Join me yet again as I go into a frothy ranting rage about the Army aiming a 155mm canister shell filled with buckshot at its foot and pulling the funny boom string over its continued development of its next-gen infantry armaments.

Previous rants I've had about the Army's choices in armaments

The U.S. Army has inked a contract with firearms company FN America, LLC to continue development of its Precision Grenadier System prototype, according to an announcement ahead of the U.S. Army Association’s annual conference.

Army officially committing to yet again flatten its infantry's combat capabilities after officiating the SIG Sauer’s M7 rifle and M250 automatic rifle as new the standard armament of the army. See my link above to previous ranks for my gripes about those rifles.

The agreement, officially a Prototype Project Opportunity Notice contract worth $2 million, advances development of a next-gen weapon system and ammunition the manufacturer claims will be a significant upgrade over past legacy grenade launcher iterations.

Starting contract pay is 2 milly but who knows how much it'll balloon up to with time and corruption.

The latest deal is expected to enable enhancements of the weapon’s reliability and ensure the platform can be seamlessly integrated with preexisting Army systems, according to the announcement.

"Enhancements of the weapon's reliability" and "seamlessly integrated with preexisting Army systems" really don't fill me with much confidence if I'm the one having to hump the piece of shit for days at a time.

“Once developed and implemented, this weapon system could radically change future battlefield strategies,” Mark Cherpes, president and CEO for FN America said in a release announcing the contract. “It will offer new capabilities at the squad level and upgraded tactical options, giving the warfighter a more effective systetime.

I'd be filled with existential dread if I was the designated boom boot putting my life on the line with this dogwater nade launcher.

The soldier-portable FN Multipurpose Tactical Launcher, or MTL-30, is a shoulder-fired, semi-automatic weapon that shoots a 30mm grenade on a flat trajectory at an effective range of 500 meters.

Folks do you know why the man-portable grenade launcher was developed? It was developed as a tool to lob anti-personnel explosives in an arc trajectory for the purposes of hitting dead spaces in the sectors of fire of an infantry unit. A dead space is an area where conventional rifle fire can not hit, i.e a wall or a ditch. Meaning a weapon with an arc trajectory is needed to either flush out or neutralize enemy forces in those dead zones.

I'm gonna be generous and assume the Army isn't completely brain-drained and is ordering this rifle with arc trajectory shooting capabilities but at minimum this is putting a lot more failure-points in their dog-water product that lead to troops dying because they had to fiddle with their shit to get it to work instead of just loading-aiming-shooting.

But sure make it an expensive-fucking glorified shotgun instead of just issuing a nelly for anti-drone capabilities.

While current 40mm grenade launchers employed by ground combat units are fired using a higher trajectory, The MTL-30’s ability to hit targets using a flat flight path should expand its applicability in combat.

Dawg its only got like 5 rounds per mag and they're shit-ass heavy. Not including all the fancy wunder-waffen bullshit kinds of round variants they'll griftvent to get more of that sweet taxpayer moolah, the fact that still pisses me off is that the squad is losing a rifleman with genadier capabilities for a pure grenadier. Less volume of fire, less ammunition, less capacity and capability to stay deployed in the field.

Weapon flexibility, from close-proximity fighting to taking out drones, was a focus of an Army solicitation of the prototype released earlier this year.

You can't make an all-in-one weapon. That's how you end up with dogshit that sucks at doing anything it was "flexibly" designed to do

“The PGS is anticipated to be deployed as a soldier’s primary weapon system, providing organic, close-quarters combat, counter-defilade and counter-UAS capabilities through a family of ammunition to ranges in concert with the rest of the squad’s battlespace, and requiring minimal resupplies to support,” the Army’s solicitation read.

Lmfao fucking cope. The new rifles ammo is shitass heavy and bulky as is so you can't carry as much = less volume of fire, and you're now down a rifleman because of this shitass design = less volume of fire. And this dogwater nade lobber's ammo - while lighter than a 40mm - is bulky, heavy, and takes up a lot of limited carrying capacity. If you want more nade ammo you gotta cross-load it across your squad, meaning they got more shit to carry meaning less space for their own ammo or other needed shit, and crossloading means you're also fighting your automatic rifleman for that cross-load space too since the auto-rifle is the cornerstone for infantry defense formations. Fucking cope.

Countering troops in defilade would ultimately require a round capable of piercing natural or artificial cover barriers that conceal enemy personnel.

You remember how I earlier was talking about dead spaces? That's what they're talking about. A defilade is, in very basic bootspeak, any space ahead of where you're shooting from that is recessed below the ground you're standing on. If you're standing on a mountain then everything around you that's below the point you're standing on is in defilade to you. Halfway up the mountain? Down is defilade, up is crest.

