Comments on: Fonts Again

By: Bryan

Bryan — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 04:30:27 +0000

These rounds all look alike, but most people, including the South Africans based on the picture your provided label the top of the round. As near as I can tell, the Iraqis are the only rounds labeled on the bottom.

By: skeptic

skeptic — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 04:21:12 +0000

I looked through as many Google images as I could find with visible shell markings and found only one that might have had dates as part of their markings on the front.

But I also found this interesting image of South African mortar rounds

http://www.acig.org/artman/uploads/sa_arms1.jpg

Compare the images to the mortar in slide #12 on the PPT slides from the briefing.

By: Why Now? » Blog Archive » Language Lesson

Why Now? » Blog Archive » Language Lesson — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 05:54:30 +0000

[…] [Update: see Fonts Again up above for corrections and more information.] […]

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 21:15:58 +0000

Really, Nemo, you sound like you believe this was done by a marketing department instead of an ordnance factory. The US would never…well hardly ever…

Yep, psyops, all they do is linked to psyops.

By: Nemo

Nemo — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:16:40 +0000

Bryan: Looking at the green-on-green “Iranian” 81mm round, my feeling is it was lettered via screen-printing, and whoever did it decided firstly, a neat serif font would look cool, secondly, shamrock-green paint would be an appropriate color to use, and thirdly, the “fat” part of the mortar, below the ribs, would be easier to print on than the rapidly tapering, synclastic part above the ribs.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:00:46 +0000

Nemo, being a Floridian I would only buy my RPGs and Mortars in Miami where there will be big sales soon when Castro finally dies, but the former Soviet bloc countries, China, and North Korea all export death through the “free ports” of the United Arab Emirates. Gun and drugging smuggling are very old professions in the area. The US and NATO are far behind, but their weapons tend to be very expensive and harder to maintain.

It was interesting that the pictures you found indicate that the Iraqis label below the ribbing, as opposed to above.

Come on, Ellroon, it was just spare parts to maintain the fleet of F-14s that the Iranian air force has. The DoD surplus sales are a good place to pick up a few HazMat suits if you are planning to set off a nerve gas attack, but nothing to worry about.

Dave, I’ve been known to use a “slip stick” and we had to fight off saber-tooth tigers when I went to school. It looks like the Iranians were influenced by the UK labeling standards.

By: Dave Bell

Dave Bell — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 16:10:17 +0000

Thanks for the plaudits. It's mostly Wikipedia and Google who deserve them. I'm afraid I slipped up by assuming that data would include the day-of-month, though that Lot Number on the AT round does lok a lot like a date. And possibly just as fake. For an example, the official British standard for marking mortar bombs (PDF file) All this makes me wonder what they teach journalists these days. If I can check these details, why can't they? I'm far too old be be a whiz-kid know-it-all geek. When I was at school, we used slide rules. (ObPython: Uphill, both ways, in the snow.)

By: ellroon

ellroon — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 15:54:37 +0000

Along with all this about bombs written in english, why aren’t we addressing the known fact that we were selling weaponry to Iran just a few months ago?
http://rantsfromtherookery.blogspot.com/2007/01/we-are-selling-weapons-to-iran.html

By: Nemo

Nemo — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 07:29:04 +0000

I suspect part of the problem is, if they show the entire mortar, servicemen who aren't in on the con are apt to go "wait a minute, that looks exactly like the Iraqi mortars we've been finding cached all over the country... except for the wierd green lettering."

By: Bryan

Bryan — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 05:58:40 +0000

That’s the other problem that anyone who has ever opened an ammo box will notice, the state of the paint. You don’t waste a lot of paint on ammo, it’s going to be blown up for crying out loud. The paint is always chipped and flaked; it’s a matte finish; there are scratches. The packing is to keep down the force of shocks, like dropping, not to protect the finish. This stuff was supposedly handled by “insurgents” who may have buried it, or had it in the trunk of a vehicle. You don’t wear white cotton gloves to handle ordnance on the battlefield. If you ever saw an aircraft being re-armed in a hurry you would wonder why more of them don’t get blown up on their field while being serviced. These things have obviously been painted for this display.