For six decades, the 7.62mm FN MAG has been a dominant general-purpose machine gun (GPMG) in worldwide arsenals. Three qualities have guaranteed this enduring status – reliability, ease of operation, and firepower. Several nations have license-produced the weapon as their standard GPMG, including the British (as the L7) and the Americans (M240), and in total more than 80 nations have adopted the FN MAG. The machine gun has also been modified extensively for vehicular, naval, and aircraft platforms, demonstrating versatility in the air, on sea, and on land. In this book, Chris McNab charts the technical evolution of this extraordinary weapon, created by Belgian company Fabrique Nationale d'Herstal. From the jungles of South East Asia, to the deserts of the Middle East, and the icy battlefields of the Falklands, this study explores the origins, development, combat use, and legacy of the FN MAG machine gun, a dominant weapon in its field for more than a half-century.
No one knows and writes about machine guns like Peter Kokalis. Kokalis on Machine Guns collects the best Kokalis articles and columns on full-auto arms. It covers everything from antiques like the Colt Potato Digger to modern machine guns like the M240B, with everything in between. Whether it's an old favorite like the Thompson or a rarity like the Austrian M.30, it gets the definitive Kokalis treatment. He doesn't leave out the accessories, either, covering belts, tripods, magazines, gunner's kits, and the whole panoply of gadgets that make machine gun collecting such a fascinating hobby. Kokalis didn't learn about machine guns from a book; he's owned hundreds and fired hundreds more in combat zones like Afghanistan, Bosnia and El Salvador.
Robert K. Brown, former Green Beret, after a bizarre military career that succeeded in getting him kicked out of Special Forces not once but twice, and completing the Command and General Staff College without a security clearance, while meantime being wounded in Nam, finally found his true calling as a publisher. Thirty-eight years ago he launched an upstart magazine from his basement called Soldier of Fortune, which pushed the bounds of journalism to its limits with his untamed brand of reportingÑa camera in one hand, a gun in the other, and soon thereafter he discovered that heÕd established a worldwide community. His wildly popular, notorious magazine became an icon for action-seekers in the U.S. and around the world. In this long-awaited book, Brown tells his own story, taking the readers into combat zones where he and his daring combat journalists, or fearless Òdogs of war,Ó trotted across the globe. His rogue warrior journalists embedded themselves with anti-Communist guerillas or freedom fighters, often training and fighting with rebels against oppressive regimes. In their revolutionary journalistic style, they created the action and then wrote about it. Generals and leaders of exotic armies welcomed the SOF visitors and led them or allowed them to tread into unchartered territory. Brown himself accompanied teams to work and fight with the Rhodesians; the Afghans during the Afghan-Russo war, Christian Phalange in Lebanon; ethnic minority Karens in Burma; the ethnic tribes fighting the Communist government of Laos; the army of El Salvador; and the armed forces of struggling Croatia. Brown sent medical teams, often into the jaws of danger, to Burma, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Afghanistan, Bosnia, El Salvador and Nicaragua, and also into Peru after a devastating earthquake. In short, the ÒSoldiers of FortuneÓ went where even the U.S. government feared to tread, and they did it with gallant style, not fearing risk but welcoming the challenge, as long as they felt the cause was right and needed to be reported. In this book the exploits of Brown and his veteran teams are revealed for the first time in all their gonzo glory, even as the U.S. military, public, and polite diplomatic society sometimes shunned their endeavors. This is the story of Robert BrownÕs dogged quest, in journalism as well as warfare, to ÒSlay Dragons, do noble deeds and never, never give up.Ó
World War II left behind a legacy of bloodshed and glory - but its military technology still ignites debate. What was the best tank of war? Does the 8mm cannon live up to its rep? Slayton tackles the subject giving clear descriptions, and rock-hard ruling, on what weapons rose to the top and why. He explains how arms of the era came about, why they work and what makes them unique. Packed with fascinating facts, great eyewitness stories and exciting photos, this is an essential volume for military and history buffs, World War II vets, hobbyists, patriots and modellers alike.
