Marine: A Guided Tour of a Marine Expeditionary Unit tcml-4

by Tom Clancy

  Browning M2 .50-Caliber Machine Gun

  To listen to an old Marine "Gunny," you would think it was the most beautiful of women. The M2 .50-caliber machine gun is a favorite heavy weapon of Marines and ground troops everywhere. This heavy machine gun provides a base of fire for the rifle platoon and company. It forces the enemy to keep his head down and confronts him with a threat he must neutralize. While he is trying to knock out the damned machine gun, Marines can maneuver onto his flanks or close with his position. A heavy machine gun can shred dry-wall or wooden buildings, or unarmored vehicles. At short ranges and favorable angles it can even penetrate the side or rear plating of armored vehicles. This makes it a very dangerous piece of equipment to have in your pocket.

  A Marine mans an M2 Browning .50-caliber machine gun mounted on an HMMWV.

  OFFICIAL U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO

  The "50 cal" first entered service with the U.S. Army in 1919, too late for service in World War I. During the Second World War it was standard armament on American fighter and bomber aircraft, and was widely employed as an anti-aircraft weapon on every kind of ship and ground vehicle. The M2 is an automatic recoil-operated, air-cooled machine gun that weighs 84 1b/38 kg. Recoil-operated means that it uses an ingenious arrangement of levers, cams, and springs to capture part of the recoil energy to extract and eject the spent cartridge case, feed the next round, load it, and fire it. This cycle repeats as long as the gunner holds down the V-shaped trigger located between two hand grips at the rear of the gun. Release the trigger and a latch secures the mechanism in the "open bolt" position, ready to fire again.

  The .50-cal can be found in the turret of the AAV-7/LVTP-7 amphibious tractor, on the simple pintle mount on the HMMWV, and on the high-tech coaxial mount on the Avenger air-defense vehicle. The weapons platoon of a Marine rifle company fires it from a hefty 44-1b/20-kg tripod. It takes at least two Marines to carry the weapon, plus men to carry cans of ammunition. The ammunition is assembled into belts with reusable spring clips called "disintegrating links," which are stripped off by the gun's feeder mechanism. The rate of fire is 550 rounds per minute, and gunners are trained to fire short bursts to conserve ammunition. The theoretical maximum range is 4.22 mi/6.8 km, and the M2 has even been used for "indirect fire" at high angles of elevation to create a "fire-beaten zone" on the other side of a hill. In typical battlefield conditions the practical range is about 1.1 mi/1.8 km. The legendary lethality of the M2 derives from the heavy charge of propellant in the cartridge and the superb ballistic shape of the projectile, which has a distinctive "boat tail." There are several ammunition types. These include target-practice (TP), armor-piercing solid-shot, armor-piercing incendiary (API), and high-explosive (HE).

  Over the years, many firms have produced the M2 on license from the holders of John M. Browning's original patent. The current contractor producing the M2 for the U.S. Department of Defense is Saco Defense, Inc., and the FY-1994 unit cost was $8,118.00. Its unique combination of range, lethality, durability, and simplicity guarantees that the M2 will soldier on well into the next century. In fact, the last Marine M2 gunner has probably not yet been born.

  Mk 19 40mm Machine Gun, Mod 3

  An HMMWV on patrol with an Mk19 40mm grenade launcher mounted on top. This weapon can fire all of the same rounds as the M203 grenade launcher.

  OFFICIAL U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO

  Back in the 1960s, deep in the swamps of the Mekong Delta where a well-concealed and heavily armed Viet Cong ambush might lurk around the next bend in the river, crews of U.S. Navy patrol craft discovered that .50-cal machine gun fire was often insufficient to break up an attack. They needed a weapon that could spew out a stream of explosive grenades to suppress enemy forces. To meet this need, the Navy developed the Mk 19, officially classed as a "machine gun," but actually an automatic grenade launcher. The Mk 19 had a long and troubled development cycle, earning the nickname "Dover Dog," after the Delaware arsenal where it was designed. After a series of modifications, it has proven itself in service with the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. The Mk 19 is an extremely simple weapon using the "blowback" principle. The barrel and receiver assembly recoil against a heavy spring, and as they rebound, the next round is loaded and fired. The weapon fires the same family of 40mm grenades as the M203 launcher attached to the M 16 rifle.

