GORE-TEX Defense Fabrics’ All Weather Integrated Clothing System

Shaw Concepts – MOLLE Cant Pouch

March 15th, 2021

The new MOLLE Cant Pouch or “MCM” from Shaw Concepts is a PALS compatible adapter which rotates the orientation of Pistol Magazine Pouches to a easier draw path and a more streamlined package on belts.

The pouch is featured a Tegris frame to stiffen the mount and to get both magazine pouches to stick up at the same height. Weighs less than a single ounce.

Coming Soon in Coyote Brown and Black from shaw-concepts.com.

Butler Creek Unveils New Element Scope Caps

March 15th, 2021

Modular, Rugged Caps Offer Customization and Uncompromising Protection

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – March 15, 2021 – Butler Creek®, maker of smart, field-proven hunting and shooting accessories, announced today the launch of its new Element Scope Caps. Rugged and modular, Element Scope Caps are designed to protect almost any scope thanks to various size options and a multi-flex rubber sleeve design.

The Element Scope Cap comes with modular, interchangeable lens caps to choose from – clear disk, ballistic data disk or standard black disk. The ballistic data disk accepts a ballistic chart template insert, which can be downloaded and printed from the Butler Creek website. This gives shooters easy access to critical ballistics data in the field, providing them with all the information they need to make an accurate shot before pulling the trigger.

The lens caps are made from durable polymer to withstand heavy use in the field, including extreme hot and cold conditions. The caps flip open with the touch of a button, allowing hunters to protect their scope right up until that critical moment of opportunity. After being unlocked, the cap can be flipped 180 degrees to stand upright or 270 degrees to fold back onto the scope and out of the way.

The Element Scope Cap comes in eight different sizes to fit most scopes on the market. There are six objective lens cap options including 35-40mm, 40-45mm, 45-50mm, 50-55mm, 55-60mm and 60-65mm, as well as small (37-42mm) and large (42-47mm) eyepiece cap options. All of the new Butler Creek Element Scope Caps have an MSRP of $29.95.

For more information on this product or to view the complete line of Butler Creek products, visit www.butlercreek.com.

Kinetic Research Group Two Round Quiver

March 15th, 2021

The KRG Two Round Quiver is designed to be mounted on the side of the Aluminum ACRA or Enclosed Forend. It provides easy access to a pair of spare rounds when you need them in a hurry.

kineticresearchgroup.com/product/two-round-quiver

Limited Edition One More Wave Floperator

March 15th, 2021

Introducing the Combat Flip Flops Limited Edition “One More Wave Floperators.” Only 200 Available

One More Wave is a national Veteran Support Organization healing Veterans through via the surf community.  One More Wave provides veterans with custom surf equipment designed to fit their unique needs.  Support their initiatives through purchase of these limited edition Floperators.  Learn more about OMW at www.onemorewave.com

If you’re a lower leg amputee and want to rock the flops, check out the Amputee Retrofit Strap.

$49.99

www.combatflipflops.com/onemorewave

About One More Wave

One More Wave provides wounded and disabled veterans with customized surfing equipment and community. By equipping veterans and connecting them to our global community of surfing volunteers; OMW enables the veterans to achieve surf therapy all over the world.  For more information, visit the website www.onemorewave.com or email admin@onemorewave.com

About Combat Flip Flops

Combat Flip Flops is a veteran-owned small business manufacturing footwear and clothing in conflict and post conflict areas to promote security through business.  Profits fund women’s education in Afghanistan, clear landmines, and support domestic Veteran Charities.  For more information, visit the website www.combatflipflops.com or email info@combatflipflops.com.

TYR Tactical Awarded Multi-Million Dollar Concealable Body Armor Contract by the Federal Bureau of Investigation

March 15th, 2021

In March of 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation awarded a fixed price Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) for Ultra-Low Vis Concealable Body Armor. The TYR Tactical Ultra Low Vis Compression Top (ULVCT) design solution outperformed all other competitors in the most rigorous testing requirements established in the Body Armor Industry for both ballistic and performance capabilities. The BPA awards a spending maximum of $30M over five years.

Jason Beck previously held the FBI contract from 2002 – 2013 under his former company. Bringing this contract back under his leadership with TYR Tactical’s design and manufacturing capabilities has been a mission in the making since the establishment of TYR Tactical in 2010. Mr. Beck states “This award encompasses what our mission is here at TYR Tactical, Innovate or Die. We live by this mantra and it is enstilled in all of our products. Each product that is designed is tailored to the user to enhance their capabilities. TYR Tactical will always focus on innovating new and better products and push our industry to do the same. We are honored and proud to serve the men and women of FBI and other DOJ agencies.”

