D.E. Watters

Well I wrote my Master's dissertation on it, so I've been hands on with the rifle and I've done archival research into UK govt. records. It's difficult to say when exactly it 'died' because it depends on what you take a the final nail in the coffin. The very final death of it was Churchill and the Conservative Party's return to government in late 1951. His meeting with Truman in Jan '52 ended all hopes of progress with the EM-2. But arguably the project stalled when the ammunition compromises began and the US were still disinterested. From an engineering standpoint the rifle needed a lot more work, Nate and I have discussed several times how the EM-1 probably had a better chance of becoming a suitable service rifle. It was a serious contender for unilateral British adoption certainly if we had decided to go it alone (Churchill very much saw the big picture and did not want us to do that). It is possible Canada may have followed us which may have cancelled out some of the production capacity concerns. 

I'm afraid it's not available electronically at the moment :\ I did suggest it to them. I'm in the process of improving it, more learnt since I finished it 18 months ago. Nate is doing good stuff on the US angle though. Hopefully we can team up and put something together. 

It is always a good day when you find out the 1,000 rounds of "SS109" you bought are actually this stuff:
 

The British 2" Mk VII* and Mk VIII mortars of WW2 were the forerunners of the 51mm L9A1 light mortar.  Supposedly, the 40mm UBGL was finally adopted because the stockpile of 51mm bombs was quickly used up in Afghanistan and Iraq, and there was no longer a commercial source anywhere outside of India.  Beside India, Yugoslavia once made and exported its own clone, the M8.

The US 60mm M19 Mortar with its original M1 baseplate would fit the Commando mortar concept, although it was hardly lightweight.  This was developed during WW2.

The Brandt 60mm Type A and Type V Commando mortars were exported from France to around 20 different countries, and production was licensed to Chile, at minimum.  After Brandt was rolled up into the Thales empire as TDA, these became the MO 60 CA and MO 60 CV. Brandt clones appear to include the Argentine MC 1-60 FMK-2 Mod 0 Commando mortar, the Iranian HM12 Fateh and HM13 Narollah, the Portuguese M/968 60 mm Commando mortar (made by FBP/INDEP),

Here is the Hirtenberger M6C from Austria.  I think that it was formerly known as the Böhler C6.  Arsenal of Bulgaria reportedly licensed the C6-210 design.

http://hds.hirtenberger.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/HDS_60mm_CdoSystem.pdf

The Soltam 60 mm C 03 Commando mortar has been used by the Israelis and Hondurans.

The LM-60K and LM-60 K2 60 mm Commando mortars were produced in Poland.

The ROMARM 60 mm Commando mortar was produced in Romania.

The ST Kinetics 60 mm Commando mortar was produced in Singapore.

Vektor 60 mm M4 series of Commando mortars reportedly saw use by the SANDF.  The M4L3 variant was also reportedly sold to the Mexican Army.

The EXPAL 60 mm Commando mortar was supposedly adopted by the Spanish military.

The MKEK 60 mm Commando mortar  was supposedly adopted by the Turkish military.

The various former Yugoslav republics have built and used the M70 60mm mortar.  Export sales have supposedly been made to El Salvador.
 

Yep but in this case, the system seem to also be connected, just without the sight (for the least), we can see the cable making the link between the weapon and the soldier gear on the picture loooser posted.
As long as you have the computer and the weapon (there are command buttons on the forward grip), you have the base of the system, then the rest is just add on module depending on how much weight you want to carry and the needs for the mission.
 

 
Not much use having that huge night sight, if you have googles or if it's a day mission.

Looks like the French were attaching COTS equipment to the FAMAS via the pic rails from the FELIN system:
 

 
One of the problems with FAMAS is that it does not have any good ways to mount optics.  The carry handle isn't rigid at all:
 

That's the FAMAS FELIN (Stands for Infantry man with integrated equipement and datalink).
A kit for soldier to share intel in real time, some vehicles are equiped with it
http://www.armyrecognition.com/france_french_army_military_equipment_uk/felin_sagem_future_soldier_infantry_equipment_soldier_gear_technical_data_sheet_specifications_uk.html
 

 
The HK416F has started to replace the FAMAS in our army and will also be equipped with the FELIN system.
The FAMAS should dissapear from infantry regiment by 2021 and completely phased out by 2028
 
The FELIN system also equip the 5,56 minimi LMG and the FR F2 7,62 mm DMR
 

 

 

Claimed to be Famas
 

http://mpopenker.livejournal.com/2211482.html
Some of Simonov's works

Recent acquisitions:
 

 
 

Max continues to post odd shit on FB.
 

 
 

 
 
 

PYa and PL-14/15
 

If you want somebody who actually nails his spoken-word histories, though, give the podcasts Ryan Michad did with our own @D.E. Watters a whirl.

The goofy design of the single-stack magazine forced it to release it contents as the magazine was locked into the magazine well.  As a result, you could lose up to four rounds if you then removed the loaded magazine from the magazine well.  On the bright side, this also meant that you could also force additional rounds into the receiver after the magazine was inserted.  This meant four more rounds inside the receiver plus one in the chamber when in semi-auto/closed bolt  mode.

The goofy design of the single-stack magazine forced it to release it contents as the magazine was locked into the magazine well.  As a result, you could lose up to four rounds if you then removed the loaded magazine from the magazine well.  On the bright side, this also meant that you could also force additional rounds into the receiver after the magazine was inserted.  This meant four more rounds inside the receiver plus one in the chamber when in semi-auto/closed bolt  mode.

You can sort by relevance or date.  However, the date used for sorting is sometimes the date the document was first posted publicly after declassification.

I just checked.  It still appears as an option for me when I search under "Technical Reports."

Even closer images of the NK OICW, judging from some of the design features it's clearly AK-74 based. (Type 85 or 88 in NK) Credits Akula_941.
 

 

 
This likely rules out the Chinese QTS-11 (the True name of the ZH-05) as the "parent" of the NK OICW as the rifle portion of the QTS-11 is based on a cut down QBZ-03 memory serve me. It's also using a magazine fed launcher design which the QTS-11 program ditched pretty early in development because it proved to be too heavy and bulky.
 

Best Korean Quad Stack (Stolen from Max P.)
 
 

Short barrel version 

Better photo of Best Korean OICW.

As Khort from otvaga forum pointed out, this thing looks a lot like Worst Korean Daewoo K11. I completely forgot about it...

Looks a lot of like PLA OICW (QTS-11 IIRC), only with a magazine for GL. I see a handle for manual operation of GL on NK version, too.

 

 
 

More on that, literally just revealed NK OICW in the parade.
 

 
Credits to Akula_941 for the photo.