1.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
2.
39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team (United States)
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The 39th IBCT was one of fifteen National Guard brigades designated as an enhanced separate brigade. Brigades with this designation received higher levels of training, more advanced equipment, in 2005, it was converted to the standard modular IBCT design as part of Army transformation. The 39th IBCT is the largest National Guard command in Arkansas and it is headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was placed in service on 12 October 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom II. The 39th was attached to the 1st Cavalry Division and served in and around Baghdad for a year, the 39th led the effort to evacuate an estimated 16,000 people from the New Orleans Convention Center. The 39th Brigade completed its deployment to Iraq in December 2008. Unlike the last deployment to Iraq from 2004–2005, the 39th Brigade headquarters did not have command, the main antecedent of todays brigade was the 39th Infantry Division, created in 1917, which consisted of troops from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The division shipped to France, August – September 1918 and it was then sent to the St. Florent area, southwest of Bourges, where it was designated as a replacement division and several of the units were transferred to combat divisions. The division demobilized the following month at Camp Beauregard, Louisiana, the unit was demobilized after the war. In the years between the World Wars, the headquarters was deactivated, but its Arkansas elements continued as part of the Arkansas National Guard. These former 39th Division elements were activated independently for WWII, for a history of their participation, see the article on the 153rd Infantry Regiment and the 206th Coast Artillery. The 39th Infantry Division was reconstituted on 30 September 1946 and it was composed of units from Arkansas and Louisiana, with its headquarters stationed at New Orleans, Louisiana and the Arkansas portion headquartered in Little Rock Arkansas. During this period the division included the 153rd Infantry Regiment, the 156th Infantry Regiment, in 1967 the division was redesignated as the 39th Infantry Brigade and in 1973 was paired with the US 101st Airborne Division as a training partner and became an air-assault brigade. The following Regiments were represented in the 39th Infantry Brigade, 153rd Infantry Regiment, 151st Cavalry Regiment, in 1994 the 39th was again reorganized and gained its designation as an enhanced brigade. In 1999, the 39th became part of the 7th Infantry Division under the Army Integrated Division concept which paired National Guard and Reserve brigades with active duty headquarters and support units. In 2006, the 7th Infantry Division was deactivated and the 39th IBCT was placed under the command, on 2 November 1967 in accordance with National Guard Bureau Memo NG-AROTO 1002-01, the 39th Infantry Division was reorganized and redesignated as the 39th Infantry Brigade. This change resulted in a massive restationing within the state as follows, 39th Brigade units conducted numerous overseas training rotations throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. 1981, Company A, 2nd Battalion, 153rd Infantry conducted annual training in Great Britain with the Royal Welsh Fusiliers as part of the Volunteer Warrior/Hard Charger Exercise,1986, Company B, 1st Battalion, 153rd Infantry conducted annual training in Honduras
3.
M60 Patton
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The M60 Patton is a main battle tank introduced in December 1960. With the United States Armys deactivation of their last heavy tank battalion in 1963, although developed from the M48 Patton, the M60 series was never officially classified as a Patton tank, but as a product-improved descendant of the Patton series. In March 1959, the tank was officially standardized as the 105 mm Gun Full Tracked Combat Tank M60, the M60 underwent many updates over its service life. The interior layout, based on the design of the M48, provided room for updates and improvements. Egypt is currently the largest operator with 1,716 upgraded M60A3s, Turkey is second with 866 upgraded units in service, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, a Soviet T-54A medium tank was driven onto the grounds of the British embassy in Budapest by the Hungarians. After a brief examination of this armor and 100 mm gun. There were also rumors of an even larger 115 mm gun in the works, hence there was a need to adopt a 105 mm gun, which emerged as the famed Royal Ordnance L7. This information made its way to the United States, where the Army had been experimenting with a series of upgrades to their M48 Patton tanks. These experiments were concerned with improving the armor and the introduction of a variety of systems, such as that used in the 105 mm gun tank T54. The T95 program, launched after the Questionmark III conference in June 1954, was the replacement to the M48. It featured a host of innovative and experimental components such as its 90 mm smoothbore T208 cannon rigidly affixed to its turret, the burden of developing them however slowed the overall program to a crawl. General Taylor approved of a new development program in August 1957. The MBT was to combine the firepower and protection sufficient for the role with the mobility to perform as a medium tank. A tank of the T95 series, armed with a smoothbore cannon, the course of this tank program was the source of widespread debate. The Bureau of Budget believed that the Army was not progressing with sufficient speed in its modernization program. The alternative was to introduce a tank from the T95 series, an influential group of senior officers, by May 1958, concluded that the T95 had only marginal advantages over the M48A2. They proposed that the most important improvements, better firepower and fuel economy, could be achieved by mounting a compression ignition engine, the main gun was chosen after a comparative firing test on the Aberdeen Proving Grounds. Participating in the test were six guns, the 90 mm M41, the 90 mm T208E9, the 105 mm X15E8, the 105 mm T254, the 120 mm T123E6, and the 120 mm M58
4.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
5.
