Glorified SLR ?

[trubrit2411]

They are chuffed with this "new" 1 per Squad level 7.62

It can fire 600 yards. Oh my .... imagine that
I remember when we had one each.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-armys-marksman-rifle-one-123000964.html

[Dave Burgess]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

Them wo the days Tone!

[Pat Harley]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

I've spoken about this weapon on here before Tone. The British army has them too,one per section,after it was realised that the Taliban could stand back beyond 300m and the 5.56mm of the SA80 wouldn't penetrate even thick clothing,while their 7.62x39 from their AKs were perfectly capable of causing casualties among the lads firing at them. I had a shot with it during a visit to The Falklands,and it is a superbly accurate weapon,but as you say we ALL had this capability till they took it away!

[Gil]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

Tossers at MOD with no "operational" or Military service the vast majority there at Abbey Wood anyway........fact. Look at the disasters they come up with building aircraft carriers with no planes for 5 years, cutting parachuting training aircraft without a thought until people like Tom Blakey stand up and take all the risks jumping out of jets, with chutes that has never been tried before, to ensure the Regiment goes forward and remains with that capability for future wars, which will certainly come our way!

[Pat Harley]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

I spent a couple of weeks at the APRE (Armed Personnel Research Establishment) at Farnborough,mid 80's doing a trial with a Milan simulator program for Generals to play war games with. It's where they test all clothing and equipment before deciding to issue it,and at the time they were testing boots and parkas amongst other things. The boots were being trialed inside a big hangar with various weather simulations and ground types. Each day a bunch of fat Hats donned various types of boots and walked around in a circle for an hour through a little puddle,a patch of mud,a bit of tarmac etc,after which the civvy boffins came and measured wear and tear. I asked why the f.ck they didn't just issue them to a company in Monty lines and tell them to do a 10 miler every day for a month,but that apparently wouldn't give the right results. The Parkas were in 3 groups,furry hood up or down,non furry hood up or down,and one of each up or down wearing gloves.(This was the control group apparently) They then stood at each end of a tennis court,with a sheet of phrases to say in a normal voice,such as "Cabbages are green",the other bloke writing down what he thought he heard. Earlier in the NAAFI they stood showing each other their sheets,which completely invalidated the test. What effect wearing gloves was supposed to have on hearing I never established,but all these tests were being done by rejects from all kinds of units,sent on a 2 year posting to get rid of them. One,from RE had been there 6 yrs having been refused a posting to every unit he'd tried,including Pioneer Corps,and he seemed quite proud of this record. Those were the kind of blokes testing kit we were supposed to go to war with!

[Don the Mod]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

I spent a couple of weeks at the APRE (Armed Personnel Research Establishment) at Farnborough,mid 80's doing a trial with a Milan simulator program for Generals to play war games with. It's where they test all clothing and equipment before deciding to issue it,and at the time they were testing boots and parkas amongst other things. The boots were being trialed inside a big hangar with various weather simulations and ground types. Each day a bunch of fat Hats donned various types of boots and walked around in a circle for an hour through a little puddle,a patch of mud,a bit of tarmac etc,after which the civvy boffins came and measured wear and tear. I asked why the f.ck they didn't just issue them to a company in Monty lines and tell them to do a 10 miler every day for a month,but that apparently wouldn't give the right results. The Parkas were in 3 groups,furry hood up or down,non furry hood up or down,and one of each up or down wearing gloves.(This was the control group apparently) They then stood at each end of a tennis court,with a sheet of phrases to say in a normal voice,such as "Cabbages are green",the other bloke writing down what he thought he heard. Earlier in the NAAFI they stood showing each other their sheets,which completely invalidated the test. What effect wearing gloves was supposed to have on hearing I never established,but all these tests were being done by rejects from all kinds of units,sent on a 2 year posting to get rid of them. One,from RE had been there 6 yrs having been refused a posting to every unit he'd tried,including Pioneer Corps,and he seemed quite proud of this record. Those were the kind of blokes testing kit we were supposed to go to war with!

Was this the mob formerly known as DERE, used to be in Monty lines? You walked up the road at the side of the NAAFI to get to it.

[bob9739]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

It's a bloody joke this kit testing lark, they should have issued it to the Brgade to test over Brecon, Otterburn and the like. That way we might not have ended up with some of the shite given as general issue to us. Like the SLR, we should have retained that instead of that bag of rattling crap on issue at present the SA80. Another item purchased for the military because it was cheap, what a bloody joke. Give them something like when the round hits them they can't stand up again !

[Gil]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

Pat,
That sounds like the last line then when the kit gets the green light from these wankers at Farnborough.

I know for certain Abbey Wood make most big decisions on major purchases. I was lucky enough to drop on a technical formula for a new torch bulb that wasn't CREE and a ruggedised torch body, so that NVG's could see the bright light and it worked to a great distance, and it picked up trip wires really clearly at night with IR filters on it, which I had designed over the cover of the torch front and a NATO helmet bracket to take it.

