Belt (firearms)
For the belt a person wears, with loops for inserting ammunition cartridges see bandolier. For the term "belt" as applied to cartridges, see rim or belted magnum. A belt or ammunition belt is a device used to feed cartridges into a firearm. Belts and the associated feed systems are employed to feed machine guns or other automatic weapons. Belt-fed systems minimize the proportional weight of the ammunition to the feeding device along with allowing high rates of continuous fire; the capacity of belts and carriers is a function of weight and bulk. Their size is limited by the portability of the combined weapon and ammunition; the most common sizes carried on a man-portable weapon run from 50 to 300 rounds. The "Feed Strip" was designed in 1895, based on initial designs by Captain Baron Adolf Odkolek von Ujezda of Vienna, Austria. A feed strip is a simple rigid metal tray with 24 to 30 cartridges crimped together into a row; the feed strip is loaded into the side of the gun and as the cartridges are stripped off and fired from the weapon, the tray moves to the other side until it falls out when it is empty, whereupon a new one is inserted.
In this regard, it is similar to an En-bloc clip. The "feed strip" loading system was pioneered by the Hotchkiss machine gun designs, most notably the Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun; the Hotchkiss guns were used by major militaries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the French throughout the duration of the first world war and afterwards. However, the feed strip mechanisms lived on through other militaries, most notably the Japanese-designed Type 3 and Type 92 machine guns, which were used up until the end of the Second World War. Though the feed strips were replaced by most militaries by machine guns using either belts or magazines, the Hotchkiss feed strip design pioneered an early 50-round belt mechanism, made up of articulated pieces of metal folded together, resembling feed strips; the articulated Hotchkiss belt design dates back to 1896. Many modern ammunition belts use disintegrating links. Disintegrating links retain a single round and are articulated with the round ahead of it in the belt.
When the round ahead is stripped from the belt and fed into the feed system or chamber, the link holding it is ejected and the link holding the following round is disarticulated. Many disintegrating belt designs allow two pieces of belt to be connected by a cartridge, it applies to non-disintegrating belts; when done by assistant gunner in combat, linking new belt to the end of the belt being fed in the weapon allows for continuous fire without the need to open the feed tray and reload. This type of belt consists of a design that can be reused, as it does not fall apart during function, similar to a feed strip; this is found on only a few types of machine guns, such as the Soviet DShK, RPD, PK, the German MG 34, MG 42, MG 3 and the British Vickers, which used a non-disintegrating canvas and brass belt. Arguably, precursors to the belt-fed machine gun were the Cass rifle, patented in 1848, the Treeby chain gun, patented in the 1850s. Belts were composed of canvas or cloth with pockets spaced evenly to allow the belt to be mechanically fed into the gun.
These designs were prone to malfunctions due to the effects of oil and other contaminants altering the belt. If they became saturated with water, canvas belts including the loops holding the cartridges would contract, the gun mechanism would be unable to extract the rounds. Belt designs used permanently connected metal links to hold the cartridges, weapons which used textile belts such as the Vickers Gun were deployed with these more dependable formats; these belts were more tolerant to exposure to solvents and oil. Despite it being a more efficient system, few are still used due to the added cost and effort. Non-disintegrating belts come in pieces of limited length connected by disintegrating link, after being fed through the weapon the piece falls off, limiting the length of the used belt hanging from the weapon to no more than one such piece. Many weapons designed to use non-disintegrating or canvas belts are provided with machines to automatically reload these belts with loose rounds or rounds held in stripper clips.
In use during World War I, reloaders allowed ammunition belts to be recycled to allow continuous fire. Found on early machine guns; the pull out - push through cartridge feed system has the cartridge withdrawn from the belt to the rear pushed directly forward into the barrel. Examples are Browning 1919, Browning M2HB, Maxim and Vickers. Among the modern machine guns using this system are the PK family, where its use is mandated by the rim of the 7.62×54mmR cartridge, which makes it all but impossible to eject the round forward from the belt. Found on modern machine guns; the push through cartridge feed system has the cartridge pushed directly forward into the barrel. Some weapons such as the M134 Minigun and related designs use a hybrid mechanism to strip rounds from disintegrating belts into a linkless feed system or a specialized delinker to allow for more reliable feeding at extreme rates of fire. Modern infantry machine guns have feed systems allowing the use of linked ammunition as well as other forms of feed like from magazines or drums.