7th Cavalry Regiment
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The 7th Cavalry Regiment is a United States Army cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is Garryowen, after the Irish air Garryowen that was adopted as its march tune, following its activation, the Seventh Cavalry Regiment patrolled the Western plains for raiding Native Americans and to protect the westward movement of pioneers. From 1866 to 1881, the regiment marched a total of 181,692 miles across Kansas, Montana, the regiment was constituted on 28 July 1866 in the regular army as the 7th United States Cavalry. It was organized on 21 September 1866 at Fort Riley, Kansas as part of an expansion of the army following the demobilization of the wartime volunteer. From 1866 through 1871, the regiment was posted to Fort Riley, in the Battle of the Washita in 1868, the regiment sustained 22 losses, while inflicting more that 150 deaths on a Cheyenne encampment, mostly women and children. This attack was led by George Armstrong Custer, who led the 7th Cavalry to the most calamitous defeat of U. S. forces in the Indian Wars. Typical of post-Civil War cavalry regiments, the 7th Cavalry was organized as a regiment without a formal battalion organization. Battalions at this time were flexible tactical organizations, with companies being assigned and removed as the field commander desired or felt necessary. Throughout this period, the cavalryman was armed with the Colt Single Action Army.45 caliber revolvers and trapdoor Springfield carbines, the regiment used the McClellan saddle, and sabres were also issued but not often carried on campaign. The 7th Cavalry, like the other U. S. Army regiments of the time, had a band, which performed mounted as well as on foot, and seated for concerts. Initially established with the support of Major Alfred Gibbs, the 7ths band adopted Garryowen as their favorite tune and thus gave the Seventh their nickname among the rest of the Army. From 1871 through 1873, 7th Cavalry companies participated in constabulary duties in the deep South in support of the Reconstruction Act, in 1873, the 7th Cavalry moved its garrison post to Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory. From here, the regiment carried out Custers 1874 Black Hills Expedition and this led to the discovery of gold in the Black Hills, starting a gold rush in 1874 that precipitated the Great Sioux War of 1876–77. In June,1876, Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer was killed in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, on 29 December 1890, the regiment instigated the Wounded Knee Massacre in South Dakota, an event that signaled the end of the American Indian Wars. November 1866 – April 1869 Col. Andrew J. Smith May 1869 – June 1886 Col. Samuel D. Sturgis July 1886 – November 1894 Col. James W. From 1895 until 1899, the regiment served in New Mexico and Oklahoma, an enlisted trooper with the Seventh Cavalry, B Company, from May 1896 until March 1897 at Fort Grant Arizona Territory was author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The regiment served in the Philippines during the Philippine-American War from 1904 through 1907, in December 1917, 7th Cavalry was assigned to the 15th Cavalry Division, an on-paper organization designed for service in France during World War I that was never more than a simple headquarters. This was because no significant role emerged for mounted troops on the Western Front during the 19 months between the entry of the United States into the war and the Armistice of 11 November 1918, the 7th Cavalry was released from this assignment in May 1918
6.
