Battle rifles and the Philippines (DUF mailer)

[2HOW]

From John Farnam:

12 Oct 09

Battle Rifle Comments, from a friend in the Philippines:

"A decade ago, our armed forces were desperately scampering about for additional rifles to issue to police so they could effectively combat local Islamic insurgents, but budgets were tight.  A perfect, albeit short-term, solution was to issue a relatively cheap and available Kalashnikov in 223, but TRADOC (Training and Doctrine Command), in their infinite wisdom, quashed the  deal, saying it would take too much time to reorient police officers, who were not accustomed to using rifles.

Curiously, rebels, typically uneducated peasants with little military experience, seemed to be able to work an AK just fine, apparently without benefit of any TRADOC orientation.  Imagine that!

As the crisis deepened, well-meaning individuals spent their own money and donated AKs in 223 to police units.  But, our National Police's General HQ refused to issue 223 ammo, stating that the AK was not in the police TOE (Table of Organization).  Yet, there were government warehouses chock-full of 223, enough to supply all police units many times over.

Political inertia and bureaucratic career-tending, so endemic to this civilization (and yours) is predictably the direct cause of countless needless deaths.  We saw it, in spades, over here!

We continue to see it!"

Comment: John Garand, in the 1930s, designed his new, autoloading military rifle to shoot the 276 Pedersen round (ballistically similar to the current 6.8mmSPC).  It was considered a "medium" cartridge, with 300m in range, but the rifle itself was short, slim, and handy.  Only the direct intervention  of Doug MacArthur caused Garand to up-size his rifle to fire the "heavy" 30-06  (7.62X63) cartridge, and in the process making it a good deal longer, fatter,  and heavier.  The result was the "M1," the biggest, heaviest,
most powerful  individual weapon ever issued to infantry soldiers, before or since!

The "medium" cartridge, with more range and penetration than the 223 (5.56X45), but less than the 308 (7.62X51), represents today, once again, the wave of the future.  In fact, the Chinese, weary of waiting on traditional American leadership in this area, have gone ahead and upgraded to their own version of the medium cartridge, the 5.8X42.

The current American version of the medium cartridge, the 6.8mmSPC (6.8X43), despite promising reviews, is still languishing, as politicians and bureaucrats tend their careers!

American Soldiers and Marines deserve something better than a maintenance-sensitive, 150m rifle, with poor penetration.  We've had forty years to figure this out!

Big wars are coming, ready or not!

/John

(“TOE” actually stands for “Table of Organization and Equipment.” I don’t know if the term is still in use in the US military but such a table used to spell out just how many people would be assigned to a unit at full strength, in which job and with what equipment.)