USS ENTERPRISE. TASK FORCE SIXTEEN

At least he didn’t have to drink the admiral’s terrible coffee. Admittedly, it wasn’t much fun stamping back and forth
along the empty flight deck at night, either. For the first days of June, this was miserable weather in the northwest Pacific. With the fog so cold and dense and rain sleeting in sideways, it was enough to make Lieutenant Commander Daniel Black long for the South Pacific, where temperatures belowdecks could climb to well over a hundred and touching the exposed metal topside raised painful burn blisters. But Black could take a little expo- sure, as long as it meant he didn’t have to stomach another cup of that goddamn poison green java Admiral Raymond Spruance insisted on grinding for himself every morning.
Black, a big rawboned copper miner in his former life, was Spruance’s assistant ops chief in this one. He jammed his hands deep into the pockets of his old leather flying coat and turned out of the wind as they reached the safety lights surrounding the first aircraft elevator. There had been a freak accident there just a few days ago, when Ensign Willie P. West and Lieutenant “Dusty” Kleiss were strolling the same path. Neither had heard the elevator warning signal, and West had stepped abruptly off into empty space. Kleiss found himself teetering on the edge of a gaping hole, and it took him a moment to regain his balance. Having done so, he peered over, expecting to find his friend ly- ing in a crumpled heap.
Instead he found West smiling and waving from thirty feet
below. He had landed on the elevator just as it started its de- scent, and said the sensation was like “landing on a feather bed.” Commander Black didn’t feel like repeating the stunt and gave himself plenty of time to turn around. Admiral Spruance veered away, too, his black leather shoes squeaking on the wet deck. It was a small thing in a way, a pair of black shoes, not re- ally worth noting. Except that they shouldn’t have been here on a flattop. William “Bull” Halsey, the man who would have been in charge of the Enterprise, if he wasn’t trapped in his sickbed back at Pearl, would have worn brown shoes, because he was a flier, not a cruiser jockey. And Halsey wouldn’t have needed to constantly pound the flight deck with his officers, picking their brains about flight operations and the basics of naval air power just days before they went into battle. Because Bill Halsey had
been flying planes and driving carriers for years.
The men revered him, and with good reason. When Ensign
Eversole had gotten lost in fog on the way to attack Wake Is-
land, Halsey had turned around the entire task force, searched
for and found the downed torpedo plane, then resumed the at-
tack a day later. Everyone agreed it was a damn pity the old man
was stuck back in Pearl. It meant they were steaming into battle
at Midway against a superior foe, under a man with no expertise
in carrier operations at all.
During a rare break in Spruance’s relentless cross-examination,
Black brought up something else that had been nagging at him
since they’d set out. “It’s a real shame about losing Don
Lovelace.”
The admiral, who was a quiet, self-contained man—so differ-
ent from the booming, good-natured Halsey—took so long in
replying that Commander Black wondered if he’d even been
heard. The Enterprise was making nearly thirty knots, adding
its speed to a light blustery crosswind, and it was possible a gust
might have carried away his words. But, true to form, Spruance
was just mulling over the statement before fashioning a reply.
“It’s a blessing we’ve even got the Yorktown at all,” he said.
That seemed harsh. Don Lovelace was the XO of Fighting 3,
the Yorktown’s squadron of twenty-five portly but rugged F-4F
Wildcats. Or he had been, till another pilot had screwed up his
landing and jumped the barrier the first afternoon out of Pearl,
crashing into the plane ahead and killing one of the most expe-
rienced pilots in the whole task force. The Yorktown’s VF3 was
less a squadron than a pickup team, thrown together at the last moment before the big game. They’d never flown together, and for some this would be their first time on a carrier. Lovelace was supposed to have whipped them into shape.
“It still would have been good having Lovelace.” Black shrugged. “Zeros are gonna eat those boys up. Chew us all up, given a chance.”
“Jimmy Thach will knock them into shape,” Spruance said. “Or close enough anyway. We have to cut the cloth to suit our budget, Commander. Pearl performed miracles getting the Yorktown ready in three days. I know the pilots are green, and their planes are no match for the Japs, but that doesn’t matter. We have to beat them anyway.”
Their return journey had brought them back to the ship’s is- land superstructure, which offered some shelter against the wind that was blowing across the deck. The rise and fall of the swell was also much less evident here. The time was coming up on 2245. They would blow tubes in a few minutes, and the working day would end for most of the crew. Black was already dead tired. He had eaten breakfast at 0350.
In a few days, he knew, he’d just be dead. Or so exhausted as made no difference.
He wondered how Spruance did it. How he kept running like a windup toy, seemingly capable of absorbing every piece of minutiae and fitting it into his grand battle scheme. They’d been discussing the relative merits of the Zero and the Wildcat, mas- saging the comparisons, the Zero’s greater range and maneuver- ability, the Wildcat’s higher ceiling, the Zero’s lack of armor, the Wildcat’s steel plating and self-sealing fuel tanks. The ad- miral turned to him now, a rare, soft smile playing across his thin, severe features.
“Still worried that they might sucker punch us again at Pearl, Commander?”
This time it was Black who was quiet for a few seconds. At a special briefing in Spruance’s cabin, earlier that day, he had asked the admiral what would happen if the Japs bypassed Mid- way and made straight for Hawaii, which lay open and defense- less. Spruance had stared at him for a full half minute before offering his reply—that he hoped they would not.
Black had been startled by that reply—and more than a little
disturbed. Unless Spruance knew something his subordinates did not, he was relying heavily on faith—which Black consid- ered a poor basis for strategic planning.
Now the admiral seemed on the verge of saying something more when an earsplitting crack knocked them both to the deck and left them gasping for breath. Black felt as though he’d been nailed by a jab to the guts.
The gusting wind that had been tugging at their clothes died down. It was curious, though—it didn’t just drop off. It stopped dead. It almost seemed to Black as if it was “different air.” That didn’t make sense, he knew, but he couldn’t shake the feeling. It smelled and tasted different, too; vaguely familiar in a way, earthier, heavier. Like air in the Tropics, which always seemed laden with the weight of rot and genesis.
The night had been very dark, with low cloud cover, no starlight, and banks of dense fog. Even so, Black had the dis- tinct impression of being wrapped, however briefly, in a denser, closer form of darkness. A rush of unsettling, half-formed, al- most preconscious abstractions clawed at him. He had the sen- sation of being trapped in a tight, closed space, what he imagined it would feel like to be stuck in a downed plane as it sank in thousands of fathoms of black water.
Then they both became aware of a rising clamor of shouts and cries, coming from above. Lookouts in the superstructure, up on Vulture’s Row, were screaming and gesturing wildly down to the sea on the starboard side.
“I think somebody’s gone overboard,” coughed Black, still struggling for breath.
“Come on,” Spruance said, with some difficulty.
They hurried forward, around the base of the island and the
antiaircraft mounts, only to be confronted by a sight that
stopped them cold.
“Holy shit,” said Black.
There, less than a hundred yards away, lay a ship of some
sort. A foreign vessel for sure, completely alien, its bow was an-
gled away from the Enterprise, opening up a gap as they plowed
through the foaming breakers. She was lit well enough that they
could make out her strange lines. The decks of the vessel were
mostly clear. There was an island of sorts, but it was located
squarely in the center of what would have been the runway. It
was raked back, like a shark’s fin, with no hard edges anywhere on its surface. Only one line of windows was visible, within which he could make out strange glowing colors and lights, but no people.
As his mind adjusted to the outrage, he began to take in more detail. The forward decks seemed to be pockmarked with the outlines of elevators, but they were ridiculously small, each no more than a few yards across. There was one small gun em- placement, a ludicrous-looking little cannon, with the same strange, raked contours as the bridge. As the angle of diver- gence increased and the warship pulled away from them, Spru- ance pointed to the outline of what had to be an aircraft elevator down toward the stern. But it made no sense. Any plane at- tempting to take off there would crash into the bizarre-looking island on the vessel’s centerline.
“Oh, Lord,” muttered Spruance, as the ship peeled away at nearly thirty degrees now, exposing her stern to their gaze. A Japanese ensign flew there. Not a Rising Sun, to be sure, but a red circle on a field of white.
The name printed beneath read SIR ANUI, Japanese for “un- known fires,” if Black recalled correctly. He was aware of a Kagero-class destroyer just so named, which had been launched in June 1938. This thing, however, which was easily more than half the length of the Enterprise, was no Kagero-class bucket. It looked like something out of Buck Rogers.
“What the hell is that thing?” asked Black, in the tone of voice he might have used if he’d seen a large, two-headed dog. “I’m not sure what it is,” Spruance replied, regaining his composure, “but I know who it is. Better put on your Sunday
best, Commander. I think our guests have arrived early.”
As the mystery ship quietly slipped into the night, a Klaxon
aboard the Enterprise sounded the alarm.
And then, the horizon exploded.
Suddenly they were beset by madness on all sides. To star-
board, the eerie Nipponese ghost ship receded into darkness. To
port, there was a volcanic eruption about ten miles distant. It
was a few seconds before the thunder reached their ears, but
they could see clearly enough what was happening as the light
of the explosion was trapped between a heaving sea and the
thick, scudding clouds that pressed down from above.
Black shook his head, determined to remain calm. But as his
eyes darted to and fro across the surface of the ocean, his mind was insulted by the monstrous visions they encountered there.
In the flat, guttering light of the distant inferno Black could see more enemy vessels, none that he recognized, most of them freakish cousins to the thing that had just peeled away from the Enterprise. There was one ship—maybe a thousand yards dis- tant—well, he simply refused to believe his own eyes. As it crested a long rolling line of swell he could have sworn the thing had two, maybe even three hulls. It was difficult to be sure under these conditions, but he simply could not shake the after- image. It was either a ship with three hulls, or three ships some- how joined and operating in perfect harmony.
And randomly scattered on the crucible of the seas all around them were more products of the same Stygian foundry. Over there, he was certain, there was another double-hulled monstrosity, bursting through a black wall of water. To the north lay more ships like the beast that had sidled up to them before. And there, way off the port bow, were two flattops, both of them large enough to be fleet carriers. One was a real behemoth.
“Commander!”
Black was shocked out of his reverie by the harsh call.
“We’ve got work to do, Commander,” Spruance barked. “A
hell of a job, too, unless you want your grandchildren eating
raw fish and rice balls.”
Bells rang and Klaxons blared. Thousands of feet hammered
on steel plating as men rushed to their stations on nearly two
dozen warships.
The first gun to fire was a 20mm Oerlikon on the Portland. It
pumped a snaking line of tracer in exactly the wrong direction.
Forty-millimeter Bofors, pom-poms, and dozens of five-inch
batteries soon joined it, until a whole quadrant of the sky
seethed with gunfire.
Spruance and Black raced up to the bridge, tugging on helmets
and vests, as the big guns of the Midway Task Force began to
boom. Huge muzzle flashes from eight-inch batteries lit up the
night with a chaotic, strobe effect. The bridge was in an uproar
with a dozen different voices calling out reports, barking ques-
tions, and demanding answers where—as yet—there were none.
“Get the bombers away, as quickly as possible,” Spruance
ordered.
“VB-six is ready to roll, sir.” “Coming around to two-two-three.”
The plating beneath their feet began to pitch as the big carrier swung into the wind. Black could only hope that none of their destroyer escorts would be run down by the unexpected course correction. This is insane, he thought, dogfighting with twenty- thousand-ton ships. He braced himself against a chart table in a corner of the bridge, and tried to make sense of the chaos around them. There were hundreds of guns firing without any sort of coordination. They were going to start destroying their own ships very quickly if that went on.
As soon as the thought occurred to him, it happened. The cruiser New Orleans attempted a ragged broadside at that spec- tral Japanese ship that had just “appeared” to starboard, a few minutes earlier. The volley completely missed its target, but at least two shells slammed into an American destroyer a few hun- dred yards beyond. Black cursed as the little ship exploded in flames.
“We’re going to need better gunnery control,” he yelled at
Spruance. “I’ll get on it.”
The admiral turned away from the sailor he had been address-
ing and nodded brusquely. Black charged back out of the
bridge, heading for the radio room.