206th Field Artillery Regiment
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The 1–206th FA is an element of the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. The regiments history begins with the creation of the 3rd Arkansas Infantry in 1917 as a part of the expansion of the following the Mexican Expedition. The unit was reorganized for World War I as the 141st Machine Gun Battalion, the unit deployed to France but did not see combat before the end of the war. Between World War I and II, the unit was reorganized as the 206th Coast Artillery, the 206th CA was mobilized for World War II and participated in the Battle of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, on 3 and 4 June 1942. Following World War II the unit was reorganized as the 206th Artillery, the United States declared war on Germany 6 April 1917 less than two months after the last Arkansas National Guard units completed mustering out from duty on the Mexican border. At this time the Arkansas Guard consisted of two regiments, the 1st and 2nd Arkansas, which had each been mobilized for service on the Mexican border. The National Defense Act of 1916 had provided for an expansion of the National Guard. While a 3rd Arkansas Infantry had existed in the Arkansas State Guard prior to the Spanish–American War, on 17 April 1917, plans for the 3rd Arkansas Regiment were formulated, new units were to be raised in sixteen cities to support the new regiment. On 16 May 1917, it was announced that Little Rock was one of the cities to be allowed a new company which would be part of the 3rd Arkansas Regiment. Enlistments were to be for the duration of the war, the girls distributed buttonhole tags with, Are You A Slacker. The other side of the tag read, Are You A Man, the girls worked until 5 June 1917, when the draft law became effective. On 18 May 1917, the Arkansas National Guard was notified that on 5 August 1917, alexandria, Louisiana, was the location of Camp Beauregard which was named after General P. G. T. Beauregard, C. S. A. The 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment mobilized 5 August and was encamped around the new state capitol by 8 August, the 2nd and 3rd Infantry Regiments were examined for Federal service on 6 August 1917, at Ft. Brough. The regiments, under the control of General Wood, were sent to Ft, roots and moved to Camp Pike by 24 August 1917. In mid-September the Arkansas units were notified that they were to be part of a newly created division, initially called the 18th, the Arkansas troops were reorganized after their transfer to Camp Beauregard under a new national system for numbering army regiments. The 1st Arkansas Infantry became the 153rd Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Regiment became the 142nd Field Artillery Regiment, the 3rd Arkansas Infantry, which had reported to Camp Beauregard with over 1800 soldiers, was divided into two new units. The following units were created, from the old 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment, the 141st Machine Gun Battalion was composed of members of the former 3rd Battalion, 3rd Arkansas Infantry Regiment and the Machine Gun Company from the 2nd Arkansas Infantry. The 18th Infantry Division was re-designated as the 39th Delta Division, U. S. N. G. in May 1918, twenty percent of the privates of the 39th Division were given the opportunity to volunteer for immediate overseas duty
7.
Humvee
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The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, commonly known as the Humvee, is a four-wheel drive military light truck produced by AM General. Primarily used by the United States military, it is used by numerous other countries and organizations. The Humvees widespread use in the Gulf War of 1991, where it negotiated the treacherous desert terrain, since the WWII era Bantam Reconnaissance Car, the United States Army had relied on jeeps to transport small groups of soldiers. The jeep was built around a requirement for a vehicle with a folding windshield that was actually shorter than the Volkswagen Beetle. It seated three with a 660 lb payload and weighed just over one ton, by the 1970s, the U. S. Army had tried larger militarized civilian trucks, but even these no longer satisfied newer requirements. In 1977, Lamborghini developed the Cheetah model in an attempt to meet the Army contract specifications, the specification called for excellent on and off-road performance, the ability to carry a large payload, and improved survivability against indirect fire. Compared to the jeep, it was larger and had a wider track, with a 16 in ground clearance. The new truck was to climb a 60 percent incline and traverse a 40 percent slope, the radiator was to be mounted high, sloping over the engine on a forward-hinged hood. Out of 61 companies that showed interest, only three submitted prototypes, in July 1979, AM General, a subsidiary of American Motors Corporation began preliminary design work. Less than a later, the first prototype was in testing. Chrysler Defense and Teledyne Continental also produced competing designs, in June 1981, the Army awarded AM General a contract for development of several more prototype vehicles to be delivered to the government for another series of tests. The original M998 A0 series had a weight of 5,200 lb, a payload of 2,500 lb, a 6.2 L V-8 diesel engine. The three companies were chosen to design and build eleven HMMWV prototypes, which covered over 600,000 miles in trials which included courses in desert. Ft. Lewis, Washington and the 9th Infantry Division was the unit to employ HMMWV in the new concept of a motorized division. Yakima Training Center in Yakima, Washington was the testing grounds for HMMWVs from 1985 through December 1991, when the motorized concept was abandoned. HMMWVs first saw combat in Operation Just Cause, the U. S. invasion of Panama in 1989, the HMMWV was designed primarily for personnel and light cargo transport behind front lines, not as a front line fighting vehicle. Like the previous jeep, the basic HMMWV has no armor or protection against chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear threats, nevertheless, losses were relatively low in conventional operations, such as the Gulf War. Vehicles and crews suffered considerable damage and losses during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993 due to the nature of the urban engagement
8.