In some instances—like the FN MINIMI/M249 SAW and the IMI Negev—the feed system requires no modification to fire with either mechanism. Other designs—like the Heckler and Koch HK21-based designs or MG34—require the exchange of modular parts to allow belt or alternate feedin
M203 grenade launcher
The M203 is a single-shot 40 mm under-barrel grenade launcher designed to attach to a rifle. It uses the same rounds as the older stand-alone M79 break-action grenade launcher, which utilizes the High-Low Propulsion System to keep recoil forces low. Quite versatile and compatible with many rifle models, the M203 was designed for the U. S. M16 and its variant, the M4 carbine; the launcher can be mounted onto a C7, a Canadian version of the M16 rifle. Stand-alone variants of the M203 exist, as do versions designed for many other rifles; the device attaches under the barrel, the launcher trigger being in the rear of the launcher, just forward of the rifle magazine. The rifle magazine functions as a hand grip when firing the M203. A separate sighting system is added to rifles fitted with the M203, as the rifle's standard sights are not matched to the launcher; the version fitted to the Canadian C7 has a sight attached to the side of the launcher, either on the left or right depending on the user's needs.
The M203 was the only part of the army's Special Purpose Individual Weapon project to go into production. The M203 has been in service since 1969 and was introduced to U. S. military forces during the early 1970s, replacing the older M79 grenade launcher and the conceptually similar Colt XM148 design. However, while the M79 was a stand-alone weapon, the M203 was designed as an under-barrel device attached to an existing rifle; because the size and weight of 40 mm ammunition limits the quantities that can be carried on patrol, because a grenade is not an appropriate weapon for a given engagement, an under-barrel system has the advantage of allowing its user to carry a rifle, to switch between the two. A new grenade launcher, the M320, will replace the M203 in the United States Army; the United States Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, Navy continued to use the older M203, although the Marines began issuing the M320 in June 2017. The M320 features an advanced day/night sight, a double-action firing mechanism as well as other benefits, such as an unobstructed side-loading breech.
The M203 grenade launcher is intended to be used as close fire support against point and area targets. The round is designed to be effective at breaking through windows and exploding inside, blowing up doors, producing multiple casualties, destroying bunkers or emplacements, damaging or disabling soft-skinned vehicles. In the Vietnam war, U. S. Navy and Coast Guard personnel on boats would lob 40mm grenades into the water, to preemptively attack Viet Cong swimmers attempting to plant explosives on anchored or moored U. S. water craft. Its primary purpose is to engage enemies in dead space. A well-trained M203 gunner can use his weapon to suppress the enemy, based on sight. In addition, the M203 can be used as a crowd control weapon when equipped with the M651 Tactical CS grenade. Classified as an anti-personnel weapon, the M203 is not intended to be used against armored or heavy vehicles; the M203 is able to fire a variety of different rounds for many purposes. According to the U. S. ARMY FIELD MANUAL FM 3-22.31 40-MM GRENADE LAUNCHER, M203, there are 8 different rounds for the M203: High-Explosive.
Dual Purpose Round. The HEDP round has an olive drab aluminum skirt with a steel cup attached, white markings, a gold ogive, it penetrates at least 5 cm when fired straight at steel armor at 150 meters or less, or, at a point target, it arms between 14 and 27 meters, causes casualties within a 130-meter radius, has a kill radius of 5 meters. High-Explosive Round; the HE round has an olive drab aluminum skirt with a steel projectile attached, gold markings, a yellow ogive. It arms between 14 and 27 meters, produces a ground burst that causes casualties within a 130-meter radius, has a kill radius of 5 meters. Star Parachute Round; this round is white bar alloy aluminum, with black markings. It is used for illumination and signals and is lighter and more accurate than comparable handheld signal rounds; the parachute attached to the round deploys upon ejection to lower the candle at 7 feet per second. The candle burns for about 40 seconds. A raised letter on the top of the round denotes the color of the parachute.