Anyway......cut a long boring story short, some civvy phoned me up on the Armies technical wing who knew less than me about technology, and thats saying something to say the torch was too bright and wouldn't stand up to the rigours of operations.
Well.............what he didn't know, I had given several FREE torches and filters out to loads of PARA REG EOD lads who had been seconded and also 5131 Sqn RAF Wittering who were RAF Bomb Disposal just as a tester. They could not break them even after Parachuting!!

Well these RAF guys were sent to Iraq on the search for the illusive Chemical weapons that Blair said were there, and had to search endless bunkers where they were in pitch black.
One of the teams, that were absolutely chinstrapped searching oodles of bunkers, entered a bunker with the torches on. Without the torch they would have activated a trip wire and 200 ILb of Semtex device, which had been set as a booby trap.

You have never seen orders flooding through my doors from every EOD unit in NATO. It was given a NATO stock number and the rest is history. When the lads got back, they never stopped buying me beers and BBQ's .....true story, so RAF Reg are alright in my book ha ha!!

I was so busy, I sold the design to a company abroad who continues to sell it today, but they have secumbed to using CREE bulbs that cannot work with Infra Red.
So civvies would have boshed it had they had their ignorant way at the very start, and it sometimes pays to go behind peoples back, even if they think they have the power to decide what the sqauddies needs!!

[Gil]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

.................just remembered it was this unit at Farnborough that got 2 PARA, who were going out to Malaya on Jungle Warfare training, to try out that plastic webbing in the early seventies, that when it rained everything slid off its buckle when it had mags in the pouches. Except for the bergen to keep the tropical rain out, everything else was shit!! Few on here will bear that story out too.

[Pat Harley]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

Was this the mob formerly known as DERE, used to be in Monty lines? You walked up the road at the side of the NAAFI to get to it.

Could've been Don,I only know about the shower of shit at Farnborough through my 2 weeks there. The Milan was set up on a table with a black and white photo of a piece of ground below it on a platform that moved back and forth and side to side by means of a squeaky threaded bar system,and a sort of periscope system to direct the sight down to it. A silhouette of a tank was then superimposed onto it and you had to fire at it,tracking it as it 'moved' across the field of view,most unrealistic! 14 firings of 14 seconds every day,either morning or afternoon by choice,hits and misses recorded simply for statistics to be used in war games by generals and suchlike so they could say "I used Private so and so to fire at your tank,what's the likelihood of a kill?" At the time they had no computer system there and were renting time on a huge one at BT somewhere in London for thousands a day,a complete farce I thought,but it was 2 weeks of half days for me and Pete Maddox and a load of Hats who were taking part,brought in from all round the country. I think there were 8 or so in each group,and it took about 10 minutes to set up each 14 second sequence,so most of the morning was spent in the canteen eating free sandwiches and crisps. Towards the end a strange silhouette appeared on the screen,and the scientist asked me to identify it. I could only imagine it was a bridgelayer of some sort,but he then told me it was the starship Enterprise,and thought he was the dog's bollocks for making it! That's when my interest really died,and I deliberately missed every shot from then on to f.ck up his stats!

[Dave Burgess]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

Ad a pop at the Vigs X Platoon but wuz fukked off after bein teld tharra ad blind cobblers thumbs!

[jim scott]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

I spent a couple of weeks at the APRE (Armed Personnel Research Establishment) at Farnborough,mid 80's doing a trial with a Milan simulator program for Generals to play war games with. It's where they test all clothing and equipment before deciding to issue it,and at the time they were testing boots and parkas amongst other things. The boots were being trialed inside a big hangar with various weather simulations and ground types. Each day a bunch of fat Hats donned various types of boots and walked around in a circle for an hour through a little puddle,a patch of mud,a bit of tarmac etc,after which the civvy boffins came and measured wear and tear. I asked why the f.ck they didn't just issue them to a company in Monty lines and tell them to do a 10 miler every day for a month,but that apparently wouldn't give the right results. The Parkas were in 3 groups,furry hood up or down,non furry hood up or down,and one of each up or down wearing gloves.(This was the control group apparently) They then stood at each end of a tennis court,with a sheet of phrases to say in a normal voice,such as "Cabbages are green",the other bloke writing down what he thought he heard. Earlier in the NAAFI they stood showing each other their sheets,which completely invalidated the test. What effect wearing gloves was supposed to have on hearing I never established,but all these tests were being done by rejects from all kinds of units,sent on a 2 year posting to get rid of them. One,from RE had been there 6 yrs having been refused a posting to every unit he'd tried,including Pioneer Corps,and he seemed quite proud of this record. Those were the kind of blokes testing kit we were supposed to go to war with!

Pat , First time landing at Farnborough , Belvedere twin rotor, piled in from about 150 ft,early 60s

[trubrit2411]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

Belevedere Twin Rotor....

9.19 Paras embarking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJFNhcS2o70

[Pat Harley]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

The Yanks must've stolen the idea for the Chinook I reckon!

[Dave Burgess]

Re: Glorified SLR ?

Towd Belvedere, Crab Air used em in the "Arsoyl Of Arabia".