M2 Browning
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The M2 Machine Gun or Browning.50 Caliber Machine Gun is a heavy machine gun designed toward the end of World War I by John Browning. Its design is similar to Brownings earlier M1919 Browning machine gun, the M2 uses the much larger and much more powerful.50 BMG cartridge, which was developed alongside and takes its name from the gun itself. It has been referred to as Ma Deuce, in reference to its M2 nomenclature, the design has had many specific designations, the official designation for the current infantry type is Browning Machine Gun, Cal.50, M2, HB, Flexible. It is effective against infantry, unarmored or lightly armored vehicles and boats, light fortifications, the M2 has been produced longer than any other machine gun. The Browning.50 caliber machine gun has been used extensively as a vehicle weapon and it was heavily used during World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Falklands War, the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan in the 2000s and 2010s. It is the heavy machine gun of NATO countries, and has been used by many other countries as well. The M2 has been in use longer than any firearm in U. S. inventory except the.45 ACP M1911 pistol. The current M2HB is manufactured in the U. S. by General Dynamics, Ordnance for use by the U. S. government, and for allies via Foreign Military Sales, as well as foreign manufacturers such as FN Herstal. Machine guns were used in World War I, and weapons of larger than rifle caliber were appearing. Both the British and French had large caliber machine guns, the larger rounds were needed to defeat the armor that was being introduced to the battlefield. Armor was also appearing in the skies, during World War I, the Germans introduced a heavily armored airplane, the Junkers J. I. The armor made aircraft machine guns using conventional rifle ammunition ineffective, consequently, the American Expeditionary Forces commander General John J. Pershing asked for a larger caliber machine gun. Pershing asked the Army Ordnance Department to develop a gun with a caliber of at least 0.50 inches. U. S. Col. John Henry Parker, commanding a machine gun school in France, the Army Ordnance Department ordered eight experimental Colt machine guns rechambered for the French 11 mm cartridge. The French had developed a machine gun for an even larger caliber. The French 11 mm round was found to be unsuitable because its velocity was too low, Pershing wanted a bullet of at least 670 gr and a muzzle velocity of 2,700 ft/s. Development with the French round was dropped, around July 1917, John M. Browning started redesigning his.30 caliber machine gun for a larger caliber. Winchester worked on the cartridge, which was a version of the. 30-06
9.
40 mm grenade
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The 40 mm grenade is a military grenade caliber for grenade launchers in service with many armed forces. There are two types in service, the 40×46mm, which is a low-velocity round used in hand-held grenade launchers. Both 40 mm cartridges use the High-Low Propulsion System, the less powerful 40×46mm is used in hand-held weapons such as the M79, M203, and the multi-shot M32 MGL. The more powerful 40×53mm is used in automatic grenade launchers mounted on tripods, vehicles or helicopters, in these roles, the rounds are linked together with a metallic disintegrating link. A medium velocity 40×51mm cartridge recently developed in South Africa provides a powerful alternative for hand-held weapons without increased recoil. A new version of the Milkor MGL chambered for the new round remains backward compatible with existing 40×46mm rounds. U. S. military rounds designated specifically for the M79 launcher includes, High Explosive, M381, M386 Airburst, M397, M397A1 MP-APERS, M576 CS gas, M651 Practice, M781 U. S. S. Army ARDEC began development of a 40 mm airburst fuse in 2011 to improve the ability of grenade launchers like the M203, SAGM enables soldiers to accurately incapacitate personnel targets in defilade at ranges between 50 to 500 meters. The round is engineered with three firing modes, airburst, point detonation, and self-destruct, a successful demonstration occurred in November 2013. The SAGM was to undergo evaluation in July 2015 and, if successful, not only does the fuse burst over walls, but it can detonate when passing cover like trees, bursting just as it senses and passes the trunk. The sort of sensor SAGM uses to differentiate clutter from triggering obstacles is highly classified and it is a grenade caliber designed in Poland, and used in Pallad wz.74 underbarrel grenade launchers and Pallad-D wz.83 Grenade launcher. The construction is similar to one used in 40×46mm but grenades are not fully interchangeable, extended Range Low Pressure 40×51mm cartridges extend the range of 40 mm grenades from 400 m to 800 m and are manufactured by companies such as Rheinmetall Denel Munitions. The fuze is programmed through the control of the gun. The fuze is armed at approximately 23 meters. The round is programmed to airburst over the target and the fuze counts down the time via its built in electronics. If an unprogrammed round is fired, it will detonate on impact, the projectile has a built in self-destruct and can be fired by any automatic grenade launcher. There is also the CIS40 AGL and 40LWAGL from Singapores ST Kinetics, the Daewoo K4 Grenade Machine Gun is in service with the South Korean Armed Services. The Soviet GP-25 Kostyor and GP-30 Obuvka and Russian GP-34, BG-15 Mukha and these grenades are caseless, holding their own propellant within the body of the grenade
10.