  By itself the weapon weighs 72.5 lb/33 kg. It was designed to use the same tripod as the M2 .50-cal. machine gun, but is also found in the turret of the AAV-7/LVTP-7 amphibious tractor. The cyclic rate of fire is from 325 to 375 rounds per minute, but the practical rate of fire is about 40 rounds per minute in short bursts. To achieve the maximum range of 2.2 km/1.37 mi, you have to elevate the weapon to loft the grenades and forget about real accuracy. Practical range for flat-trajectory fire is about 1,500 m/4920 ft. There are several types of ammunition, assembled into disintegrating link belts and transported in metal canisters. The HEDP (high-explosive, dual-purpose) grenade will pierce 2 in./51mm of armor, and spray metal fragments that can kill within 5 m/ 16.4 ft and wound within 15 m/49.2 ft. Other types of ammunition include incendiary, smoke, and tear gas rounds. The Mk 19 is usually found in the weapons platoon of a rifle company and the weapons company of a rifle battalion. One Marine can load and fire the weapon, but it requires a team of three to four to carry it, along with a supply of grenades. It is manufactured by Saco Defense, and the 1994 unit cost was $13,758.00.

  Mortars

  Mortars are the company or battalion commander's own personal artillery. The mortar is a portable, cheap, and simple weapon: just a metal tube with a bipod elevating bracket and a heavy base plate. You assemble the weapon, aim the mortar at the target, and drop the mortar round down the barrel. The round strikes a firing pin at the bottom of the tube, and off it goes. Limitations of the mortar are its relatively short range and inaccuracy. But this old weapon is now gaining new respect, thanks to the development of precision guided ammunition.

  Marines employ two different kinds of mortars. The M224, used in the heavy weapons platoon of the rifle company, is a 60mm weapon weighing only 46.5 lb/21 kg. Maximum range is 2.2 mi/3.5 km. A good crew can sustain a rate of fire of around twenty rounds per minute. The other model, the M252, is used in the heavy weapons company of the infantry battalion. An 81mm weapon, it is based on a 1970s British design, weighs 89 lb/40 kg, and has a maximum range of 3.5 mi/5.6 km. The sustained rate of fire is sixteen rounds per minute. There is a wide variety of ammunition types in each caliber, including high-explosive, smoke, and incendiary rounds. High-explosive rounds can be fitted either with an impact fuse or a proximity fuse that detonates at a preset altitude, showering the target with fragments.

  M198 155mm Towed Howitzer

  An M 19 towed howitzer assigned to BLT 2/6, buttoned up and ready for deployment.

  JOHN D. GRESHAM

  This big gun is one of the more controversial weapons in the Marine arsenal. While it is the Marines' primary field artillery piece, the Corps leadership feels that the M 198 is simply too big and too heavy. Also, it takes up too much space on amphibious lift ships, and in firing position it is too vulnerable, especially when a quantity of ammunition is stacked near the gun. In addition, the M198 has a high center of gravity, which makes it prone to tipping over and being difficult to handle. On the other hand, it uses standard, widely available 155mm ammunition with terrific lethality. Weighing 15,758 1b/7,154 kg, it requires a heavy (5-ton) truck to tow it, along with its eleven-man crew and a supply of ammunition. It can be lifted as a sling load by the CH-53E helicopter. The M198 can hurl a projectile up to 14 mi/22.4 km, and a special rocket-assisted projectile extends this range to 18.6 mi/30 km. The 566 guns in the Marine inventory will serve for at least another decade, until the introduction of a new lightweight howitzer which is under development.

  Mk 45 5-in./54 Naval Gun Mount

  With the retirement of the Iowa-class (BB-61) battleships, the Navy's gunfire support capability is reduced to one or two of these rifled 5-in./ 12
7mm weapons on each major surface combatant (cruiser, destroyer, and a few amphibious ships). Built by United Defense's Great Northern Division, the Mk 45 5-in./54 turret has a high degree of automation, sustaining a rate of seventeen rounds per minute. The turret normally operates unmanned, with the six-man Navy crew working below decks. The Mk 45 can throw a 70-1b/31.75-kg projectile to a maximum range of 14 mi/23.6 km, though extended-range ammunition is under development. The main ammunition types are high-explosive and incendiary (white phosphorus). A ship generally carries several hundred rounds per gun in its magazines, and major task forces are accompanied by ammunition ships, which can rapidly replenish the supply, using a UH-46 helicopter.