Anyways A FUCKING ARC TRAJECTORY WEAPON IS THE FUCKING POINT OF NEUTRALIZING ENEMIES IN DEAD SPACES SUCH AS DEFILADES

FN America’s Precision Grenadier System, meanwhile, is built with a modular, Picatinny-style rail system for mounting optics or other attachments, and includes Magpul-designed M-LOK system points on the handguard for hard-mounting additional accessories.

Grift talk. Barbie doll your bolter out with trumpian god-emperor seals of purity and shit.

An ambidextrous design allows right- and left-handed personnel to quickly operate the bolt catch, magazine release and safety.

That should be universal at this point, not a reason to jack up the costs by another 10k for basic shit.

The MTL-30 can also be equipped with various muzzle suppressor options, according to FN, and can be loaded by detachable 3- or 5-round box magazines.

GRIFT GRIFT GRIFT GRIFT

The weapon’s lower receiver, which is modeled after the widely-used M4, comes with a 6-position telescoping buttstock and modular cheek risers for added stability when firing.

Jesus christ this is all BASIC SHIT SHUT THE FUCK UP

Development of the MTL-30, which measures 34 inches long and weighs just over 10 pounds, was influenced by a combination of real-time soldier feedback and battlefield priorities that continue to evolve in places like Ukraine, the company said.

Oh hey they managed to shave off a bit of the weight from the last time I checked in with its production R&D saga. Good for them I guess.

FN America, the U.S.-based arm of the Belgian arms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale, runs its manufacturing operations out of Columbia, South Carolina

Please also start manufacturing explosives in-house so you can whoopsie yourself into kingdom come like those other dipshits that just went up like a match.

It's because the Lion was a gamer all along.

I really hope the curse of Assad won't strike me down for this blasphemy.

Good girl.

https://youtu.be/NcuV2WW2fOs

absolutely great audio log. It touches on werewolves, the evils of colonialism, history of the philippines in 1920s, corporations being ruled by vampire capitalists joining the new inquisition to hunt down werewolves under the guise of hunting down vampires, and a complex allegory that critiques capitalism, colonial imperialism, and unorganized ultraleftists that utilize the tactics of the "Propaganda of the deed".

Werewolves are socialists confirmed. TEAM JACOB IS THE TRUE REVOLUTIONARY VANGUARD

It's actually not the official hexbear theme song. But I want to believe

I'm guessing the westenreich is the old carolingan empire, aka the frogs and the swamp krauts. So what would be the nordenreich?

Also don't look up what the "südreich" is lmao. Or do. It's actually pretty funny.

• Soldiers under misconduct and certain law enforcement investigations will be able to be promoted, attend schools and move bases with a waiver that gets rid of ‘flags’ on their records.

The Army rolled out the details of a policy that will allow soldiers under investigation for misconduct to be promoted, receive awards, and move to a new assignments, rather than see their careers frozen in place.

I'm sure we can all guess what "misconduct" actually means

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made the new approach to investigations a central tenet of a speech he delivered to senior officers Tuesday in Virginia, stating that impending directives would mean “no more side-tracking careers.”

No more punishing soldiers for crimes.

“We’re making changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity,” Hegseth told an auditorium of generals and admirals at Marine Base Quantico. “People make honest mistakes, and our mistakes should not define an entire career.”

The U.S army. Known for people that make honest mistakes.

The policy changes a long-standing practice of freezing a soldier’s career while they face investigations. Soldiers under investigation for misconduct or criminal matters have traditionally seen their personnel records flagged, preventing certain career moves, including assuming command, being promoted, moving bases, receiving award recommendations, or collecting reenlistment bonuses.

Oh boo hoo

Now, soldiers under command-driven 15-6 or law enforcement investigations will be able to receive a waiver that will lift those restrictions as the investigation proceeds, according to an Army message sent out Thursday to the force. With a waiver, soldiers can still receive “favorable actions” which include attendance at civilian or military schools, frocking, lateral appointments, extensions, reenlistment, application and use of tuition assistance, and advance or excess leave.

Don't let your criminal acts stop you from enjoying your life

The change will not apply to soldiers facing serious criminal investigations, including domestic violence and sexual misconduct.

Bullshit

‘Can I get my career back?’

Go fuck yourself.

Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force lawyer and president of the National Institute of Military Justice said the update allows for nuance and discretion of commanders to make judgment calls on cases where the impact of a records flag for a low-level crime or misconduct could prevent a soldier from attending training, which could impact their whole unit, for instance.

Muh "unit readiness" muh "It's for National Defense" for every instance a soldier should be shot for criminal acts their officers that cover up their actions should be drawn by their libs with winches until quartered by libs ultimate tensile strength.