Mk 19 grenade launcher
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The Mk 19 grenade launcher is an American 40 mm belt-fed automatic grenade launcher that was first developed during the Vietnam War. The first model in 1966 was determined to be unreliable and unsafe, the Navy made further improvements to the weapon, resulting in the Mod 3 in 1976. The Mod 3 was adopted by the U. S Army in 1983, the Mk 19 is a belt-fed, blowback-operated, air-cooled, crew-served, fully automatic weapon that is designed not to cook off. It fires 40 mm grenades at a rate of 325 to 375 rounds per minute. The weapon operates on the principle, which uses the chamber pressure from each fired round to load. The Mk 19 can launch its grenade at a distance of 2,212 meters, though its effective range to a point target is about 1,500 meters. The nearest safe distance to launch the grenade is 310 meters in training and 75 meters in combat, though the Mk 19 has a flash suppressor, it serves only to save the eyesight of its operator, not concealing the weapons position. For night operation, a picatinny rail quadrant sight can be added for thermal, the primary ammunition for it is the high-explosive dual-purpose M430 grenade. On impact, the grenade can kill anyone within a radius of five meters and it can also punch through 2 inches of rolled homogeneous armor with a direct hit, which means it can penetrate most infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers. It is especially effective when used against enemy infantry formations, the ammunition comes in cans that hold a 32- or 48-grenade belt weighing 42 and 60 pounds, respectively. The Mk 19 automatic grenade launcher replaced the earlier Mk 18 hand-cranked multiple grenade launcher, the 40 mm ammunition used is not interchangeable with that used in the M203. The M203 ammunition develops a lower pressure, and resultant lower muzzle velocity and range. The Mk 19 fires from an open bolt, the rounds are mechanically fed onto the bolt face with the pull of the charging handles. When the trigger is pressed, the bolt closes, and the pin is released. The recoil blows back the bolt, feeds a new round onto the bolt face, production of the Mk 19 is managed by Saco Defense Industries. S. The 40 mm airburst grenade uses a programmable, time-based fuse that computes and programs the detonation time into it, the airburst ammunition is compatible with the Mk 19, which would give it greater effectiveness and lethality, particularly against concealed and defilade targets. The U. S. Army plans to introduce new features to the Mk 19 in an upgrade package that could be introduced by late 2017. GDOTS has built nearly 35,000 Mk 19 Mod 3 systems for roughly 30 customers since 1984, users of the Mk 19 include, Afghanistan, Orders by Afghan National Army
11.
