Just found this after finding pics on militaryphotos.net and finding additional info here. One-man personal gliders give HAHO jumpers a range of 125 miles while reducing total time in the air by a third.

Just further proof that you don't have to be insane for Special Forces...

Oh, wait, YOU DO!

I want one.

But instead of playing Batman, I would bombard the PD with plushies....

Okay, maybe not the PD, or with plushies. But I would drop crap on something

My understanding is that Special Forces bury their chutes when they HALO / HAHO into hostile territory. What's the plan with this thing? lol.

Well, if they drop onto a snow-filled mountain, I bet it'd make a kick-hoop snowboard!

This is eagle twenty, fox two fire!

I'd imagine you'd just have to do more digging.

The German KSK is already using these.

It's only a matter of time before someone gets burned out of the sky over Russia during the 3 minute war....

Sigh.

This they can do. But we can't get rid of the ^&@*(! M4.

-Siege

Nice. Now, how would you use in your game?

For flying.

First, you'd have to resolve the HALO thread successfully.

Personally, I'm a fan of the plasma gun.

-Siege

Sounds like they are working on that...

Griping about the weapon is one thing - breaking Colt's hold and adjusting military thinking is something else.

In other words, I'll believe it when I see it.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/02/atCarbine070219/

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/army...umbers_071227w/

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/12/army...usttest_071217/

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/army_no416s_031008w/

The last one is a personal favorite.

-Siege

I imagine the Us inventory of 'crap to support M16s/M4s' is huge, and that would be a major incentive not the change. The cost of replacing that infrastructure would be gigantic and the XM8, scar, 416 are not exactly a gigantic leap forward.

I haven't seen any figures or arguments from military sources, otherwise I might take that into consideration.

At the same time, however, as I might be standing all by my lonesome with nothing but a rifle, a combat load and a flashlight it's a little harder for me to be sympathetic when I know the current weapon system is unreliable and overpriced as is, never mind any other bells and whistles strapped on.

The HK 416 was designed expressly to slide in place of the M4 with a minimum of fuss to avoid re-training issues and accessory re-designs. The damn thing even looks pretty close to the existing M4 design. Edit: And for that matter, the design of the HK is more durable and longer lasting, cutting down on maintenance costs required to support the M16/M4.

Instead of admitting the current design and weapon is less than what it could be and taking steps to redress the situation, the Army is trying to put a bandaid on the Titanic. Iraq and Afghanistan are both ground wars in dusty environments. Instead of spending money on weapon systems that can't really be employed with any degree of effectiveness in the current range of hostilities, ensuring that at least the active combat troops are as well equipped as they can be to survive the mission might be a better way to spend the military budget.

Just a thought.

Of course, I may be just a tad jaded at the Army's indifference to details.

-Siege

Any whole of army replacement programme for the M16 and M4 is going to take 5+ years. Just the manufacturing ramp up required to get sufficient volume would take at least one year and probably two.

That said, in Australia people constantly bleat about replacing the steyr with the M16 (I can only presume because they are mad, though it has a problem with not clearing the breech leading to occasional soldiers shooting themselves when not following the safety drill) so I try not to think about the fun complexities of military procurement.

a) That glider-wing is closer to the old 1980's G.I. Joe cartoon than Batman. If it were more like Batman, the wings would be wider & designed closer to the bat's wings.

b) it won't be long until someone straps a heavier-than-the-wearer thruster to it & tries to take off from a standing position on the ground. And go KABLOOEY.

I haven't seen any numbers on the amount of time it would take to put a new weapons system into place - I would like to think it wouldn't take nearly that long. But then again, this is the US Army.

I have to do some research on why the Aussies opted for the M16 - that just seems...odd. Thanks for the homework project.

-Siege

Sorry not to make that clear - They didn't. They went for the Steyr.

But people like to complain about the steyr AUG endlessly and suggest (stupid) alternatives, on the web, in news paper columns, etc. Much the same as the brits complaining endlessly about their rifle.

Heh - trust me on this one, the grass ain't that greener.

-Siege

Are any militaries deploying the 416 en masse? I wonder what kind of results they're getting.

Ooohh no, trust me on this but the original really was that bad. We had to hire Heckler & Koch to do a redesign and monkey around with a lot of the innards - redesigned cocking handle, modified bolt, extractor and redesigned hammer assembly - just to get it to work properly. Nowadays the A2 model is actually quite a good weapon, not that that's stopped squaddies moaning about things , but when it first came out people were pining for the old FN SLRs.

On the whole M4/SCAR/416 debate I say sod it, lets just give them all M14s again.

ooh, this link is the best: and I'll tell you why.

read the reason WHY that ranger QRF was on the top of a mountain(LINK)

and the story gets even better.

wikipedia summarizes it better than I ever could (LINK), but basically they were trying to rescue a bunch of dumb ass seals who tried to insert right in front of an enemy they knew was there.

At least you'd know the guns would fire!

Say what you will about the AKs, and there's lots of negatives about them, but they're a right Soldier's weapon in every way!

Yep, the AK is one of the best guns made (even if it is getting long in the teeth).

