Paratrooper

I would like to see a new government, but although the Tories would not go ahead with the amalgamations, they have said they would freeze defence spending. That amounts to a hefty cut in real terms. What we need is a commitment to good defence spending along with a respect for the traditions and history of the army. Labour seems to offer one and the Tories the other. I hope the Tory position moves one which will offer the financial support we need.

Just so. It isn't as if the government had a policy of keeping the troops at home. They are commited to sending them on operations all over the world.

This government (the British Labour party) seems intent on taking us into wars while messing the armed forces around. It is no good increasing defence spending if manpower and equipment is being cut back. The money is going on expensive and overdue white elephants like Eurofighter. Bowman (our digital radio system) is still not fully in service and the Apache Longbow debacle is a disgrace. The Tories are just as bad, promising a freeze in defence spending, which amounts to a savage cut in real terms. I don't know where those of us who are concerned about the armed forces are best to place their vote.

Maybe I would, since exactly that has happened plenty of times. I didn't say they were all totally perfect; I said they are very well behaved. Â Which they are, especially in relation to the English. Celtic/ Rangers is a religious issue in its own right, but when the same fans go abroad they are a lot better behaved than england fans in general. Fair enough, the English football hooligans i agree are terrible, but drink and violence are problems all over the British Isles, not just England.

Please don't confuse Britain with England/ vice versa - the Welsh, N. Irish and Scottish fans are very well behaved. Â You wouldn't say that if you had had the misfortune of coming across a gang of drunken Scottish football fans on a dark night. The Scots are capable of football related violence, take the Celtic/Rangers animosity. Not that they are any worse than us English, my point is that football violence and alcoholism are not purely English phenomena. P.s Hello all, it has been a while!

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (MrMilli @ Feb. 07 2003,14:06)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (madmedic @ Feb. 07 2003,04:49)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">H&K took the contract to "improve" the SA-80. From what I understand, there are still inherent problems with it though. I do not believe there are any civillian registered ones in the U.S. though (if so, they are very rare)...So, I have not had the opportunity to fire one.<span id='postcolor'> already been done. The A2 is the result. There is a nice little production line, where A1's go in and A2's come out. at least 10,000 A1's have already been converted to A2's at the last press release involving the A2, but the chances are that number is a lot, lot higher now. The reported problems in afghanistan is, to be blunt, crap. The story was pressed by the sun, whose previous press revelations have involved such gems as "man shags sheep" I have also heard that only three registered SA80's are in the US, so your not likely to in the near future Spent magazines my unqualified opinion is they are chucked down your smock Definately, if you can help it, not put back in the webbing. They aren't left, because you do have to account for them and you sign off saying you've had em and you have to sign off you've given them back.<span id='postcolor'> Spent magazines return to you webbing.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (black__bird @ Feb. 07 2003,09:42)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">"NK's only real pre-emptive threat to the US is Ballistic Missles and Their supposed 1 nuke, although their delivery system is in question." Precisely, i havent seen any information that proves the DPRK has a Ballistic Launcher that has the range required to hit the United States. Â ofcouse it is possible that i dont know about it, but they have to realize if they fire their bird the most likely track will take it over not only chinese but Russian airspace. Â not sure about the chinese but the Russians might get a bit nervous if nukes are sailing over their country. Â also whatever world support we have/dont have will all shift if the DPRK launches. Â the US would get a lot more allies if a nuke goes off but that is the last thing i want to see. Â another problem i see is just how paranoid/nuts is the DPRK leader, i mean what happens if he blows up his own nuclear plant as an excuse to nuke someone/invade south korea. Â Sounds to me like the korean people on both sides shouldnt worry about Bush, but worry about the nutbar they got with his finger on a nuclear trigger.<span id='postcolor'> The threat isn't so much to the mainland US but to important allies like Japan, South Korea and others. Also to American troops in East Asia.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Renagade @ Feb. 07 2003,05:44)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Its not that heavy,maybe u just have little arms <span id='postcolor'> It is much heavier than the M-16 and Steyr Augs which I have had the oppotunity to handle. The A2 is said to be a massively improved weapon. I will be firing one in April so I will fill you all in then.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Renagade @ Feb. 07 2003,03:06)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">The sa-80 feels like u could break it over ur knee or if u were whacking someone with the end of it plus on a documentry about soldiers ages ago one guy broke the bayonet in half, stabbing into one of the training bags ps, in  a battle situation do u just ditch the empty mags or do u keep them ?<span id='postcolor'> All bayonettes break, they are thin. You obviously haven't used the SA80 as it is bloody heavy and wouldn't snap despite it's internal problems.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (farmcoot @ Feb. 06 2003,21:05)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Completely unrelated to the M16 or C7, I heard from tests thats the SA-80 falls apart when you fire it. Lack of Design?<span id='postcolor'> The SA80 has problems but it is a perfectly good weapon. The A2 is meant to address the problems. I will be shooting with it at Easter.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (STGN @ Feb. 06 2003,20:59)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (mr. Duck @ Feb. 06 2003,19:15)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I played with the c7 (on ofp) and I just loved it. Me likes the elcan sight very much. Â I just have a thing for optical sights... </span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">(Paras, R. Marines, SAS, I forget which) chose the C7 over the M-16 line from Colt because the C7 was built better and jammed less.<span id='postcolor'> I thought they used SA80? Maybe you got mixed up with Dutch forces? Cuz they use em. British paras look a bit like our 11th airmobile brigade, and our marines work extensively with british ones. Maybe I'm wrong... Â <span id='postcolor'> well not every soldier has a C7 as fare as I know but they are in youse prob. because they are lighter and a little more accurate than SA-80 on long ranges. plus it aint a bullpup design. STGN<span id='postcolor'> The SA80 is more accurate than the M-16 series because of its longer heavier barrel. The SAS use the M-16 series and some Para and Marine groups because they are considered more reliable and the safety catch and other working parts don't make as much noise.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mister Frag @ Jan. 23 2003,09:36)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">The 5.56mm can be made slightly heavier without switching to different metals for the bullet material. You can either change the bullet shape slightly, or you can seat them more deeply in the case. One of the most popular and accurate loads for service rifle shoots is the Federal 69gr. JHP. If not for the cavity at the top of the bullet, it would be even heavier. It would lose a small degree of accuracy by filling it in, but it would be heavier and retain more energy downrange.<span id='postcolor'> Well good luck loading them into an SA80! I jammed one up using training ammo, during my annual proviciency test as well! However, it wasn't my fault as the magasine lips were bent. Thats why the SA80 A2 has a new Mag, one that is alot better than the flimsy current one. I don't think new ammo for longer ranges is needed at all. I really can't see how you would lay effective fire at 500m, the enemy would be able to move away before youstatrted to register kills.