HMAS MORETON BAY, 1049 HOURS, 15 JANUARY 2021

Lieutenant Rachel Nguyen had slept six hours out of the last forty-eight. As the defensive systems operator of the troop cat
Moreton Bay, she felt herself directly responsible for the lives of four hundred soldiers and thirty-two crewmembers. The Moreton Bay was a fat, soft, high-value target; so much more tempting for would-be martyrs or renegade Indonesian forces than the Clinton, or the Kandahar, or any of the escort vessels. The software for the catamaran’s Metal Storm CIWS—Close- In Weapons System—had been twitching and freezing up ever since they’d loaded the update patches during the last refit in Sydney. Nguyen, at the tail end of a marathon hacking session, had just come to the conclusion she’d be better off trashing the updates and reverting to the old program.
She rubbed her eyes and swiveled her chair around to face Captain Sheehan. The ancient mariner seemed to read her mind. “You want to dump the new system, Lieutenant?” he asked,
even before she had a chance to speak.Damn, she thought. How does he do that?
“I don’t really want to, sir, but it’s buggy as hell. The pods are just as likely to target us as any incoming.” Sheehan rubbed at his chin beneath the thick beard he had
sported for as long as Nguyen had known him. “Okay,” he agreed after a moment’s thought. “Tell the Clinton we’re going to take them offline for—how long to reload the old software?”
Nguyen shrugged. “A few minutes to deep-six the garbage code, five and a half to reload the classic. Say ten to be sure. “Okay. Tell the Clinton we’re taking the pods offline for fif- teen minutes to change over the programming, so we’ll need them to assign us extra cover through CBL. The Trident’s clos- est, she’ll do nicely.” “Thank you, sir,” said Rachel, genuinely grateful to be re- leased from the burden of hacking the software on her own. Sheehan watched her closely for a moment longer, then turned to peer out through the tinted blast windows of the cat’s bridge. The sea surface was nearly mirror still. Nguyen worried that he might order her to stand down for a few hours. After all, they wouldn’t be deploying for another two weeks, and they’d be in port as of this evening. But she’d never be able to sleep until she was sure the problem had been solved. “How’s your thesis going, Lieutenant?” he asked as she shut down the windows on the screen in front of her. “I haven’t really had time to work on it since we left Darwin, sir,” she confessed. “But it’s not due for three months. I should be right to finish it.”
“Still comparing Haig and Westmoreland?” “With reference to Phillip the Second,” she added, “you know, sent the Armada, started the Eighty Years War, wrecked the Castilian Empire.”
“No experience of the failure of his policy could shake his be- lief in its essential excellence,” quoted Sheehan. “You’ve read Tuchman?” she said. “Many years ago, for my own dissertation,” he nodded. “What was it she called Phillip?” “The surpassing woodenhead of all sovereigns,” said Nguyen. Sheehan smiled in remembrance. “That’s right, she did . . .
Anyway, reload the software, then get some sleep.” She started to protest, but the look on his face stopped her. “I don’t want to see you back here for at least six hours.”

JRV NAGOYA, 1046 HOURS, 15 JANUARY 2021

As diverse as these ships were, one still stood out. The Joint Re- search Vessel Nagoya was a purpose-built leviathan, con- structed around the frame of an eighty-thousand-tonne liquid
natural gas carrier. Her keel had been laid down in Korea, with the fit-out split between San Francisco and Tokyo, reflecting the multinational nature of her funding. She fit in with the sleek warships of the Multinational Force the way a hippo would with a school of swordfish.
Her presence was a function of the speed with which the cri- sis in Jakarta had developed. The USS Leyte Gulf, a stealth cruiser from the Clinton’s battle group, had been riding shotgun over the Nagoya’s sea trials in the benign waters off Western Australia. When the orders came down that the carrier and her battle group were to move immediately into the Wetar Strait the Nagoya had been left with no choice but to tag along until an es- cort could be assigned to shepherd her safely back to Hawaii. It was a situation nobody liked, least of all Professor Manning Pope, the leader of the Nagoya team.
Crouched over a console in his private quarters, Pope mut- tered under his breath as he hammered out yet another enraged e-mail directly to Admiral Tony Kevin, commander in chief, U.S. Pacific Command. It was the ninth such e-mail he had sent in forty-eight hours. Each had elicited a standardized reply, not from the admiral himself mind you, but from some trained monkey on his personal staff.
Pope typed, stabbing at the keys:
Need I remind you of the support this Project elicits at THE VERY HIGHEST LEVELS OF GOVERN- MENT. I would not wish to be in your shoes, Ad- miral Kevin, when I explain to your superiors that we have gone over budget while being dragged into this pointless fiasco. The NAGOYA is a research vessel, not a warship, and we should have been allowed to continue our trials unmo- lested in the perfectly safe testing range off Perth. As small as they are, the Australian navy are more than capable of fending off any drunken fishermen who might have strayed too close.
Therefore I DEMAND that we be freed from this two-penny opera and allowed to return to our test schedule as originally planned. I await your earliest reply. And that means YOURS, Admi- ral Kevin. Not some junior baboon!
That’ll put a rocket under his fat ass, thought Pope. Bureau- crats hate it when you threaten to go over their heads. It means they might actually have to stagger to their feet and do some- thing for a change.
Spleen vented for the moment, he keyed into the vidlink that connected him with the Project control room. A Japanese man with a shock of unruly, thick black hair answered the hail.
“How do we look for a power-up this morning, Yoshi?” Pope asked. “I’m anxious to get back on schedule.”
Standing at a long, curving bank of flatscreens Professor Yoshi Murayama, an unusually tall cosmic string theorist from Honshu, blew out his cheeks and shrugged. “I can’t see why not from this end. We’re just about finished entering the new data sets. We’re good to go, except youknow that Kolhammer won’t like it.”
“Kolhammer’s a chickenshit,” Pope said somewhat mourn- fully. “I really don’t care what he thinks. He’s not qualified to tell us what we can and cannot do. You are.”
“Like I said,” the Japanese Nobel winner responded. “I don’t see a problem. Just a beautiful set of numbers.”
“Of course.” Pope nodded. “Everyone else feel the same?” he asked, raising his voice so that it projected into the room beyond Murayama. The space was surprisingly small for such a mo- mentous undertaking, no bigger than a suburban living room really. Large glowing monitors shared the area with half a dozen senior Project researchers, each staffing a workstation.
His question caught them off-guard. Their boss enjoyed a hard-won reputation as a thoroughly unpleasant little prick with an amazingly rigid pole up his ass. A couple of them exchanged quick glances, but nobody said anything for a few moments un- til Barnes, their magnetic ram technician, ventured a reply.
“Well, it’s not our fault we fell behind. But you can bet we’ll get blamed if we don’t hustle to catch up.”
“Exactly!” Pope replied. “Let’s prepare for a test run at point- zero-one efficiency. That should be enough to confirm a stabi- lized effect with the new figures. Are we all agreed?”
They were.

