27 rifles, including AK-74's and Druganov's, have been reported stolen from the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. The ATF reports that the military has recovered some portion of the stolen firearms and made at least one arrest. The weapons were apparently stolen from a warehouse on the Mojave Desert post.
While there are no details, I'd imagine that these are weapons used by the red team OPFOR at NTC. For a generation, military units have been rotating through NTC to get their heads handed to them in desert warfare by the OPFOR. This regiment of highly trained and very capable soldiers started out emulating a Soviet motorized rifle regiment, but have adapted with the times and have been able to kick butt and train soldiers in various scenarios. That being said, there is something epic about watching the OPFOR face off in the Valley of Death against an armored or mechanized force. Hopefully, it's going to be a long time before there are real tank battles again, but I've seen three that took my breath away at the NTC.
As to how these weapons were secured and how the thieves got access to them is still unknown. Hopefully they will be recovered and the guilty parties punished so that the staff of Fort Irwin and NTC can get back to what they do best: train our soldiers to break things and hurt people.
2 comments:
That sure sounds like an inside job...
OPFOR was the best trained regiment in the Soviet Army. I remember when a Soviet General visited NTC he was amazed how well versed in soviet tactics and doctrine, much better than the actual Soviets whom were a conscript army with 2 year enlistments. We had people who stayed there for years because of the opportunity to soldier.....and beat up on the visitors;)
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