White Star Cluster Round. This round is white bar aluminum alloy, with black markings; the attached plastic ogive has five raised dots for night identification. The round is used for illumination or signals, it is more accurate than comparable handheld signal rounds. The individual stars burn for about 7 seconds during free fall. Ground Marker Round; this round is light green impact aluminum with black markings. It is used for marking the location of soldiers on the ground, it arms between 45 meters. If a fuse fails to function on impact, the output mixture provided in the front end of the delay casing backs up the impact feature; the color of the ogive indicates the color of the smoke. Practice Round. Used for practice, this round is blue aluminum, with white markings, it produces a yellow or orange signature on impact, arms between 14 and 27 meters, has a danger radius of 20 meters. CS Round; this round is gray aluminum with black markings. Though it is a multipurpose round, it is most effective for riot control and in Urban Operations.
It arms between 10 and 30 meters and produces a white cloud of CS gas on impa
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta known as the Western Region or the South-western region is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of over 40,500 square kilometres; the size of the area covered by water depends on the season. The region comprises 12 provinces: Long An, Đồng Tháp, Tiền Giang, An Giang, Bến Tre, Vĩnh Long, Trà Vinh, Hậu Giang, Kiên Giang, Sóc Trăng, Bạc Liêu, Cà Mau, along with the province-level municipality of Cần Thơ; the Mekong Delta has been dubbed as a "biological treasure trove". Over 1,000 animal species were recorded between 1997 and 2007 and new species of plants, fish and mammals have been discovered in unexplored areas, including the Laotian rock rat, thought to be extinct; the Mekong Delta was inhabited long since prehistory. Archaeological discoveries at Óc Eo and other Funanese sites show that the area was an important part of the Funan kingdom, bustling with trading ports and canals as early as in the first century AD and extensive human settlement in the region may have gone back as far as the 4th century BC.
Angkor Borei is a site in the Mekong Delta that existed between 400 BC-500 AD. This site had extensive maritime trade networks throughout Southeast Asia and with India, is believed to have been the ancient capital to the Kingdom of Funan; the region was known as Khmer Krom to the Khmer Empire, which maintained settlements there centuries before its rise in the 11th and 12th centuries. The kingdom of Champa, though based along the coast of modern Central Vietnam, is known to have expanded west into the Mekong Delta, seizing control of Prey Nokor by the end of the 13th century. Author Nghia M. Vo suggests that a Cham presence may indeed have existed in the area prior to Khmer occupation. Beginning in the 1620s, Cambodian king Chey Chettha II allowed the Vietnamese to settle in the area, to set up a custom house at Prey Nokor, which they colloquially referred to as Sài Gòn; the increasing waves of Vietnamese settlers which followed overwhelmed the kingdom—weakened as it was due to war with Thailand—and Vietnamized the area.
During the late 17th century, Mạc Cửu, a Chinese anti-Qing general, began to expand Vietnamese and Chinese settlements deeper into Cambodian lands, in 1691, Prey Nokor was occupied by the Vietnamese. In 1698, the Nguyễn lords of Huế sent Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh, a Vietnamese noble, to the area to establish Vietnamese administrative structures in the area; this act formally detached the Mekong Delta from Cambodia, placing the region under Vietnamese administrative control. The Khmers were cut off from access to the South China Sea, trade through the area was possible only with Vietnamese permission. During the Tây Sơn wars and the subsequent Nguyễn Dynasty, Vietnam's boundaries were pushed as far as the Cape Cà Mau. In 1802 Nguyễn Ánh crowned himself emperor Gia Long and unified all the territories comprising modern Vietnam, including the Mekong Delta. Upon the conclusion of the Cochinchina Campaign in the 1860s, the area became part of Cochinchina, France's first colony in Vietnam, part of French Indochina.