USS KANDAHAR, 1014 HOURS, 15 JANUARY 2021

The marines wouldn’t have been surprised at all to discover that someone like Adil was watching over them. In fact, they assumed there were more than two hundred million pairs of eyes
turned their way as they prepared to deploy into the Indonesian Archipelago.
Nobody called it the Caliphate. Officially the United States still recognized it as the sovereign territory of Indonesia, seventeen thousand islands stretching from Banda Aceh, three hundred
kilometers off the coast of Thailand, down to Timor, just north of Australia. The sea-lanes passing through those islands carried a third of the world’s maritime trade, and officially they
remained open to all traffic. The Indonesian government-in-exile said so—from the safety of the Grand Hyatt in Geneva where they had fled, three weeks earlier, after losing control of Jakarta.
Unofficially though, these were the badlands, controlled— just barely—by a revolutionary Islamic government calling itself the Caliphate and laying claim to all seventeen thousand
islands, as well as the territory of Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville, and, for good measure, northern Australia. Nonbelievers were not welcome.
The spiritual leader of the Caliphate, Mullah Ibn Abbas, had proclaimed this as the will of Allah.
The Eighty-second Marine Expeditionary Unit begged to differ.
And on the hangar deck of the USS Kandahar, a Baghdadclass littoral assault ship, they were preparing a full and frank rebuttal.
The hangar was a vast, echoing space. Two full decks high and running nearly a third of the length of the slab-sided vessel, it still seemed crowded, packed tight with most of the Eightysecond’s air wing—a small air force in its own right consisting of a dozen Ospreys, four aging Super Stallions, two reconditioned command Hueys, eight Sea Comanche gunships, and
half a dozen Super Harriers.
The Harriers and Super Stallions had been moved onto the “roof”—the flight deck, thus allowing the ground combat element of the Eighty-second MEU to colonize the space that had been opened up. The GCE was formally known as the Third Battalion of the Ninth Regiment, Fifth Marine Division. It was also known as the Lonesome Dead, after their passably famous
CO, Colonel J. Lonesome Jones.
Not all of 3 Batt were embarked upon the Kandahar. The battalion topped out at more than twelve hundred men and women, and some of their number had to be berthed elsewhere in the
three ships that were carrying the Eighty-second into harm’s way. The USS Providence, a Harper’s Ferry–class amphibious landing dockship (LSD), took the battalion’s four Abrams tanks, a rifle company, and the amphibious assault vehicle platoon. The Kennebunkport, a venerable LPD 12, carried the recon platoon, the regiment’s Humvees, two more Hueys, the drone platoon, and the Navy SEAL team that would be providing security to the Eighty-second during their cruise through the archipelago.
Even as Adil unwrapped his rice cake and squinted into the blue expanse of the Wetar Strait a six-man detachment from the SEAL team was unpacking their gear on the hangar deck of
the Kandahar, where they were getting set to train the men of C Company, 3 Batt.
Charlie Company doubled as Colonel Jones’s cliff assault and small boat raiding squadron, and the SEALs had come to acquaint them with a new toy: the G4, a lightweight assault riflethat fired strips of caseless ceramic ammunition and programmable 30mm grenades. It was to become standard equipment throughout the U.S. armed forces within twelve months. The marines, however, were always at the bottom of the food chain, and would probably have waited two years before they laid hands on these babies. But the battalion logistics officer, Lieutenant
Colonel Nancy Viviani, was an inventive and talented S4. As always, Viviani was determined that the battalion should have the very best equipment other people’s money could buy.
Not that long ago she would have been known as a scavenger, a scrounger, and would have done her job under the cover of darkness with a pair of wire cutters and a fast getaway jeep. She
would have been a man, too, of course. But Lieutenant Colonel Viviani carried two master’s degrees into combat, one of them an MBA from the London School of Economics, and the graduates of that august institution didn’t stoop to anything so crude as petty theft. Not when they could play the Pentagon’s fantastically complex supply programs like an antique violin.
Six and a half hours of extracurricular keyboard time had been enough to release a shipment of G4s from pre-positioned supply vessels in Darwin. Viviani’s genius was in making the process
appear entirely legitimate. Had the Senate Armed Forces Committee itself spent a year inspecting her electronic audit trail, it would have found everything in order with absolutely nothing linking the G4 shipment to the loss of a similar supply package scheduled for delivery to an army public relations unit. “This is the Remington G-four,” CPO Vincente Rogas barked
at the members of C Company. “By the end of today’s lecture you will be familiar with the procedure for maintaining this weapon in the field.” It sounded more like a threat than a
promise. “The G-four is the first solid-state infantry weapon,” he bellowed. “It has very few moving parts.” A slight murmur passed through the tight knot of marines. They were familiar with the weapons specs, having intensively trained with them back in the United States. But still, it was a hell of a thing to wrap your head around. “And this is the standard battle load.” His audience stared at the long thin strip of ceramic munitions like children at their first magic show. “The ammo strip is placed in the barrel like this. An electrical charge ignites the propellant casing, driving the slug out with such velocity that, even with a three-round burst, you will feel no kickback—at least not before the volley leaves the muzzle. “Tomorrow, when we move ashore to the range, each of you will be allotted three hundred rounds. I suggest very strongly that
before then youtake advantage of the full VR tutorial we’ve loaded into your training sets. The base software package is a standard Asian urban conflict scenario, but we’ve added modules
specifically tailored for operations in Jakarta and Surabaya.” With deployment less than a fortnight away, similar scenes were being replayed throughout the U.S.-led Multinational
Force accompanying the Kandahar. Twelve thousand very serious men and women drilled to the point of exhaustion. They were authorized by the UN Security Council to use whatever
force was necessary to reestablish control of the capital, Jakarta, and to put an end to the mass murder of Indonesia’s Chinese and Christian minorities. Everybody was preparing for a slaughter. In the hundred-bed hospital of the Kandahar the Eighty-second’s chief combat surgeon, Captain Margie Francois, supervised her team’s reaction to a simulated missile strike on an armored hovercraft carrying a marine rifle company into a contested estuary.
Two thousand meters away, the French missile frigate Dessaix dueled with a pair of Raptors off the supercarrier USS Hillary Clinton. In the other direction, three thousand meters to the west, two British trimaran stealth destroyers practiced their response to a successful strike by suicide bombers whose weapon of choice had been a high-speed rubber boat. Indeed, Captain Karen Halabi, who had been on the receiving end of just such an attack as a young ensign, drilled the crew of the HMS Trident so fiercely that in those few hours they were allowed to sleep, most
dreamed of crazy men in speedboats laden with TNT.

EAST TIMOR, ZONE TIME:0942 HOURS,

The Caliphate spy, a Javanese carpenter known simply as Adil,resettled himself against a omfortable groove in the sandalwood tree. The small, shaded clearing in the hills overlooking
Dili had been his home for three days. He shared it with an aged feral cat, which remained hidden throughout the day, and an irritable monkey, which occasionally tried to shit on his head. He had considered shooting the filthy animal, but his orders were explicit. He was to remain unnoticed as long as the crusaders were anchored off East Timor, observing their fleet and sending reports via microburst laser link, but only in the event of a “significant
development.”
He had seen nothing “significant” in seventy-two hours. The infidel ships were lying so far offshore they were often lost in haze and distance. Only when night fell did he have any real
chance of seeing them, and even then they remained little more than a blurred constellation of twinkling, faraway lights. Such was their arrogance they didn’t bother to cloak themselves in
darkness. Jets roared to and from the flight deck of their carrier twentyfour hours a day. In deepest night the fire of the launches appeared to Adil as though God Himself had lit a torch on the rim of the world.
Occasionally a helicopter would appear from the direction of the flotilla, beginning as a small, indistinct dot in the hot gray sky, taking on recognizable form only as the muffled drone of
its engines clarified into a thudding, growling roar. From his hiding spot Adil could almost make out the faces of the infidels in the cabins of the fat metal birds. American, British, French,
they all looked alike, cruel and overfed, a thought that reminded him of his own hunger.


He unwrapped the banana leaves from around a small rice cake, thanking Allah for the generosity of his masters. They had included a little dried fish in his rations for today, a rare treat.
Sometimes, when the sun climbed directly overhead and beat down with a slow fury, Adil’s thoughts wandered. He cursed his weakness and begged God for the strength to carry out his duty, but it was hard. He had fallen asleep more than once. Nothing ever seemed to happen. There was plenty of movement down in Dili, which was infested with crusader forces from all over the Christian world, but Dili wasn’t his concern. His sole responsibility was to watch those ships that were hiding in the shimmering haze on the far horizon.
Still, Adil mused, it would be nice to know he had some real purpose here; that he had not been staked out like a goat on the side of a hill. Perhaps he was to be part of some elaborate strike
on the Christians in town. Perhaps tonight the darkness would be torn asunder by holy fire as some martyr blew up one of their filthy taverns. But then, why leave him here on the side of this
stupid hill, covered in monkey shit and tormented by ants?
This wasn’t how he had imagined jihad would be when he had graduated from the Madrasa in Bandung.

