic outer casing. The interior sphere is aluminum, and the ball bearings/bb's are glued to that shell.

The body of the US egg grenade on the right is included for scale purposes, the fuze in the grenade on the left is from the one on the right - vets will recognize a training fuze from the light blue spoon. Well done - you guys really did pretty well - but would do well to heed JTG's warning about me, too. [/evil smirk]

Here's your next challenge. Ready? Set? Go!

The whatziss, revealed!

To refresh: This was the question.

It was the "all-ways" fuze used with the Brit No. 69 and No. 81 Grenades. JTG got it correct!

This is actually the fuze from the Castle's "Drill Purpose" No. 69 grenade.

Update: USMC Steve got in *his* answer literally as I was publishing this post - he got it right, too.

Let's try something different...

Rather than me being all snarky and showing off I can stump you by controlling the variables (hardly fair) - I'm just going to slap this up there and let *you* guys show off what you know about what this is and how it works, vice "Can you figure out that this is an elephant when all I show you is a cellular slice from a polyp inside it's trunk?" like I usually do... Hey, I know I'm mean - but you keep coming back, so, we're like co-dependent, right? Don't forget to explain *why* a feature is there, not just that it's there. The whole purpose is to inform the curious.

Extra credit if you figure out the proper nomenclature and nation of origin. I'm going to leave the comments open - but be honest - put your answer/description down and *then* read everybody else's. Block copying from a manual is okay, if that's how you achieve positive buoyancy for your bateaux, but I'll bring the best original answer (in my humble opinion) up into the post and leave it for the archives... just in case there's any egos out there who need a stimulus.

Snerk.

Okay, you guys need some help. How about the flip side? This is what SezaGeoff saw this morning.

Bet it doesn't look like you expected on the inside... but the answer to why it *isn't* the M406 (like Doug thought) is clear to the true grognard. And Doug, aside from color - there are only two (related) things that cause the M406 to differ from this round.

Update: This is the M407 - the training version of the M406 HE round. The difference? Aside from the color of markings? The "ball" portion of the grenade. It's not serrated on the inside for fragmentation purposes, and it wasn't loaded with HE. The M407 was in turn replaced by the M781, which had a plastic projectile filled with a marking powder.

SezaGeoff, first out of the chute (and with the second pic to get him started) was the most thorough of you.

The fuze? It's an "all-ways" fuze - with a set-back and spin safety system that didn't allow the grenade to arm until it was a safe distance away from the firer - not that just shooting someone with the grenade wouldn't distract them... even if it *didn't* explode.

Some tidying up of loose ends.

In case of Moonbats, break glass, and grab the Armorer's Cluebat! (Down, Denizennes, sheesh!) 32 inches Moonbat-thumping reach - with a nice, cannon-like touch to the, ahem, barrel of the piece.

Alrighty then, moving on. Remember this "Whatziss?"

Go below the fold, to the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry, and you can see it in context.

Whatziss, solved!

Eric was very close - and Frank, building on Eric's work, finally bridged the last tiny gap.

The plate was used by German Stormtroops to pull the fuzeloops not of the Steilhandgranaten - stick grenades, but rather the wire loops of the egg grenades.

In other words - like this.

Well done guys - it wasn't an easy one, it's not a well known, nor very common, piece of kit. As far as I know - until I posted these pics - the website that Frank found was the only other place you could find a picture of this - in far worse shape than that in the Arsenal of Argghhh!

Whatziss, Answered. Meet the Grenade, .303 rifle, No 22 Mk II.

That's whatziss is, as surmised, a rodded rifle grenade.

I guess, as a final hint, I should have said, "Think Hobbit." Go ahead, google "Rod Grenade Pippin."

A paucity of formally adopted and procured rifle grenades were a problem for all combatants in the early stages of WWI. The WWI procurement bureacracies hov'red over the battlefields, very much process-bound, much as they still do today, leaving the troops in the field to innovate.

{To save on loading times and bandwidth, I've moved the rest of this post to the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry so we'll only bug the ones who want to read it. You're welcome, Princess Crabby]

So, what was it?