Beginning during the French colonial period, the French patrolled and fought on the waterways of the Mekong Delta region with their Divisions navales d'assaut, a tactic which lasted throughout the First Indochina War, was employed by the US Navy Mobile Riverine Force. During the Vietnam War—also referred to as the Second Indochina War—the Delta region saw savage fighting between Viet Cong guerrillas and the US 9th Infantry Division and units of the United States Navy's swift boats and hovercrafts plus the Army of the Republic of Vietnam 7th, 9th, 21st Infantry Divisions; as a military region the Mekong Delta was encompassed by the IV Corps Tactical Zone. In 1975, North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong soldiers launched a massive invasion in many parts of South Vietnam. While I, II, III Corps collapsed IV Corps was still intact due to under Major General Nguyen Khoa Nam overseeing strong military operations to prevent VC taking over any important regional districts; when the South Vietnamese President Duong Van Minh ordered a surrender, both ARVN generals in Can Tho, General Le Van Hung and Nguyen Khoa Nam, committed suicide after deciding not to continue battle against the VC soldiers.
Following independence from France, the Mekong Delta was part of the Republic of Vietnam and the country of Vietnam. In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge regime attacked Vietnam in an attempt to reconquer the Delta region; this campaign precipitated the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia and subsequent downfall of the Khmer Rouge. The Mekong Delta, as a region, lies to the west of Ho Chi Minh City forming a triangle stretching from Mỹ Tho in the east to Châu Đốc and Hà Tiên in the northwest, down to Cà Mau at the southernmost tip of Vietnam, including the island of Phú Quốc; the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam displays a variety of physical landscapes, but is dominated by flat flood plains in the south, with a few hills in the north and west. This diversity of terrain was the product of tectonic uplift and folding brought about by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates about 50 million
River
A river is a natural flowing watercourse freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, brook and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always: the language is vague. Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Potamology is the scientific study of rivers, while limnology is the study of inland waters in general. Most of the major cities of the world are situated on the banks of rivers, as they are, or were, used as a source of water, for obtaining food, for transport, as borders, as a defensive measure, as a source of hydropower to drive machinery, for bathing, as a means of disposing of waste.
A river begins at a source, follows a path called a course, ends at a mouth or mouths. The water in a river is confined to a channel, made up of a stream bed between banks. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by flood-waters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be wide in relation to the size of the river channel; this distinction between river channel and floodplain can be blurred in urban areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become developed by housing and industry. Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys or along plains, can create canyons or gorges; the term upriver refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i.e. against the direction of flow. The term downriver describes the direction towards the mouth of the river, in which the current flows; the term left bank refers to the left bank in the direction of right bank to the right. The river channel contains a single stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water, producing a braided river.
Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide, such as the South Island of New Zealand. They occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are quite rare, they have multiple sinuous channels carrying large volumes of sediment. There are rare cases of river bifurcation in which a river divides and the resultant flows ending in different seas. An example is the bifurcation of Nerodime River in Kosovo. A river flowing in its channel is a source of energy which acts on the river channel to change its shape and form. In 1757, the German hydrologist Albert Brahms empirically observed that the submerged weight of objects that may be carried away by a river is proportional to the sixth power of the river flow speed; this formulation is sometimes called Airy's law. Thus, if the speed of flow is doubled, the flow would dislodge objects with 64 times as much submerged weight. In mountainous torrential zones this can be seen as erosion channels through hard rocks and the creation of sands and gravels from the destruction of larger rocks.
