OpForce Magazine Issue 3 English

P a r a c h u t i s t e s

d'Infanterie de Marine

Issue 3

November 2010

Legion de entrange-

re

military airsoft stylization magazine

Inside VSR-10 G-Spec

commandos marines

SOCOM Tokyo Marui

French army

Forcemagazine

OpEnglish VersionFree Airsoft Magazine

On targetOp

Force

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4. Troupes de Marine

8. 1er RPIM

10. Commandos Marine

18. Legion Entrengere

24. SOCOM mk.23 Tokyo Marui without a secret

28. Legionaires from Lodz

36. French variation about camouflage pattern

44. French Army Field Rations test

50. Ration Individuelle d’Exercice (RIE)

54. Battle Ready

56. Under the Burlap

58. VSR 10 G-Spec Tokyo Marui

64. Rob Furlong and hot fifties

68. Next Issue

18-23 One of the most recogniz-able units in the world – the Foreign Le-gion.A special mixture of culture and person-alities. Resistance and honour above all. These are the things that describe the sol-diers from Legion Entrengere.

36-43 There are hundreds of ways to blend into surroundings.A comparison test for uniforms from all around the world. Our main target – the French Army CCE uniform.

48-52 How to cook a meal and not kill the cook?A test of the French Army food rations. All the flavors from Loire closed in a small box. Was it worth it? See for your-self.

Editor’s Note

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Here it is – the third issue of the OpForce Magazine. It took us a little bit longer to publish this one but I think it was worth waiting for. What can you find in this issue? Mostly, a lot of stuff for stylization and reconstruction. As always in OpForce Magazine.The number of articles you may find in OpForce Magazine increased, just like we announced. This issue is dedicated to Armée française (the French Army), so you will be able to find valuable information about their units. We are going to focus on their Special Forces units, just like we did in previous numbers of the Magazine. From many units one may find interesting for reconstruction or stylization, we have chosen Armee de Terre (Army) and Marine Nationale (Navy).You can also find tests inside. The one that can be found interesting is the test of CCE camouflage uniform, mostly to those of you who are interested in French Army stylization and are unable to find any information about it. Moreover, you are going to have an opportunity to find out what French soldiers eat during the field training, because we will take a look at French food rations. This is not going to be a short note about what you can find inside a box, but an analysis made by a consumer.Inside “Under the Burlap” chapter you are going to find a lot of suitable information. Dexter, as always, is going to share with you his knowledge and experience oft sniper rifle replicas and gas handguns. Happy reading!

OpForce Magazine Editor,Tomasz Niwinski

Op

Force

Troupes de Marine

Troupes de MarinePorpoises (Marsouins) – a marine mammal belonging to the Delphinidae family. The characteristic feature of the family is the usage of tactics during their hunt. They are also known for a special bound between each por-poise. That kind of special bond allows the Delphinidae to send an escort for sick or wounded individuals; as a response for threat they set a perimeter around the youngest and weakest ones and try to protect them; they are also well known for some kind of bond with people so they might be seen in the vicinity of human vessels during sea trips. It is also an unofficial and popular nickname for the French Navy Marines. The nickname suggest that the French Marines swam on ships and vessels and fought battles those ship were in, but never being a part of it.

Troupes de Marine (French Marines) is one of the oldest formations of that kind in the world.

It originated in 1662 by the order of Cardinal Riche-lieu. The new unit was mostly formed with former navy soldiers, like cannoneers or marine infantry and was named Corps royal de l’infanterie de la Marine. The Corp survived unchanged over 150 years to be fi-nally changed on 1st January, 1786 into Corps royal de Canonniers-Metalots. It was an attempt to replace Marines by sailors units. However, on 21st January, 1816 king Luis XVIII issued an edict reviving 2 regi-ments. Probably because of the French colonial ex-pansion this number has been raised very quickly. At the end of XIX century the number of the regiments was raised to eight, including two artillery regiments - L’artillerie de Marine.At the same time, in the middle of XIX century, French Navy created a new unit they called Fusiliers-Marins. Troups of this unit were designated to replace former marines unit due to the problems Navy had with proper support from Ministry of War. They have become Infantry Marine stationing at ships.

On 7th July, 1900, Troupes de Marine have been ex-cluded from the responsibility of Ministry of Navy and joined the Troupes Coloniales (Colonial Forces) under the Ministry of War jurisdiction. During the World War II these troops, under Bataillon d’Infanterie de Marine du Pacifique, had been trained by Americans and participated in Allies operation on Corsica and Elba. Finally, they had joined the operation Drogoon to land on the French soil at the end.

Just after the WWII has ended, French government wanted the American Army to re-base the unit to Pacific area. They planed, after the war with Japan is over, to take control over former French colonies at the Far East. Because of a huge logistic problem with re-basing a unit that big, it never happened.

The French politics, regarding colonies after a war, was

to dispose of them all. It affected their needs about forces, too, especially those prepared to operate at area. This caused the name to change from Troup Co-loniales (Colonial Forces) to Troupes d’ Outre-Mer (Overseas Forces), which happened on 1st December, 1958 and soon after that, it was changed to Troupes de Marine. But this time the name was changed for all former colonial forces. The new reborn marines unit has been, with the 9e Brigade d’Infanterie de Ma-rine (9th Brigade of Marine Infantry), part of the first French Forces d’Intervention (Intervention Forces). In 1964, two parachutist and one mechanized brigade joined them and renamed themselves to the 11th Di-vision d’Intervention (11th Intervention Division). This unit was formally transformed into 11th Para-chutist Division seven years latter. In 1976 Troupes de Marine were removed from division. The inten-tion was to create new intervention unit and to do so, the French Ministry of War joined this unit with the 9e Division d’Infanterie de Marine (9th Marines Di-vision). This unit was designated to be a force with a capability to make amphibious assaults. At present Troupes de Marine are a part of the 9e Brigade Légère Blindée de Marine (9th Marines Brigade).

Régiment de Marche du Tchad (RMT) in Noyon

RICM (Régiment d’Infanterie de Chars de Marine) (RICM) 9e BLBMa in Poitiers

Régiment d’Infanterie de Marine du Pacifique - Nou-velle Calédonie (RIMaP-NC) Nouméa (New Caledo-nia)

Régiment d’Infanterie de Marine du Pacifique - Polynésie (RIMaP-P) in Papeete

1er Régiment d’Artillerie de Marine (1er RAMa) in Laon

1er Régiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie de Marine (1er RPIMA) in Bayonne

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1er Régiment d’Infanterie de Marine (1er RIMa) in Angoulême

2e Régiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie de Marine (2e RPIMa) in Pierrefonds (Reunion)

2e Régiment d’Infanterie de Marine (2e RIMa) 9e BLBMa in Le Mans

3e Régiment d’Artillerie de Marine (3e RAMa) in Canjuers

3e Régiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie de Marine (3e RPIMa) in Carcassonne

3e Régiment d’Infanterie de Marine (3e RIMa) 9e BLBMa in Vannes

5e Régiment interarmes d’outre-mer (5e RIAOM) in Djibouti

6e Bataillon d’Infanterie de Marine (6e BIMa) in Li-breville (Gabon)

8e Régiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie de Marine (8e RPIMa) in Castres

9e Régiment d’Infanterie de Marine (9e RIMa) in Cayenne (French Guiana)

11e Régiment d’Artillerie de Marine (11e RAMa) 9e BLBMa in Saint-Aubin-du-Cormier

21e Régiment d’Infanterie de Marine (21e RIMa) in Frejus

22e Bataillon d’Infanterie de Marine (22e BIMa) 9e BLBMa in Nantes

23e Bataillon d’Infanterie de Marine (23e BIMa) in Dakar (Senegal)

33e Régiment d’Infanterie de Marine (33e RIMa) in Fort-de-France (Martinique)

41e Bataillon d’Infanterie de Marine (41e BIMa) in Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadalupe)

43e Bataillon d’Infanterie de Marine (43e BIMa) in Port-Bouet (Cote d’Ivore)72e Bataillon d’Infanterie de Marine (72e BIMa) in Marseilles

Nowadays, the 1er RPIMa is not a part of Division, due to the Special Forces assignment.

translation: Michal “Magnus” Kasinski

Troupes de Marine

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Force

7Photo: Guillaume Rueda

1er RPIM

Op

Force 1er Régiment de Parachutistes d’Infanterie

de MarineThe 1er RPIMa’s history dates back to 1622, when

infantry regiments belonged to the French Armee de Terre (Land Army). Those units had been designat-ed to join the warship forces as marine infantry. The history of this unit is therefore similar to Infanterie de Ma-rine (French Marine Corps). Bu the situ-ation had changed after the World War II broke out.

As a part of the Free French Forces, 1ère Compagnie de Chasseurs Para-chutistes had been designated to fight the German invad-ers. The two Regi-ments of Chasseurs Parachutistes were the very first to join Sir David Starling’s Special Air Service, recently formed in Kabrit. Since then, they fought along-side their British brothers.

After the World War II, the unit partici-pated in operations in French Indochi-na, where between 1945-54 soldiers performed several of 160 parachute jumps carried by the French paras during the war. After the war the unit retreated from the Far East. 1er RPIM was changed to a training depot for all colonial paratroopers. The Regiment has reborn as a Special Forces unit in 1974, probably due to the SAS heritage, and became one of the most ex-perienced units in Europe. During the active duty, the Regiment has been awarded many times. The awards were, among others, French Croix de Guerre (Cross

of War), Legion d’Honneur (National Order of the Le-gion of Honour), Croix de la Liberation (Cross of the Liberation), Belgian Croix de Guerre (Belgian Cross of War), American Bronze Star and Holland’s Bronze

Leeuw (the Bronze Lion).