I guess I've tortured High Desert Wanderer long enough...

And, my goad worked. Someone *did* get it. Not exactly in how it worked, but good enough for government work.

Pogue - I name you a Brainiac of Argghhh!

I would guess that it's an inertia safety for one of the rifle grenades on display in the castle.

Gezackly. More specifically, this one: The Serbian one that resides on the Yugo SKS in the Castle Collection. It is included in the picture of the "selection of rifle grenades" in this post. I can't believe *no one* commented on that, either. I guess I've got you all *really* desensitized, so that if we ever get the Castle to sufficiently to spec for SWWBO to think about letting you in the physical, vice digital demesne, you'll take it in stride all the ordnance laying about.

The bottom of the fuze element (the bit on the left) is the gain, the charge that (empty in the Castle example, of course) that initiates the bursting charge in the grenade body on the right (also empty, natch).

Click here for the last picture, which will open in a new window.

On the left is the firing pin. When you remove the cap (the very top of the grenade in the first picture and the safety pin (the ring) the firing pin is free to move against the spring which holds it off the primer. When the grenade lands, point first, you've got enough oomph for the pin to overcome the spring and strike the primer.

On the right is our inertia safety. In the picture, the primer is aligned over the flash hole. The primer is the silver-looking part. When safe, that whole assembly is on the *other* side of the body, held in place by the spring-loaded peg in the upper left of the assembly. When the grenade is fired that peg, being held in place by a very weak spring, overcomes the spring's resistance and drops, allowing the spring in the primer assembly to move the assembly and get aligned over the hole - this takes enough time that if the firing pin *also* moves during the shock of launch it would actually drop into the hole on the left side of the assembly, and delay the movement of the primer assembly until the firing pin spring overcame the inertia and retracted the firing pin, thus allowing the primer assembly to move into place.

The whole point is to make sure the bang happens upon arrival, not departure...

That's all, folks.

That was nicer than Bill's farkin' gear!

Pogue, gimme a snail mail address and I'll get you a Brainiac of Argghhh! mug. I gotta scoot - I've got Charitable Things to do this morning. Someone else can get the H&I set up!

The Bright Shiny Object

As Boquisucio determined, was a Soviet Diakonoff grenade, one of two in the holdings of the Arsenal. This is a later version, with a time fuze.

Here's a bookend of late (on the left, a Brit 40mm training grenade commonly used today) and early (on the right, 1920's, 40mm grenade developed by the Soviets and used in WWII. Like the french Vivien-Bessier grenade of WWI, this was fired from a "tromblon" or cup discharger, and was a "bullet-through" vice "bullet-trap", grenade. Thus far when I've seen them, I've been outbid for them, but if anyone knows of any available Mosin-Nagant tromblons and related sight, I'm in the market!

For Owen - here's a closeup of the time fuze ring (these grenades are unusual for their era in having a time fuze). Oh, and those projections that threw some of you off? There are three, spaced evenly around the grenade.

Little help... and Grenade Pr0n!

I've been too serious of late, despite Bill's best efforts. Must be subliminally trying to ease the bruising my ego is taking at the Weblog Awards...

Anybody know what grenade this is?

It's been tentatively id'd as a French Guidetti from WWI, but I don't agree. Unfortunately, I can't prove it isn't, either, really, based on the somewhat limited resources out there.

Anybody know their obscure WWI grenades? Better than me? Who read this thing...

Context is everything.

Which is why CAPT H won't play the Whatzis game... Interesting suggestions. Salad shooter. Jacuzzi. Nose trimmer. Bloodspite was closest overall (at the time of this entry, anyway). And Devin was the most interesting of the plausibles...

It's all a matter of scale.

That's the nose of the WWI Austrian Universal Grenade, an attempt to make a grenade All Things For All Purposes. A Swiss Army Knife of a grenade. A one-size-fits-all solution. Y'know - like the F4 Phantom, or F111. Except those turned out to be useful, in the end. The Universal? Well, how many of you have heard of one?