  The Future: The Lightweight Howitzer and Arsenal Ship

  Solving the problem of replacing the fire-support assets lost since Desert Storm is a joint Navy/Marine Corps challenge. The most urgent fire-support upgrade is replacement of the M198 155mm howitzer. Six different industrial teams have produced competing designs for a new lightweight howitzer. These include United Defense, Lockheed Martin, Royal Ordnance, and VSEL. In addition to lighter weight, the Marines want a weapon with much longer range (which means a longer barrel) and smaller crew requirements, and a higher rate of fire (which means power-assisted ramming and loading.) Expect to see deliveries in the early years of the next century.

  An artist's concept of the proposed "Arsenal Ship." The vessel would be packed with vertical launch cells for missiles that would provide bombardment and fire support for Marines ashore.

  OFFICIAL U.S. NAVY PHOTOFROM LOCKHEED MARTIN

  A bigger problem is offshore fire support. Marines really miss those old Iowa-class (BB-61) battleships. Nothing will ever match the spectacular effect of 16-in./406mm shells falling on a target within 25 mi/40 km of a coastline. Over a hundred ships with 5-in./ 127mm guns have left U.S. Navy service, gutting naval gunfire capability. To make up for this drawdown, the Chief of Navel Operations and former Deputy Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Bill Owens conceived the idea of the Arsenal Ship. The Arsenal Ship would replace the lost firepower of the retired Iowa-class (BB-61) battleships by constructing a simple, relatively inexpensive ship packed with missile launch cells — as many as 732 tactical missiles, including Tomahawk and perhaps a version of the Army TACMS. In effect, the arsenal ship would win the war in one salvo, and then reload for the next war. The ship would rely entirely on off-board sensors for targeting. Covered with radar-absorbing coatings, an Arsenal Ship would have virtually no superstructure. Some design studies envision ballast tanks that could be flooded to give the ship extremely low freeboard, making it a very difficult target for enemy anti-ship missiles. Unfortunately, all this thinking hasn't gone very far; and there are practical problems. Not the least of these: The Navy has done virtually nothing to integrate and procure the TACMS missile for naval service, perhaps because it's reluctant to use an Army missile aboard Navy ships (the "not-invented-here" syndrome). Only nuclear submariners have done substantive work on TACMS, since they are desperately looking for new missions for their subs in the post-Cold War period. Whatever happens, supporting fires will be the make-or-break item for continued forced-entry capabilities into the 21st century.

  Anti-Armor/Aircraft Systems

  Cambrai, Northern France. 0620 hours on November 20th, 1917. In the misty dawn, the soldiers of the Kaiser's 2nd Army looked out over "No-Man's-Land" and saw over two hundred primitive British tanks lumbering toward them. The Germans opened fire with the Mauser rifles and Maxim machine guns that had made them nearly invincible during three long years in the trenches, and watched in horror as the bullets bounced off of the armor plate. Then, surprisingly, and most uncharacteristically for German infantry, they ran away.

  Almost thirty-five years later, near Osan, Korea, on July 5th, 1950, soldiers of the 24th Infantry Division's Task Force Smith had held their roadblock stubbornly for almost five hours against a superior force of invading North Koreans. They were mostly young draftees, but their sergeants were tough World War II combat veterans who knew their business. Then they heard a low rumble that grew to a roar as thirty Russian T-34/85 tanks came down the road. The bazooka teams fired, and watched in horror as the 2.75-in./70mm armor-piercing rockets bounced off the tanks' sharply angled armor plates. Then they did something surprising and uncharacteristic of American infantry. They ran away.