-----

That aside, procurement for any degree of bureaucracy is always bad. A friend of mine is ready to quit over contract negotiations:

1. We need a very specific, very large crane for a construction project.

2. Company X has the crane we need. However, we do not have an existing contract with Company X.

3. Sounds simple - just write a contract right? Wrong! That could take longer than we have to do the project.

4. We decide to use Company Y as the middle man since we have a contract with them.

5. Our lawyers and Company X's lawyers can't agree over the damn insurance clause in the contract ... among other really small details.

6. Between the Legal, Procurement and Corporate Contracting Departments, we are sitting on our thumbs with a fixed deadline while these people piss in each other's cornflakes.


My friend compared getting everyone in the same room to a miracle along the lines of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea.

------

Now, I work for a Fortune 500 company, imagine what the US Government is like.

I'm a parachute rigger by trade and besides having a chance to examine these things (there are three companies exploring the concept right now) up close and personal at last year's Parachute Industry Association symposium, I fly wingsuits recreationaly and have numerous friends who are/were either free-fall qualified spec ops. operators or airborne. The general concensus among all of us is that these guys are f'ing brilliant. They've taken a incredibly impractical and patently ridiculous idea, strapped on some performance numbers they pulled out of their asses, have milked it for staggering amounts of R&D money and will continue to be able to do so for a number of more years due to the relatively small fraction of the R&D pie it consumes. These programs will only get cancelled if they're looked at critically by the GAO or some general needs to squeeze a couple of extra million out of a budget and realizes that no results have come of the programs for years, if not decades.

To put it in other words. We're all really f'ing jealous, and wished we'd thought of that gravy train first.

Which reminds me. I've got this here static demosntrator of a hand laser that once research is complete will be able to burn through the front armor of an Abrams. I only need about an annual $500,000 budget for my research to progress...


BTW, if you want to see some genuine reserach into military applications of personal wings, do a search for the French Army's testing of wingsuits in a wind tunnel. Nothing dramatic, but it's very important, foundational stuff.

-NR

Considering the terrain in Afghanistan, the M14 isn't a bad way to go.

In one of the more "errr" moments, the US Army is equipping the new Iraqi police/army with M16s.

-Siege

Weren't they considering reintroducing the M14 in limited numbers in a designated marksman capacity a while back?



Since most of the US Army seems to be going over to the M4 maybe they've simply decided to dispose of a load of their old M16s and donate them to the Iraqi's as military aid?

I'm fairly certain the M-14 has been reintroduced as a "marskman" rifle already, guess the Amry had to go buy em back from the Navy .

Lovely weapon that it is (I own a cut down version) I, in my totally unqualified opinion, couldn't see taking down a house with one. It's not exactly the most nimble weapon ever built.

But I agree, the people I've talked to seem to indicate that the "reach out and ruin someones day" of a 7.62 round would justify some use in the Forgotten War.

The M16 and particularly the M4 both suffer in the wide, open spaces that dominate Afghanistan engagements, as I understand.

The M14 is very reliable, a proven performer and isn't as demanding as a proper sniper platform - the 7.62 round also delivers a heavier punch at greater distances than the smaller 5.56 round.

Whether or not the M14 has been re-introduced as a weapon in limited numbers or not, I don't know - probably among Rangers and spec ops groups, but they have always had a great deal of leeway in weapon choices.

This isn't to say you couldn't clear rooms or houses with one, but it wouldn't be a first choice.

As for the M16 donation program - given the weapon is PMCS intensive, requiring a great deal of relatively skilled maintenance and logistical support, I don't think it's an improvement over the AK. Using a 5.56 round has more controllable recoil and better accuracy - the M16 also doesn't come with a full-auto capacity. One of the training/doctrinal issues with the Iraqi forces is the tendency to "spray and pray", which usually doesn't do much for accuracy or ammo longevity.

Just my two bits.

-Siege

Another advantage of giving Friendly Troops similar, if not the same, rifle is that there's less chance of "Friendly Fire" when you start getting jumpy and shooting at everything that has an "AK Clack".

Heh. Enough weapons have gone missing that you can't assume the hostile is only using an AK and just because that Iraqi is holding an M16 doesn't mean he's your buddy.

I won't expound on some of the more colorful commentaries on "the difference between Iraqi police and insurgents."

-Siege

True 'nuff... Which is probably why I'm a nice, safe civvie, and not doing my duty in the sandbox.

That, and a few other reasons.

Sorry for this revive of the thread... but... I saw this on cnn tech today.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/05/14...tman/index.html

Ok, check this out, coming to an arsenal near you?

edit:
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Man-soars-Al...887006630b03d9/
yahoo photos has some more pics of this guy flying his jet powered wings.

Sweet.

All they gotta do now is add some guns and some missles and have the pilot yell... 'Coooobraaaa!!!!'

It reminds me of the old Cobra Death Gliders from the G.I. Joe Cartoons, all its missing is a laser rifle on top front center. COBRA

Hey, one of the items in Arsenal made me and a fellow geek buddy yell, "Trubble Bubble"!

Video

I recommend liberal use of your volume control- the music sucks ass.