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| Iraq | ||||
| German arms package to Peshmerga includes assault rifles, anti-tank missiles | ||||
| 2015-12-21 | ||||
It reported that Germany is set to deliver around 4,000 more G-36 assault rifles, six million rounds of ammunition and 200 Milan anti-tank missiles. At least five "Dingo" armored personnel carriers are also part of the package.
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... (ISIS) since August 2014 when the hard boyz attacked the Kurdish capital, Erbil. Since then, Germany has been among the few Western countries sending direct arms supplies to the Peshmerga, instead of through the central government in Baghdad.
On Wednesday, ISIS attacked the Peshmerga front in a three-pronged assault lasting 17 hours. Weapons like the Milan missiles are especially needed by the Peshmerga to thwart suicide kabooms by ISIS that are often launched with vehicle-borne improvised bombs (VBIED), which are often armored and hard to stop small arms alone. German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen told Germany's Bild newspaper on Friday that "the Peshmerga perfectly know how to handle weapons they get from Germany." She said they "have shown themselves as a successful and effective ground force against the barbaric ISIS." | ||||
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 Crappy German battle rifles is better than no rifles at all. If your choices are giving them to the Kurds or throwing them in the ocean, might as well donate. At least they won't have to scrub the salt-water stains off the guns. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2015-12-21 19:14 |
| #1 It reported that Germany is set to deliver around 4,000 more G-36 assault rifles Yeah, thanks for the help. Just who's side are you on? Thereliability of the G36 in combat first became an issue when the G36 was used a lot in combat during hot weather in Afghanistan. There were incidents where hours of combat caused several very real problems. One of the more obvious problems was the polymer (plastic) parts of the rifle getting a bit soft when the metal parts got very hot due to heavy use in a short period of time. The barrel and receiver could move a tiny bit under those conditions and that threw off accuracy to a small degree that became especially noticeable only at longer (over 200 meters) ranges. No one has come up with a practical (workable and affordable) solution for that. At first the German government insisted the problem has to do with bad ammunition but the ammo manufacturers denied that and were able to make a convincing case. Then, in 2010 came multiple reports, confirmed by many witnesses and cell phone photos, of the heat related problems and total failure of the rifle in some cases. German politicians and procurement officials have been trying to make all this go away ever since. The government officials do not want to admit they made a major mistake in putting the G36 into service. They also don’t want the major expense of replacing the G36 with a better design. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-12-21 11:12 |