Airborne (1997) (21 page)

The problems stemmed largely from the Army’s use of low-grade propellant in the ammunition, against the advice of the manufacturer. The inferior powder caused excessive fouling and corrosion. This would not have been so bad except that due to a shortage of cleaning kits and lubricant, troops thought that the M16 was a “self-cleaning weapon.” Unlike the indestructible bolt-action rifles of World War II that the veteran sergeants had handled all their lives, a gas-operated automatic like the M16 is a precision machine that requires meticulous and thorough cleaning after firing to ensure continued reliable operation. When proper cleaning kits were provided, and troops were trained to maintain the weapon, the M16 proved to be absolutely reliable. To improve the weapon even further, the chamber was chrome-plated to resist corrosion, and a sturdy manual bolt closing lever was added, to force home any cartridge that became stuck (this is typically caused by a dented cartridge case, which never should have been loaded in the magazine in the first place).

For over two decades, the basic M16 (as well as the improved M16A1) served in the armed forces of the U.S. and many of our allies. However, by the 1980s, a new version was needed, and this became the second-generation M16A2. Manufactured by Colt in Hartford, Connecticut, the M16A2 is an air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle firing a 5.56mm (.223-caliber) bullet to a maximum effective range of about 600 yards/550 meters. The weapon weighs 8.9 lb/4.05 kg loaded with a thirty-round magazine. A selector switch toggles between safe, single shots, or three-round bursts. The full-automatic (“rock and roll”) mode of earlier M16 models, which could empty an entire clip in a few seconds of wild inaccurate spraying, has been eliminated. Airborne troopers are trained to extend their ammunition even further by limiting themselves whenever possible to single, aimed shots. Another key improvement to the M16A2 was the muzzle compensator, an ingenious gas deflector that counteracts the muzzle’s natural tendency to climb during a burst. The weapon can also be quickly adapted for left-handed shooters (about 15 percent of troops) by switching the side to which spent cartridge cases are ejected. Generally, the M16A2 is an excellent combat rifle, and is among the best of its class today.

Beretta M9 Personal Defense Weapon.
An incredibly small percentage of combat casualties are inflicted by handguns. Under the stress of combat, even the best-trained pistol shooters are unlikely to score first-round hits on an alerted opponent at ranges beyond five yards/meters! Normally, military combat pistols are only issued to officers, military police, aviators, and soldiers whose duties prevent them from using a rifle effectively but who still require a lethal close-combat weapon. For the U.S. armed forces, that weapon is the M9 Beretta Model 92F 9mm handgun. The choice of a “foreign” weapon to replace the classic Colt M1911 .45-caliber automatic was bitterly controversial in 1985, but M9s for the U.S. Department of Defense are actually assembled in Accokeek, Maryland.

The Beretta’s basic design dates from the 1930s, though it packs a number of modern safety and firing features. Advantages of this 9mm weapon are its large fifteen-round magazine (compared to just seven in the M1911A1 Colt and only six in the Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver), light weight (1.15 kg/2.61b with a full magazine), and superior controllability, especially for troops with small hands. The barrel is 125mm/almost 5 in long, giving a nominal effective range of around 50 meters/55 yards. Realistically, though, most shooters are trained to work out to about 25 meters/27.5 yards.

Overall, the M9 is an excellent weapon, albeit one with more in the way of safety features than I personally prefer. The weapon is normally issued with a cleaning kit, and there are a variety of holster designs, depending on the soldier’s uniform. Normally, the M9 would be carried, along with several spare loaded magazines, on the trooper’s web belt.

M203 Grenade Launcher.
The practical limit for throwing a hand grenade is about 30 meters/33 yards, and the accurate limit is considerably less. During World War I, various armies experimented with “rifle grenades” that used special cartridges or muzzle adapters to launch an impact-fused explosive grenade from a standard infantry rifle. When properly employed, they were effective out to a range of 100 meters/110 yards or more. The rifle grenade was particularly useful in street fighting, where a skilled grenadier could put an explosive round over a wall or through a window. The U.S. Army never took much interest in rifle grenades, preferring the greater firepower of light mortars operated by specialist crews. In Vietnam, however, a short-barreled 40mm grenade launcher, the M79 “thump gun,” proved its worth, becoming a standard squad weapon. The only drawback was that the grenadier had to carry the additional weight of his own M16 rifle, switching weapons according to the tactical situation.

