Fun with guns in Afghanistan
United States, Australians, New Zealanders and Singapore soldiers got together at the Tarin Kot base in Afghanistan to play with each others toys. Army.mil reports ...
TARIN KOT, Afghanistan -- AK-47 rifles, Squad Automatic Weapons, Steyr AUG models, M-4 carbines and even the Singaporean SAR 21s were up for test fire during a weapons familiarization range Mar. 11, at Multi-National Base Tarin Kot, Uruzgan province, Afghanistan.
Combined Team Uruzgan sent an open invitation to all nations of Multi-National Base Tarin Kot to receive instruction on and shoot different small arms weapons from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States.
The range featured all of the respective militaries' major hand guns, assault rifles and light machine guns, said Sgt. 1st Class David Bergman, provost marshal for Combined Team Uruzgan.
Since most operations in Uruzgan province are an international effort, the range was ultimately an exercise in awareness, Bergman said.
[ Many thanks to Lance for emailing me the link. ]
Like a fictitious scholar once put it, “Hell… its about DAMN TIME!”
I’m issued the SAR21 for use in the army.
It is a pretty decent piece of kit. Easy to shoot and maintain. Never had any major issues with the weapon whether I was using live ammo or blanks.
Only major complaint I’ve got with it is the scope. It’s damn near impossible to see the reticle at night. Me and most of my buddies would gladly give up the LAD module for an optical sight that would work at night.
Australian special forces are now using multicam too by the way.
I picked up a SAR-21 a few years ago for the first time and hit two human-sized targets at 300 metres with my first two shots. Well, it had a built-in scope and that explained that pretty much. I would expect a M16A1 (or M16S1 in Singapore’s case) mounted with a similar scope to have such performance and accuracy. I can’t say that I am used to a bullpup configuration, being more comfortable with the M16S1. Some friends who served with this weapon (most of them had converted from the M16S1 before) hadn’t liked bullpups.
Komrad, there’s a regular course on foreign weapons run by the US military for their troops – I don’t recall which branch or where (somewhere in the USA) but I recall reading about it in Small Arms Review.
@ Tony Willams
Sorry no Brits where at this event. Like the new camo.
Damn, that sounds like fun!
lucky bastards
probably a good thing to do though
has anyone heard of the military doing anything like this before?
seems like it should be something any soldiers working with foreign soldiers should do
I know this is off topic, but the multicam uniforms look so much better than the ACU for Afghanistan.
That’s my kind of meet & greet.
I’d love to hear their thoughts on the SAR; I’ve wanted a civi TAR/SAR for years now.
Good lord I hate helmet covers. Yet another thing you don’t really need.
“an exercise in awareness” – verb. To have fun shooting each other’s guns and calling it work.
The sar may be the best of the ones mentioned.
It is a nice design.
Anybody know anything not good about it?
That’s the former Dutch base, by the way. Good to see they’re putting it to good use now….
This can only be a good thing, in my opinion.
Whether the impressions of other country’s assault rifles are good, or bad, at least they’re now based on real world experience.
I am envious of the fact that they got to use a SAR-21. I am interested on how it compares to the F88 Austeyrs being used.
Wot, no SA80?
I would really like to have heard the views of all of the soldiers concerning how they felt their domestic weapons compared with all of the others.
That singaporean soldier is pretty big.
I’m just happy to see us in MultiCam
Like a fictitious scholar once put it, “Hell… its about DAMN TIME!”
I’ve been always curious about the SAR 21.
Found this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B93C8o4_aQ&feature=related
It looks quite compact even for a bullpup, small buttstock, typical from Asia. =P
And looks fun too!
Great to see some Multicam-clad troops. Makes me wonder why, in the living hell, anyone in the Army somehow thought adopting the UCP was a good idea. Then again, the Military is also a bureaucracy…