upyr1 asked:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_new_basic_training I saw this article mention not only the US army is stopping Bayonet drills but no longer issues bayonets. How long has the bayonet been absent from the US army's equipment- I thought the m9 knife could be used as a bayonet looks like it could be a bad mistake since I would assume a bayonet would be great in close quarters combat since it would take less time to stab the enemy than it would to reload. It seems like the same mentality that resulted in the early f-4's not having a gun.
the reason I say that the thinking behind ending bayonet training and the orginal F-4s lacking guns being the same line of thought is becuse the USAF and Navy believed most combat would happen outside of gunrange.
While they were wrong in the 1960's the argument about the gun's usefulness in a dog fight could be brought up again since the last air to air kill by a missle armed US fighter in a dog fight was by an F-4 in vietnam. There have been a couple choppers shot down by A-10's using their 30 MM cannons so the range issue is the same.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_new_basic_training I saw this article mention not only the US army is stopping Bayonet drills but no longer issues bayonets. How long has the bayonet been absent from the US army's equipment- I thought the m9 knife could be used as a bayonet looks like it could be a bad mistake since I would assume a bayonet would be great in close quarters combat since it would take less time to stab the enemy than it would to reload. It seems like the same mentality that resulted in the early f-4's not having a gun.
the reason I say that the thinking behind ending bayonet training and the orginal F-4s lacking guns being the same line of thought is becuse the USAF and Navy believed most combat would happen outside of gunrange.
While they were wrong in the 1960's the argument about the gun's usefulness in a dog fight could be brought up again since the last air to air kill by a missle armed US fighter in a dog fight was by an F-4 in vietnam. There have been a couple choppers shot down by A-10's using their 30 MM cannons so the range issue is the same.