BGM-71 TOW
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The BGM-71 TOW is an American anti-tank missile. TOW replaced much smaller missiles like the SS, first produced in 1970, the TOW is one of the most widely used anti-tank guided missiles. It can be found in a variety of manually carried and vehicle mounted forms. Originally designed by Hughes Aircraft in the 1960s, the weapon is produced by Raytheon. Initially developed by Hughes Aircraft between 1963 and 1968, the XBGM-71A was designed for ground and heli-borne applications. In 1997, Raytheon Co. purchased Hughes Electronics from General Motors Corporation, so development, the weapon is used in anti-armor, anti-bunker, anti-fortification and anti-amphibious landing roles. The TOW is in service with over 45 militaries and is integrated on over 15,000 ground, vehicle, in its basic infantry form, the system comprises a missile in a sealed tube which is clipped to a launch tube prior to use. When required, the tube is attached to the rear of the launch tube, the target sighted. The 1983 TOW2 featured a larger 5.9 kg warhead with a 21.25 in extensible probe, improved guidance and this was followed by the TOW 2A/B which appeared in 1987. Hughes developed a TOW missile with a data link in 1989, referred to as TOW-2N. Raytheon continued to develop improvements to the TOW line, but its FOTT program was canceled in 1998, although this missile has been in production since 2004, no U. S. Army designation has yet been assigned. Also, a version of the TOW-2B Aero was developed that uses stealth one way radio link. The TOW missile in its current variations is not a fire-and-forget weapon and this means that the guidance system is directly linked to the platform, and requires that the target be kept in the shooters line of sight until the missile impacts. This has been the impetus to develop either a fire-and-forget version of the system or to develop a successor with this ability. In October 2012, Raytheon received a contract to produce 6,676 TOW missiles for the U. S. military, Missiles that will be produced include the BGM-71E TOW 2A, the BGM-71F TOW 2B, the TOW 2B Aero, and the BGM-71H TOW Bunker Buster. By 2013, the U. S. Marine Corps had retired the air-launched TOW missile, the TOW is designated as a BGM by the U. S. military, a multiple launch environment surface attack guided missile. The B launch environment prefix is used only when the system can be used essentially unmodified when launched from a variety of launch platforms. The M151 and M220 launchers are used by infantry, but can also be mounted on a number of vehicles, including the M151 jeep, the M113 Gavin APC, the M966 HMMWV and these launchers are theoretically man-portable, but are quite bulky
12.
M240 machine gun
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The M240, officially Machine Gun,7. 62mm, M240, is the US military designation for the FN MAG, a family of belt-fed, gas-operated medium machine guns firing the 7. 62×51mm NATO cartridge. The M240 has been used by the United States Armed Forces since the late-1970s and it is used extensively by infantry, most often rifle companies as well as ground vehicles, watercraft and aircraft. Despite being heavier than weapons, it is highly regarded for reliability. All variants are fed from disintegrating belts, and are capable of firing most types of 7.62 mm NATO ammunition, M240 variants can use non-disintegrating belts. There are significant differences in weight and some features among some versions which restrict interchangeability of parts, the M240s used by the US military are currently manufactured by FN Manufacturing, a US-based branch of FN Herstal. Manufactured by Fabrique Nationale, the FN MAG was chosen by the U. S. military for different roles after large world-wide searches, the MAG is a belt-fed, gas-operated, air-cooled, crew-served, fixed headspace weapon. Its versatility is demonstrated by its ability to be mounted on the M122A1 tripod and it was first adopted by the U. S. Army in 1977, as a coaxial tank gun, and slowly adopted for more applications in the 1980s and 1990s. The M240 and M240E1 were adopted for use on vehicles and this led to further adoption in more uses, especially for the Army and Marine infantry. While possessing many of the basic characteristics as its predecessor. The MAG actually has a more complex gas system than the M60, compared to other machine guns, its rating of 26,000 mean rounds between failure is quite high for its weight—in the 1970s when it was first adopted it achieved about 7,000 MRBF. It is not as reliable as some very heavy older designs and it would go on to be deployed in this role in the 1980s, but was additionally adopted for infantry and other uses. It was deployed in new roles in the 1990s and 2000s. As mentioned, during the 1970s the Army was looking for new 7.62 mm machine guns for vehicle/AFV mounts, the 1950s-era M73 had been rather troubled, and the derivative M73E1/M219 was not much of an improvement. A number of designs of the period from various countries were considered and they underwent comprehensive testing alongside the older M219 for comparison. Two main criteria analyzed were mean rounds between stoppages and mean rounds between failures, the results for the evaluated machine guns were the following, The test applies only to the 1970s-era versions tested. The MAG itself underwent some improvements and the M60E2 was a specialized coaxial variant that differed from some of the other types, the qualities of the M60 variants vary considerably, such as between the M60E4 and the M60C. That aside, for these types the clear winner was the MAG and it went on to replace many older types for the vehicle/coaxial role in the 1980s. The M240 proved popular enough that it was adapted by the later on, spawning the M240B
United States