AGS-17

The AGS-17 is a heavy infantry support weapon designed to operate from a tripod or mounted on an installation or vehicle. The AGS-17 fires a steady rate of 30 mm grenades in either direct or indirect fire modes to provide suppressive and lethal fire support against soft skinned targets or fortifications targets.
The weapon operates using a blowback mechanism to sustain operation. Rounds are fired through a rifled barrel which is removable quickly to reduce barrel stress.
Ammunition is held in a metal box feed, and is linked. Standard boxes contain 29 rounds of linked ammunition.
The tripod is equipped with fine leveling gear for indirect fire trajectories.

Development of the AGS-17 (Avtomatischeskyi Granatmyot Stankovyi - Automatic Grenade launcher, Mounted) had been started in the USSR in 1967 by the OKB-16 design bureau (now known as the famous KBP Instrument Design Bureau, located in the city of Tula). Most probably, its development was inspired by the Sino-Soviet border conflict of the late 1960s, as well as initial experience with several US automatic grenade launchers, learned from North Vietnamese troops who often were on the receiving end of these weapons.
It was thought that the automatic grenade launcher is one of the most effective infantry support weapons against typical Chinese "human wave" attacks. This lightweight weapon was to provide infantry with close to medium range fire support against enemy personnel and unarmored targets like trucks and other such equipment. First prototypes of new weapon entered trials in 1969, and mass production commenced in 1971.
At the same timeframe, the special heliborne version AG-17 was developed for installation on Mi-24 Hind gunship helicopters. Never used against Chinese, AGS-17 was widely used and well liked by Soviet troops in Afghanistan as a ground support weapon or as a vehicle weapon on improvised mounts installed on armored personnel carriers and trucks.
It is still in use with Russian army as a direct fire support weapon for infantry troops; it is also installed in several vehicle mounts and turrets along with machine guns, guided rocket launchers and sighting equipment. A special airborne version AG-17A was installed in door mounts of several Mil Mi-8 Hip combat transport helicopters, and on gun pods used on late model Mi-24 Hind gunships; this weapon had a thick aluminium jacket on the barrel and used a special mount and an electric remotely controlled trigger. It's being replaced with AGS-30 launcher (using the same ammunition, it weights only 16 kg unloaded on the tripod and has upgraded blowback action).

ADEN cannon

The Royal Small Arms Factory ADEN is a 30 mm cannon used on many military aircraft, particularly those of the British Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm.

The ADEN (named for the Armament Development Establishment, where it was designed, and Enfield, where it is produced) was developed in the late 1940s as a replacement for the older Hispano-Suiza HS.404 20 mm cannon used in British aircraft of World War II. It is based (as are the French DEFA cannon and American M39 cannon) on the mechanism of the German Mauser MG 213C, an experimental revolver cannon designed for the Luftwaffe, but never used in combat. The ADEN entered service on the Hawker Hunter in 1954, and subsequently used on every British gun-armed aircraft until the advent of the Panavia Tornado in the 1980s.
The current version is the ADEN Mk 4. Although its muzzle velocity of 2,430 ft/s (741 m/s) is considerably lower than the Hispano's 2,789 ft/s (850 m/s), the substantially heavier projectile makes the ADEN more lethal, and it has a higher rate of fire of about 1,300 rounds per minute.
An improved version, the ADEN Mk 5, incorporates a multitude of small changes to improve reliability and increase rate of fire slightly to 1,500–1,700 rounds per minute. No new Mk 5s were built, but many older weapons were converted, being redesignated Mk 5 Straden.
Aircraft using the ADEN 30 as in-built armament have included the A-4SU Super Skyhawk, English Electric Lightning, Folland Gnat (and HAL Ajeet), Hawker Hunter, Gloster Javelin, Saab Lansen, Saab Draken, SEPECAT Jaguar, Supermarine Scimitar, and CAC Sabre. Several podded versions exist, including the installations scabbed below the fuselage of British Hawker Siddeley Harrier (and USMC AV-8A/Cs) and Sea Harriers and the Swedish FFV Aden, which is used (among others) on the BAe Hawk. The FFV Aden contains the weapon and 150 rounds of ammunition, is 151.57 in (3.85 m) long, and weighs 802.5 lb (364 kg) fully loaded.
The ADEN is very similar to the French DEFA cannon, and the two weapons use the same range of 30 mm ammunition.

The ADEN Mk 5 became the basis for the planned ADEN 25, which was to be a somewhat larger weapon (90 in / 2.29 m long, 203 lb / 92 kg) firing the new range of NATO 25 mm ammunition (as in the American GAU-12 Equalizer) at a much higher muzzle velocity of 3,445 ft/s (1,050 m/s). The lighter ammunition was also to produce a higher rate of fire, 1,650 to 1,850 rounds per minute. Unfortunately, severe development problems plagued the ADEN 25, which proved unable to meet its design weight target. It was finally cancelled in 1999. As a result, RAF Harrier GR.7 and GR.9 aircraft currently have no cannon, no attempt apparently having been made to retrofit the older ADEN 30 mm pods. Fleet Air Arm Sea Harriers retained the 30 mm weapon until their retirement in 2006.

AA-52 machine gun

The AA-52 (Arme Automatique Transformable Modèle 1952, "Transformable automatic weapon model 1952") is one of the first French-produced guns of the post World War II era. It was manufactured by MAS (an abbreviation of Manufacture d'Armes St. Etienne - one of several government-owned arms factories in France) The AA-52 is still used today as a vehicle-mounted weapon due to large quantities in service, but has been replaced by the Belgian FN MAG for helicopter use, starting with the EC 725 Caracal of the Special Operations units and the Air Force Search and Rescue teams. The AA-52 had been phased out for infantry use in favour of the lighter FN MINIMI for a few years; the replacement of the AA-52 by the FN MAG as the standard infantry GPMG is now taking place (in 2008).

The AA-52 machine gun was conceived and developed following the French military's experiences in Indochina during the early 1950s. At that time, the French army was equipped with an assortment of weapons from British and American sources, as well as some German weapons from the Second World War.
Effective supply of ammunition and replacement parts was an almost insoluble task and the army decided to adopt a standard machine gun. The result was the AA-52, conceived for easy production. The construction was of simple welded stamped sheet steel.

The AA-52 is a peculiar weapon among modern machine guns by its blowback system of operation. The AA-52 uses Lever-delayed blowback. When firing, the pressure pushing the case head rearward initiates an impulse on a cam that sends the bolt carrier rearward. After a certain distance, a link (in this case the firing pin) pulls the bolt head, hence extracting the spent case. Since there is no primary extraction, the chamber is fluted to allow powder gases to flow back, unsticking the case from the wall chamber like on H&K type Roller-delayed blowback weapons.
The AA-52 can be used as a LMG with a bipod or HMG with a tripod. When used with a tripod for continuous fire, the gun is fitted with a heavier barrel. In the LMG configuration, the AA-52 is a relatively light weapon to carry. To change the barrel, it is simply necessary to press a latch and rotate 1/4 turn.

9K38 Igla

The development of the Igla short-range man-portable air defense missile (MANPADS) began in the Kolomna OKB in 1971. Contrary to what is commonly reported, the Igla is not an improved version of the earlier Strela family (Strela-2/SA-7 and Strela-3/SA-14), but an all new project. The main goals were to create a missile with better resistance to countermeasures and wider engagement envelope than the earlier Strela series MANPADS systems.
Technical difficulties in the development quickly made it obvious that the development would take far longer than anticipated however, and in 1978 the program split in two: while the development of the full-capability Igla would continue, a simplified version (Igla-1) with a simpler IR seeker based on that of the earlier Strela-3/SA-14 would be developed to enter service earlier than the full-capability version could be finished.

The 9K310 Igla-1 system and its 9M313 missile were accepted into service in the Soviet army on 11 March 1981. The main differences from the Strela-3 included an optional Identification Friend or Foe system to prevent firing on friendly aircraft, an automatic lead and super elevation to simplify shooting and reduce minimum firing range, a slightly larger rocket, reduced drag and better guidance system extend maximum range and improve performance against fast and maneuverable targets, an improved lethality on target achieved by a combination of delayed impact fuzing, terminal maneuver to hit the fuselage rather than jet nozzle, an additional charge to set off the remaining rocket fuel (if any) on impact, an improved resistance to infrared countermeasures (both decoy flares and ALQ-144 series jamming emitters), and slightly improved seeker sensitivity. On the top a SA-18 (Igla) missile, launch tube and grip stick. Below is a SA-16 (Igla-1) missile and launch tube.
According to the manufacturer, South African tests have shown[citation needed] the Igla's superiority over the contemporary (1982 service entry) but smaller and lighter American FIM-92A Stinger missile. However, other tests in Croatia did not support[citation needed] any clear superiority, but effectively equal seeker performance and only marginally shorter time of flight and longer range for the Igla.
According to Kolomna OKB,[citation needed] the Igla-1 has a Pk (probability of kill) of 0.30 to 0.48 against unprotected targets which is reduced to 0.24 in the presence of decoy flares and jamming. In another report the manufacturer claimed[citation needed] a Pk of 0.59 against an approaching and 0.44 against receding F-4 Phantom II fighter not employing infrared countermeasures or evasive manoeuvers.

The full-capability 9K38 Igla with its 9M39 missile was finally accepted into service in the Soviet Army in 1983. The main improvements over the Igla-1 included much improved resistance against flares and jamming, a more sensitive seeker, expanding forward-hemisphere engagement capability to include straight-approaching fighters (all-aspect capability) under favourable circumstances, a slightly longer range, a higher-impulse, shorter-burning rocket with higher peak velocity (but approximately same time of flight to maximum range), and a propellant that performs as high explosive when detonated by the warhead's secondary charge on impact.
Tests in Finland have shown[citation needed] that in comparison with the French Mistral, the 9K38 Igla has inferior range and seeker sensitivity and smaller warhead, but it has a superior resistance to countermeasures.
The naval variant of 9K38 Igla has the NATO reporting name SA-N-10 Grouse.
Igla-type shoulder-launched missiles were used in 29 attacks on civilian aircraft between 1978 and 1998, killing more than 400 people – mostly in Africa, according to the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency.