Tradition, acquired during the Regiment’s duty in the British SAS, is still present in the French unit. 1Er RPIM’s motto is “Qui Ose Gagne” (Who Dares Wins), and only the current members of the Regiment are able to get the RAPAS Wings - Recherche Aéroportée et Actions Spécialisées (Airborne Reconnaissance and

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Special Action), of course after they fulfil several re-quirements like operational deployments.

Nowadays the 1er RPIM is a part of the BFST - Bri-gade des Forces Spéciales Terre (The Army Special Forces Brigade). The main power of the Regiment consists of three parachutist companies called RAPAS - Recherche Aéroportée et Actions Spécialisées (Air-

borne Reconnaissance and Special Action). They are based upon the SAS organization form. Each of them specializes in different area of action, typical for Spe-cial Forces units, like HALO/HAHO jumps, counter-terrorism, amphibious warfare, jungle and mountain operations. 1 er RPIMA’s last deployment was during “Operation Enduring Freedom” in 2001, and again in

2003 in Afghanistan.

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Commandos Marinecommandos marine

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Although World War II was a time of sorrow, destruction and death, it was a time when completely new phenom-ena were born as well. One of them was the idea of creating Special Forces throughout the world. In those harsh times it was vital for tactics and strategy. One of the units, which were born back then, was Commandos Marine of the French Navy (The Naval Commandos).

The unit was planned to emerge in 1941, but it was not until 1942, when Troop 1 Commandos Francais was formed for the very first time. The usage of that unit was planed during the next amphibious operation in continental Europe, like the Normandy invasion. Newly formed unit was based outside Portsmouth, waiting to transfer to Achnecarry training center, Scotland, for their Commando training.Initially, the Battalion counted 177 men, grouped in sections: headquarters, communications, medical, transportation and three line unit, prepared for duty at first line. Most of the soldiers back then were from Brittany and knew the shore perfectly. It would be helpful in the coming years, mostly because the future invasion. Capitaine de Corvette (Lieutenant Com-mander) Philippe Kieffer was the officer in charge. The nickname of the whole unit – Company “Kieffer”, was based on his name.The newly formed unit could not wait long for the first assignment. In 1942, the unit was sent alongside the British and Ca- nadian Commandos to France to participate in “Operation Jubilee” (also knows as The Dieppe Raid). The primary task was to destroy the gate leading to a dry dock and p a r a l y z e the port for merchant s h i p s . After this success-ful action, in Novem- ber, the unit h a s g a i ne d its offi- c i a l name - 1ère Compagnie de Fusil- iers Marins C o m m a n - dos.May 1944 was an-other memo- rable day for the soldiers a n d the Company it- s e l f . Few weeks before t h e D-Day operation h a d started, the Com- pany received their own b a d ge and green berets, thus confirming

their special status and commando origin. As the only unit among all French Forces they were allowed to wear their badges in an English manner – on the left side of beret. The color of the beret was another rea-son to nickname them as “Beret Verts” (Green berets).On 6th Jun,e 1944, 176 soldiers of Commando Kief-fer landed at the Sword Beach. Their task was to sup-port the 3rd Infantry Division and advance deep into enemy territory. After a day on the front the unit lost 25% of its personnel (including 27 killed in action) and their commander had been wounded twice at the end of the day. Despite high loses, the Company had fought till the end of September, when they were called off and sent to Britain for R&R and casualties replacement. The soldiers of Commandos Marins, as a part of British Commandos unit, had been back at front in November 1944, landing at an Dutch island Walcheren and liberating the city Flassingue from the Germans. The Dutch episode was the last one for the French Commandos during the World War II.

The unit is split to seven, partly inde-p e n d e n t units:

1.

C o m m a n d o Hubbert

At present, Com-mando Hubbert con-

sists of about 80 sol-diers deployed in two

companies. The first

c o m p a n y h a s 50 soldiers, di-

vided between four m a i n squads; each of

Photo: Guillaume Rueda

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them specialized in different missions.

Team A:

Headquarters. This unit is mainly responsible for op-erational planning. This part also has a support unit in its squad.

Team B:

Soldiers of this team are specialists in marine counter-terrorism, underwater approaches and amphibious actions.

Team C:

Pilots and engineers working on submarines. They are responsible for the maintenance of miniature sub ves-sels which are in possession of the unit.

Team D:

They specialize in sea reconnaissance, underwater de-molitions and ship attacks. They are also expert snip-ers and have experience with heavy weapons. Further-more, all members of the unit are trained in HALO and HAHO jumps.

The second company has strictly supportive function for the first one. Their soldiers are experts in commu-nication, fast motor boats, pontoon driving and wide range logistic.

2. Commando Jaubert

Commando Jaubert is one of the most decorated French Special Forces unit of all time. The squad has been decorated with, among others, French Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour) and Military Cross, which is shown on the Commando flag.The members of Commando Jaubert are specialists in boarding vessels, personnel evacuation and close quarter combat.

3. Commando Trepel

Commando Trepel’s specializations are similar to Commandos Jaubert’s. They are also familiar with ship boarding and personnel evacuation from shore areas. Soldiers of Commando Trepel were involved lately in

actions in Rwanda, Afghanistan, the Caribbean and Congo.

4. Commando Pontenfenyo

This particular group specializes in maritime installa-tions, reconnaissance, gathering information and in-filtration. They were sent to Bosnia, Zaire, North Sea and Antarctica.

5. Commando de Montfort

Members of this unit are specialists in long range neu-tralization like: missiles guidance, sabotage, artillery support and the elimination of enemy snipers. Their presence was noticed in Bosnia, Macedonia and Sier-ra-Leone.

6. Commando Kieffer

This unit was formed in 2008. Any actions performed by this unit are unknown.

7. ECTLO Escouade de Contre-Terrorisme et de Libération d’Otages (Counter-terrorist and Hostage Rescue Squad)

As in name, they specialize in counter-terrorism and hostage rescue. Soldiers of ECTLO, alongside Com-mando Hubbert, are responsible for the capture of a former Yugoslavia war criminal, Mamcilo Krajisnik.

As it is noticed, names of the Commandos units are taken after naval fusilier officers killed in action.


commandos marine

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Machine Gun

Rifle

Uniform

FAMAS F2

French Marines use a CCE camouflage

Sniper Rifle

FR F-2

FN Minimi

Troupes de Marine and Commandos Marine uniform and equipment.

Marines beret

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Uniform

PistolPAMAS

French Marines use a CCE camouflage

Sub-Machine Gun

H&K MP5 SD3

ShotgunRemington 870

Marines beret

commandos marine

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Sniper Rifles

Sniper Rifle

PGM Hecate 2

Sniper Rifle

M4 Gepard

Sniper Rifle

McMillan M93

Sniper Rifle

Ultima Ratio Commando 2

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Ultima Ratio Commando 2

Rifles

Rifle

M4

Rifle

H&K G3 SG1

Rifle

SIG SG551 SWAT

Rifle

H&K G3A4

commandos marine

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Pistols and Sub-Machine Guns

Pistol

SIG P226

Pistol

Smith&Wesson 686 Stainless

Pistol

H&K P11

Sub-Machine Gun

H&K MP5 A5

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Commando Hubert Commando de Montfort

French Marines Badge

Intervention Unit Commando Penfentenyo

Commando Trepel

Legion Entrengere

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Force Legion Entrengere

Throughout the world one can hear about military units which are real legends. Units usually created from neces-sity, grown on a fertile soil of human enthusiasm, becoming a relevant part of the history and culture, affecting millions on their way. One of them is the French Foreign Legion.

The Legion was formed in 1831 by (or during the regency of) King Luis Philip. At first, the squad

was mostly built with non-speaking French soldiers, and only a few non-commissioned officers. Despite the problems, which affected the unit in the begin-ning, including irregular payment, the Legion was sent to Algeria to be a part of forces fighting in Africa at the time.

On 17th September, 1835, the Legion’s Commanding Officer decided to split soldiers throughout the battal-ions to prevent one nation having advantage in either one of them. It prevented the possibility of mutiny and creation of fractions inside the unit.The unit, since creation, was involved in almost ev-ery conflict, like Carlist’s War in Spain, Crimean War or Franco-Austrian War where the Legion earned re-spect in battle at Magenta. However, the most famous battle of those times was the Battle of Camarón, dur-ing the French intervention in Mexico. Legion squad, consisting of 65 legionaries, had been ambushed and surrounded by 2000 soldiers of the Mexican forces, then fought against them for several hours. It ended with 300-500 casualties on the Mexican side. 62 of 65 legionaries had been killed during the day and

only 3 of them were captured and imprisoned. One of the Mexican commanders was so impressed by their courage that he expressed it in the words: “They are not humans, they are devils.” This sentence was re-membered and it accompanies the Legion to this day.

According to the French law, the Legion was not al-lowed to fight on French motherland, as long as France itself wasn’t threatened. That law had been obeyed until 1870, when the Legion participated in Franco-Prussian War. The unit was sent to break the siege of Paris as a primary task and to join besieged forces as a second one. In their way from Toulouse, where they had landed, they liberated Orleans but the attempt to break to Paris had been without avail.

French Foreign Legion played a major role in the French colonial expansion during the whole of XIX century. Legion’s units fought in North Africa, where legionaries had their base in Algeria and at the Far East, mainly in French Indochina and in Taiwan. Their involvement at Far East forced the Legion to participate in the Sino-French War in 1884-85.

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gion soldiers participated in, according the French law, the First World War fights. 11.000 legionaries had been killed on the West Front but they showed brav-ery and courage in charging and defending positions they occupied. Their participation in battles at Som-me, Verdun, Artois and Champagne was a significant effort to defeat the Central Powers by The Triple En-tente.