The ULVCT is the most concealable vest that TYR Tactical has ever created. Based upon the FBI’s rigorous requirements, TYR Tactical was able to implement their design philosophy of fit, form, and function into a tailorable ULVCT. This carrier forms around the user so that it allows for complete movement without compromising concealability. The gender variations provide comfort for both male and female anatomy, giving proper coverage to female agents where this has been an oversight in the past. TYR Tactical has been designing female body armor since 2013 and has been awarded several patents based upon its unique shape and design. The extensive testing that has taken place over the years has been applied to the design of this concealable carrier for the FBI.

TYR Tactical’s soft armor, NFA2/10, is designed to be a flexible, light-weight, ultra-low vis patent-pending solution that is not only certified NIJ 0101.06 Level II, but also the FBI’s demanding ballistic standards.

This opportunity has led to an increase of 14 jobs in Peoria, Arizona, manufacturing the Ultra-Low Vis Concealable Top and Soft Armor.

The ULVCT will be released and featured in TYR Tactical’s 2021 catalog. Continue to check our Instagram, Facebook, and website, www.tyrtactical.com, regularly for updates. For further questions, email info@tyrtactical.com or call 623-240-1400.

Marines Install Mobile Targets at K-Bay Range

March 15th, 2021

I’m up, he sees me, I’m down: Moving targets arrive to K-Bay Range

Marines with 1st Battalion, 3d Marines were the first to try the new Trackless Moving Infantry Targets on Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Feb. 24, 2021.

The motorized targets simulate live, independently thinking enemies and encourage Marines to anticipate movement and adapt accordingly.

“They egress, they assault to you, and they move around so it’s a better challenge to hone our skills,” said Lance Cpl. Logan Raebuck, a rifleman with 1st Battalion, 3d Marines. “I think it’s great having the targets here because we can always have that ‘thinking’ enemy to train with.”

“They’re here to solve the problem that all military facilities are facing,” said Dominic Jurado, the site manager for K-Bay range, MCBH. “These targets give the Marines something to shoot at that mimics an actual human.”

“It’s more immersive because it actually has clothes on and a face, so it gets us skilled with actual conflict,” said Raebuck. “On a regular target you don’t have that, so it’s great to get this moving enemy in front of us.”

There are currently 16 TIMITS on K-Bay and are able to be controlled by a person who is overseeing the training.

“The Marines with 1/3 have definitely progressed in the short time the targets have been on island,” Jurado said. “Everyone seemed more comfortable behind the trigger and hitting more of their shots, it’s awesome to see.”

Small unit leaders with 1/3 have also noticed the differences in their squads while working with these new targets.

“Seeing these moving targets here with us is definitely helping us get better,” said Cpl. Ryan Hankins, assistant patrol leader, 1/3. “It gives us a better sense of communication and helps us lead in our small unit leadership.”

The targets have helped Marines immensely improve their ability to train in an immersive environment, Hankins said.

“Overall it’s been a great experience,” said Hankins. “It makes me comfortable knowing that I can leave them with what I know and they can pass that on to their junior marines so the mission of the rifle squad can continue to be accomplished.”

Story by Sgt Luke Kuennen, Marine Corps Base Hawaii

Photos by Cpl Jose Angeles, Marine Corps Base Hawaii

General Dynamics To Provide FAA With Radios For Backup Emergency Air Traffic Control Communications

March 14th, 2021

General Dynamics awarded $99 million contract to provide new URC-300E transceivers to the FAA to replace legacy emergency backup radios

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has chosen General Dynamics Mission Systems to provide new URC-300E transceivers as part of their Emergency Transceiver Replacement (ETR) program. The eight-year, IDIQ contract has a value of $99 million if all options are exercised.

The URC-300E will replace current legacy radios and provide both Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) operation for civil and military air traffic control (ATC) communications in the event of a catastrophic failure, such as a facility fire or natural disaster. ATC controllers will use the URC-300E to maintain essential ground-to-air communications with aircraft during the critical moments after such an event. The new URC-300E transceiver is specifically designed to maximize radio frequency (RF) performance and enable users to operate multiple URC-300Es as close as 6.5 feet apart without interference – an unprecedented capability compared to currently available man-pack radios which can require up to 50 feet of separation. This close proximity capability enables rapid grab-and-go, multi-channel operations during emergency situations.