30 mm automatic cannon 2A42

The Shipunov 2A42 is a Soviet/Russian 30 mm automatic cannon. It is built by the Tulamashzavod Joint Stock Company.
The 30 mm 2A42 cannon has a dual feed. One is for HE-T and the other for AP-T rounds. The gunner can select one of two rates of full automatic fire, low at 200 to 300 rds/min and high at 550 rds/min. According to the manufacturer, effective range when engaging ground targets such as light armoured vehicles is 1,500 m while soft-skinned targets can be engaged out to 2,500 m. Air targets can be engaged flying at low altitudes of up to 2,000 m at subsonic speeds and up to a slant range of 2,500 m. In addition to being installed in a two-person turret on the BMP-2 MICV, this gun is also fitted in the BMD-2 airborne combat vehicle, BMD-3 airborne combat vehicle and BTR-90 (or GAZ-5923) (8 × 8) armoured personnel carrier . A small number of these have now entered service. More recently, the 30 mm 2A42 cannon has been installed in a new turret and fitted onto the roof of the BTR-T heavy armoured personnel carrier based on a modified T-54/T-55 MBT chassis. The cannon is also the main armament of BMPT (Tank Support Fighting Vehicle). It is also used for various armament projects from various manufacturers. The design bureau for the 30 mm 2A42 cannon is the KBP Instrument Design Bureau.

Soviet Union decided to produce an updated and improved version of the BMP. In 1972 work got underway to develop an improved version of the BMP-1. An experimental prototype, the Ob'yekt 680 was produced, based on observations of the new German Marder vehicle[citation needed]. Ob'yekt 680 had a new two-man turret armed with a Shipunov 2A42 30 mm autocannon and a secondary 7.62 mm mounted in a barbette similar to the Marder.
However the BMP-1 was to be tested in combat in the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. Egypt received its first batch of 80 BMP-1s between July and August 1973. A second batch of 150 vehicles between August and September. Syria had received between 150 and 170 by the start of the war, of which about 100 were committed to the front line. Israeli forces captured or destroyed 40 to 60 Egyptian BMPs and 50 to 60 Syrian BMPs, mechanical problems accounting for a large number of the Syrian losses.
The BMP proved vulnerable to .50 calibre machine gun fire in the sides and rear, and to infantry-based 106 mm recoilless rifles. The need to keep some of the roof hatches open to prevent the vehicle from overheating meant that the vehicle could be disabled by machinegun fire from infantry on higher ground shooting into open hatches. The 73 mm gun proved inaccurate beyond 500 meters, and the AT-3 Sagger missile could not be guided effectively from the confines of the turret. The BMP-1's low profile means that it is difficult for the BMP to fire over the heads of the advancing infantry it was supporting, since the barrel is less than six feet off the ground.
On the positive side, the vehicle was praised for being fast and agile. Its low ground pressure enabled it to navigate the northern Kantara salt marshes where other vehicles would have bogged down. Its ability to swim proved useful: it was used in the first wave of canal crossings by the Egyptians.
Several Soviet technical teams were sent to Syria in the wake of the war to gather information. These lessons combined with observations of western AFV developments resulting in a replacement program for the original BMP in 1974. The first product of this program was the BMP-1P upgrade intended as a stopgap to address the most serious problems with the existing design. Smoke grenade launchers were added to the rear of the turret and the manually guided AT-3 Sagger missile system was replaced with the semi-automatically guided AT-4 Spigot and AT-5 Spandrel system. The new missiles were somewhat difficult to use since the gunner had to actually stand out on the roof to use the weapons, exposing himself to hostile fire. The BMP-1P was in production by the late 1970s and existing BMP-1s were gradually upgraded to the standard during the 1980s.
A development program to completely address the short comings of the BMP was started at the same time resulting in four prototypes, all of which had two man turrets.Ob'yekt 675 from Kurgan - BMP-1 hull, armed with a 2A42 30 mm autocannon. This eventually became the BMP-2.Ob'yekt 681 from Kurgan - BMP-1 hull, armed with a lengthened 73 mm gun.Ob'yekt 768 from Chelyabinsk - Lengthened hull with 7 road wheels and armed with a lengthened 73 mm gun.Ob'yekt 769 from Chelyabinsk - Lengthened hull with 7 road wheels and armed with a 2A42 30 mm autocannon.
The commander was moved inside the turret on all of the prototypes because of the dead zone created by the infra-red searchlight when he was seated in the hull, additionally the commanders view to the rear was blocked by the turret. The new two man turret took up much more space in the hull than the original one man turret resulting in a smaller crew area. A lengthen versioned of the original 73 mm gun was considered, but after some debate the 30 mm gun was selected for the following reasons:It offered higher maximum elevation - a critical factor in Afganistan, where the limited elevation of the 73 mm gun caused problems.A high velocity gun had better maximum range (2000 - 4000 meters) that would allow the BMPs to support the tanks spearheading any assault.It also offered a useful anti-helicopter capability.The 73 mm gun had been mounted on the older BMP-1 to retain anti-tank capability as a basic doctrine design specification. With the introduction of Chobham armour on NATO tanks, the 73 mm gun became ineffectual and obsolete, and given a lack of a suitable gun design as a replacement in this role at the time, a 30 mm gun was introduced as a replacement, notably with an anti-helicopter role as a new threat emergent since the Vietnam War. (Perrett 1987:77) The anti-tank capability was however retained in the BMP-2 with the continued use of anti-tank guided missiles. The new vehicles now allowed the gunner to fire 9K111 Fagot (AT-4) and 9M113 Konkurs (AT-5) missiles from within the protection of the turret.
Eventually the Ob'yekt 675 was selected to become the BMP-2, probably because the a new hull design would have required extensive retooling at BMP production plants.

Rocket

A rocket or rocket vehicle is a missile, aircraft or other vehicle which obtains thrust by the reaction of the rocket to the ejection of fast moving fluid exhaust from a rocket engine. Chemical rockets create their exhaust by the combustion of rocket propellant. The action of the exhaust against the inside of combustion chambers and expansion nozzles accelerates the gas to extremely high speed and exerts a large reactive thrust on the rocket (since every action has an equal and opposite reaction).
The history of rockets goes back to at least the 13th century, and military and recreational display use dates from that time. Widespread military, scientific, and industrial use did not occur until the 20th century, when rocketry was the enabling technology of the Space Age, with man visiting the moon.
Rockets are used for fireworks and weaponry, ejection seats and launch vehicles for artificial satellites, human spaceflight and exploration of other planets. While inefficient for low speed use, they are, compared to other propulsion systems, very lightweight and powerful, capable of generating large accelerations and of attaining extremely high speeds with reasonable efficiency.
Chemical rockets store a large amount of energy in an easily-released form, and can be very dangerous. However, careful design, testing, construction, and use minimizes risks.

The availability of black powder (gunpowder) to propel projectiles was a precursor to the development of the first solid rocket. Ninth Century Chinese Taoist alchemists discovered black powder while searching for the Elixir of life; this accidental discovery led to experiments in the form of weapons such as bombs, cannon, incendiary fire arrows and rocket-propelled fire arrows.
Exactly when the first flights of rockets occurred is contested. Some say that the first recorded use of a rocket in battle was by the Chinese in 1232 against the Mongol hordes. There were reports of fire arrows and 'iron pots' that could be heard for 5 leagues (25 km, or 15 miles) when they exploded upon impact, causing devastation for a radius of 600 meters (2,000 feet), apparently due to shrapnel. The lowering of the iron pots may have been a way for a besieged army to blow up invaders. The fire arrows were either arrows with explosives attached, or arrows propelled by gunpowder, such as the Korean Hwacha.
Less controversially, one of the earliest devices recorded that used internal-combustion rocket propulsion was the 'ground-rat,' a type of firework, recorded in 1264 as having frightened the Empress-Mother Kung Sheng at a feast held in her honor by her son the Emperor Lizong.
Subsequently, one of the earliest texts to mention the use of rockets was the Huolongjing, written by the Chinese artillery officer Jiao Yu in the mid-14th century. This text also mentioned the use of the first known multistage rocket, the 'fire-dragon issuing from the water' (huo long chu shui), used mostly by the Chinese navy.

Bipod

A bipod is a support device that is similar to a tripod or monopod, but with two legs. It provides significant stability along two axes of motion (side-to-side, and up-and-down.)
On firearms, bipods are commonly used on rifles to provide a forward rest and reduce motion. They are also seen on other long-barreled weapons, especially light machine guns or squad automatic weapons. Machine guns are capable of firing long continuous bursts of fire, but at the cost of increased recoil (which decreases accuracy), and increased weight (machine guns are heavier in order to absorb the stresses of prolonged fully-automatic fire). The bipod permits the operator to rest the weapon on the ground, a low wall, or other object, reducing operator fatigue and permitting increased accuracy.

A Sako TRG-42 sniper rifle on its standard factory bipod
Rifle or machine gun bipods can be of fixed or adjustable length. The better ones can be tilted and also have their tilting point close to the bore central axis, allowing the weapon to tilt a little left and right, allowing a quick horizontal sight picture on uneven ground and keeping the operator close to the ground. Bipods are for the most part folded away forward, not back towards the shooter.