During the Second World War Foreign Legion was, like all French society, split between Free French who were building their forces with the Alliance, and the Vichy who collaborated with the III Reich. Because of this, the Legion has not taken a big part in fights during the war. They took only a minor part in Nor-wegian, Syrian and North African campaigns.

The end of WW2 brought completely new challeng-es for legionnaires, too. Because of common inde-pendence aspirations in French colonies, many local conflicts and uprisings started in almost all overseas dominions. The French Indochina uprising was the firs major local conflict in which legionaries were in-volved. Especially the defence of Dien Bien Phu had a relevant influence on the unit, mostly based on for-mer III Reich Soldiers. During the whole campaign, formation had lost a big amount of legionaries but they did not lose the spirit of the unit, what allowed them to continue the fight. It was clearly visible in the following years, when the unit was involved in much

warfare in Africa and on the Far East, where legion-aries were used as the Rapid Reaction Forces. This allowed them to participate in almost every conflict after WW2.

In 1990 three Legion’s units (1e REC – 1 Foreign Cav-alry Regiment, 2e REI – 2 Foreign Infantry Regiment, 6e REG – 6 Foreign Engineers Regiment), as a part of 6th French Light Armoured Division, were sent to Persian Gulf to take part in the “Operation Daguet”. After four weeks of air campaign land units started their part of operation and Foreign Legion was sent to capture the Al Salman airfield. They met minor re-sistance and, after a short-time of fire fight, they were able to fulfil their orders.Recently, Foreign Legion was also involved in few mi-nor operations like the one in Cambodia, Somalia, former Yugoslavia, Congo, Afghanistan, Cote d’Ivoire, and Chad.

At present Foreign Legion consists of:

Continental France:

1e REC – 1 Foreign Cavalry Regiment1e REG – 1 Foreign Engineers Regiment 1e RE – 1 Foreign Regiment2e REG – 2 Foreign Engineers Regiment2e REI – 2 Infantry Regiment

Legion Entrengere

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Force 4e RE – 4 Foreign Regiment

Corsica:

2e REP – 2 Foreign Parachutists Regiment (Kalwi, Corsica)

Overseas colonies and territories:

3e REI – 3 Foreign Infantry Regiment (French Gui-ana)DLEM – Foreign Legion Detachment (Mayotte)

Africa:

13 DBLE – 13 Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (Dji-bouti)

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Legion Entrengere

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Rifle

Uniform

FAMAS

Recent camo pattern

Sniper Rifle

FR F-2

Uniform and equipment of Legion Entrangere (For-eign Legion)

Foreign Legion Beret

Machine Gun

FN Minimi

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Sniper Rifle

Uniform

PGM Heccate II

Recent camo pattern

Foreign Legion Beret

PistolPAMAS

SOCOM mk23

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Force SOCOM mk 23 Tokyo Marui without secrets

SOCOM mk 23, manufactured by Tokyo Marui, is a replica I felt in love at first sight. I always had a crush on silenced guns but that model turned out to be way beyond my expectations.

My first contact with SOCOM was the STTI rep-lica. I was not excited neither with range nor the

quality of external parts. Moreover, the STTI replica was too big to hold it comfortably. I had a feeling it was a very cheap handgun, especially when you imag-ine that the sound suppressor was not functioning at all. And, in the matter of fact, the STTI replica was a cheap one. However, one day at the field I had an opportunity to try a Tokyo Marui replica. And that is how it all began.

The replica has been packed into a very nice Styro-foam case. Apart from the handgun, there was a LAM module replica, sound suppressor and, eventually, a spare magazine in separated space. I bought my rep-lica with two STTI magazines, and not the TM ones. Those magazines are exact copy of the latter.

A couple of words about the quality. The finishing is really good, much better than STTI’s, but at the same time - it is also a little bit worse than KSC. I could not match these two replicas because the KSC’s rep-lica has blowback, and TM is a non blow-back hand-gun. It is a fact that TM’s replica does not have a blow-back, which obviously is downgrading the value of this handgun due to the lack of realistic functioning and clear fun during respawns. But, and there is a but, with SOCOM the facts are slightly different, because you can not clearly classify this replica. It is not very good for sidearm due the non-existing blowback sys-tem (it causes the trigger to be very hard) and the size. It is also not good as a main weapon as well, mainly because of low rate of fire and small magazine. I am not considering a very short range at the time but I am

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going to write something about it a little bit later. So now we know, what makes the handgun unfit for use. Anyway, SOCOM is a perfect replica when you use it in dark, narrowed places, where you need stealth and discretion, not a high ROF or high amount of ammu-nition.

Since the gun has no blowback, the slider does not clatter. With a sound suppressor (and this is a genuine sound suppressor, not a nice looking fake) in a forest, where you can hear bursts all around and it is windy – your shot will not be heard in 10-15 meters at all. There will be only a slight noise of the ham-mer, and the shot itself is silenced. The suppressor’s thread is unfortunately not a typical one (16 mm), and it is difficult to find a dif-ferent one. But if you do not damage the original, there is no need to get a differ-e n t one.

Without the sound suppressor the replica is

quite loud, especially for a NBB (non blow-back) model. Moreover

the sound is very characteristic, similar to a whistle sound, but more quiet. Probably

the shape of the outer barrel is causing that kind of noise. You are able to shoot with hammer cocked or with self-cocking. We can cock the hammer with slider as well, even it has no blowback. The slider is still moveable.

Generally, the replica’s performance is very good. The non-moving barrel increases accuracy due to the more consistent pressure of gas. In addition, STTI magazines give about 330 fps at normal conditions (20C degrees and normal rate of fire). It allows hit-ting a human shape target, at perfect conditions, at 40 meters. Just as with the TM - the bb will be a little slow, but accurate.The inner barrel was made out of aluminium and not metal – contrary to a lot of reviewers try to convince their readers. Despite the original barrel is not that bad, you can find precision barrels made by LayLax and PDI. The HU rubber is the same as the one mounted in TM gas guns and in VSR, so you can change it to KM Head. It will increase the performance for sure. I have no idea how this performance is on the original TM magazines though. I never had those so I am only able to assume that.

The STTI magazines are completely different question of issue. They are cheap and give a little bit more pow-er (and I based it on the opin- ions from various forums), but are very s e n s i t i v e to dust – a small amount of sand can cause the bbs to stuck. I am afraid

that the mag-azines need a good maintenance to

keep them work properly. Another plus of those maga-

zines is a seal on the valve the TM’s do not have.

With one loading and careful shooting, we are able to shoot out about 80 bbs (during the sum-mer). It is an outstanding performance, mainly be-cause there is no blowback. The handgun has no problem with gas canister and it would be strange if it had because the valve is hammered only for a blink of an eye. It is typical for NBB replicas. The replica is working even in around 5 degrees Celsius, although the range diminishes radically. It happens exactly the same like in any other gas gun. I did not test it at lower temperatures.

The LAM unit, attached to the replica, is a really pret-ty fake. The tactical light has only one LED, and not a very good one, too. The red laser is very weak and of the same quality (or no quality at all). The whole unit is powered by 3 AAA batteries and operated with three switches – the first one, let’s call it a general switch, is placed on the bottom of the gun. You can find the second one under the trigger cover, and it is available with your middle finger. Someone who likes the DIY things will be able to put a normal laser and torch light inside. It will be hard, but not impossible. The original one has a light and two lasers, so there are possibilities to upgrade them.

The sound suppressor we got with the replica is in re-ally good quality. It has been built with two parts. The first one is a black tube with imprinted dot markings

SOCOM mk23

Op

Force on it, and the second one is inner aluminium tube

with compartments for silencer foam. It is all closed/sealed by a nut with 16 mm thread, unfortunately non typical for suppressors. By having a 6-7 mm thick rubber foam we can improve the silence ability. To make this work we have to take out the inner tube, take out the existing foam and with our gas-stove heat the edge up. When it is hot enough we have to cut out some foam (two or three pieces) circles. The next step is to cut out, using an old inner barrel for example (or something that size), circles in the middle of it. It will have about 9 mm in diameter. You have to put the pre-pared circles inside in order (looking from the end): circle, foam, circle, foam. The last piece of foam has to be shortened by half of its size, exactly that same amount of space our circles filed out. It will slightly improve the suppressor. The HU system quality is outstanding and gives a very good range with the power it has. Its regulation is quite simple and you can do this by pulling slide to the back and adjusting the screw on the cham-ber level. To take off the slide completely you have to take out the magazine first, then pull off the slide to the little carve on the left side of the slide till it is on the gun axis. And I am talking about the slide catcher axis because it is also the gun axis. The next thing you should do is gently pull of t h e slider to the left and to the top. The replica’s manipulators are worth to be mentioned as well. The original handgun has a hammer lever to uncock the gun and a safety lever. In the rep-lica you can not release the hammer because the lever is a dummy and looks pretty ugly. The safety le-ver works like in the real gun – with hammer cocked. Slide lever in TM’s replica works as an extra safety, blocking the slider directly. And you can turn safety on with or without hammer cocked.

The replica’s maintenance is limited just to looking after magazines and cleaning the barrel. And that’s it. The gun does not need any special treatment. De-spite normal lubrication of springs, the maintenance of pivots or cleaning the sand with old toothbrush or designated gun brush. The handgun’s construction is simple enough to disassemble and assemble it again in less then 45 minutes.

Summing up: this is not a perfect gun to be a side-arm. It is not a good main weapon either. However, if the field where you are playing is shady, has a lot of bushes and high grass, with plenty hideouts you can use for an ambush, it will be perfect. Also when your assignment requires staying undetected behind en-emy lines, this weapon is going to be ideal. You can be a Splinter Cell fan or just like this particular model. A general-purpose replica, but with one delightful fea-ture – the sound of gunshot.

