Special Warfare, Special Weapons : Up Close and Personal, Rapid Fire Weapons of the SEAL's and UDT

by Dockery, Kevin

• ISBN13: 9781883476175
• ISBN10: 1883476178
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: Casemate Pub & Book Dist Llc
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Few aspects of the operations and equipment of the SEALs, the U.S. Navy's renowned special warfare units, have held more popular fascination than their wide array of automatic weapons. U.S. special warfare weaponry fails into two broad categories: official U.S. or allied equipment, and "sterile" equipment from enemy or neutral countries.

The SEALs' Vietnam operations saw the use of both kinds of weapons. Normal operations saw the use of full-auto M-16s and experimental models fitted with grenade launchers. The SEALs' use of the M-60 light machine gun resulted in new uses for the weapon, as the SEALs modified it for hand-carrying, enabling it to be fired from the hip or on the run. Troops in Vietnam also occasionally carried the "obsolete" M-1 "grease gun" and Thompson, their .45 caliber rounds proving to be an effective man-stopper."

SEALs on secret missions along South Vietnam's borders sometimes carried Swedish submachineguns and other "sterile" weapons, to conceal their country of origin. Various models of the Soviet AK-47 were pressed into service in Vi