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves ("rifling") cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile (for small arms usage, called a bullet), imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the orientation of the weapon. When the projectile leaves the barrel, the conservation of angular momentum improves accuracy and range, in the same way that a properly thrown American football or rugby ball behaves. The word "rifle" originally referred to the grooving, and a rifle was called a "rifled gun." Rifles are used in warfare, hunting and shooting sports.
Typically, a bullet is propelled by the contained deflagration of an explosive compound (originally black powder, later cordite, and now nitrocellulose), although other means such as compressed air are used in air rifles, which are popular for vermin control, hunting small game, and casual shooting ("plinking").
In most armed forces the term "gun" is incorrect when referring to small arms; in the military, the word "gun" means an artillery piece or crew-served machine gun. Furthermore, in many works of fiction a rifle refers to any weapon that has a stock and is shouldered before firing, even if the weapon is not rifled or does not fire solid projectiles.
Rifles traditionally fired a single projectile with each pull of the trigger. Modern assault rifles are capable of firing in bursts or fully automatic modes, and thus overlap somewhat with machine guns. In fact, many light machine guns (such as the Russian RPK) are adaptations of existing assault rifle designs. Generally, the difference between an automatic rifle and a machine gun comes down to weight and feed system; rifles, with their relatively light components (which overheat quickly) and small magazines, are incapable of sustained automatic fire in the way that machine guns are. Generally the rifle is an individual weapon, while the machine gun is crew-served: that is, at least two soldiers are dedicated to carrying and operating it.

Medium machine gun

A medium machine gun or MMG, in modern terms, usually refers to a belt-fed automatic firearm firing a full-power rifle cartridge and typically weighs from 15 to 40 pounds (6.8 to 18.1 kg). MMGs usually have some type of provision for extended firing, such as a removable or extra-heavy barrel, cooling fins, or a water cooling jacket, but are light enough to be used with a bipod. They occupy a gray area between light machine guns and heavy machine guns.
Two features which have remained somewhat constant, however, are some added ability for greater fire over automatic rifles, and the ability to be used in both light infantry support roles on a bipod, but also on mounts and tripods. While heavy machine guns (HMG) are mostly fired from heavy mounts, and light machine guns (LMG) are usually operated with bipods, MMGs have historically been used in both. Heavy machine guns are either crew-served or mounted, while MMGs are usually operated by one to two soldiers. Light machine guns and automatic rifles are often an individual weapon with a fixed, naked barrel. On the other hand medium machine guns have usually had more endurance of some sort, such as the aforementioned heavier barrel, barrel-change, fins etc.

In the late 1800s, Gatling gun and other externally-powered types such as the Nordenfelt were often made in different ranges of calibers, such as half-inch and one-inch. Thanks to their many barrels, overheating was not so much of issue, and they were also quite heavy; being, essentially, heavy machine guns.
When Hiram Maxim developed his recoil-powered machine gun that used a single barrel, the first main design was a modest 26 pounds (11.8 kg) in weight, and fired a .45-inch rifle caliber bullet (from a 24 inch long barrel). As depicted in a famous photo of Maxim, it could be picked up complete with its 15 pound (6.8 kg) tripod with one arm. It was similar to present day (2005) medium machine guns, but it could not be fired for extended periods. As a result, he created a water jacket cooling system to enable it to fire for extended periods. This added significant weight, as did changes to more powerful cartridges. This class of heavy water-cooled machines gun would eventually be regarded as the classic heavy machine guns. However, the much lighter total weight possible by using recoil to power automatic loading was not lost on the firearms designers of the day. Soon there was a host of new automatic firearms that used this concept, such as the Borchardt pistol, the Cei-Rigotti rifle, the Madsen 1902, as well as lighter, gas-operated, air-cooled designs.

Light machine gun

A light machine gun or LMG is a machine gun that is generally lighter than other machine guns of the same period, and is usually designed to be carried by an individual soldier, with or without an assistant. Modern light machine guns often fire smaller-caliber cartridges than medium machine guns, and are usually lighter and more compact. LMGs are often used as squad automatic weapons.
There is confusion between what is a true light machine gun and what is a medium machine gun. Some weapons on this page, as written, are not in any way light machine guns (for example, the Browning 1919).
The term "light machine gun" is both literal and context-sensitive. Some machine guns - notably General purpose machine guns - may be deployed as either a light machine gun or a medium machine gun. As a general rule, if a machine gun is deployed with a bipod it is a light machine gun; if deployed on a tripod it is a medium machine gun (unless it has a barrel diameter of about 10mm or larger, making it a heavy machine gun).
Originally, the machinegun was the antithesis of infantry tactics, as was especially obvious in World War One and the high casualties of 1914 and 1915. It was obvious to several militaries that a light machinegun at the platoon or squad level would boost the firepower of infantry and allow them to suppress targets like enemy machinegun posts. By the end of the war, light machineguns were sometimes being issued on a scale of one per section or squad, and the modern infantry squad had emerged with tactics that were built around the use of LMGs.
It is possible to fire a light machine gun from the hip or on the move, but this is seldom accurate. They are usually fired from a prone position, especially when using a bipod. Early light machine guns (especially those derived from automatic rifles, such as the M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle) were sometimes magazine-fed. Some LMGs, such as the Russian RPK, are modifications of existing assault rifle designs. Adaptations generally include a larger magazine, heavier barrel to resist overheating, more robust action to support sustained fire, and often a bipod. Modern light machine guns are designed to fire more rounds of a smaller caliber ammunition and as such tend to use a belt of ammunition; this allows them to fire for longer periods of time without the need to reload. Other modern light machine guns, such as the FN Minimi, are capable of firing from either an ammunition belt or a detachable box magazine.

Daewoo USAS-12

The USAS-12 is an automatic shotgun designed as a combat shotgun made and developed in South Korea by Daewoo Precision Industries during the 1980s.

The USAS-12 is a gas-operated, selective-fire weapon which is designed to provide sustained firepower in close-combat scenarios. It accepts detachable 10-round box magazines or 20-round drum magazines. Both types of magazine are made of polymer, and drum magazines have their rear side made from translucent polymer for quick determination of the number of shot shells left. It has a range of 40m.
The latest version of the USAS-12 is capable of fully automatic fire.

The history of the USAS-12 shotgun dates from the 1980s vintage designs of Maxwell Atchisson. In about 1989, Gilbert Equipment Co. (USA) decided to bring up the selective fired weapon, broadly based on principles, employed in Atchisson shotguns. The design of the new weapon was produced by John Trevor Jr. Since Gilbert Equipment Co. had no manufacturing capabilities, it started to look for possible manufacturers. It turned out that the only maker that agreed to produce this weapon was the South Korean company Daewoo Precision Industries, a part of the high-tech Daewoo conglomerate. Daewoo engineers adapted the new weapon to their manufacturing techniques, and mass production commenced in the early 1990s. This gun sold well to military and security forces of several (unspecified) countries in Asia, and more than 30,000 of USAS-12 shotguns were made by mid-1990s. During the same timeframe, Gilbert Equipment Co. tried to bring semi-automatic version of USAS-12 to the U.S. market, but the BATF promptly classified this weapon as "having no sporting purpose", so it became a "destructive device" under the U.S. National Firearms Act of 1934. This greatly restricted its civilian use. During the late 1990s, RAMO Defence Co. began to assemble USAS-12 shotguns from Korean and U.S.-made parts for sale on domestic market, but sales of this weapon were limited to government agencies only. Today, this gun is still being manufactured by Daewoo in Korea for Military and Law Enforcement sales only. Recently, a US firearms manufacturer, Ameetec Arms LLC of Scottsdale, Arizona, has started the manufacture of a USAS-12 semi-automatic clone, called the WM-12; it mainly differs from the USAS-12 by the lack of fixed sights and carrying handle, replaced by a Picatinny Rail. The manufacturer states that the WM-12 is not a Destructive Device, and is thus readily available to civilians. As of January 2008, however, the WM-12 was no longer to be found on Ameetec Arms online catalogs due to the fact that it was discontinued after its initial semi-production run. Only a few WM-12s were actually built using USAS-12 Demilled shotguns.

Steyr TMP

The Steyr TMP (Taktische Maschinenpistole/Tactical Machine Pistol) is a select-fire 9x19mm Parabellum caliber machine pistol manufactured by the Austrian company, Steyr Mannlicher. It is renowned for its controllability, allowing a shooter to accurately fire the weapon in bursts of more than 10-15 rounds, instead of the typical two or three round bursts that other submachine guns are limited to. Magazines come in 15/30 round detachable box types. A suppressor can be also fitted. The Steyr SPP is the civilian variant of the TMP which has no foregrip and is capable of semi-automatic fire only.
In 2001, Steyr sold the design to Brügger & Thomet who developed it into the Brügger & Thomet MP9.

The Steyr SPP (Special Purpose Pistol) is a semi-automatic variant of the TMP. The TMP's barrel and barrel jacket lengths were increased slightly so there is a greater length of protruding jacket and barrel. The forward tactical handle was removed and a small spur installed instead.
The SPP is believed to have been created in order to fulfill the pistol portion of the XVII Land Warrior objective handheld personal defense weapon. It is somewhat large for a pistol and is constructed mainly from synthetic materials.