The thing is about the thickness of a hot dog. (I can hear the Ya-Ya's twittering behind their fans already.) It gets the name Universal from its ability to be either a hand-thrown grenade or a rod-grenade fired from a rifle. An impact fuze or a time fuze. The one in the Castle Armory is the rod version, as you can see from the left hand photograph. This one is also configured for a friction time fuze (that thing dangling off the side), with the percussion fuze as a back-up. The item in the lower photo standing up on end is the cover for the nose, needed so that the propeller-safety of the percussion fuze won't inadvertently arm. We hateses it when that happens!

The rest of this will be in the Flash Traffic/Extended Entry.

Preview of coming attractions...

Update: Since the Gurlz of Argghhh! (heh, a calendar, perhaps?) seem to be a little confused, the following information is provided to help the Ya-Ya Blog Sisterhood (YYBS) better comprehend what is in the photo above (because if you read the comments, the YYBS' are having some difficulty)...

Top, from left to right.

British No23 Mk1, bottom of Austrian Lakos, top of Austrian Kugelhandgranate (both from last week), German Diskushandgranate M1915, British No 5 Mk 1.

Next under is an Austrian Universal grenade in rod configuration.
Next under is a long-hafted brass-bodied grenade that while it does have a proper British No19 grenade fuze on it is probably not an official grenade at all but someones attempt at a repro.

Bottom, L to R: German Ubungs, or training grenade that substituted for the M1916 and M1917 stick grenades in Stormtrooper training exercises. Russian Lantern grenade, British No19, with streamers (which are prolly replacements), British No1Mk2 (short handled, missing the streamers), German Kugelhandgranate M1915, and lastly, a German M1917 stick grenade.

One of these grenades (unrelated to repro parts) has something wrong with it. Let's see if there's a grognard out there who can figure it out. Hint - *I* wasn't paying attention at some point - a factoid which will only assist a *real* grognard or dogged pursuer of the question. Oh, and if you think I've mis-identified a grenade, that's possible, but would only count as extra credit...

Oh, and yes, dear - I've taken all the toys and put them back in the case, rather than leave them strewn on your antique butcher block table... really!

The Whatzis? answer.

First some stuff just because I wanna.

Finally, Saddam goes on trial. Funny how some people are almost positing that "fair trial" means essentially, unless there is a real chance of a defense and acquittal, there can't be a trial, because that wouldn't be fair... so he (or anyone in that situation) should go free. Hey, no worries, it worked for OJ, right? You want to see that discussion, run through yesterday afternoon (18 October) at NRO.

Plamegate straggles on. Hey, Whitewater certainly dragged on, too.
I'll wait and see what happens and finally comes out. This pundit gig doesn't pay well enough to spend all that time digging.

Okay, let's clear up that little straggler from yesterday. Shock, surprise, not many of you made serious attempts to figure out what they were, except for those who have been deprived of intimacy of late... The rest of you, what, you got jobs or something?

Anyway - they're both grenades. Both Austrian. The stick grenade one is a Rohrhandgranate (Alt) or literally, Tube Hand Grenade (Old), as vice the "Neu" or New. No, Neffi - not missing the cap to the grenade handle. There wasn't one. The handle is a cardboard tube, taped over. In the case of mine, almost certainly a replacement - aside from it's condition for a 90-year old cardboard tube, it also doesn't project through the ball (as can be seen in the linked pictures).

The other is a Lakos. Mine is an early version, also larger than most later versions. Another give-away as to early... it has a fuze that must be lit, vice a percussion fuze as used on later grenades. This is just a tube with wooden plugs at each end, made of cast iron so that it would be more likely to break into pieces. One reason they are fairly common on Italian-front battlefields is the fuze often failed, or the explosive just blew out the wooden plugs.

WWI grenades are a fascinating study. You could find *both* of those grenades on the same battlefield, even though they represent very different levels of sophistication and technology.

Lest we think the Austrians were alone in relatively crude grenades... well, that's not true. Both an inadequate starting stockpile and an inability to produce "professionally engineered" grenades in quantity led to many battlefield innovations. Such as these Battye grenades from the Arsenal Collection. They were manufactured by French engineers in the town of Bethune, Northern France, for the British army in 1915. Named after the inventor, a Royal Engineer Major Battye. Segmented roughly cast iron cylinder originally containing Ammonal, sealed with a wooden plug, and having a lit or chemical fuze. Also prone to failure of the plug just blowing out, hence the wires.