The Adventurist is one man's story, a story that will change the way you think about travel, survival, where you have been, and where you are going. Enter the world of Robert Young Pelton (if you dare), adventurer extraordinaire, author of Come Back Alive and The World's Most Dangerous Places (required reading at the CIA), and host of his TV series, Robert Young Pelton's The World's Most Dangerous Places. A breakneck autobiography, The Adventurist blasts across six continents and spans four decades of hard-core living with its dispatches of mayhem, adventure in exotic locales, survival against formidable odds, memories of the pivotal events, and memorable portraits of the people that have shaped Pelton's obsessive spirit. Be shelled with the Talibs on the front lines of Afghanistan; hang out with hit men and rebels in the Philippines; survive a plane crash in Borneo; narrowly escape a terrorist bombing in Africa; dance with headhunters in Sarawak; crew with pirates in the Sulu Sea; explore the events that led Pelton to his unusual calling (including how he honed his survival skills at "the toughest boys' school in North America"); and, perhaps most important, discover Pelton's secret mission--to understand the hearts and minds of the people he meets. The Adventurist is a real book about the real world, an inspirational read that takes you places you might never willingly go.
In offering explanations for the US's enormous post-Cold War military budget—nearly $280 billion for the year 2000—most defense critics point to the influence of weapon makers pork-barrel politics. Those are certainly factors. But in this eye-opening book, Ken Silverstein looks at another, all but unexamined force: private warriors, the generals, gunrunners and national security staffers who were cast adrift by the end of the Cold War and are now continuing business in the private sector. Private Warriors moves from an arms dealer's estate in Vienna to a weapons show in Rio de Janeiro to a Soldier of Fortune convention in Las Vegas. It introduces little known figures such as Ernst Werner Glatt, a right-wing German who for many years was the Pentagon's preferred gunrunner, and Andrew Marshall, an aging but still sprightly Cold Warrior who ardently promotes the development of needless new weapons systems. Other encounters are with more recognizable names such as General Alexander Haig, the former Secretary of State who now lobbies for China and sells weapons to Turkey, and Frank Gaffney, an ex-Pentagon official who has grown rich by promoting the biggest boondoggle of them all, Star Wars. Today's private warriors have one thing in common: a financial interest in war, and the connections to push for a continuation of Cold War military policy.
The Glock pistol is America’s Gun. It has been rhapsodized by hip-hop artists and coveted by cops and crooks alike. Created in 1982 by Gaston Glock, the pistol arrived in America at a fortuitous time. Law enforcement agencies had concluded that their agents and officers, armed with standard six-round revolvers, were getting "outgunned" by drug dealers with semi-automatic pistols; they needed a new gun. With its lightweight plastic frame and large-capacity spring-action magazine, the Glock was the gun of the future. You could drop it underwater, toss it from a helicopter, or leave it out in the snow, and it would still fire. It was reliable, accurate, lightweight, and cheaper to produce than Smith and Wesson’s revolver. Filled with corporate intrigue, political maneuvering, Hollywood glitz, bloody shoot-outs—and an attempt on Gaston Glock’s life by a former lieutenant—Glock is not only the inside account of how Glock the company went about marketing its pistol to police agencies and later the public, but also a compelling chronicle of the evolution of gun culture in America.
This book traces the evolution of the Browning Automatic Rifle from the Model of 1918, first to face combat in World War I, through its various configurations in all arenas of combat all the way to the present-day1918 A3 SLR developed and manufactured by Ohio Ordnance Works. The Browning Automatic Rifle, known simply as the BAR, was a shoulder-fired light machine gun fed by a twenty-round box magazine of 30-06, the same ammunition used by the 1903 Springfield. Weighing in at under twenty pounds, it could easily be carried by one soldier, who could drape a bandolier with twelve magazines over his shoulder, giving him a total of 260 rounds (counting those in the mounted magazine). Generally accompanied by at least one companion carrying an additional bandolier with twelve magazines, the BAR man could exercise some serious firepower. Used sparingly during World War I because of the United States’ late entry into the war, it played a major role during World War II and the Korean Conflict, offering a very reliable combination of rapid fire and penetration. Few weapons of war ever pressed into service have offered the romantic allure of the BAR. Ohio Ordnance Works, Inc. manufactures a semi-automatic version of this rifle, the 1918 A3, keeping alive this icon of American military weaponry. The only one of its kind in production anywhere in the world, it is manufactured with some of the original USGI WWI and WWII parts. Only the highest quality Ohio Ordnance original and USGI standard parts are used in its production. The heart of the 1918 A3 is the receiver made from 8620 steel casting that has been carburized and induction heat treated. The castings are machined on state-of-the-art CNC machining centers. Every rifle is fully assembled, inspected, test-fired, and re-inspected under the direct supervision of a master armorer.