“For the past three decades General Dynamics has provided ground-to-air radio systems to the FAA including the recent delivery of the 20,000th CM-300/350 (V2) radio as part of the NEXCOM 2 program,” said Bill Ross, a vice president of General Dynamics Mission Systems. “The URC-300E is another example of our team’s dedication to delivering technologies and products that support the FAA’s efforts to continuously improve the National Airspace and safety of flight.”

The URC-300E, the FAA variant of the URC-300 transceiver, is a versatile, software-defined platform that supports multiple waveforms with exceptional radio frequency (RF) performance to support ground-to-air, line-of-sight and other mission critical applications. It is designed with a flexible, core architecture similar to a commercial smartphone that enables additional features and functions to be added in the field via quick and simple software upgrades, as they become available. This enhanced technology, coupled with the radio’s ability to operate on standard lithium ion batteries, essentially makes the radio “future proof”, resulting in significant time and life cycle cost savings.

The URC-300 is the first ruggedized man-pack radio to achieve compliance with global standards and certifications including Radio Equipment Directive (RED), REACH, RoHS, ETSI EN 300 676 compliance, and it readily supports worldwide 25 kHz and 8.33 kHz deployments. The radio is also currently being certified by the Federal Communications Commission for civilian use and is sponsored by the U.S. Air Force for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Spectrum authorization. In addition to supporting emergency grab-and-go scenarios, the URC-300 supports many other applications including man-pack, vehicular, scalable deployment and rackmount applications as it is ruggedized and meets MIL-STD-810 requirements and is interoperable with its predecessor, the URC-200 (V2) radio, and many of its accessories. General Dynamics began delivering URC-300 radio systems to commercial and DoD customers in Q4 2020.

For additional information on the URC-300, please visit gdmissionsystems.com/URC300.

SCUBAPRO SUNDAY – The Battle of Hampton Roads

March 14th, 2021

The Battle of Hampton Roads took place in March 1862 in Virginia during the American Civil War. The battle is considered historically significant, although it did not yield a definitive outcome, as it was the first time that ironclad warships met head-to-head. This battle effectively made all wooden naval ships obsolete, especially those of Great Britain and France, and forced them to shift towards an all-ironclad fleet.

President Lincoln ordered a blockade in the spring of 1861, shortly after the war outbreak, of the ports of those states that had declared their secession from the Union. By the end of April, the blockade had been extended to the anchorage near the Chesapeake Bay at Hampton Roads in Virginia. This was of great strategic significance because it marked the Nansemond and Elizabeth Rivers’ confluence with the James River. Due to their base at Norfolk and the Portsmouth navy yard, Confederate forces occupied the south side of the river.

To protect the navy yard, the Confederacy installed two batteries at Craney Island and Sewell’s Point. However, Fort Monroe, and thus the closest part of the Virginia Peninsula, remained in the Union’s hands. The Confederate forces were almost entirely stopped from traveling between Richmond and Norfolk and the ocean until the blockade began to be enforced. The siege was strengthened by the strong ships of the Union, strategically put beyond the range of the Confederate batteries but under the protection of those of the Union. This standstill when on for almost a year

The US was far behind other countries when it came to updating their Navy. Several ironclads were built during the Crimean War, primarily designed to fight forts. In 1859 the French made an “ironclad frigate” called La Gloire. It was 250 feet long, carried 38 cannons, was covered in over 4 inches of iron, and could travel 12 knots. To keep up with France, Britain built the HMS Warrior (picture above) in 1860, the largest Ironclad. By 1862 Britain and France had 16 ironclads completed or under construction, and Austria, Italy, Russia, and Spain were building them. It was generally recognized that ironclad warships would be the future of naval warfare.

While France and Britain already had ironclad warships, the United States Navy was unconvinced of the armored ships’ value. Therefore, the Confederacy was the first to begin construction on their Ironclad (CSS Virginia). It was not designed from scratch, which would have taken almost a year because of the need to operate quickly, but instead made up from the ruined hull of the sunken USS Merrimack. The ship’s bow was mounted with an iron ram, while it was armed with ten guns. Two-inch thick armor plates, an improvement from the initial one-inch specification, were introduced. Called CSS Virginia, in February 1862, the vessel was eventually commissioned.

Meanwhile, the Union command had received news that the Confederacy wanted to build an ironclad ship. This caused serious concern, and the Union’s Ironclad’s construction, the USS Monitor, was approved by Congress. The most noteworthy feature of this vessel was that it had only two large-caliber guns, mounted in a large cylindrical turret that could rotate thanks to a steam engine’s control. This greatly reduced the manpower required for the armaments of the ship.   Eight-inch-thick iron plates coated the entire turret. The USS Monitor was commissioned just a few days after the CSS Virginia. 