Early in the war it was so bad both sides resorted to complete battlefield improvisation, producing a class of grenades sometimes referred to as "hairbrush grenades" for obvious reasons. The official french nomenclature was "Les Grenades Artisanales."

The French had an odd mix of grenades, too. I've covered the Vivien-Bessiere grenade launcher before. But they had grenades like the Citron Foug, which you slammed down on a hard surface to ignite the fuze. Many wartime helmets have dents in them - not from shrapnel, but from a desperate soldier in a muddy field who was trying to get his grenades to work...

Then there were gems like these French 'bracelet' grenades in the Arsenal. WWI vintage. The soldier wrapped a loop of twine or wire that has a hook on it around his wrist - hooks the loops on the grenades, throws. As it leaves his hand, it is supposed to pull out, igniting the friction primer. They were not popular.

Like this:

The poster is "Journée du Poilu. 25 et 26 décembre 1915" which reads as "Day of the Soldier, 25 and 26 December, 1915. It shows a poilu just about to loft a bracelet grenade. If you go back to the picture of my grenades - you can see an obvious problem with the go-to-war version, the Fusee Modele 1882 (which is just a new fuze stuck in the Modele 1847 grenade... yes, 1847). They took out the wick fuze and stuck in this. Problem is, it's a friction-fit wood plug. Often as not - the grenade went sailing away, leaving the fuze dangling. Hence the second grenade, the Modele 1914, with a brass base, threaded so that it screwed in securely. Which grumped the Generals, because that meant they were more expensive, and you had to thread the old grenade bodies too! Dammit! I *hate* it when that happens. The Ghost of Gorgas. Those who know, know.

I'll continue this subject sometime when the muse next seizes me. Mebbe rod grenades...

Ah, Brit obits! and other weirdness

Ah, Lieutenant-Commander Dick Raikes - if only I had had *half* the career you did before, like you, I was "invalided out" of the service.

Of such metal was the Empire built.

A few days later Raikes heard the propeller noise of a U-boat surfacing and carried out a snap attack with his stern torpedoes; there was an explosion and black smoke, but Raikes found no wreckage. The patrol ended with an amorous whale bumping Seawolf for an hour. Raikes was awarded the DSO.

Read the rest, here. You really do want to read this one.

Now is the time at Castle Argghhh! when we dance, In Memoriam.

Moving on...

Frequent commenter Monteith sends us this... we'd like that *a lot*... it would look good in the inner Bailey next to the Trebuchet and Onager... but I think my interest foundered when I read "Purchaser to arrange own cartage..."

Jeff, complimenting my on my 'correct politics' 8^) sends us to Gun Law News, where the inimitable Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee, holds forth thusly:

A database this large is likely to contain many errors," said Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) during a May 12 hearing on the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act (H.R. 98). "Any one of [the errors] could render someone unemployable and possibly much worse until they can get their file straightened out."

As they point out at Gun Law News...

But in 2002, Jackson Lee argued for the "Our Lady of Peace Act," (H.R. 4757), an expansion of the National Instant Check System (NICS) for handgun purchases.

So, the bottom line is that the rights of illegal aliens to whom some of the Constitution does not apply are more important than the rights of a US citizen guaranteed by the US Constitution.

A-yup. If yer a Moonbat, anyway.

Heh. Let's check in with Noah of Defense Tech and David Crane at Defense Review - they've got the goods on some of the stuff that finds it's way into the studies I conduct for a living. [N.B. This has been edited to give credit where credit is due.]

XM-25 Grenade Launcher

Throwbots.

HELLADS.

H/t, Jim C. (feeling better, dude?)

Remember some of the discussions in the past week of How to Lose the War? One of the counters I suggested was we as individuals and as bloggers need to paint the side of the conflict that the MSM, which both by political bias and institutional inertia (if it bleeds, it leads) won't cover? The positive aspects? Move America Forward is taking that idea and running with it - by taking a bunch of talk radio hosts over to Iraq: The Truth Tour, Live from Baghdad! Hey, face it - those guys will reach more people than most of us bloggers will!