Jacek Reiter (Dexter)

27


2REP

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Force Legtionaries from Lodz

Sniffing around the net for any valuable information about the French Arm,y I did not resist to take a look for a team, who has something in common with the Armee de Terre. It would fit perfectly to the incoming issue. I was not so excited about that because I did remember the last failure in the Spanish issue. Happily, I was very nicely surprised. I was able to find and make contact with a group which stylizes the 2nd Foreign Legion Parachutist Regiment. I decided to ask a few questions about their hobby and the reasons they chose Foreign Legion to be a theme for their team. You will find all the answers in this article.

1. From where did you take the idea to make French Army (Foreign Legion) stylization?

The idea for the 2nd Foreign Legion Parachutist Regi-ment came four years ago, when the previous unit, which was a part of survival-military group called the 4th REG, decided to start 2 REP GCP reconstruction. After some time the reconstruction changed into styl-ization, because we had the need to use some non is-sued but practical stuff. The reason we have chosen this unit for our stylization was the man who trained us – he was former Foreign Legion’s veteran. His co-lourful stories about this unit and the enthusiasm helped us to make the choice.

2. Are you a formal group or just a bunch of friends bonded by shared hobby?

- Our group was always based on friend- s h i p and shared passion. W e fulfil our passion during the free time we have.

3. How many peo-ple are in your group?

- From seven to eleven, de-pends on members’ activ-ity.

4. What i s your equipment (uniforms, repli-

cas etc.)?

As a group, we are trying to stylize on the 2nd REP from 2000-2004. The basic equipment is:

– CCE uniform in F2 style with badges (Flag, Legion Entrangere arch)We accepted Polish army boots due to the lack of ac-cess to original “Rangers” boots.FAMAS replicaOps Vest/Standard LE vestsFrench LE beret with 2 REP badge

This equipment is just a base that every member of our team should collect, at the money range they can afford. We also accepted few practical solutions you never find at Foreign Legion.

5. Was it very hard to collect every piece of your equipment?

French Army equipment, unlike the very popular

American equipment, is not that easy to get. Despite normal source like internet auctions or military shops, we were forced to look at same rummage sales, friend’s closets and import directly from France via some various people.

6. Where a person, who just started his adventure with this sport, can get the stuff he needs for

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French Army stylization?

The best chance to get the most basic equipment like an uniform is via internet auctions. It is worth the ef-fort to take a look at some local markets, too. And not only the military market.

7. You did mention you organize some airsoft games. If that is true, please tell us where and when?

As the 2 REP unit we organize “Ardeny” rally every year. It is a whole day scenario based on facts from World War II. More information is available on our website.

8. Please, give us any valuable information about your hobby you want to share with us and the rest of the world.

For some people this is only a play, for the others – it is passion. We are in the second group, because this is a wonderful way to rest with excellent people. The con-tact with nature and friendly environment is priceless to us. Some of people in our age choose to spend their time in front of a monitor with bottle of non healthy beverage. We prefer to get our backpacks and, with rifle replica, go into a forest.

9. How can our readers contact you (if you want to

help anyone who might be interested to contact you)?

http://2rep.pun.pl – this is our forum address, where we create special place for people from outside of our group. You will be able to contact with most of the members of our unit through this site.


2REP

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moe

35

Chasseurs AlpinsMountain units are, no doubt, one of the most experienced, well trained and tough units ever formed. One of the reasons is - they were formed with people who lived in the mountains. Those highlanders were hardened by tough conditions they used to live in, so they had been a perfect core for that kind of units. Also the warfare they had been prepared to is the most brutal and harsh warfare mankind can ever experience and fight in. How does this kind of unit looks like in the French Army?

The mountain unit was formed for the first time by the French Republic in XIX century, as a re-

sponse to the threat to their mountain borders from the reunited Italian Republic. Especially, when Italy

already began to form units specialized in mountain warfare (the Alpini). The final decision has been made

on 24th December, 1888, when the very first troupes de montagne (mountain corps) were formed. These corps were created from 12 out of 31 existing Chas-seurs a Pied (Hunters on Foot) battalions. This unit

was named Bataillons Al-pins de Chasseurs à Pied (Alpine Battalions of Hunt-ers on Foot). Later, the name was shortened to Bataillons de Chasseurs Alpins (Bat-talions of Alpines Hunters).Today, the unit is a part of the Brigade d’Infanterie de Montagne (Mountain In-fantry Brigade) with three battalions – 7, 13 and 27.The mottos of this unit are: “Jamais être pris vivant” (Never to be taken alive) and “Sans peur et sans re-proche” (Without fear and beyond reproach).

Chesseurs Alpins Special Unit presentation - Commando Montagne

Phot

o: Th

omas

Goi

sque

translation: Michal “M

agnus” Kasinski

CCE

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Force CCE – French variation about camouflage

pattern.At present, most of our military suppliers have very limited offer. Mostly these are pre-used German and British uniforms with Dutch DPM and Swiss TASS addition. Since Red Zone dropped out of the market, the selection of new uniforms is also very limited because we can only get the American ones. For those determined there is the Allegro auction system, but we can buy there not only uniforms in good condition. We can have problems in buying uniforms exactly our size or we can just be cheated.

The exact same thing is with the French Army stuff. Our only supplier at the time is the above men-

tioned auction system, where we can buy some of the French Army stuff. Of course, we can ask our friends, the ones living and working abroad. But we can be disappointed, too – especially if we do not know any-one living there. The one thing we can do after that is to take a look at companies who make copies of uni-forms we are interested in.

At our market we can find a few companies who offer copies of various sorts of issued uniforms. Although, we did not need any uni-form for this issue of OpForce Magazine. The main topic of this issue is the French Army and everything that is re-lated to it. As we know, the French Army uses a cam-ouflage pattern of its own, a little bit different than rest of the world. Based on that, we started to look for that kind of uniform, to finally find it. Napo-leon’s decedents called it CCE.

You can believe it or not, but it was not very easy to find an uniform we would like to get. Apparently, there is no demand on the market at the time being – and this is the thing we would like to change by presenting oth-er Armies. We were lucky to find one of the copies of the uniform through and thanks to Vest com-pany. Now we will be able to review a CCE copy made by Mil-Tec cor-poration.

To rise the bar a little higher and to

make this review more reliable, we are going to com-pare other uniforms – both issued and copies. Apart from the CCE uniform mentioned above, I used Ger-man Flecktarn, American ACU in UCP, British Com-bat Light Uniform (Lightweight) in DPM - all of them army issues and one copy – recently very popular in Poland MCCU in woodland MARPAT by Helikon-Tex. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a proper CCE uniform issued by the French Army, mainly for com-parison, but I will try to deal with it in next issues.

First impression:

At first glance there is no difference in material used in all of these uniforms – neither issued ones nor

copies. But there is no point to stop here, when we can take much closer look. Especially when

you have read and heard that the quality of non issued products is poor and there is no

special care to details. How does it look like in this particular uniform? We are going to check this out, only there won’t be a field test.

The first impression has to be positive.

Fabric:

The uniform has been made from 65% of cotton and 35% polyester. We can not say clearly that the polyester addition is good or bad because both of them have pros and cons. Bundeswehr’s Flecktarn has exact the same mix of fibre like our CCE. ACU (made by Appareal Interna-tional) and Helikon-Tex’s copy of MARPAT has been made with even more polyester, because they have 50% addition to their fabric. We have

no idea what kind of mix has been used to sew the British uniform, but we think it was 100% cotton because it is a Light Combat Uniform. Of course the label on this one can be a little confusing, because there is a warning: “Wash

37

as synthetic”.

For a regular person who has no experience with sewing and fabrics itself, this one, which has been used for Mil-Tec’s copy, will not be distinct at any possible way from the Ameri-can issued uniform or MARPAT copy. It is the same with the German Flecktarn.

Sewing quality:

Despite the fabrics used during the pro-duction process, the sawing is a lot more important then anything else. Even if we had the best fabric we could get, wrong usage of them would destroy the fi-nal effect completely. So we are about to find out how does it look like in a German uniform.

Of course we are going to use uniforms described above to comparison. They make our base for evalu-ation.

The thread, which has been used in this case, looks pretty good. These are nylon threads because they have to provide extra durability due to very intensive usage. It is a one line stitch, exactly the same we can find in the rest of mentioned uniforms.Velcro and buttons are sewed properly and have no tendency to loose align or going out of fabric. We were able to see only one fault, and it was only possible at close look. It was Velcro at the bottom of the jacket. The thread was slightly outlined. It was barely visible first and moreover, it did not affected normal using. We can decide to classify this as a con, mainly because we were unable to find familiar mistakes on other uni-forms.

What we can describe as a plus is a few extra buttons attached to jacket and pants. If we think about the conditions this uniform will be used, we can predict that those buttons will be ripped off and lost. In that case it is good to have a spare one.

Functionality:

The functionality of this uniform is based on personal taste and experience. For one people buttons would be a best choice, others would choose Velcro. So there is no perfect and objective opinion about that.

Trousers:

There is no pocket at the back of CCE; MCCU has

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Force two, ACU also two, Flecktarn and DPM one.

The sum of all pockets in CCE is four – two cargo at the side and two in front; MCCU has six, ACU eight, Flecktarn and DMP both five.

The pants have one button and a zip. It looks a little better than only buttons in MCCU

a n d ACU. The b u t t o n s are not that comfortable as a zip, espe- c i a l l y when you are in hurry, and the zip completely blocks the way to the inside part of our pants. It sounds nice when you are about to crawl, is it not?At the very bottom of trousers leg there is a double welt – one is elastic and the second one (backup) is a string. Fortunately, the elastic one is not to tight, so you can not feel discomfort during long time of use.