A river valley, created from a U-shaped glaciated valley, can easily be identified by the V-shaped channel that it has carved. In the middle reaches where a river flows over flatter land, meanders may form through erosion of the river banks and deposition on the inside of bends. Sometimes the river will cut off a loop, shortening the channel and forming an oxbow lake or billabong. Rivers that carry large amounts of sediment may develop conspicuous deltas at their mouths. Rivers whose mouths are in saline tidal waters may form estuaries. Throughout the course of the river, the total volume of water transported downstream will be a combination of the free water flow together with a substantial volume flowing through sub-surface rocks and gravels that underlie the river and its floodplain. For many rivers in large valleys, this unseen component of flow may exceed the visible flow. Most but not all rivers flow on the surface. Subterranean rivers flow underground in caverns; such rivers are found in regions with limestone geologic formations.
Subglacial streams are the braided rivers that flow at the beds of glaciers and ice sheets, permitting meltwater to be discharged at the front of the glacier. Because of the gradient in pressure due to the overlying weight of the glacier, such streams can flow uphill. An intermittent river only flows and can be dry for several years at a time; these rivers are found in regions with limited or variable rainfall, or can occur because of geologic conditions such as a permeable river bed. Some ephemeral rivers flow during the summer months but not in the winter; such rivers are fed from chalk aquifers which recharge from winter rainfall. In England these rivers are called bournes and give their name to places such as Bournemouth and Eastbourne. In humid regions, the location where flow begins in the smallest tributary streams moves upstream in response to precipitation and downstream in its absence or when active summer vegetation diverts water for evapotrans
2013 Lahad Datu standoff
The 2013 Lahad Datu standoff was a military conflict that started on 11 February 2013 and ended on 24 March 2013. The standoff arose after 235 militants, some of whom were armed, arrived by boats in Lahad Datu District, Malaysia from Simunul island, Tawi-Tawi, in the southern Philippines, on 11 February 2013; the group, calling themselves the "Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo", was sent by Jamalul Kiram III, one of the claimants to the throne of the Sultanate of Sulu. Kiram III stated that their objective was to assert the unresolved territorial claim of the Philippines to eastern Sabah. Malaysian security forces surrounded the village of Tanduo in Lahad Datu, where the group had gathered and, after several weeks of negotiations and unmet deadlines for the intruders to withdraw after the killing of Malaysian police members, the Malaysian security forces began to launch a major operation to flush out the Sulu militants. At the end of the standoff, around 56 militants were killed together with 6 civilians and 10 Malaysian security forces.
The rest of the militants escaped back to the Philippines. The Philippines retains a dormant territorial claim to eastern Sabah known as North Borneo, through the heritage of the Sultanate of Sulu; the basis of this claim is that the dominion of the sultanate has spanned from the Sulu Archipelago into parts of northern Borneo. In line with International Court of Justice court decision in the case concerning sovereignty of Pulau Ligitan and Pulau Sipadan in 2002, Malaysia views that Sultan of Sulu indisputably relinquished the sovereign rights of all its possession in favour of Spain on 22 July 1878, hence losing any title to its claim of Sabah, it is acknowledged that a request for payment to the defunct-Sultanate of Sulu was revived by the Philippine government during a meeting of Maphilindo in 1963. The Philippine government at the time said they have no problem with the formation of Malaysia but said the Sultan of Sulu wanted the payment of 5,000 from the Malaysian government; the first Malaysian Prime Minister at the time, Tunku Abdul Rahman said he would go back to Kuala Lumpur and get on the request.
Since the Malaysian embassy in the Philippines issues a cheque in the amount of 5,300 ringgit to the legal counsel of the heirs of the Sultan of Sulu every year in keeping with the terms. Malaysia considers the amount an annual cession payment for the disputed state, while the sultan's descendants consider it as a "rent" payment. Another factor behind the standoff is the unresolved status of the Sultanate of Sulu; the Filipino group in Lahad Datu claims to represent Jamalul Kiram III as the Sultan of Sulu. However, his status as sultan is disputed by several other claimants. Heirs to the Sultanate of Sulu felt excluded by the terms of the framework of a peace deal between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, as announced on 7 October 2012 by Philippine president Benigno Aquino III. In response, Jamalul Kiram III, claiming to be the legitimate heir to the throne of Sulu, decreed on 11 November 2012 that a civilian and military contingent should assert his territorial rights in North Borneo.