“There needed to be change. When you have black and white rules, they overgeneralize and they impact people and harm the mission,” VanLandingham said. “I prefer more discretion as long as there is accountability within the discretion.”

What? Nuance in court justice is a good thing? What's that? Only for state-sanctioned murdererous bandits? Damn that sucks.

Allegations of adultery and financial crimes like larceny or wrongful appropriations that lead to investigations could be eligible for a waiver, Army officials told Task & Purpose. However, the “limited” waiver authority that commanders can use, does not apply to soldiers who are investigated for “covered offenses” like sexual misconduct, murder, or domestic violence, stalking, crimes related to child sexual explicit material, according to the message.

Yeah. Okay. Sure.

The Army message gives the example of a soldier with orders for an assignment outside the U.S. who was flagged for a preliminary inquiry under a 15-6 investigation into allegations of counterproductive leadership, or what some may consider as a toxic leader. In that case, leaders “may grant a limited waiver to the flag and allow for command sponsorship of family members and PCS of the soldier.”

Aw boo hoo, boot shouldn't have been a piece of shit.

Robert Capovilla, a former Army judge advocate general who represents troops in legal cases, said he consistently represents clients who miss out on Ranger School or a promotion board for several months to a year while an investigation plays out.

God forbid you don't get your "I'm a cool guy" tab or a pay raise while your kangaroo court military jagoffs play bureaucratic volleyball with your DUI paperwork for the one time you finally get caught on your weekly benders to Chili's to get shitfaced while harassing the waitresses

“They come to me and they say, ‘well, what can I do to get my career back?’ And I say, ‘hey, be grateful that you won your case, because there’s no way to go back and give you the time,’” he said.

Be grateful we swept it under the rug, boot.

#Stalled careers

Capovilla said the change gives soldiers more of a fair shot in a discipline system that almost automatically handcuffs career progress before they are found guilty.

God forbid you give your rabid beasts a check on their careers.

“What folks that don’t practice military justice, or they don’t work within the system on a daily basis, don’t understand is that there are thousands of service members who have been accused of an allegation that turned out not to be accurate or true, and yet they remained flagged unnecessarily for so long that their innocence made no difference,” Capovilla said. “Their careers were over as a result of the flag because they were no longer competitive for promotion.”

Oh? The military court system is overworked and filled with a backlog of cases that goes for years?

At least they get to experience civilian life before they get released back into society.

The waiver program is part of June updates to the Army’s 15-6 regulation, which governs the process for investigating military-related misconduct like sexual harassment, toxic leadership, adultery, fraternization, cruelty and maltreatment of subordinates, violation of orders and regulations, misuse of government resources, and hazing. In some cases, 15-6 inquiries can lead to administrative punishments or Uniformed Code of Military Justice proceedings that could result in discharges or demotions.

Folks you gotta know the reason why 15-6 exists is because all that shit was and still is running so wildly rampant in the u.s military that it's also degrading the military's ability to perform in a cohesive manner. I'm talking companies that have degraded to being glorified bandit gangs that requires its enlisted leadership to be liquidated and new personnel to be rotated in to begin bringing the unit back to combat readiness.

‘Credibility assessment’

Something the Army is known for

The updated regulation introduced a “credibility assessment,” which happens before other fact-finding processes and comes straight from language used in Hegseth’s April 23 memo that he called the “No More Walking On Eggshells Policy.”

Translation: its a "can we sweep this under the rug" policy

The Army regulation defines “credible” evidence or information as “attributable or corroborated information,” and considers “the original source, the nature of the information, and the totality of the circumstances” to determine if it is “sufficient” for investigators to pursue an inquiry.

On top of empowering unit commanders to grant their soldiers special immunity, the fascist in charge of the military is empowering Army investigators to handwave accusations of criminal acts as "un-credible and insufficient".

During a credibility assessment, and now with a waiver, soldiers will not be flagged. According to the policy, waivers are doled out by commanders with courts-martial convening authority, which includes brigade and garrison commanders and some general officers in command. General officers are able to “delegate” waiver authority to colonels in their command. Capovilla sees the changes as affording soldiers more privacy.

Trickle-down cover-ups

“The entire company, battalion and brigade shouldn’t necessarily know that a soldier is under investigation,” Capovilla said.

Motherfuckers love gossiping, they're gonna know.

VanLandingham said new policies like this — which she sees as part of a greater interactive cultural shift in the military justice system — would be best served by keeping track of the cases these waivers are being used for and getting transparent reasons for a waiver from each commander.

“Commanders need to be able to say why they’re doing this,” she said. “If they can’t give a good reason for why they’re removing the flag, they shouldn’t be removing a flag and therefore they should have no problem about tracking their waivers in a database for periodic review.”