Jacket:

It is a classic model with small differences which im-prove functionality. Mil-Tec’s product has only two pockets which is a distinctive feature among other uniforms. For example, the ACU and the MCCU both have four pockets and the Flecktarn has three. The French uniform at this time is similar to the British DPM which has only two pockets, too. But the com-pletely different thing is, how these pockets have been attached to the jacket. And at this field I think the French uniform wins with other competitors. Pockets are zipped and that is a solid advantage itself, they are also twisted 90 degrees and faced to each other. Or

maybe they are not twisted, but

the zips are moved to

the side of a

pocket what

makes that kind of

impression. That kind of placing allows us

to reach them with only a bend of an elbow, not a wrist, too. Even an-

gled pockets in ACU and MCCU are not that comfy as in this French copy. So, there is a plus. Ob-

viously, that would be a minus when we try to carry some loose materials. Unless you will not be carrying sand in this pockets, that would not be a disadvantage.

The described jacket is a little longer than American ACU. But this is completely normal because ACU is different than anything else – also if you consider the cut. Another difference is in elastic welt, a little similar to the Polish wz. 98 camouflage, but placed at the bot-tom of the jacket.

A hat:

We also get a hat with the uniform itself. It is a classic bonnie hat, but in CCE camouflage pattern. The only disadvantage is, and probably only for reconstruction, its label. It suggests that the hat is of US Army ori-gin, not the French Armee de Terre. The label says: US Army Jungle Hat Viet-Nam Type 1968-1971. Despite that small detail we can not find any other faults.

This review was made thanks to the Vest.pl military shop.


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CCE

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RCIR

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Force French Army field rations test

It is a well known fact that armies march on their stomachs. The old truth is visible in every conflict man-kind participates. Except determination, which is very important during warfare, food is the second one. It provides advantage on a field and lets soldiers fight most efficient. But appropriate food supply does not longer mean a canteen full of “Gaspacho”, like it was in the time of Roman Empire. At present, food is ex-pected to be more than that. Providing some kind of luxury to soldiers is not its main purpose, but to save nutrition suitable for men being in constant physical stress. It is not that easy like it looks like though. Most of modern armies prepare special meals for their soldiers, ready to eat at any conditions – especially at the field. This article is going to start a series of articles dedicated to these special meals. The French Army Meal Ready to Eat will be the first one, a dish designated to fulfil any needs at the war zone.

Currently we can distinguish two types of French Army meals. There are 24 hours rations called Ration de Combat Individuelle Rechauffable (RCIR) and Ration Individuelle D’Exercice (RIE). The second one is a one-meal ration, designated for only one meal. The first one could be translated to Individual Reheated Combat Ration, and the second one Individual Exercises Ration.

RCIR – a balanced meal for whole dayMeal contains:

The ration is wrapped in plastic cover. The reason they covered it with plastic is to protect the cardboard box from humidity of all kind. It would cause a permanent damage to some elements inside, and corrosion to other. After opening we get a regular cardboard box, size of a book. Even if we open the box, we will be allowed to close it later. There is some basic informa-tion on the front of the box that can be useful (or not)

for a soldier. Looking from the top side (apart from the brand name): expiration date (printed with big and bold font). To the left from the date we can find a menu number. And in this case it will be number 12 of 14 numbers available.A little bit below we have all products listed inside.For those of you who do not know French, it will be a relief that the right side of the box cover has been printed in English. It was probably done due to the French soldiers’ participation in some peacekeeping

missions under the NATO auspices.At the back a warning has been printed not to eat food from swollen or damaged cans. The rest of the descrip-tion is about water purifier tablets and how to use it.

Inside the box:

There is a list of things we would find in the box:

1. Instant soup x 1Instant energy drink x1Breakfast set x1Heating set

45

Main course can x1Tissues x1Chewing gum pocket x1Tinned meat x1Tinned dessert x1Pocket of sweets x1Sweet bars x3

Menu:

Breakfast set:

This set was wrapped in strong plastic cover. You have

to use a knife to open it up. It would be perfect to use a knife that has been provided to every soldier by the French Army.After you unwrap the bag you get a few beverages in packets, salt, pepper and sugar. Inside the packets you are going to find:

3 instant coffees1 Lipton mint tea2 packets with salt and pepper, joint into one, bigger packet

2 white sugar packets1 big powdered milk packet1 big packet with cocoa

Beverages:

All the beverages you will find inside the breakfast set are suitable for consumption. They do not differ from the ones you can find at your grocery store and you use every day. For this comparison we used regular products we found at local supermarket.

Milk:

Consistency: typical for a dissolved powdered milk. Plus

Smell: It is not even close to real milk, but neither are similar products of that kind. The smell is exactly the same as with regular products you can buy at the local store. Neutral.

Taste: It is enough close to natural milk. There is a small difference, obviously, but you have to remember

RCIR

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Force that this is only a powdered milk. Plus

Cocoa:

Consistency: it is not exactly what I

had remembered as a cocoa, because it is thinner than other products of that kind. Although it is not something that would prevent you from drinking it. Neutral

Smell: the smell is very nice, with chocolate sent. Plus

Taste: the taste is typical for that kind of products. Plus

Coffee:

Consistency: typical for instant coffee (freeze dried). Plus

Smell: very nice, coffee like. Plus

Taste: coffee like, strong. Plus

Instant soup (cream of asparagus):

Consistency: very thick, typical for cream soups. Plus

Smell: it is exact the same smell you could find in those soups bought at your local store. You can even feel a delicate scent of asparagus. Plus

Taste: it is close enough to regular asparagus soup. Of course if you do not expect miracles from a packet soup. Plus

Tea (mint):

Consistency: traditional, similar to tea. Plus

Smell: very nice, with strong mint scent. Plus

Taste: refreshing and ener-gizing. Plus

Reheating kit (Esbit):

Inside our main box we will find a small cardboard box containing reheating kit. It is well known Esbit stove, praised for simple con-

struction, efficiency and small size which makes it very handy at the field.The box contains:

1 stove base1 gripping device2 blister pack containing 6 fuel tablets1 matchbox1 refuse bag1 water purifier in blister pack with 6 tablets inside

Biscuits S’Georges (Sales, Sucres):

After you unwrap the medium size cardboard box you get eight smaller wraps with biscuits. Each one con-taining two biscuits bars. Four of them contain salt biscuits, and another four - sweet ones. These sweet biscuits are easily recognizable due to the colour they have. They probably used cocoa during the process which gave them that very nice, dark colour. This co-lours difference allows us to recognize which one are salty or sweet, because there is no such information on the package itself.

47

S’Georges Biscuits are a really good alternative for hard ship’s biscuits you can find inside some other ra-tions. Unlike hard ship’s biscuits, you can use them in exchange of bread during breakfast or eat them for dessert.

Sweet:

Consistency: traditional. A little bit tougher then reg-ular biscuit. Plus

Smell: it smells like baked biscuits. Plus

Taste: classic. There is no need to make something better which is already good. Plus

Salt:

Consistency: see above. Plus

Smell: see above. Plus

Taste: it tastes like regular crackers. Plus

Candy Bars:

Nougat with candied fruits:

Consistency: white bar with melted fruits inside so the consistency is nougat-like – a little bit like marshmallow, but thicker. Plus

Smell: a very delicate smell of sugar is recognizable. It is nei-ther bad nor good. Neutral

Taste: sweet, little bit fruity. Plus

Jelly-covered sugar bar:

Consistency: very similar to those you can buy at store. Plus

Smell: recognizable, fruity. Plus

Taste: fruity, a little sour. Really

tasty. Just like the ones in our stores. Plus

Chocolate bar (plain chocolate):

Consistency: typical for chocolate. Plus

Smell: how can chocolate smell? Like chocolate of course. Plus

Taste: typical for plain chocolate. Plus

Caramels:

Consistency: classic for caramels. Plus

Smell: not recognizable. But this is typical for prod-ucts of that kind. Plus

Taste: a vanilla taste can be recognizable. Plus

Terrine de Sanglier (tinned meat):

I have to admit that this was the worst part of the whole set. Neither the taste, which is very important during eating, nor smell, which did not differ from regular tinned meat, encouraged me to try this one. The consistency was not something we could find in any other tinned meat can. Of course, you should con-

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all the differences in culture. There is a possibility that this terrine would be very tasty for a Frenchman. Ei-ther way – it was not for me.

Consistency: it was a little bit too compressed than those ones available at the local store. But I can not tell with 100%

if it’s g o o d or bad. Neutral

S m e l l : t y p i c a l for a ter-rine. Just like the rest of them. Plus

Taste: was not encouraging. I have to admit it did not taste like any meat I have ever tasted. Maybe it is some French delicacies I can not recognize. Neutral

Beef with carrots:

In my opinion the strongest part of whole set. The en-tire meal we get inside a can has been split to three parts – beef, potatoes and carrots. One thing I can say about beef that it is not a third category meat which

in normal circumstances would be put into that kind of product. Instead of scraps you get a re-ally good, high quality piece of beef. Also the taste

shows it is, after all, a very good

beef.The potatoes that you will find inside are not an

ordinary ones. This are the baby potatoes, priced for their very good taste and high quality. We can even describe them as 1st grade quality potatoes.Carrots, another element of this dish, have been sliced and play the role of salad. We could even go further and say the whole dish has been garnished in those carrots. And it also tastes very nice.

Consistency: all the elements of this dish are very good. All of them have the same consistency a regular meal should have. Plus

Smell: very nice smell of home meal. Plus

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Taste: all of the elements, together or not, taste very good. Just like a normal dinner. Plus

Tartifflette:

Tartifflette are, more or less, roasted potatoes with bacon in cheese-cream sauce. Very thin sliced po-tatoes have been put into sauce and slowly cooked. The bacon addition spiced the dish slightly so it is not too plain. It is a very good meal.There is only one warning. Do not try to eat this meal cold. It tastes much better if you heat it up.