More on the 617th MP Company

By now, most of you have heard of this fight - via the media, Blackfive, Greyhawk - the usual suspects. Due to the flow of my work and blogging, I don't usually jump on the 'breaking stories' because someone's already fed 'em to Matt and the 'Hawk - but yesterday I did get some pictures.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about - I'm talking about the firefight of the Richmond, Kentucky based 617th MP Company - you can read about it here.

The soldiers continued to take fire as they traveled up the main highway. Squad leader Nein wanted to make a right turn onto another road, but just as the Humvees were turning the corner, one was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Spc. Casey Cooper, 20, was up in the gunner's turret when the vehicle was hit.

"The heat and the concussion knocked me," said Cooper. "I could feel it hit me in the chest and the face, and that was about it. I blacked out after that."

But he quickly rejoined the fight. By that time, the U.S. soldiers were out of their vehicles.

I'm gonna put another face with the story, and some gun pics. Perfect match for the Castle!

Let's meet Specialist Cooper, and see what sort of stuff this intrepid little Band of Brothers gathered up in as thier part in trying to further the cause of Iraqi sovereignty, free from tribal tyranny. Or at least something better than they had.

In this photo released by the U.S. Army Wednesday, March 23, 2005, U.S. Army 503rd MP Battalion, 18th MP Brigade gunner SPC Casey Cooper stands next to a his damaged Humvee near Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites) recently, after it received a direct hit from a rocket-propelled grenade, knocking him unconscious. Cooper was revived and helped his fellow soldiers defeat an attack on a coalition supply convoy March 20, about 18 miles southeast of Baghdad, according to U.S. officials. (AP Photo/U.S. Army, Sgt. 1st Class Marshall P. Ware)

And let's see some of the captured haul - and what they were facing. Once again, training, discipline (instilled by pride and training, maintained by good leadership) and basic soldiering pays off... this is 12 troops fending off more than three times their number, killing 17 of the bad guys, in a fight that took place at a time and place of the bad guy's choosing. That's just professional-quality soldiering - and if there are any Regulars out there still bad-mouthing the Guard and Reserve in general (as vice specifics) - give it a rest, wouldja?

In this photo released by the U.S. Army Wednesday, March 23, 2005, U.S. Army U.S. Army 503rd MP Battalion, 18th MP Brigade Sgt. 1st Class Marshall P. Ware, of Lexington, KY, poses with a cache of insurgent weapons recovered after an insurgent attack on a supply convoy March 20, about 18 miles southeast of Baghdad. Seventeen insurgents were killed in the battle. (AP Photo/U.S. Army, SPC Casey Cooper)

In this image made available 23 March 2005,Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, team leader, 4th Platoon, 617th Military Police Company, 503rd MP Battalion, 18th MP Brigade, stands in front of a captured weapons cache after her squad repelled an insurgent attack on a Coalition supply convoy March 20 about 18 miles southeast of Baghdad.(AFP/US Army-HO)

UPDATE: I *was* going to publish the AAR, but Matt at Blackfive already has. Just another reason he was the winner of "Best Milblog". I was waiting for permission (not implying anything about Matt - this has to do with my still having an active clearance and some of the rules associated with it. Matt got it from different sources than I did - it came to him clear to use.)

New Equipment updates.

I recently got sent an update brief on some of the new, or newly modified gear, being fielded or scheduled for fielding. I'll be posting it in chunks over the next couple of days.

First installment includes updates on the XM107, the Semi-Auto Sniper Weapon System (SA-SWS), updates to the M249, Mk46 and Mk 48 machine guns, Shotguns, grenades, non-lethals, and the TOW Bunker Buster.

Download file

Good News on the Getting Creative to Save Lives Front.

Something else getting a fast-track push to get developed and into the hands of the troops, outside of normal processes:

RPG air-bags. Yep. RPG air-bags. You know the bad guys will come up with a response, but that will take awhile.