The M203 is a clever compromise, fitting a stubby pump-action 40mm grenade launcher under the barrel of a standard M16A2. One man in every four-man fire team is equipped with an M203. The grenade launcher adds only 3 1b/1.36 kg to the weight of the weapon. It consists of a hand guard and sight assembly with an adjustable sight, and an aluminum receiver which houses the barrel latch, barrel stop, and firing mechanism. The launcher fires a variety of low-velocity 40mm ammunition. These include high-explosive fragmentation, smoke, tear gas, and illumination rounds. Illumination grenades, which are fired at a high angle to deploy a dazzling magnesium flare on a miniature parachute, are particularly useful to the 82nd Airborne, which prefers to fight at night. Each illumination round is good for about a minute of fairly bright visibility. “Non-lethal” plastic and foam-rubber “beanbag” rounds have also been developed for riot control and peacekeeping. The launcher also has a quadrant sight which may be attached to the M16A2 carrying handle and used when precision is required at longer ranges. Maximum effective range against an area target is 1,150 feet/350 meters. Against a point target the practical range is about 490 feet/150 meters. The minimum safe range for combat is 100 feet/31 meters. This is an important weapon for the fire team, providing a base of heavy fire at the very head of an infantry assault.

M249 Squad Automatic Weapon.
Late in World War I the German Army realized that the light machine gun, carried and operated by one man, was a key ingredient to a new, aggressive approach to small-unit tactics. The new tactics were based upon the seamless integration of infantry firepower and maneuver. This tactical doctrine was later refined and perfected in World War II, and the light machine gun that made it possible found its ultimate expression in the MG-42. This light machine gun was so good that the U.S. Army adopted it, with minor “improvements,” as the 7.62mm M60. The powerful 7.62mm round was also fired by the M14 rifle. Unfortunately, with the introduction of the M16 (which fired a 5.56mm round), the M14 was rendered obsolete.
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This left the Army without a “rifle caliber” combat rifle, and now required the carrying of two separate sizes of ammunition (5.56mm and 7.62mm) by U.S. rifle units. This was hardly a desirable situation, and efforts were begun to find a light machine gun that could use the same 5.56mm ammunition as the M16.

After many years of trials and experiments, the Army adopted a design called the FN Minimi, developed by the famed Belgian arsenal Fabrique National, as the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). This gas-operated weapon weighs 16.31b/7.4 kg, measures 41 in/103 cm in length, and has an effective range of 800 meters/875 yards. The rate of fire is an awesome seven hundred to one thousand rounds per minute, but SAW gunners are trained to fire short bursts to conserve ammunition. The M249 is normally fired from a prone position, supported by folding bipod legs and the soldier’s shoulder. The SAW uses a two-hundred-round plastic box magazine (it weighs 6.91b/3.1 kg) for its disintegrating-link-belted ammunition, but can also accept standard thirty-round M16 magazines from the lower receiver. A hinged plate covers the belt-feeder when a magazine is inserted, or covers the magazine opening when the belt is loaded. The M249 is among the best light machine guns ever produced, and has proven popular among rifle units. In particular, they like having all the personal weapons in a fire team firing the same 5.56mm ball ammunition. Tested many times in combat, the SAW has always performed well.

Cutlery, Ammunition, Mines, and Grenades.
Important as firearms are to a paratrooper, he would never go into action without an impressive collection of cutlery. The government-issued knives include a bayonet for the M16 rifle and a rigger’s knife. This last is a spring-loaded folding blade designed to cut away the shroud lines of a parachute in an emergency, such as a tree landing. In addition, a survival/combat knife is often worn in a scabbard strapped to one leg. Then there is the matter of personal knives and tools. While most paratroops still pack the traditional Swiss Army knife, something else is taking the place of other tools that might be needed in airborne operation. Rather than lugging around a box full of tools, most infantrymen are today carrying “multi-tools.” These are folding pliers that contain a number of other different and useful tools (screwdrivers, wire cutters, etc.). Various models made by Gerber and Leatherman are favored, and actually quite useful. Today’s airborne soldier also carries a folding entrenching tool with a sharpened blade that doubles as a nasty weapon in hand-to-hand combat. An improved Fighting Position Excavator (IPV-government for “shovel”) is under development. While all of this may seem excessive, try telling that to a young paratrooper jumping into a dark night, knowing nothing of what may be out there. Remember, these knives and tools may mean the difference between mission failure and success for an airborne trooper.