Consistency: classic. Mashed effect has not been spotted. Plus

Smell: noticeable smell of cheese and cream. Plus

Taste: similar to products of this class. Plus

Yabon (vanilla dessert):

Consistency: typical. A little bit to thin but it may vary due to the culture dif-ferences. Plus

Smell: very nice vanilla essence. Plus

Taste: very good. I was able to feel a slightly condensed milk taste. Plus

Aqua Tabs:

Water purifying tablets. Happily we were not forced to use them.

Summary:

French Army field rations really match up with the stories about them. I was unable to spot any major flaws. The dishes taste just like they should, bever-ages look like they should look like. And the stomach did not go through any revolutions. On the contrary, meals filled the needs and desires.



RIE

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The French Army one-meal ration is what we could call “field ration”. This is a quick meal which does

not need earlier preparations like reheating. It offers a nutritional and balanced meal with good taste. So, if you do not plan to stay longer in one place and need a fast meal for a break, RIE is for you. Especially for that kind activity which needs some physical effort, because it was designed for soldiers who are very ac-tive. It will be perfect to put it into small backpack or even a pouch on your vest.

Box content:

There is a list of things we would find in the box:

1. Main course (tinned) x1Terrine x1Dessert x1Biscuits x2Multi-purpose tissues x1Candy bars x2

Desert (Mont Blanc):

Small, white tin contains a 125 g. of dessert for sol-diers on the field. It varies in some menus. You can get

Ration Individuelle D’Exercice (RIE)

chocolate, caramel, vanilla or cream. Inside this menu I found caramel rice based on milk with some raisins. A small warning – open it gently because the opener is very weak. It simply can be torn out if you will not be careful.After the tin has been opened the top layer shows up. It looks quite normal. To be honest, it was similar to a cooked condensed milk. But it had to be tasted to make sure.In my opinion it is really nice, especially when you know this is a product with an extended expiration

date. Neither the consisten-cy nor the taste was wrong, so you can eat this without any worries. It is similar, considering the taste and smell, to fresh products you may find in local supermar-ket. It has only one fault I have noticed. Rice, and I am not sure it was rice, re-minded porridge. The size of grains suggested this. The rest – there is no accusation of any kind. Extra raisins, which should provide an extra shot of energy, were an superb idea. And, after all, they taste nice.

Consistency: typical for that kind of dessert. Plus

Smell: very nice vanilla essence. Plus

Taste: pretty good. Especially raisins are an extra sur-prise. Plus

Biscuits:

The biscuits you will find inside this ration are some-thing between a hard ship’s biscuits and crackers. They are a little bit thicker than the regular ones but the taste is very similar. The consistency is familiar as well. In all the French rations probably they are in place of bread or play the role of it. Those inside a one-meal ration RIE are from different producer than the RCIA, because they are little bit smaller and the

51

package is not transparent. However it is only a pre-sumption. However there is no significant difference between those two.

Sweet:

Consistency: similar to those in 24 hours ration. Plus

Smell: typical for baked goods like that. Plus

Taste: sweet, biscuit like. Plus

Salty:

Consistency: also similar to those in 24 hours ration. Plus

Smell: just like the sweet ones. Plus

Taste: salty taste is not recognizable. The taste is more neutral what makes it perfect for addition to another dish (in exchange for bread). Neutral

Klaus bar:

Standard chocolate bar produced by Klaus Company. We can find it in 24 hours rations as well.

Consistency: typical for chocolate. Plus

Smell: chocolate like. Plus

Taste: like plain chocolate. Plus

Jelly covered in sugar:

It is the same bar you can find in 24 hours rations.

Consistency: very similar to those you can buy at store. Plus

Smell: recognizable, fruity. Plus

Taste: fruity, a little sour. Really tasty. Just like the ones in our stores. Plus.

Terrine de lapin:

It is quite a typical terrine. The only difference between this one and the most popular one from supermarket is - this one has small meat lumps. Quite tasty.

Consistency: typical. You would not say it was bought in a supermarket. Plus

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Smell: very nice, meaty. There is no smell of chemistry additives. Plus

Taste: very good. It is exact the same terrine you will find in your own sandwich. Plus

Thon salade:

Tuna salad. There is slight difference between this one and the rest I have ever tasted. It is, in my opinion, potatoes salad with extra vegetables with the addition of tuna. This is not, and I consider this as a plus, tuna we can find inside most of the tins available in stores. That means it is not sliced or mashed. It is one pretty big piece of meat. And its quality is also quite nice. All of that is dipped down in some kind of vinegar sauce, but less sour than any other one I know. This dish is really very tasty.

Consistency: classic for a mix like this. Plus

Smell: is nice. Despite the tuna smell you will also be able to fell vegetables and sauce. Plus

Taste: my palate says - delicious, so it has to be good. Plus

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Gotowość bojowa

Op

Force Tony Zinni, Tom Clancy “Battle Ready”

In the last few decades, the United States of America had been evolved in many conflicts. Starting with the most known, like the World War II and ending with local conflicts, mostly based on guerrilla tactics, like the one in Vietnam or, most recently, in Afghanistan. Most of them had been won by the Western Civilization doctrine. How exactly that modern, well trained and equipped Army has been created? Thanks to general (retired) Ton-ny Zinni we will be granted the opportunity to make a trip to the Vietnam era and observe how the lost conflict became a win for the next generations of US soldiers. A conflict, which started with sneer and laughter only to end with tears and blood. We will be able to take a look on the system evolved during Zinni’s career, starting as a young lieutenant serving in Vietnam, and finishing in the time of new wartime tasks – Afghanistan and Iraq.

The United States Marine Corps has always been a special purpose unit. The Corp was created to

fulfil special needs. It required special training and at-tracted unique men to serve in it. Not everyone could be a Marine, and not every Marine became a general. Tonny Zinni had been granted both this privileges and thanks to that, he could observe the history changing itself. Moreover, not only he had been a part of it but the changes were influenced by him as well. Is it not everything what a soldier could ever want?

Year 1967 was outstanding for Tony Zinni in every possible way. He became an officer, was sent abroad for his first deployment, took his first command and was in action. In the Valey of Meccong River he has been learning from most advanced warriors - The Viet-namese Marine Corps. He has been learning how to fight and how to survive in extremely difficult terrain, facing a well trained and determined enemy. What is more important, especially for his following carrier, he has been learning how to command those people. He got malaria, jaundice, dysentery and mononucleo-sis at the end of his first jungle deployment with Viet-namese Marines, and it didn’t interrupt his experience gathering. After he was healed from above mentioned diseases, even if that was not easy for him or his body, he got back to Vietnam in 1970. He got back just to be shot in the next few months but, to be completely honest - his wish to come back to Vietnam was ful-filled.

After he dealt with his shot wounds he was sent to Okinawa, where he saw segregation and gangs inside the Forces. As the security forces commander, he had to face another problem - drugs, which were another sign of degeneration and demoralization affecting ev-ery part of American society. Readers will also be able to observe Zinnie at Quantico, being part of the team

which created one of the most famous Marine unit – MEU.

Zinni, in 50 years of his active duty, took part in almost every bigger US operation. Those including the most famous like Somalia, where he was in charge of the US Forces in Mogadishu. Thanks to Zinni, you will read about the UN and US operation made famous thanks to Ridley Scott’s movie “Black Hawk Down”. Just like Zinni, you will be standing face to face with general Aidid, acquiring behind the scene information, in-cluding the political aspects.


Under the BurlapUnder the burlap

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Another section of this very specific profession – sniping, is right here. On the follow-ing pages you will find a very long review of VSR-10 G-Spec Tokyo Marui by Dexter. As usual, you will be able to find out how to tune up this replica and, what is more important, he is going to show you some tricks which improve power and consistence of this rifle.There will be some history of sniping, too. This time you are going to meet one of the best snipers ever - cpl. Rob furlong. His shot at the distance of 2430 meters was for a long time the furthest shot a soldier has ever made. Only recently it was beaten by Craig Harrison, which was described in the previous issue.Have a nice lecture!

Under the Burlap

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Under the burlap

VSR 10 G-Spec TMVSR – 10 G-Spec was my very first high class replica. That is, if you consider the STTI products a a 1st class replica. I bought my VSR in 2007, pre-used, 2 years old, but with no modification what so ever. After all these years I still have fondness for it. I am going to explain reasons of this weakness in this article, describing every possible tuning detail of the TM product. I will describe every pros, cons and whims. Pictures I have attached to this article present the very same replica I had back in the days, despite that I have sold it and since then it also changed its owners. Those pictures are available thanks to the latest owner – lad Oleski from www.wmasg.pl.Let’s get started.

I am not perfectly sure when exactly the VSR has been offered by Tokyo Marui for the first time, how-

ever you can find this gun in a catalogue from 2004. The replica was manufactured at the time in three dif-ferent versions: Pro Sniper, without mounted rail but with mechanical sights and 430 mm outer barrel. Sec-ond one was the Real Shock model, with wood-like plastic stock, weighed down piston for recoil simula-tion and harder spring to compensate piston weight giving about 300fps. The last one was G-Spec version

– the one we will focus on in this article.

All the models mentioned above were withdrawn from production for some time, but recently TM has started to produce the second generation of VSR, with slightly improved external parts, mainly the G-Spec and Pro-Sniper versions. At the moment they are available in TM’s offer.

