GUN PORN:'Saiga 12' as never seen before

The Saiga-12 is a Kalashnikov-pattern 12 gauge combat shotgun available in a wide range of configurations. Like the Kalashnikov rifle variants, it is a rotating bolt, gas-operated gun that feeds from a box magazine. All Saiga-12 configurations are recognizable as Kalashnikov-pattern guns by the large lever-safety on the right side of the receiver, the optic mounting rail on the left side of the receiver and the large top-mounted dust cover held in place by the rear of the recoil spring assembly.

The looser clearances offered in an AK style design result in high reliability—an enormous boon on a semi-automatic shotgun, as this class of weapon had previously tended towards unreliability.

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Legal status

In Russia this shotgun can be relatively simply obtained, requiring only a "smoothbore-gun license" (which is relatively easy to obtain, compared to a "rifle license" that requires a five-year period of owning a smoothbore gun and/or a hunting permit).[2]

In the US state of California, as configured from the factory, it can be classified as an "assault weapon", as it is a semiautomatic shotgun with the ability to accept a detachable magazine and has a pistol grip installed. However, if a magazine lock that only allows the magazine to be removed by use of a tool is installed, it is no longer classified as such, as its previously detachable magazine is then rendered a fixed magazine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saiga-12

Additional links:

http://www.izhmash.ru/eng/product/saiga12.shtml

http://world.guns.ru/shotgun/rus/saiga-12-e.html

http://www.raacfirearms.com/Saiga_12.htm

The biggest bomb ever - Tsar Bomba

Car Wars: Roadmaps to Libya's Ground Conflict

This article is a bit of a solicitation for much more Western intervention on the ground, but it does give some good insight into history and military tactics.

Car wars: Roadmaps to Libya's ground conflict

Almost exactly one hundred years ago on November 1, 1911, air war was invented in the Italian invasion of Libya when army pilot Lt Giulio Gavotti dropped four grenades on Ottoman positions in the oasis of 'Ain Zara just outside Tripoli.

In the century since, the air campaign has become the spectacular centrepiece of western warfare, but the failure of NATO's intervention to tip the balance against Gaddafi is a reminder that it's hard to win a war from 10,000 feet.

The horrifying siege of Misurata, whose only relief comes from the sea, not the air, and the back and forth movement on the road that links Benghazi to Sirte by way of Ajdabia, Brega and Ras Lanuf suggest that this war will be played out on the ground.

In the last weeks the alliance between NATO and the Libyan rebels has begun to fray. NATO airstrikes decimated a convoy of rebel tanks and a bus full of fighters between Brega and Ajdabiya on April 7, and NATO refused to apologise. The rebels have found that close air support without sufficient ground resources is not the magic bullet that many supporters of intervention imagined.

With only few paramilitary intelligence officers on the ground in Libya, tactical attacks on Gaddafi's mobile forces are severely limited and isolated in their scope.

Full story at link:

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/2011421122738383699.html

Top secret X-37B space craft makes launch

The launch was made today, successfully. Here is a background story...

Little is known about the US Air Force’s X-37B which ended its first mission three months ago. However, the craft is set to fly again on an unknown mission for unknown reasons.

Pending weather, the X-37B orbiter will launch March 4 on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral. The Air Force has waited no time at all following the first successful launch. Successful being relative, since no one outside the program knows what the mission entailed.

More at link:

http://rt.com/usa/news/usa-x37b-space-craft-air-force/

The M14 Enhanced Battle Rifle

The changing nature of the war in Afghanistan led to the re-issue of the 7.62x51 mm NATO M14 rifle.

Not long after U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and its Taliban allies came to realize that America’s 5.56x45 mm NATO infantry rifles lost most of their lethality beyond 500 meters. Demonstrating their adaptability, the insurgents exploited Afghanistan’s sprawling valleys and distant mountainsides to seek engagements beyond the M16’s and M4’s effective ranges.

This is borne out by U.S. Army data, which reveals that more than half of the war’s small arms engagements are now beyond 500 meters, with the enemy employing heavier weapons and then withdrawing before air support or artillery fire can arrive.

More info at link:

http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/m14-enhanced-battle-rifle/

Missile defense multiple kill vehicle hover test

US Missile Defense Agency video of the 2 December 2008 free-flight hover test of Lockheed Martin's Multiple Kill Vehicle (MKV-L). The MKV is designed to allow a single interceptor to destroy a ballistic missile equipped with multiple warheads or countermeasures. In Lockheed's design, a seeker-equipped carrier vehicle maneuvers into the path of the ballistic missile then dispenses and guides small kill vehicles to their targets. In its first test, the MKV-L hovered for 20 seconds in a special facility at Edwards AFB, California, while recognizing and tracking a simulated target.

Now imagine this fuckin thing coming after you...

Hell Ride Through Forest Inferno