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Military Tuesday : MINDEF Commemorative Books – Apaches, Crewcuts & Detention Barracks

November 11th, 2008

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A series of books commemorating the anniversaries of the various services and commands of the Singapore Armed Forces. Since the electronic versions of these books are up for download at the official Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) site, there shouldn’t have any issues with OPSEC I hope.

Some nice photos in Once Armour, Always Armour, the commemorative Book for the SAF Armour Formation’s 35th anniversary in 2004, but nothing much new that we guys in Singapore that have served National Service haven’t seen in there.

Locally manufactured Bionix 25 AFVs with an AMX-13 in the top left corner

The 2003 Wings on High book which celebrated the 35th anniversary of the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) includes a history of the RSAF starting from the three propeller-driven Cessna planes that constituted the Singapore Air Defence Command in 1968 together with photos of the various warplanes that served the RSAF from the old Hawker Hunters, A-4SU Super Skyhawks with the RSAF to the current F-16s and AH-64D Apaches.

An Apache sporting the current low-visibility RSAF roundel adopted since 1990. You can see the previous Yin-Yang style roundel used from 1973 to 1990 at Wikipedia.

And in the 40th anniversary commemorative book of the SAF Military Police Command, we get several peeks into of the dreaded SAF Detention Barracks (SAFDB), probably the first thing that comes to mind for SAF service personnel when the Military Police are mentioned.

An montage of the Close Protection Operators who provide the security details for both local and foreign military VIPs during state and military functions.

A series of blck-and-white photos from Mission Ready : SAF Peacekeepers in Timor-Leste by local photographer Ken Seet.

And last but not least, the 2002 Shoulder to Shoulder which marked the 35th anniversary of National Service – the rite of passage for all Singaporean guys which all starts with the haircut that awaits all recruits at the barracks upon enlistment.

Download these ebooks and more at the MINDEF e-Books page.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
US Army Center of Military History Prints
Armour Photos at Israel’s Yad La’Shiryon Museum
German WWII Atlantic Wall Bunker Photobook PDF
Tompei’s Museum of Machines

Military Tuesday : Mechanical Demining Equipment Catalogue 2008

September 23rd, 2008

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Demining machines have really come a long way since the ingenious idea of attaching flails to M4 Shermans in the form of the British Sherman “Crab” variant during WWII to thrash and detonate any mines buried in the ground before it. A plethora of modern machines are now being designed and manufactured specifically to combat the ever-present hazards of mines and unexploded ordnance which continue to maim and kill in various parts of the world long after conflicts have subsided or ended.

To protect the personnel operating these machines, most of these vehicles are heavily armoured, some to the extent of being fully operated via remotely control. Below’s a selection of these fascinating and little-known vehicles from the Mechanical Demining Equipment Catalogue 2008.

The remotely-controlled Croatian DOK-ING MV-4.

Kawasaki MINEBULL.

Rheinmetall Landsysteme RHINO.

This catalogue is compiled by the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) and as quoted from the official website :

The Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) strives for a world free of anti-personnel mines and from the threat of other landmines and explosive remnants of war, and where the suffering and concerns of populations living in affected areas are addressed.
The Centre is active in research,provides operational assistance and supports the implementation of the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.

It’s a rather sad fact that information and news on wars and other conflicts are readily available in the mass media, yet these unsung efforts to demine and eradicate the horrors of past wars go unnoticed. Before I found this catalogue and the GICHD site, I always thought that active minefields were just marked and cordoned away without any substantial efforts to demine them.

View or download the Mechanical Demining Equipment Catalogue in PDF format or learn more about the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining at the official GICHD site.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Armour Photos at Israel’s Yad La’Shiryon Museum
Art for Peace – Retired Weapons
Tompei’s Museum of Machines
OPFOR Worldwide Equipment Guide

Tags: Armour Military World

Wallpapers Wednesday : Art for Peace – Retired Weapons

August 13th, 2008

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One day when the people on Earth decide to live in peace with each other, hopefully tanks and grenades can finally become ornate flower vases. While I’m skeptical that this will actually happen, it’s not wrong to hope, isn’t it?