Along with all the cutlery, a paratrooper typically jumps with six M16 5.56mm ammunition magazines (loaded with thirty rounds each) and four M49 grenades (a mix of explosive-fragmentation, flash-bang, and smoke, depending on the mission). These are carried in a pair of pouches attached to the web gear. In addition, each trooper in a fire team not equipped with an M203 will usually carry an extra two-hundred-round M249 SAW magazine. If necessary, the SAW magazine can be broken down to reload empty M16 clips. For the M203-equipped trooper, there will likely be a stock of various types of 40mm grenades, depending upon the mission, threat level, and rules of engagement. Also towed away in the rucksack may be a claymore or other antipersonnel mine or a few rounds of 60mm mortar ammunition for the company’s heavy weapons platoon. Usually, the mortar rounds are dropped off in an assembly area, prior to the paratroops starting off to their objectives. All told, a U.S. paratrooper is probably carrying over 40 1b/18.1 kg of ammunition and weapons. It is a heavy load, but one that must be borne if the mission of the airborne is to be accomplished.

Sensors and Communications Gear.
If there is any single area of military science that the United States leads the world in, it must be the use of advanced electronics to overcome night darkness and the general “fog of war.” The electronics revolution has even reached down to touch the individual paratrooper, as you will shortly see.

Two thousand years ago, our Roman legionary was lucky to see at night by the light of a few smoky torches around the perimeter of his camp, or by a tiny clay lamp inside his tent fueled by some of his precious olive oil ration. Today, every paratrooper carries a couple of personal flashlights (usually one in a pouch on his web gear and a spare in his rucksack). These are miniature “Maglites,” the same kind you can buy from any camping-supply mail-order catalog. In the field, though, they must be capped by a pack of red and yellow filter inserts. Red light is not normally visible to the enemy at long range, and it does not impair troops’normal night vision. Besides, if you show a white light at night around airborne troopers, you are likely to get shot—by them! However, today’s infantryman has a lot more than just a flashlight to see his way on the night battlefield.

Every four-man fire team will normally have one or two sets of Night Vision Goggles (NVGs). Optical devices of this type are sometimes called “starlight scopes.” Originally developed during World War II, starlight scopes for many years were “black” weapons, shrouded in secrecy and issued mainly to snipers and covert intelligence agents. During the Vietnam War first-generation scopes were mass-produced and widely issued to U.S. soldiers. The scope uses reflected moonlight or starlight at night and can amplify dim images up to fifty thousand times. Civilian hunters can now buy excellent night-vision goggles of this general type (made in Russia, no less!) for less than $800.

The most common U.S. model of NVG is the AN/PVS-7B, which is based on a third-generation image-intensifier tube, which amplifies even the smallest amount of available light from stars or moonlight. The AN/PVS- 7B represents the 1996 state of the art in NVGs, and is a significant improvement over earlier systems. The single-tube image intensifier uses prisms and lenses to provide the user with simulated binocular vision with no magnification. Through the dual displays (the NVGs are mounted either on a “Fritz” helmet or head harness) you see a greenish, monochromatic view of the world without peripheral vision, so you have to scan continuously, left to right, up and down. It takes training and practice to move, search, and engage targets wearing NVGs, but the trouble they cause is worth the effort. A fast-acting “blooming” protection circuit prevents the user from being dazzled if a flare, vehicle headlights, or other bright light appears in the 40° circular field of view. In starlight (with no moon) a man-sized target can be spotted at around 100 meters/109.4 yards. In full moonlight that same man-sized target can be spotted at over 300 meters/328 yards, and vehicles out to 500 meters/547 yards. The AN/PVS-7B operates for up to twelve hours on a single battery, and weighs only 24 oz/.68 kg. Unit cost is about $6,000, and production is dual-sourced by ITT and Litton. Once a soldier is equipped with NVGs, there are other pieces of gear that can help him do his job.