He appointed Raja Muda, Agbimuddin Kiram, to lead the group. Months on 11 February 2013, Agbimuddin Kiram and at least 101 followers arrived in the village of Tanduo, located near Tungku in Lahad Datu District, Sabah from neighbouring Simunul island, Tawi-Tawi, of southern Philippines. Around eighty people fled from 15 homes in Tanduo. Malaysian police blockaded roads leading from Lahad Datu to the remote village of Tanduo, where the armed group was encircled. Malaysian police patrol boats patrolled nearby waters. At the same time, Filipino security agencies blocked off entry from southern Philippines; the Philippines deployed six naval ships to the seas of Sulu and Tawi Tawi to help stabilise the situation. An additional Philippine naval ship was sent to Malaysian waters off Lahad Datu to provide humanitarian assistance. On 26 February 2013, President Aquino appealed to Kiram III to recall his followers and to hold discussions with the government to address his family's concerns. In a press conference held at Malacañang Palace, Aquino said that the longer Kiram's III followers stay in Sabah, the more they endanger not just their own lives, but those of the thousands of Filipinos living and working there.
Addressing Kiram III, he said, "It must be clear to you that this small group of people will not succeed in addressing your grievances, that there is no way that force can achieve your aims". Aquino reminded him that as a Filipino citizen, he is bound by the Constitution of the Philippines and its laws; the president said that he had ordered an investigation into possible violations of laws by Kiram III, his followers and collaborators, citing the Constitution's provision on renouncing war as an instrument of national policy and Article 118 of the Revised Penal Code, which punishes those who "provoke or give occasion for a war...or expose Filipino citizens to reprisals on their persons or property". He said a dialogue to address the country's territorial dispute to eastern Sabah could be arranged after those involved in the standoff came home immediately. Aquino declined to confirm reports of other parties being behind the standoff to sabotage the Bangsamoro peace process; the statement by President Aquino was supported by Senator Francis Pangilinan who urged Kiram III to put an end to the standoff in Sabah.
In a statement, he said: This standoff has reached a critical point where the Philippine government must now act decis
Cartridge (firearms)
A cartridge is a type of pre-assembled firearm ammunition packaging a projectile, a propellant substance and an ignition device within a metallic, paper or plastic case, made to fit within the barrel chamber of a breechloading gun, for the practical purpose of convenient transportation and handling during shooting. Although in popular usage the term "bullet" is used to refer to a complete cartridge, it is used only to refer to the projectile. Cartridges can be categorized by the type of their primers — a small charge of an impact- or electric-sensitive chemical mixture, located at the center of the case head, inside the rim of the case base, in a sideway projection, shaped like a pin or a lip, or in a small nipple-like bulge at the case base. Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition; some artillery ammunition uses the same cartridge concept. In other cases, the artillery shell is separate from the propellant charge. A cartridge without a projectile is called a blank.
One, inert is called a dummy. One that failed to ignite and shoot off the projectile is called a dud, one that ignited but failed to sufficiently push the projectile out of the barrel is called a squib; the primary purpose is to be a handy all-in-one for a shot. In modern, automatic weapons, it provides the energy to move the parts of the gun which make it fire repeatedly. Many weapons were designed to make use of a available cartridge, or a new one with new qualities; the cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore. A firing pin ignites it; the primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate. A jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall; these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to this pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance, down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the chamber pressure drops to atmospheric pressure.