12 wallpapers in total from Retired Weapons, an art project intiated by Yuji Tokuda and Junya Ishikawa in 2005 and dedicated to promoting peace through art. Some of the more recognizable weapons of war below as converted into harmless flowerpots.

Found this off Tokyo Mango a while back but I don’t really recall how I got there:)

Donwload wallpapers from Retired Weapons (select your language and click Items).

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
2nd Amendment Fonts (Firearm Silhouettes) & Other Cool Dingbat Fonts
A Ton of Pixel Guns

Tags: Art Artists Wallpapers World

Military Tuesday : Armour Photos at Israel’s Yad La’Shiryon Museum

July 29th, 2008

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A very good collection of photos taken by David Pride at the Yad La’Shiryon Museum in Israel which houses an extensive collection of armoured vehicles in service with the Israel Defense Force from its birth in 1948 to the current tanks like the Merkava IV.

The most interesting exhibits to me are the indigenous variants of the American M4 Shermans which Israel acquired in substantial numbers after WWII and modified into up-gunned tanks with French 75mm and 105mm guns as the M50 and M51 (the Sherman in WWII was fitted with a 75mm cannon and a 76mm cannon in the case of the Sherman Firefly) , 155mm self-propelled artillery and even multiple rocket launchers as in the MAR-240s and MAR-290s. More information on these interesting variants of the Sherman can be found at israeli-weapons.com.

Other than the Sherman variants, there’s the Achzarit APCs converted from captured T-55s as well as refurbished T-54s, T-55s and T-62s known respectively as the Tiran-4, Tiran-5 and Tiran-6. There’s also up-armoured M60s known as the Magach 6/7 and locally-upgraded Centurion and AMX-13s.

Due to the disparate numbers of tanks in the inventory of Israel and its hostile neighbours during the early years of the Israeli state, it had to make do with every vehicle on hand, resulting the variety of up-gunned and up-armoured improvements as shown in the photos above.

If you know your armoured vehicles, simply head over to the thumbnails page and start browsing from there, otherwise you might find it more enlightening to start at this page and take a virtual tour of the museum complete with captions for each photo. For more pictures of armoured vehicles, don’t forget to check out David Pride’s other photos taken at various American Army museums including a picture of the infamous 280mm German K5 railway gun below.

Check out David Pride’s Yad La’Shiryon Museum photos.

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Armed Forces Handbooks (DPRK, PLA)
ACE Armoured Vehicle Scale Model Boxart
Tompei’s Museum of Machines
Merkava Mk III Baz 3D Renders
T-72! Balkans on Fire Renders and Wallpapers
Theatre of War Renders
800mm Dora Railgun

Tags: Armour Military Recommended World

Military Tuesday : Oleg Volk’s High Resolution Firearms Photos

April 22nd, 2008

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Oleg Volk, an art director and photographer from Nashville, Tennessee has an impressive online photo gallery of over 5000 photos with a substantial number comprising high resolution photos of firearms. I especially like those photos with the actual firearms captured against a clean white background since I’m an avid collector of high resolution firearm photos.

My favourite firearm gallery is definitely the one featuring Advanced Armament Corp’s (AAC) sound suppressors. This gallery is the first time I’ve seen suppressors attached to light machineguns like M249 SAWs and M60s and medium machineguns such as M240s. Wonder how a light machinegun fitted with a sound suppressor would sound like when fired on full auto … UPDATE (23 Apr 2008) : Oleg has very kindly sent me a email saying that a suppressed LMG sounds like a small diesel when firing in full auto. Thanks Oleg!

The AR10/AR15/M16 gallery is another firm favourite

There’s quite a few interesting photos in the main Weapons photo gallery if you take the time to browse throught the 11 pages of photos in there

Of course Oleg Volk’s photos aren’t all about weapons – there’s several much smaller galleries on creepy crawlies, reptiles and amphibians and other assorted themes.