Both Pro-Sniper and Real Shock versions were based on Remington 700, while G-spec version is some sort of TM’s freestyle which also used Remington 700 as

a starting point. They are not the exact rep-licas, nevertheless they are close enough to resemble the Remington rifle. The G-spec also distinguishes itself by few details, which makes this replica slightly better than its siblings. First of all the special designed lock handle that turns by 60 degree and not like in other models by 90 degrees. This is a very nice feature that makes reloading much faster and easier especially while using sniper scope. The replica also comes with an attachable mount rail instead of emer-gency battle sights, and quite heavy exter-nal barrel which has identical diameter on whole length (30mm). In addition, TM pro-vides us with dedicated sound suppressor (37 mm diameter). Unfortunately it comes with unique 17 mm right hand thread so if you want to use other type of suppressor - a special attachment is needed. The G-spec also has several flaws. The most important one is a short internal barrel, it is only 303 mm long, which is to short for a sniper rifle. Moreover, the G-spec without the attached suppressor is ugly and looks like a sawed off gun.

This replica gives us clear 300 fps straight out of the box. And surprisingly as for those 300 fps it delivers quite far. Despite that, I have never seen such good shooting with

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a 300 fps replica, it is still too low for a sniper rifle. There is also one more merit of G-spec, it is one of the most quiet spring powered sharp shooter rifle replica I had pleasure to use. This is thanks to a good quality of abovementioned suppressor, but also thanks to spe-cial designed piston head equipped with special rod that, while moving forward, blocks cylinder head’s nozzle. This causes increased pressure in the cylinder that allows piston to slow down a bit before hitting cylinder’s head. Piston’s head is also equipped with rubber shock absorber what also enhances quietness. This replica, as most of modern replicas, has adjust-able hop-up. This can be done without any additional tools by moving lever located on the left side of the hop-up chamber.

Tuning of this replica is a real pleasure, because this gun is receptive to make-over. My piece was modified step by step, by buying additional parts in successive periods. Why? I will explain below.

First of all the cylinder in this model is solid, or actu-ally it is supposed to be. This is because of strict leg-islation in Japan that forbids producers to manufac-ture replicas that have more than 300 fps (with small top) therefore their pimping must be difficult. For same reason, TM gears present high quality but poor strength. This pattern also applies in TM’s VSR But back to the important stuff.Cylinder’s head is connected and locked with cylin-der’s chamber by blind metal pin. A thing to do before starting is to remove that pin. To do so we will need to drill it out. To make this operation easier we sug-gest marking this pin with punch. Afterwards, using drill set to low speed and equipped with sharp bit (3,5

mm diameter), we need to drill out the pin (about 2 mm depth). After that the cylinder’s head can be eas-ily screwed off.

Inside we can find a white piston, spring and spring guide. Unfortunately the spring guide is made from plastic and is X shaped (not round). Overall it is not solid but it will do for the moment. I personally advise to grease it.Now the first obstacle. PDI does not manufacture hop-up chambers dedicated to VSR, therefore sealing provides us with a poser. After few tries and endless forum and web lecture I finally came with the right solution. For this we will need metal ring that will be cut on the periphery. Rings supplied with hop-up rub-ber are perfect for this job. All we need to do is to slice them with some sort of needle file.

First we will need to place our barrel vertically and put on the hop-up rubber (air seal chamber packing)

Then we will need a thin fishing line (2,3 kg will do). We make a loop and place it around the hop-up rubber (air seal chamber packing).

Then we pull the loop tight (but carefully so we do not cut the rubber (air seal chamber packing)) and do the knot. The knot should be on the side – left or right and not up or down of the barrel

Now our metal ring comes in.

We put it on the hop-up rubber (air seal chamber packing) so the cleavage matches the knot.

If done properly with a brand new gun it should add up to 30 FPS. And up to 100 FPS in tuning models so it is worth doing. Of course afterwards we need to clean it up and grease properly.

Hop-up rubber (air seal chamber packing) shown on the photo is dedicated to TM’s VSR and GBBs, and it is made by KM head (hardness 55RH). It is definitely the best hop-up rubber (air seal chamber packing) for VSR that I have laid my hands on. Others, like purple Prometheus (Nine-Ball), does not wind up the BBs because of its hardness. On the other hand, the rubber (air seal chamber packing) manufactured by Firefly (hard type) did wind up but it did not seal the cham-ber as god as KM one did.

As for inner barrels. You will have to buy the dedicat-

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Under the burlap

ed ones. They are made by: Laylax (303 mm, 430 mm and 555 mm), KM Head (430 mm) and PDI (303 mm, 430 mm and 554 mm). Among these the best ones are produced by PDI but they are also the most expensive ones. Next in the row are those made by Laylax. They present good quality for a quite reasonable price (it is also noteworthy that Laylax is basically identical as Prometheus). The third place is taken by KM Head products. It should be mentioned that the real differ-ence between those barrels is slight and imperceptible. If you want you can also install popular AEG barrel but this requires modification of the hop-up cham-ber and without the access to lathe - we won’t achieve good tightness. To do so we need to cut a channel in the periphery of the barrel to mach the hop-up’s rubber collar. There are also dedicated “sealed” hop-up chambers produced by Laylax that concur with standard AEG barrels, but I rather won’t recommend them. We loose the charm of a factory chamber and we get the chance to attach standard barrel and hop-up rubber with poor quality, that can’t be replaced by anything else. Growth of tightness is bigger compar-ing to a fabric model but lower than this received in way described above. To sum up – it is not worth it.

As for VSR trigger mechanism, well - it is total fail-ure. The piston catch is lock on to piston under 60 degree angle in relation to cylinder axis (axis where does spring works) instead of 90 degrees, pressing the piston up while spring is taunt. This poses no problem while we are using fabric spring, but in the stronger spring the force is greater. It is noteworthy that, while using m150 spring, the force that we will have to use to close the lock is bigger than one used to taunt the spring. The trigger mechanism is not ac-commodated to work with other than m130 spring and it simply breaks. We can replace those parts, but because of above-mentioned problem with angles this will destroy our cylinder and pis-ton in the long run. Pur- chase of Zero Trigger by Laylax is a must.

The ZT set is a high quality one and works flawless as it was in case of Warrior I have described in last issue. But there is one thing that makes me wonder what led the Laylax engineers while they were designing parts for VSR.Laylax is manufacturing parts for sniper rifles replicas in series; they are dedicated to particular model. Parts designed for VSR are PSS10 series (Perfect Sniping

System 10 in other words VSR 10). At the moment our interest lies in: springs, piston complex and spring guides. In a fabric model spring guide is around 7 mm diameter and spring and piston are designed to fit this dimension. Spring dimensions look like this: 8 mm internal and 10 mm external diameter and 11 mm di-ameter for piston.

Now let’s talk about Laylax parts:As for spring guide it fits fabric dimension. Same goes with springs that are suited for spring guide and pres-ent dimensions that are close to fabric ones. Problem lies within the piston that comes with 13 mm diam-eter and it is accommodated for springs with bigger diameter like those for APS96/APS2/M24. Of course we can use it, but this will result in spring bending and diminished performance. It is a shame that Lay-lax does not sell solely the ZT then piston could be bought separately. Now we receive junk that can’t be used.

Spring guide can withstand m150 spring but only for some time. One way or another it has to be changed. And again the one manufactured by Laylax is the best one, with ball bearing, it does not untwist and more importantly it does not break. Real beauty it cooperates with springs up to m190 inclusive. It improves per-formance, FPS, makes reloading a bit easier and p r e -s e r v e s t h e

spring. It is also note worthy that VSR

springs are only produced by PDI and Laylax. From those

two only the later is worth any effort but it is not resistant to ramming.

The already mentioned piston leaves no choice to someone who doen’t want to install ZT one. He is forced to find a fitting piston via the internet or visit a turner, with previously prepared blueprints. The second option perfidiously seems to be the best one since we decide what materials will be used and what dimensions we will get. If You decide to design your own piston it is important to remember about such details as: external diameter of piston should fit inter-nal diameter of cylinder (with around of 0.1 mm of clearance), material strength, weigh (the lighter the better), internal diameter of piston should fit external diameter of the spring (with around 0.3 – 0.5 mm of clearance depending on the spring). By adjusting par-

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ticular parameters we can influence the performance, FPS, reliability etc. It is worth to design the whole set (piston and cylinders head) at once.

As show on the picture, such head is equipped with exit funnel, which a bit improves FPS. Notice that funnel does not reach the border of head itself so we can place some sort of shock absorber on this area. This also increases reliability and area that pistons head hits cylinders head. Other important changes that can be done are: the increase of external cylinder’s head nozzle diameter to 7 mm - this will improve seal (it will enter hop-up chamber much tighter). In-crease internal cylinder’s head nozzle diameter to 5.5 mm (this will enhance air flow, therefore it will increase FPS). It is also worth to add

one thread roll for firmer attach-ment to cylinder’s

body. Of course, while designing the piston, we should adjust it for such cylinder’s head. For instance piston’s brake should be wider and longer (around 5.2 mm).

We might just as well leave the fabric cylinder as it can stand against springs up to m170 inclusive with-out any problem. Despite that the replacement might help a bit. Of course I recommend Laylax, although PDI does good ones, too. Teflon coating speaks in fa-vour of Laylax. If current cylinder was used on strong springs (m120 up) I strongly recommend to replace it since the top of the chamber is probably scratched.

They say that there is no accounting for taste, but in my opinion VSC replica look awesome with Harris bi-pod (or it’s copy) and attached (thanks to the cou-pling) sound 40x335 mm suppressor by King Arms. Of course, as mentioned, it is individual taste. There is one more thing, if you are an owner of G-Spec version and you would like to make you replica more realis-tic (longer barrel), I recommend the purchase of steel external barell by Deep Fire (700 mm length) with in-tegrated suppressor. Such barrel allows us to use lon-

ger (550 mm) inner barrel also providing good stabi-lization. It is also noteworthy, that if we decide to use integrated suppressor, we have to use 430 mm inner barrel. This barrel is also finished with a cap tha,t if re-moved, reveals thread similar as in fabric model so we can attach original silencer or coupling. Unfortunate-ly, the whole replica with longer barrel has around 138 c m length which makes it quite

hard to use.