Cartridge

The cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions except down the bore. A firing pin strikes the primer, igniting it. The spark from the primer ignites the powder. Burning gases from the powder expand the case to seal against the chamber wall. The projectile is then pushed in the direction that releases this pressure, down the barrel. After the projectile leaves the barrel the pressure is released, allowing the cartridge case to be removed from the chamber.

An M4 Carbine, with an ejected case visible in mid-air.

Various cases of assorted common calibers.

Aluminum .44 caliber cases.
Automatic and semiautomatic firearms, which extract and eject the case automatically as a part of their operation, sometimes damage the case in the process of ejection. Brass is a commonly used material, as it is resistant to corrosion and ductile enough to be reformed and reloaded several times. However, some low-quality "plinking" ammunition, as well as some military ammunition (mainly from the former Soviet Union and China) is made with steel cases because steel is less expensive than brass. As militaries typically consider small arms cartridge cases to be a disposable, one-time-use affair, the lack of ductility is inconsequential for this application, although the mass of the case affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry. Some ammunition is also made with aluminum cases (see picture).
Critical specifications include caliber, bullet weight, expected velocity, maximum pressure, headspace, overall length and primer type. A minor deviation in many of these specifications could result in damage to the firearm, and in extreme cases injury or death of the user. The diameter of a bullet is measured either as a decimal fraction of an inch, or in millimeters. The length of a cartridge case may also be designated in millimeters.
Where two numbers are together, the second number can contain a variety of meanings. Frequently the first is the diameter (caliber) of the cartridge, and the second is the length of the cartridge case. For example, the 7.62 x 51 mm uses a bore diameter of 7.62 mm and has an overall case length of 51 mm. In the case of old black powder cartridges, the second number typically refers to the powder charge. For example, the .50-90 Sharps is a .50 caliber bullet (.512) with a nominal charge of 90 grains (5.8 g) of black powder with a case length of 2.50 inches (64 mm).
One should be aware that cartridge nomenclature is inconsistent and unhelpful when trying to determine dimensions, tolerances or indeed almost any other characteristic of a given round. The .38 Special actually has a bullet diameter of 0.357 inches (9.1 mm) (jacketed) or 0.358 inches (9.1 mm) (lead) while the case has a diameter of 0.380 inches (9.7 mm). The .357 Magnum is a direct evolution of the .38 special, but differently named, and no reference is made to the longer case. The .30-06 rifle round is a (nominally) .30 inches (7.6 mm) caliber round designed in 1906; and the .303 British round may vary wildly in actual dimensions (as do the surviving rifle chambers of its era).
Most high-powered guns have relatively small bullets moving at high speeds. This is because while bullet energy increases in direct proportion to bullet weight, it increases in proportion to the square of bullet velocity. Therefore, a bullet going twice as fast has four times the energy (see physics of firearms). Bullet speeds are now limited by starting bore pressures, which in turn are limited by the strength of materials and the weight of gun people are willing to carry. Larger cartridges have more powder, and usually higher velocities.
Of the hundreds of different designs and developments that have occurred, essentially only two basic cartridge designs remain. All current firearms are either rimfire or centerfire. US military small arms suppliers are still trying to perfect electronic firing, which replaces the conventional firing pin and primer with an electrical ignition system wherein an electrical charge ignites the primer.

FIM-92 Stinger

The FIM-92 Stinger is a personal portable infrared homing surface-to-air missile developed in the United States and entered into service in 1981. Used by the militaries of the U.S. and by 29 other countries, the basic Stinger missile has to-date been responsible for 270 confirmed aircraft kills. It is manufactured by Raytheon Missile Systems and under license by EADS in Germany, with 70,000 missiles produced. It is classified as a Man-Portable Air-Defense System (MANPAD).

Light to carry and relatively easy to operate, the FIM-92 Stinger is a passive surface-to-air missile, shoulder-fired by a single operator, although officially it requires two. The FIM-92B can attack aircraft at a range of up to 15,700 feet (4,800 m) and at altitudes between 600 and 12,500 feet (180 and 3,800 m). The missile can also be fired from the M-1097 Avenger vehicle and the M6 Linebacker, an air defense variant of the M2 Bradley IFV. The missile is also capable of being deployed from HMMWV Stinger rack, and can be used by airborne paratroopers. A helicopter launched version exists called the ATAS or Air-to-Air Stinger.
The missile is 1.52 m long and 70 mm in diameter with 10 cm fins. The missile itself weighs 10.1 kg, while the missile with launcher weighs approximately 15.2 kg (33.5 pounds). The Stinger is launched by a small ejection motor that pushes it a safe distance from the operator before engaging the main solid-fuel two-stage motor which accelerates it to a maximum speed of Mach 2.2 (750 m/s). The warhead is a 3 kg penetrating hit-to-kill warhead type with an impact fuze and a self-destruct timer.
In order to fire the missile, a BCU (Battery Coolant Unit) must be inserted into the handguard. This shoots a stream of argon gas into the system, as well as a chemical energy charge that enables the acquisition indicators and missile to get power. The batteries are somewhat sensitive to abuse, and only hold so much gas in them. Over time, and without proper maintenance, they are known to become unserviceable. The IFF antenna receives its power from a rechargeable battery. Guidance to the target is initially through proportional navigation and is then switched to another mode that directs the missile towards the target airframe instead of its exhaust plume.
There are three main variants in use; the Stinger basic, STINGER-Passive Optical Seeker Technique (POST), and STINGER-Reprogrammable Microprocessor (RMP).
The Stinger-RMP is so-called because of its ability to load a new set of software via a ROM inserted in the gripstock at the depot. If this download to the missile fails during power-up, basic functionality runs off the on-board ROM. The four-processor RMP has 4K of RAM for each processor; since the downloaded code runs from RAM, there isn't much space to spare, particularly for the processors dedicated to seeker input processing and target analysis. The RMP has a dual-detector seeker: IR and UV. This allows it to distinguish targets from countermeasures much better than the Redeye, which was IR-only.

Carl Gustav recoilless rifle

The Carl Gustav (also Carl-Gustaf and M2CG) is the common name for the 84 mm man-portable multi-role recoilless rifle produced by Saab Bofors Dynamics (formerly Bofors Anti-Armour AB) in Sweden. The first prototype of the Carl Gustav was produced in 1946, and while similar weapons of the era have generally disappeared, the Carl Gustav remains in widespread use today. British troops refer to it as the Charlie G, while Canadian troops often refer to it as the 84 or Carl G. In US service it is officially known as the RAWS or Ranger Antitank Weapons System, but often called the Gustav or simply the goose by US soldiers. In Australia it is irreverently known as Charlie Gutsache (guts ache, slang for stomach pain). In its country of origin it is officially named Grg m/48 (Granatgevär or grenade rifle, model 48) but is sometimes nicknamed Stuprör (drainpipe) due to the fact that the weapon mainly consists of a long tube.

The Carl Gustav was developed by Hugo Abramson and Harald Jentzen at the Royal Swedish Arms Administration (KAFT) and produced at Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori from where it derives its name. The weapon was first introduced into Swedish service in 1948 as the 8,4 cm Granatgevär m/48 (Grg m/48), filling the same anti-tank role as the US Army Bazooka, British PIAT and German Panzerschreck. Unlike these weapons, however, the Carl Gustav used a rifled barrel for spin-stabilizing its rounds, as opposed to fins as used by the other systems.
The use of the recoilless firing system allowed the Carl Gustav to use ammunition containing considerably more propellant, firing its rounds at 290 m/s, as opposed to about 105 m/s for the Panzerschreck and Bazooka and about 135 m/s for the PIAT. The result was superior accuracy at longer ranges. The Carl Gustav can be used to attack larger stationary targets at up to 700 m, but the relatively slow speed of the projectile restricts attacks on moving targets to a range of 400 m or less.
The Carl Gustav was soon being sold around the world, and became one of the primary squad-level anti-tank weapons for many Western European armies. An improved version (M2) was introduced in 1964 and quickly replaced the original version. The current M3 version was introduced in 1991, using a thin steel liner containing the rifling, strengthened by a carbon fiber outer sleeve. External steel parts were replaced with aluminum alloys or plastics, reducing the empty weapon weight considerably from 14.2 kg to 8.5 kg.
In recent years the weapon has found new life in a variety of roles. The British Special Air Service, US Special Forces and United States Army Rangers use M3s in the bunker-busting and anti-vehicle roles, while the German Bundeswehr maintains small numbers of M2s for battlefield illumination. Many armies continue to use it as a viable anti-armor weapon, especially against 1950s and 1960s-era tanks and other armored vehicles, which are still in use worldwide.
The Carl Gustav was used against Taliban defensive fortifications by soldiers of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry in operations in Afghanistan. They developed a new system for firing at night, which involved a night-scope equipped spotter firing tracer ammunitions at the target, and the Carl Gustav gunner then aiming at the spot where the tracer rounds hit.

Shoulder-launched missile weapon

A shoulder-launched missile weapon is a weapon that fires a projectile at a target, yet is small enough to be carried by a single person, and fired while held on one's shoulder. "Missile" is used here in the original broad sense: today the word has a strong connotation with the concept of a guided rocket. There are two kinds of shoulder launched weapons. The first is the recoilless gun, which is essentially an open tube. When fired the reaction gases (with a momentum equal to the projectile) expelled out of the back of the weapon compensate the force exerted on the projectile. The other type uses rocket propelled projectiles; these typically also use a small recoilless charge to get the projectile out of the barrel and to a distance where the operator will not be hurt by the rocket's backblast; when the rocket ignites at a safe distance, it further accelerates the projectile or at least keeps it from decelerating in its trajectory. The smallest shoulder-launched rocket weapons are rocket-propelled grenades (RPG). There are also larger "dumb" shoulder-launched missiles, used in a similar way to an RPG, but with far greater destructive power. A number of specialised "smart" missiles are available in shoulder-launched forms, including (anti-tank guided missile) and man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADs), surface-to-air missiles used as anti-aircraft, typically using infrared homing and used to target helicopters and other low-flying aircraft.