The case, elastically expanded by chamber pressure, contracts slightly. This eases removal of the case from the chamber. To manufacture brass for cartidges, a sheet of brass is punched into disks; these disks go through a series of punches and dies and are annealed and washed before moving to the next series of dies. Making bullets involves simular type of maching as for making brass cases; the projectile can be made of anything. Lead is a material of choice because of high density, ductility; the propellant was long gunpowder, still in use, but superseded by better compositions, generically called Smokeless powder. Early primer was fine gunpowder poured into a pan or tube where it could be ignited by some external source of ignition such as a fuse or a spark. Modern primers are shock sensitive chemicals enclosed in a small capsule, ignited by percussion. In some instance ignition is electricity-primed, there may be no primer at all in such design; the case is made of brass because it is resistant to corrosion.
A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the high pressures of cartridges, allow for manipulation via extraction and ejection without tearing the metal. The neck and body portion of a brass case is annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in some military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass. Military forces consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, so the lighter steel cases do have a military advantage. Conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the increased strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck and into the chamber. Constituents of these gases condense on the chamber wall; this solid propellant residue can make extraction of fired cases difficult.
This is less of a problem for small arms of the former Warsaw Pact nations, which were designed with much larger chamber tolerances than NATO weapons. Aluminum cased; these are not reloaded as aluminum fatigues during firing and resizing. Some calibers have non-standard primer sizes to discourage reloaders from attempting to reuse these cases. Plastic cases are used in shotgun shells and some manufacturers offer polymer centerfire cartridges. Paper had been used in the earliest cartridges. Critical cartridge specifications include neck size, bullet weight and caliber, maximum pressure, overall length, case body diameter and taper, shoulder design, rim type, etc. Ever
Kurdish–Turkish conflict (1978–present)
The Kurdish–Turkish conflict is an armed conflict between the Republic of Turkey and various Kurdish insurgent groups, which have demanded separation from Turkey to create an independent Kurdistan, or to have autonomy and greater political and cultural rights for Kurds inside the Republic of Turkey. The main rebel group is the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK. Although insurgents have carried out attacks in many regions of Turkey, the insurgency is in southeastern Turkey; the PKK's presence in Iraq's Kurdistan Region, from which it has launched attacks, has resulted in the Turkish military carrying out frequent ground incursions and air and artillery strikes in the region. The conflict has cost the economy of Turkey an estimated US$300 to 450 billion military costs, it has affected tourism in Turkey. The group was founded in 1978 in the village of Fis by a group of Kurdish students led by Abdullah Öcalan; the initial reason given by the PKK for this was the oppression of Kurds in Turkey. By the use of Kurdish language, dress and names were banned in Kurdish-inhabited areas.
In an attempt to deny their existence, the Turkish government categorized Kurds as "Mountain Turks" until 1991. The words "Kurds", "Kurdistan", or "Kurdish" were banned by the Turkish government. Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was prohibited in public and private life. Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were imprisoned; the PKK was formed, as part of a growing discontent over the suppression of Turkey's ethnic Kurds, in an effort to establish linguistic and political rights for Turkey's ethnic Kurdish minority. The full-scale insurgency, did not begin until 15 August 1984, when the PKK announced a Kurdish uprising. Since the conflict began, more than 40,000 have died, a vast majority of whom were Kurdish civilians killed by the Turkish Armed Forces; the European Court of Human Rights has condemned Turkey for thousands of human rights abuses. Many judgments are related to systematic executions of Kurdish civilians, forced displacements, destroyed villages, arbitrary arrests and disappeared Kurdish journalists and politicians.
The first insurgency lasted until 1 September 1999. The armed conflict was resumed on 1 June 2004, when the PKK declared an end to its ceasefire. Since summer 2011, the conflict has become violent with resumption of large-scale hostilities. In 2013 the Turkish Government and the jailed PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan started talks. On 21 March 2013, Öcalan announced the "end of armed struggle" and a ceasefire with peace talks. On July 25, 2015, the PKK cancelled their 2013 ceasefire after a year of tension due to various events, including the Turks bombing PKK positions in Iraq, in the midst of the Kurds' battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. With the resumption of violence, hundreds of ethnic Kurdish civilians have been killed and numerous human rights violations have occurred including torture and widespread destruction of property. Turkish authorities have destroyed substantial parts of many Kurdish inhabited cities including Diyarbakır, Şırnak, Cizre, Yüksekova. Following secret negotiations, a successful ceasefire was put in place by AKP and PKK.
