The Military Thread

The JSDF is deploying soldiers to help out the Burmese and Filipino militaries to strengthen their SAR capabilities.

Tokyo and Washington plans to work with Canberra on submarine development

Part 1 of a series of articles by UK-focused site Think Defence on Military Boxes, Pallets and Containers.

Anyone know what type of barracks is this one◊ called in real-life?

It's a Nissen hut.

It's the cup noodles (I think "ramen" is the term used by most Americans though) of steel structures. Huehuehuehue

What about this tent-based kind◊?

Those are just big old-style canvas tents. Lots of different types are manufactured. Not any distinct name - but usually utter bastards to put up. I remember when I was a Scout I used to hate those things. Everyone much preferred the stock of Force 10s we had.

edited 23rd Nov '14 9:58:22 AM by Achaemenid

Never had to deal with a Patrol tent personally.

Lucky you. Having to herd the young Scouts to make them put the damn thing up is like herding cats.

edited 23rd Nov '14 10:29:00 AM by Achaemenid

Considering that during my DofE hikes a group of four of us had a hard enough time putting up a commercial tent, which we had already practised doing indoors several times, I can believe that.

Most of the old style "Cotton Duck" tents (like on the series M*A*S*H) have been replaced.

There are the "air assault tents" as those of us in Soldiers at the Rear call them. "Frame Type Expandable": a metal frame with rubberized canvas.

Now we have the DRASH tents... aka the bastard child of a camping tent and a geodesic dome...

edited 23rd Nov '14 10:45:01 AM by TairaMai

Nissen Huts are also pretty much the same thing as the Quonset hut. It was based off the Nissen design and built state side.

Taira: A site better then the wood pole and canvas tents tell you that much.

edited 23rd Nov '14 10:57:41 AM by TuefelHundenIV

The problem with them new fangled DRASH and now BASE-X tents is that the parts are both fragile and expensive.

This is why I HATE it when people diss "mill-spec". GI PROOF, stuff have to survive a bunch of dumb privates and an angry E-5 wanting to get the *&%#%&!!! tent up when it's raining and windy...

The struts of the DRASH tents start at $60.00 US and go up from there. On the plus side they are pretty much water and wind proof. We have BASE-X tents in my unit. Stake the bitches down and you are dry and protected from the wind.

There is the old joke:

If you had a locked ISU-90 with two anvils inside and an E-1 standing guard, by lunch one anvil would be broken and the other missing...

edited 23rd Nov '14 12:06:21 PM by TairaMai

Because soldiers gotta fuck with shit.

On another note, the Wikipedia article on "insurgency" defines it in terms of whether the armed rebellion against a "constituted authority" (i.e. a political government) is recognized as a "belligerent". What on earth does that mean? Even reading the Wikipedia article isn't helping me understand.

It means the group started the war.

Aunt Merriam says that a belligerent is someone that is " waging war; specifically : belonging to or recognized as a state at war and protected by and subject to the laws of war ".

That doesn't seem to be what the international-law definition of "belligerent" means, since it clearly applies to both sides of an inter-state conflict, regardless of who started it. Heck if I know what the term exactly means, though.

... So the non-state party has to have something recognizable as a (local) political government?

The way I read this definition a belligerent is "someone who fights in a war".

@ Achaemenid

Thanks

AP Sources: Hagel resigning as Defense secretary

British tanks practice for war with Russia.

That's the whole reason why we have tanks.

What few we've got left of them.

For what it's worth, the Germany's Luftwaffe has their PATRIOT missile squadrons train against Russian airforce tactics. They've been doing that since The '80s and never stopped.