  There is a common lesson in these two stories. Tanks scare the crap out of infantrymen who have no way to fight back effectively. To stand up against tanks, foot soldiers need two things: courage and an anti-tank weapon they trust. Good leadership and training will supply the courage. Good ordnance engineers and technicians can supply the weapons. Early tanks were practically blind on the battlefield, and even the best modern tank designs (like the M1A1 Abrams) are visually handicapped. Men on foot can exploit this weakness with great effect. During the Hungarian Revolution in Budapest (1956), Russian T-34s were knocked out by Hungarian freedom fighters, who immobilized the tanks by jamming steel pipes between the tracks and the road wheels, then bombarded them with firebombs made from bottles and gasoline.

  Modern portable anti-tank weapons fall into two categories: those light enough for one soldier to carry, and specialist weapons that require a crew and possibly a motor vehicle to haul them around. The Marine Corps has usually followed U.S. Army doctrine, equipment, and tactics for anti-armor combat, but has a few ideas of its own. Let's take a quick look at the portable anti-armor systems used by the Corps.

  AT-4

  The Marines have always been willing to acquire foreign-made weapons when they are the best of their breed. The AT-4 was acquired to replace the very light and inexpensive 70mm M72 LAW (Light Anti-tank Weapon), which is increasingly becoming ineffective against modern battle tanks. The AT-4 is a lightweight, single-shot, disposable version of the "Karl Gustav" 84 mm anti-tank launcher manufactured by FFV in Sweden. The AT-4 can be carried and shoulder-fired by one Marine, but is typically employed in the heavy weapons platoon of a rifle company with a two-man fire team. The second Marine serves as a spotter and carries additional AT-4s for the team. Weighing 14.75 lb/6.7 kg, the 40 — in./1.01-m.-long rocket launcher has a nasty back-blast. Maximum effective range is 300 m/984 ft, and the shaped-charge projectile can penetrate 400mm/15.75 in. of armor plate. The FY-96 unit cost is about $1,100 per AT-4 rocket.

  SMAW

  Marines of the 26th MEU (SOC) prepare to fire an SMAW rocket launcher. This Israeli-made weapon is used for bunker-busting and demolitions.

  OFFICIAL U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO

  The Shoulder Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon (SMAW) is a high-tech descendant of the World War II bazooka — a portable rocket launcher that can disable a tank or knock out a bunker. It was introduced in 1984 as a unique Marine Corps item, because the Army's M72 LAW lacked the accuracy and punch the Marines wanted, and other anti-tank rockets were too heavy. The SMAW is based on an Israeli weapon called the B-300. The 16.6-1b/7.54-kg fiberglass launch tube is 30 in./76 cm long when carried. For firing, you snap a rocket in its disposable sealed canister into the breech end, which extends the total length of the weapon to 54 in./137 cm. The Marines carry 1,364 of these unusual weapons in inventory, and they cost about $14,000.00 each. The SMAW fires two kinds of 83mm rockets — HEDP for use against lightly armored vehicles or buildings, and High-Explosive Anti-tank (HEAT) for use against heavily armored vehicles. Maximum range against a tank is 500 m/1,640 ft, but the SMAW is intended for use at close ranges. Accuracy is ensured by a "spotting rifle" attached to the side of the launcher. This is a British-made 9mm semi-automatic weapon that fires a special tracer round that is ballistically matched to the flight characteristics of the rocket. You hoist the weapon to your shoulder, look through the sight, and fire a spotting round. When you see the spotting round impact on the target, you fire the rocket, with a very high probability of a hit. SMAW works so well that during Desert Storm the Army "borrowed" 150 launchers and five thousand rockets from the Marines.


  Hughes MGM-71 TOW-2 Anti-Tank Missile

  An HMMWV of BLT 2/6 mounting a TOW anti-tank missile launcher on maneuvers in Israel in 1995.

  OFFICIAL U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO MARINE CORPS PHOTO

  "TOW" stands for "Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided." This famous family of missiles originally entered service in 1970, and has been continuously improved and upgraded through a series of modifications. TOW first saw combat in 1972 in Vietnam, where it was successfully fired by U.S. Army helicopters against North Vietnamese tanks. In the Marine Corps, TOW is mainly used by specialist anti-tank platoons of heavy weapons companies, mounted on HMMWVs (which carry six missiles), or by anti-tank variants of the eight-wheeled Light Armored Vehicle (LAV-AT, carrying two missiles ready to fire with ten stowed).