The submachine gun (SMG) came to be the embodiment of the Soviet fighting spirit during World War II. From 1943 the Red Army's preference for close-quarters combat resulted in entire infantry units being equipped with nothing but SMGs. By deploying multiple SMG-armed companies and battalions, the Red Army was able to develop ferocious firepower in urban warfare and position assaults, the soldiers keeping within the SMG's effective range of about 150m to nullify the German skills in armoured and manoeuvre warfare, artillery support and aerial bombardment. Featuring expert analysis and an array of specially commissioned full-colour artwork, this engaging study explains the history, use and development of Soviet wartime SMGs in detail. It gives particular focus to the tactical applications of these weapons in combat, and how they compared to firearms wielded by their German opponents. With numerous first-hand combat accounts, and detailed technical explanations, this book is ideal for both the general reader and the firearms enthusiast.

This book is for the young adult who is interested in enlisting in the United States Army. It will walk him or her through the enlistment and recruit training process: making the decision to join the military, talking to recruiters, getting qualified, preparing for and learning what to expect at basic recruit training. The goal of the McFarland Joining the Military book series is to help young people who might be curious about serving in the military decide if military service is right for them, which branch is the best fit, and if they are qualified for and prepared for military service. Includes lists of books, web links, and videos; a glossary; and an index.

Recent advances in ultra-high-power lasers, including the free-electron laser, and impressive airborne demonstrations of laser weapons systems, such as the airborne laser, have shown the enormous potential of laser technology to revolutionize 21st century warfare.

"Military Laser Technology for Defense," includes only unclassified or declassified information. The book focuses on military applications that involve propagation of light through the atmosphere and provides basic relevant background technology. It describes high-power lasers and masers, including the free-electron laser. Further, "Military Laser Technology for Defense" addresses how laser technology can effectively mitigate six of the most pressing military threats of the 21st century: attack by missiles, terrorists, chemical and biological weapons, as well as difficulty in imaging in bad weather and threats from directed beam weapons and future nuclear weapons. The author believes that laser technology will revolutionize warfare in the 21st century.

"Engineering the Revolution "documents the forging of a new relationship between technology and politics in Revolutionary France, and the inauguration of a distinctively modern form of the "technological life." Here, Ken Alder rewrites the history of the eighteenth century as the total history of one particular artifact--the gun--by offering a novel and historical account of how material artifacts emerge as the outcome of political struggle. By expanding the "political" to include conflict over material objects, this volume rethinks the nature of engineering rationality, the origins of mass production, the rise of meritocracy, and our interpretation of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution.

Lingel et al. present alternative methods to approach U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) tasking and the command and control processes and assess the outcome of different information-collection strategies. They develop new assessment techniques and operational strategies to improve the use of ISR assets in dynamic environments.

Explores new and nontraditional ways that the United States might be able to employ aircraft carriers in pursuit of traditional and emerging military and homeland defense missions. Summarizes the insights of two Concept Options Groups (COGs)-small groups of experienced military and civilian experts, defense analysts, and potential users who work together to identify promising ways to employ military might in nontraditional ways.

Examines the capabilities and costs of onboard technologies to divert missiles attacking commercial airliners. Given the significant uncertainties in the cost and effectiveness of countermeasures, a decision to install them should be postponed, and concurrent development efforts to reduce these uncertainties should proceed as rapidly as possible.

Today's arsenal of war contains some of the most sophisticated weapons ever seen on the battlefield. The technological revolution has drastically altered how war is fought and brought about the invention of some highly unusual (and effective) weapons. In the recent war with Iraq, we caught a glimpse of the new high-tech weapons in America's arsenal and the wide-ranging array of modern equipment and transportation used by our armed forces. America's modern military hardware is the envy -and fear-of the world.In U.S. Armed Forces Arsenal, noted military historian Samuel A. Southworth takes the reader on an informal and informative guided tour of this new arsenal of weaponry. He explains in clear and concise prose the new generation of military hardware, from rifles to mortars, jeeps to tanks, robotic drones to night vision sensors, and all manner of bombs, missiles and rockets-the arms and armaments that have reshaped the way the U.S. goes to war, on land and sea and in the air.

Originally the German assault gun was designed as an infantry support weapon, but the changing conditions of the battlefields of the Second World War forced it to adapt to perform a number of different roles, most importantly as a tank destroyer, although the infantry support role was never wholly discarded. If the much-glamorised Panzer divisions were the sword of the German army then the assault gun and tank destroyer units were its shield. As the Panzers' grip on the battlefield began to fail, though, it was left to the assault gun and tank destroyer crews to take up the burden.