Cover up cover up cover up

• US Army and Marine Corps vehicle fleets aren't sufficiently ready for war, a watchdog study finds.

• The GAO report highlights a dramatic decline in vehicle readiness due to maintenance and spare parts problems. Costs for vehicle repairs have soared, but services are getting less availability in return.

• The US Army and Marine Corps are struggling to maintain their combat vehicle fleets and keep them ready for war, with shortages of spare parts and maintainers sidelining many of them, a US government watchdog says.

TL;DR - two of the four branches for the America's invasion forces have stagnated so badly that its becoming increasingly probably it can't sustain an army to fight a peer enemy for the duration of a war.

A new Government Accountability Office report released last week examined nearly a decade of data, finding that of 18 vehicles — including tanks, self-propelled artillery, and armored personnel carriers — 16 were not sufficiently mission capable, or available for operations.

You'd think if you were getting a guaranteed $849.8 billion dollars a year for your budget, your shit would be at least functional and supplied sufficiently enough to, i dont know, fight a war? Just shy of a trillion dollars and your military is war-incapable? That's some first class corruption right there. America number 1

The Army and Marine Corps spent over $2.3 billion combined on high-level ground vehicle maintenance, according to the GAO report. Despite these investments, vehicle readiness plummeted due to insufficient numbers of trained mechanics and diminished manufacturing sources for repair parts, with single-source suppliers often becoming chokepoints.

Not even touching on the fact that the military supply chain is literally a fucking grift. Everything gets at least a 500% mark-up.

The watchdog report highlighted the limitations of vehicle availability for any potential mission, noting that mission-capable rates have declined since 2015. None of the Army vehicles that inspectors looked at met the Army's goal of being ready to support a mission 90% of the time in FY 2024.

So for like over the past decade the military has been suffering mechanical osteoporosis

The GAO reported that between fiscal years 2015 and 2024, per-vehicle maintenance costs for the Abrams tank more than doubled while availability rates were well below target. Fleet-wide maintenance costs for the Army surged almost 50% during this window. That figure dropped for the Corps, but per-vehicle repair costs for a handful of vehicles jumped.

Lmfao

Among the military vehicles studied were also Stryker Combat Vehicles, Bradley Fighting Vehicles, and Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, key elements of specific Army brigade combat teams. Each is a rugged vehicle equipped with varied armaments and capable of moving troops across battlefields using wheels or tracks.

Big word there is "key element", the shit they're fucked for supplies for are the literal basic deployable unit for the American invasion forces

"Five of six selected Army ground combat vehicles did not meet mission capable goals in any fiscal year during the time frame of GAO's review," the report said. Over the last decade, "selected Army ground support vehicles achieved mission capable goals about 20 percent of the time."

Lmao that's fucking devastating

The Army and Marine Corps did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.

Get fucked

Extensive depot overhauls have collapsed, falling from 1,278 in 2015 to just 12 in 2024 while the Marine Corps reduced its overhauls from 725 to 163 over the same period.

Because stockpiles aren't profitable.

A senior Army official told the report authors that "the Army accepted the risk from the decision to reduce funding for overhauls," the GAO report said. The overhaul cuts hurt mission-capable rates, but the Army mitigated the impact by stripping parts out of vehicles being phased out.

Margins weren't high enough when we ran the military like a military, so to boost shareholder value we shrunk our supply chain to achieve a leaner product for investors to be confident in.

The Marine Corps lacks a specific mission-capable goal for its ground combat vehicles, but mission-capable rates for most of its vehicle fleets have declined since 2015, with only the aging assault amphibious vehicle and light armored vehicles improving as they move closer to being phased out.

Marines can't even Marine. No wonder why they're all turning into school shooters

In short, the GAO found that while America's ground forces are pouring more money into maintaining their combat vehicles, they're getting less availability in return, with readiness rates dropping in a way that could leave units ill-prepared for a fight.

PAPER TIGER PAPER TIGER PAPER TIGER

I DID THE UPDATE to the applications.

They're LIVE LIVE LIVE

you can view them when you go to make a new account

please don't use this as an opportunity to make new accounts.

or do, whatevs.

but ANSWER THE DAMN PROMPS OR I'LL DENY YOUR FUNNY COOL USERNAMES

edit: I'll leave this up for the rest of the day to let everyone know its done. I'll probably leave this unlocked so if anyone else wants to drop by and improve a translation or add a new one they can pop by and drop it in instead of making a whole new post or DMing me. not that's gonna stop anyone from doing exactly that lmao either one's fine.

The variety of styles and genres are a huge plus too

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lduGituNvYpbFUbeduGbodhOJ5tdcu6Y0