At university and officer training. I can get to a computer more easily now, so I'll keep my head in.

Well we use a Susat (well I don't anymore as I'm Artillery) at 300m and that is about as far as I expect anyone would engage. 500m with an iron sight? That would be a waste of ammunition, aside from giving youself away without laying effective fire down. I can't see why an M4 would be unsuitable, unless it really is a reliability issue. However I am not an expert on either weapon.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (loopy @ Dec. 31 2002,03:45)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Assault (CAN) @ Dec. 24 2002,03:11)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">From member 'Reaper' on the Canadian Gun Nutz forum: </span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"> Ok here is a relativley mild shack story: In 1987 when posted to Kapyong Barracks in Winnipeg, one of the guys in my Company was about to get married. When we came to drag him out the night before for some celebratory brews we found that he had locked himself in his room to avoid what he knew was coming. Not ones to let a minor thing like a door get in our way, we battered out the large vent in the bottom of the door and launched an assault on him, his defense with a broomstick was very aggressive so we beat a hasty retreat. The obvious solution was to light a bundle of old newspapers on fire and throw them into the hole in the door and smoke him out: No dice he was not coming out. Next phase of the operation was to grab a hold of the much abused pop machine on the floor, with 4 guys pushing it we smashed in the door and somehow the pop machine ended up out the 3rd floor window. Undaunted, we managed to get some handcuffs on the individual and drag him down stairs and out of the building. By this time a crew of guys were busy putting out the fire that had started in the room. We dragged the victim outside and chained him to a lightstand in the parking lot where he was doused with water and shot with paintballs throughout the night as a penalty for his insolence. Come morning when all were hungover we were awoken by the Duty NCO who needless to say had some choice words for us and demanded that we released our prisoner, whom quite frankly in the booze fest of the night had been forgotten about, and there was a crowd of very pissed off family members at the main gate wondering where the Groom was, as it was an hour past when the wedding was supposed to start. In the end he did get married and we wound up having to pay some $600.00 in barrack damages....Ah the good old days.. <span id='postcolor'> LOL Tyler<span id='postcolor'> Well on this subject of peoples stag nights when we were stationed in Aldershot went on the town got absulutly blind drunk we ended up tying our subject to the regimental flag pole on the drill square the next day the s..t hit the fan as a bunch of new recruits were being introduced to the drill square with the usual "good morning corner" this sergant still tied to the pole.oooops Another story I am not sure how true this one is as I heard it from someone else poor bloke gets married goes back to his new army home to find some comidian has bricked up his front door some wedding night for him!!!!!!<span id='postcolor'> These stories are copied off the Royal Artillery Assosiation website. As are several others on here.