The battle of Hampton roads lasted two days, with Virginia commanded by Franklin Buchanan and Monitor captain John L. Worden, although neither man was officially in overall command. Intending to mount a direct assault, Buchanan sent Virginia into Hampton Roads early on March 8. Five more ships followed the ship’s route. In the meantime, the Union also had five ships, accompanied by some support vessels, into the bay. Near Fort Monroe, several other ships were moored; one of these was the Roanoke, which ran aground as the USS Virginia approached and two additional vessels. Two of the three were taken out of the battle; the third, Minnesota’s frigate, later returned to action.

Virginia struck the USS Cumberland after a very small skirmish early in the day, ramming the ship and creating a hole below the waterline. With the loss of more than 120 lives, the ship sank rapidly. However, despite this success, Virginia herself was lucky not to go down because the ram of the ship had been stuck in the Cumberland hull. Virginia then advanced on the USS Congress, whose captain had told her to run aground to prevent the Cumberland’s fate from being repeated. The condition of the USS Congress, however, was hopeless after an hour, and Smith surrendered. Buchanan, who wanted to fire on the USS Congress with red-hot cannonballs, was enraged by Union shore guns. The ship caught fire, burning fiercely until it blew up that night as the flames entered its gunpowder store.

By now, Virginia herself had suffered some damage, making the already slow ship even more sluggish, while Buchanan was injured when a rifle shot hit his thigh. Meanwhile, the James River Squadron invaded Minnesota, and now Virginia joined the assault, but its deep draft made it difficult to get near, and as night fell, the attack was called off. Virginia instead returned to the Confederacy-controlled waters, hoping to return the next morning. The Union forces had lost 400 men and two ships at this point, with three more on the ground; the Confederacy had suffered two casualties and had maintained all its ships.

This was the worst loss the United States ever experienced. Before the Second World War, the Navy Secretary of War Edwin Stanton warned that Virginia could even manage to fire shells at the White House, but he was told that this would not happen because the ship was too huge for the river Potomac. Nevertheless, to secure Union ships and avoid Monitor from attacking its towns, Monitor was transferred to Hampton Roads as soon as possible. Captain Worden was ordered to defend Minnesota, and he took over the nearby station. On March 9, Virginia arrived at daybreak and assaulted the Monitor.

The Confederate commanders, who initially thought the ship was simply a boiler being towed down the river for repairs, were startled by the peculiar nature of the Monitor. However, once the ship’s true nature became apparent, a long war began, lasting several hours. Virginia opened with a shot toward Monitor; Minnesota was missing and struck, causing the ship to fire in response to a broadside. Since both ironclad ships were more robust in their defense than they were offensively and were capable of completely piercing the armor plating of the opposing ship without ammunition, neither side could make a decisive breakthrough.

After a few hours, a freak occurrence ended the battle: a wayward shell from Virginia hit the pilothouse of the Monitor, exploding. Worden was temporarily blinded by the debris, which forced Monitor to draw back before the executive officer, Lieutenant Samuel Dana Greene, could take over command. While Monitor returned to the fray then, Virginia’s crew was under the impression that she had withdrawn entirely. Jones chose to take her back to Norfolk because of this, along with the fact that Virginia herself had suffered considerable damage. To find her opponent going away, Monitor returned to the scene, and Greene misinterpreted the move as a retreat.

Virginia spent several weeks doing repairs to a dry dock. The blockade of the Union, meanwhile, was strengthened, with some new ironclads taking part. There was a standoff in which both the CSS Virginia captains and the USS Monitor refused to engage the other ship in action. The decision to leave Norfolk was made by Major General Benjamin Huger of the Confederacy on May 9, as it is now of limited strategic significance. Since Virginia was too big to travel upriver, she was intentionally sunk on her side to avoid causing her to be captured. The fate of the Monitor was different: she sank in a storm in December after being sent to North Carolina.

The fight, overall, was a draw. There were considerably more men and ships lost by the Union, but the vital blockade remained intact. The war of the Ironclads captured the attention of many other navies on a global scale. In particular, Russia, Britain, and France hurried to build ironclads, many of which were highly inspired by the USS Monitor in their designs. Rams were also used in several such ships. However, this innovation was something of a dead-end, as naval guns were sufficiently powerful by 1900 to make it almost impossible for close encounters between ships.