Machine gun

A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rifle cartridges in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute. The first machine gun was the Maxim Gun, invented by Sir Hiram Maxim in 1884.
In United States law, machine gun is a term of art for any fully-automatic firearm, and also for any component or part that will modify an existing firearm into a fully-automatic firearm.

History:

The Chinese had much success with creating a repeating crossbow; the most common model, the Zhuge Nu, better known in the West as the Chu-ko-nu, is typically attributed to 2nd and 3rd century strategist Zhuge Liang, who developed it for the Kingdom of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period. However, a buried library in the ancient state of Chu indicates that some sort of repeating crossbow had at the very least been designed in the 3rd century BC. Other multi-shot weapons have a long development, going back to the 1st century in the West, with some claiming there were plans for a multi-shot arrow by Hero of Alexandria. Leonardo Da Vinci devised plans for one in the 15th century.
Some of the earliest firearms and attempts at higher rates of fire and some machine-gun-like traits existed as early as the 16th century, when Fathullah Shirazi (c. 1582), a Persian-Indian engineer and polymath who worked for Akbar the Great in the Mughal Empire, invented a multi-barrel gun, which had multiple gun barrels that fired hand cannons loaded with gunpowder. He also invented a primitive autocannon.
However, it would not be until the mid-19th century that successful machine-gun designs came into existence. The key characteristic of modern machine guns, their relatively high rate of fire and more importantly machine (automatic) loading, came with the Model 1862 Gatling gun, which was adopted by the United States Navy. These weapons were still powered by hand; however, this changed with Hiram Maxim's idea of harnessing recoil energy to power reloading in his Maxim machine gun. Dr. Gatling also experimented with electric-motor-powered models; this externally powered machine reloading has seen use in modern weapons as well. The Vandenburg and Miltrailleuse volley (organ) gun concepts have been revived partially in the early 21st century in the form of electronically controlled, multibarreled volley guns. It is important to note that what exactly constitutes a machine gun, and whether volley guns are a type of machine gun, and to what extent some earlier types of devices are considered to be like machine guns, is a matter of debate in many cases and can vary depending which language and exact definition is used.
Future:

Conventional machine-gun development has been slowed by the fact that existing machine-gun designs are adequate for most purposes, although significant developments are taking place with regard to antiarmor and antimissile weapons.
Electronically controlled machine guns with ultrahigh rates of fire, like Metal Storm's weapons may see use in some applications, although current small-caliber weapons of this type have found little use: they are too light for anti-vehicle use, but too heavy (especially with the need to carry a tactically useful amount of ammunition) for individual soldiers. The trend towards higher reliability and lower mass for a given power will likely continue. Another example is the six barreled, 4000 round per minute, XM214 minigun "six pack" developed by General Electric. It has a complex power train and weighs 85 pounds, factors which may, in some circumstances, mitigate against its deployment.

Human interface:

The most common interface on machine guns is a pistol grip and trigger. On earlier manual machine guns, the most common type was a hand crank. On externally powered machine guns, such as miniguns, an electronic button or trigger on a joystick is commonly used. Light machine guns often have a butt stock attached, while vehicle and tripod mounted machine guns usually have spade grips. In the late 20th century, scopes and other complex optics became more common as opposed to the more basic iron sights.
Loading systems in early manual machine guns were often from a hopper of loose (un-linked) cartridges. Manual-operated volley guns usually had to be reloaded manually all at once (each barrel reloaded by hand). With hoppers, the rounds could often be added while the weapon was firing. This gradually changed to belt-fed types. Belts were either held in the open by the person, or in a bag or box. Some modern vehicle machine guns used linkless feed systems however.

Closeup of M2 - This machine gun is part complex armament subsystem; it is aimed and fired from the aircraft rather than directly
Modern machine guns are usually mounted in one of four ways. The first is a bipod - often these are integrated with the weapon. This is common on light machine guns and also medium machine guns. Another major way is with a larger tripod, where the person holding it does not form a 'leg' of support. Medium and heavy machine guns usually use tripods. On ships and aircraft machine guns are usually mounted on a pintle mount - basically a steel post that is connected to the frame. Tripod and pintle mounts are usually used with spade grips. The last major mounting type is one that is disconnected from humans, as part of an armament system, such as a tank coaxial or part of aircraft's armament. These are usually electrically-fired and have complex sighting systems. (For examples see US Helicopter Armament Subsystems). Also there is a Qaud-pod style machine gun.

Al-Khalid tank

The Al-Khalid is a modern main battle tank developed and manufactured by Pakistan for the Pakistan Army. Operated by a crew of three and armed with a 125 mm smooth-bore tank gun that is reloaded automatically, Al-Khalid uses a modern fire-control system integrated with night-fighting equipment to accurately fire many types of anti-tank rounds as well as guided anti-tank missiles. Al-Khalid is named after the legendary Muslim general Khalid ibn al-Walid.
An evolution of Chinese and Soviet tanks, the Al-Khalid is considerably smaller and lighter than most Western main battle tanks. The design is based on the Chinese Type 90-II, which combined technologies from several Soviet/western tanks and is ultimately a descendant of the widely-produced Soviet T-54. The Al-Khalid is unusual in that it is was designed to be adaptable for manufacture, so that it can be easily integrated with a variety of foreign engines and transmissions. The current production variant of Al-Khalid utilises a diesel engine supplied by the KMDB design bureau of Ukraine.
The first production models entered service with the Pakistan Army in 2001 and there are plans to induct approximately 600 in total.

Development history:

In the 1970s, the leadership of China's People's Liberation Army was concerned about the Soviet threat and requested an improved main battle tank (MBT) to replace the old, obsolete Type 59. The existing Chinese tanks were direct descendants of the Soviet T-54A and had were out-classed by more advanced Soviet models like the T-62 and T-64. Norinco and the Inner Mongolia First Machine Group Corporation were tasked to develop a series of new tanks.
After examining samples of T-72 tanks delivered by Iran in the late 1980s (captured from the Iraqi Army), the Chinese military realized contemporary Chinese tanks were still vulnerable. Design features of the T-72 and some western tanks were used to develop a second generation of Chinese tanks, eventually incorporating a redesigned hull and suspension, a new welded turret and 125 mm autoloaded tank gun. The Type 80 and Type 85 tanks led to the Type 90. The Type 90 was rejected for Chinese service in favour of other designs, but it influenced further development which would lead to China's third-generation Type 98 and Type 99 tanks.
The Type 90 is an evolutionary design: the Type 90-II version shares 10% of its components with the Type 59, 15% with Type 69, 20% with Type 85/88C, and is built with 55% new components. This model was put up for sale on the international market.
A development deal was signed with Pakistan in January 1990. Initial Chinese-built prototypes were tested in Pakistan in August 1991. Pakistan spent more than US$20 million over the next ten years on the co-development of a model suitable for their needs and on creating a capability to manufacture it locally. Lt Gen Hamid Javed as Director General of Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) and Brigadier (now Major General) Mohammad Asaad supervised the project. The design team modified the tank to accept a foreign-built power pack (engine). A number of different prototypes were evaluated.
An early version was armed with a Chinese gun and fire-control system, but had a German-designed MTU-396 diesel engine which was built under licence in China. Another version was equipped with a more advanced western digital fire-control system and powered by a Perkins 1,200 hp (890 kW) Condor diesel engine (as in the British Challenger) and SESM ESM500 automatic transmission (as in the French Leclerc). This version was considered too expensive and under-performing in the extreme heat of southern Pakistan. Finally, a version was tested with the compact Ukrainian 6TD-2 1,200 hp diesel engine (Ukraine also supplied Pakistan with T-80UD tanks, powered by a similar engine). This configuration was chosen for the production version of the tank and came to be known as Al-Khalid.
Yet another version—employing more western technology—had been envisaged as an export product for Pakistan. The prototype had a 1,200 hp (890 kW) German MTU-871/TCM AVDS-1790 diesel engine and an LSG-3000 transmission. But this concept was abandoned due to the arms embargo imposed on Pakistan after the 1998 Pakistani nuclear tests.
The final tank design resulting from a decade of co-operative development was designated Type 90-IIM. Chinese company Norinco showed the new Type 90-IIM during the March 2001 Abu Dhabi Defense Expo, under the export name MBT 2000.
The version powered by the Ukrainian power plant, intended for domestic production in Pakistan, was named Al-Khalid after the prominent companion and general of the Prophet Muhammad named Khalid ibn al-Walid.

Production:

During the development period, Heavy Industries Taxila gained experience building the Chinese Type 85-IIAP and prepared to begin production of the Al-Khalid tank in 1999. A pilot batch of fifteen tanks was inducted into the 31st Cavalry Regiment of Pakistan’s Armoured Corps on 20 July 2001. Pakistan signed a contract with Ukraine's Malyshev Factory in May 2002 for the delivery of 315 6TD-2 engines over three years. An additional batch of Al-Khalid tanks was delivered on 23 September 2004.
Pakistan plans to build a total of 600 Al-Khalid tanks for its armed forces.