The ceasefire broke in summer 2015 due to political tensions. Kurdish rebellions against the Ottoman Empire go back two centuries, but the modern conflict dates back to the Turkish War of Independence, which established a Turkish nationalist state which has repressed the human rights of Kurdish people in Turkey. Major historical events include the Koçgiri Rebellion, Sheikh Said rebellion, Ararat rebellion, the Dersim Rebellion; the Kurdistan Workers Party was founded in 1974 by Abdullah Öcalan. A Marxist–Leninist organization, it abandoned orthodox communism and adopted a program of greater political rights and cultural autonomy for Kurds. Between 1978 and 1980, the PKK engaged in limited urban warfare with the Turkish state to these aims; the organization restructured itself and moved the organization structure to Syria between 1980 and 1984, just after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. The rural-based insurgency lasted between 1984 and 1992; the PKK shifted its activities to include urban warfare between 1993 and 1995 and between 1996 and 1999.
The leader of the party was captured in Kenya in early 1999, with the support of CIA. After a unilaterally declared peace initiative in 1999, the PKK resumed the conflict due to a Turkish military offensive in 2004. Since 1974 it had been able to evolve, go through a metamorphosis, which became the main factor in its survival, it had grown from a handful of political students to a dynamic organization. In the aftermath of the failed 1991 uprisings in Iraq against Saddam Hussein, the UN established no-fly zones over Kurdish areas of Iraq, giving those areas de facto independence; the PKK was forced to retreat from Lebanon and Syria as a part of an agreement between Turkey and the United States. The PKK moved their training camps to the Qandil Mountains and as a result Turkey responded with Operation Steel and Operation Hammer in a failed attempt to crush the PKK. In 1992 Colonel Kemal Yilmaz declared that the Special Warfare Department was still active in the conflict against the PKK; the U. S. State Department echoed concerns of Counter-Guerrilla involvement in its 1994 Country Report on Human Rights Practices for Turkey.
The Counter-Guerrilla units were involved in serious human rights violations.Öcalan was captured in Kenya on 15 Febru
Argentina: Argentine Marines.[13]
Australia[14]
Morocco:Moroccan Army.[15]
Bangladesh[16]
Brazil: Used by the Brazilian Marine Corps.[17]
Croatia: MATAV armored vehicles armed with Mk 19 grenade launcher, first seen in public at recent Croatian Army Parade. Initially Croatia purchased 32 weapons and kits, the number has since gone up.[18][19][20]
Egypt: Manufactured locally by Helwan.[21][22]
Greece[23]
Honduras[24]
Iran[25]
Iraq: Used by Iraqi special forces on Humvees.[26]
Israel:[14] Adopted by the Israeli Defence Forces (under the name "Maklar", for mikla rimonim or "grenade machinegun"), to be fielded in infantry and mechanized units; the Mk 19 was formerly manufactured locally.[21]
Italy
Lebanon[27]
Malaysia[14]
Mexico:[14] Used extensively by the Mexican Army in the Mexican drug war.
Pakistan: Used by the Pakistan Army.[28]
Poland[29]
Saudi Arabia[30]
Spain[14]
Sweden: Designated Grsp 92.[14] Used by Kustjägarna and Amfibiebataljonen[31] and also by the 31st Airborne Battalion[32]
Taiwan[1]
Thailand: Used by Royal Thai Marines (Mounted on AAV-7A1).[citation needed]
Turkey: Produced under licence by MKEK.[6] Used by Turkish Land Forces.[33]
United States:[14] Currently in widespread use throughout the U.S. Armed Forces.
_fire_the_MK-19_40mm_grenade_launcher_during_MIL-EX_2003.jpg)