R e p l i c a with Deep

Fire bar-rel, 3-12x56

scope, and SRC bi-pod.

If you like realism, VSR can be easily

weight down since stock is not so thick but

solid, similar to this in M24 by Classic Army. Stock is also

a flaw since the whole replica is quite light and stock is made from thin but strong plastic. After remov-ing butt-pad and sealing the bottom by glue gun (do it carefully too much glue might result in problems with trigger installation). Afterwards we can place lead bars inside and attached them with more glue or small bags filled with sand and secure them by poly-urethane foam. It works like a charm.When steel Deep fire barrel is installed, the whole replica loses balance and it should be weight down on both sides. This problem is partially solved by bi-pod which weights a bit, but if it isn’t enough you can always toss some shot or fishing sinker in to space between inner and external barrel. Afterwards fill it with epoxy resin to prevent rattle and dislocating of the burden.

Summing up: the list of parts that are necessary for full tuning of VSR looks more like this (order – from muzzle to stock):

- Optional sound suppressor (along with coupling)- Inner barrel for VSR by Laylax (length depends on preferences, and suppressor)

- Hop-up rubber by KM Head- Cylinder’s head (custom)- Piston (custom)- Cylinder (optional by Laylax or PDI)- Spring guide by Laylax

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Under the burlap

- Spring m170 by Laylax- Trigger mechanism – Zero Trigger by Laylax

Such set, if assembled correctly, as well as proper greasing, seal, good piston and cylinder’s head design, can give the initial speed around 600 – 650 FPS. De-pends on luck and the awareness that Laylax springs don’t have lowered strength number. For sure is most tuning susceptible replica I have ever met. Perhaps not the cheapest one, but providing top performance for certain spring. If someone would ask me “what rep-lica do I recommend for a sniper?” I would firmly say – VSR G-spec.

Jacek Reiter (Dexter)

translation: Michal “Magnu” Kasinski

First we will need to place our barrel vertically and put on the hop-up rubber (air seal chamber packing)


VSR HU rubber assembly step-by-step


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Then we pull the loop tight (but carefully so we do not cut the rubber (air seal chamber packing)) and do the knot. The knot should be on the side – left or right and not up or down of the barrel

Now our metal ring comes in.

We put it on the hop-up rubber (air seal cham-ber packing) so the cleavage matches the knot.

VSR HU rubber assembly step-by-step

rob furlong

Op

Force Robert Furlong and hot fifties

It was March. The sun was shinning harder and harder, more than usual. Especially for people like corporal Robert Furlong, laying on his stomach without a move, head on his cheek pad, finger on the trigger, spotting for enemy activity. Soldier’s life often depends on his skills, when he’s sent on a patrol in this rugged terrain. Another bullet, warm from the hard sun rays, was sent to the McMillan’s chamber. Target: Al-Qaeda’s fighters. Range: 2500 metres. Fire.

On March 2002, Shahikot Valley was a witness of

another bloody fight which had been registered in mili-tary history. American Com-mand started the “Operation Anaconda”. It was prepared to liquidate mountain paths which were used by insurgents to transport weapons and am-munition to East Afghanistan. Another goal to reach was to eliminate as many Al-Qaeda’s warriors as it is possible. To achieve these goals, the Com-

mand decided to attach a Canadian sniper team from the 3rd Battalion of Princess Patri-cia’s Canadian Light Infantry to regular units. Cpl. Furlong was part of the team along with Cpl. Tim M c -Meekin as a spotter, w h o occupied one of t h e f i re positions, pointed directly to enemy positions.It was early afternoon when they spot-ted three men, climbing to the Al-Qaeda’s mor-tar nest. They were on an opposite hill, moving along the edge. Blink of an eye between Canadian soldiers sealed their fate.

McMeekin took his Vector range-finder to check the range to the target. It was 2430 meters – far too much even for their McMillan Tac-50 heavy sniper rifle. However, the conditions described in the manual were much more different then the conditions in Shah-I-Kot Valey this day. Canadian snipers were 3000 me-ters above the sea level so the air was more rarefied than normally. Thanks to that the bullet, without the aerodynamic drag, flew much faster. The bullet was

not ordinary, too. Because they used up all of their own ammunition, they had to use American bullets called Hornady A-max instead. Cpl. Furlong testi-fied, that the American bullets had flown further than their own bullets. It was caused by the ballistic shape of the bullet itself and faster-burning propellant. The 3rd Battalion snipers noticed instantly that their rifles have increased range and accuracy.

To increase the range even more, they used some old trick well known to most sharp- shooters. They u s e d the Sun, as it shines re-

ally hard at its altitude of 3 km, to rise the temperature of powder-

mix inside the bullet. The bullet was almost hot when they put it into the chamber.

The range to the target was too big to set the cross on his scope in a middle position. Cpl. Furlong ad-justed it to maximum but it was not enough. He had to use Mil-Dots to follow the targets at this range. To be exact - four points above and to the right of the tar-get. He also took the three opposite winds into con-sideration when he set the point of aiming. Target: an insurgent with the RPK machine gun.

26 year old corporal is breathing steadily, concentrat-ing on the target– breath in, and out. Breath in, and out. He is following the target and squeezes the trigger of his McMillan. He gently pulls his head back and stares at Cpl. McMeekin to confirm the hit. A small shake of McMeekin’s head tells him everything. It ap-pears the bullet went a little below the target and hit the sandy edge.Adjust. The same well trained moves. Breathe control. Relax. Concentrate. Shot.

This time the bullet is much more accurate then the

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last one. It just ripped off the target’s backpack.- Stand out – says Furlong. He already knows what kind of mistake he did this time. Instead of following perfectly the straight line, he had squeezed the trig-ger a little bit to one side. This caused the bullet to slightly change the direction and hit the edge, and not the man. This small difference was a line between the backpack and the warrior’s heart.

The next bullet went airborne just few seconds after the previous one. It took a little over four seconds to travel a distance of 2.5 kilometres and hit the man into his chest, ripping him to parts.Mission accomplished.


rob furlong

Op

Force Specifications:

Cartridge: .50 BMG (12.7 x 99 mm)Lenght: 1,448 mmBarrel lenght: 737 mmWeight: 11.8 kgFeed system: 5 round detachable box magazine

Tac-50 McMillan Tactical Rifle, manufactured by McMillan Bros. Rifle Company in Phoenix, Arizona, is a ultra-long range anti-personnel Long Range Sniper Rifle. It is based on pre-vious design, which first appeared during the late 1980s. Since 2000, due to its dual ability to handle both long-range precision, as well as anti-materiel roles, it is a primary Long Range Sniper Weapon in the Canadian Army.

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McMillan Tac-50 Sniper Set, recently used by Canadian Army

fot. www.mcmillan.com

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Contact:

Editorial Stuff:

Editor: Tomasz Niwiń[email protected]

Under the Burlap Editor:Jacek “Dexter” [email protected]

Journalist:Marcin “Mirra” [email protected]

English Version Editor:Michal “Magnus” [email protected]

German Version Editor:Pawel [email protected]

Other Sections:

Advertisment:[email protected]

News:[email protected]

Competition:[email protected]

w bastępnym numerze

Marcin “Mirra” Dudojc

Air Soft maniac since 2004. He is also five o’clock tealover, with interest in every-thing that is British.

Michal “Magnus” Kasinski

English version Editor. Re-cently live in England. Sold his soul to Special Forces - es-pecially to SAS and GROM.

Jacek “Dexter” Reiter

Under the Burlap Editor.Sprign guided rifles lover. Born as a sniper, living as a CQB man. Perfect for Op-posing Forces.

Would you like to see the OpForce Magazine in your own language? It was never more simple. Just let us know about that and you coul join us as an Editor. E-mail us on [email protected]

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W następnym numerze między innymi:

REMEMBER – YOU CAN ALWAYS JOIN THE OPFORCE MAG-AZINE TEAM. IF YOU LOVE THE MILITARY, HAVE SOME-THING INTERESTING TO SAY ABOUT THE ARMY, AIRSOFT ETC., PLEASE WRITE TO US!

Your main tasks will be:* writing articles at given subject* searching for information* acquiring information from personal sources* preparing proper articles for the next issue * making sure the information in articles is reliable and precise

We expect from you:* independence and initiative in pursuing goals* effectiveness and consistency at work* analytical thinking and logical reasoning* responsibility and the ability to communicate * good job organization* efficiency, creativity, unconventional ideas* the ability to work in team and under pressure* knowledge of Open Office* passion towards and the knowledge about military and/or airsoft * passion for journalism

It would be nice if you:* had previous publications about military and/or airsoft * had the experience in writing* students of the humanistic subjects are most welcome

We offer:* opportunity to participate in an original project* gaining worldwide experience * the possibility of constant cooperation

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IN THE NEXT ISSUE:

In the next issue you will find information about the Dutch Army. We will cover their Special Forces and, above all, the naval forces. The Dutch are well know for having great experience in naval warfare and its closed vicin-ity. You will also find the Dutch uniform test, in comparison to other uniforms from all over the world. Of course you will find Dexter’s articles, presenting the most interesting sniping and gas replicas. We will pres-ent you one of the most interesting tunings of sniper rifle and its owner. Look out for the next OpForce Magazine!

OpForce Magazine Issue 3 English

Documents

Transcript of OpForce Magazine Issue 3 English