ARMORED WARFARE: RPGs Stopped by Air Bags and Electricity

November 8, 2004: Rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) are the typical weapons of choice when insurgents decide to attack trucks and armored vehicles. RPGs are cheap, simple to operate, and if used properly can inflict significant damage on Stryker and Bradley armored vehicles. Unarmed and armored Hummers are especially vulnerable, since the various armor kits for the Hummer are designed to protect occupants from small arms and machine gun fire, not anti-tank grenades.

One quick fix to protect the Hummer is a unique airbag system developed by a small California company that deploys a "curtain" down outside the side of the vehicle being attacked. Four bags are needed to protect all quadrants and are held in place with simple Velcro straps. A small radar detects the incoming RPG or RPGs and inflates the airbag with a carbon dioxide gas cartridge. The RPG is literally "caught" by the airbag like a pillow and slowed enough so the nose-mounted fuse doesn't detonate the warhead. Instead, the RPG ends up collapsing upon itself, shredding the secondary self-destruct fuse and looking like a stomped-on beer can. Currently, the airbag and cartridge have to be replaced after one use, but the designers are working on a reusable airbag that can simply be rolled up and put back into place.

Cost for the system is expected to run between $5,000 to $7,000 dollars and weighs around 50 pounds. The Army is in the process of awarding a contract with the goal of getting systems to Iraq within 6 months, at a initial product rate of 25 systems per month. Other systems are being refined for use on canvass-topped vehicles and the Stryker. The system has the potential to replace both the current Stryker "RPG" fence standoff metal framework as well as reactive armor systems and has the twin advantages of being lighter and less expensive than reactive armor. It's also safer around infantry than reactive armor. Multiple tests of the airbag system have been run using RPGs, with one test managing slow down an RPG enough to stop it relatively intact – forcing a stop to the tests until range safety could come out and blow it up in place.

Over the longer term, the Army is looking towards electronically "charged" armor protection. The protection scheme would be composed of an outside armored plate, a spaced gap, and an inner charged plate. Shaped charges are essentially hot streams of metal traveling at (very) rapid speed to penetrate armor. A shaped charge from an RPG or other antitank weapon would detonate, penetrate the outer armor plate, and the hot metal stream would make contact with the charged inner plate, forming an electrical circuit that ends up plattering the metal across the inner plate rather than breaking through into the hull of the vehicle.

Charged armor is a better solution than reactive armor, as it is both lighter than reactive and also non-threatening to nearby infantry. At least two anufacturers have successfully demonstrated charged armor solutions, one retrofitting a Bradley AFV with a large capacitor to charge the inner hull plate. One manufacturer has demonstrated that the Bradley charged armor can take multiple RPG hits onto the same section of the hull without penetration and was willing to show a short demonstration film to those of the proper security clearance. In theory, charged armor should work equally well against weapons with larger shaped charge warheads, but the manufacturer would not comment on any tests done in that area. Ideally, charged armor would be an integrated solution as a part of a hybrid-electric vehicle. Power would be available from the vehicle to charge the armor for protection and installing the equipment would not require an expensive rebuild from the ground up. – Doug Mohney

Hat tip: Strategy Page!

Other interesting tidbits from the boys at Strategy Page. Twas a busy day in history today. Some good, some bad.

Good. 1789 Elijah Craig brews the first bourbon whiskey, Bourbon County, Ky. Can't stand the stuff myself, but I know there are those of you who love it...
Bad. 1923 Hitler's "Beer Hall Putsch" in Munich.
Bad. 1939 Failed assassination attempt on Hitler in Burgerbraukeller, Munich
Good. 1942 Hitler proclaims fall of Stalingrad (He was wrong)
Good. 1942 Operation Torch: U.S. and British forces land in northwestern Africa (Really bad day for Germany.) Bad day for France, too. They got beat again - by us, this time. If you think about it, France and Italy are the only countries in WWII to lose to both sides.)
Lastly, for the Instapilot: Good. 1950 1st jet combat, Lt. Russell J. Brown's F-86 scores a North Korean MiG-15

Gunner was pretty close!

He originally thought the picture below was two grenades in a display. It was a blow-up of two grenades, an