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Emanating from the world’s most combat proven and effective tube artillery system, the Panzerhaubitze 2000 (PzH2000 self-propelled howitzer), Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) developed an independent artillery module, fully meeting current military requirements. Accurate fire power is and remains an important military requirement. In current conflicts such as in Afghanistan, the PzH2000 could prove that this system can be perfectly deployed in asymmetric combat theatres. During Operation Medusa and the Battle of Chora, the Dutch PzH2000 effectively supported coalition forces and eliminated targets up to a distance of 46 kilometres. Indirect fire support is and remains an important element in current, as...

(IsraelNN.com) The enemy in Gaza kept firing anti-civilian terror rockets at Sderot and the Gaza perimeter late Tuesday evening, bringing the reported total of such rocket strikes to 25 Tuesday. The enemy fired another 25 mortar rounds at Israel as well. The Gazan terrorists fired seven rockets from northern Gaza at the western Negev late Tuesday night. All four exploded harmlessly in open fields in the Sdot Negev Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported. A 19-year-old man was hit by flying shrapnel in Sderot earlier in a "Kassam" rocket attack. The rocket, which exploded in the center of...

TRIPOLI, Lebanon - Seven al-Qaida-inspired guerrillas surrendered Tuesday to a secular Palestinian faction at a besieged refugee camp in northern Lebanon, offering the first tangible sign that moderate Palestinians might be moving against the militants. But others in the extremist group Fatah Islam continued to fight, and Lebanese government troops battered their hideouts in the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp for a fifth straight day. Clouds of smoke billowed over the camp as artillery shells exploded on militant positions. Calm held at Lebanon's biggest Palestinian refugee camp, Ein el-Hilweh in the south, where Islamic extremists sympathetic to Fatah Islam clashed with...

Shells may represent oldest known beads Bruce Bower Three sea-snail shells previously discovered at Stone Age sites in Israel and Algeria contain intentionally fashioned holes in their centers, making the finds the oldest known examples of personal decoration, a research team says. HOLE IN TWO. Two perforated shells from an Israeli site dated to between 135,000 and 100,000 years ago appear in different views (top group and bottom group). Vanhaeren, F. d'Errico The trio of perforated shells apparently served as beads, conclude Marian Vanhaeren of University College London and her colleagues. Holes in the shells look nothing like those that...

The earliest known pieces of jewellery made by modern humans have been identified by scientists. The three shell beads are between 90,000 and 100,000 years old, according to an international research team. Two of the ancient beads come from Skhul Cave on the slopes of Mount Carmel in Israel. The other comes from the site of Oued Djebbana in Algeria. The finds, which pre-date other ancient examples by 25,000 years, are described in the US journal Science. The pea-sized items all have similar holes which would have allowed them to be strung together into a necklace or bracelet, the...

(IsraelNN.com) Gush Katif refugees, many of whom are still dwelling in hotels awaiting permanent housing, lit a unique menorah tonight, one made of mortar shells fired by Arab terrorists into the heart of N’vei Dekalim, the largest community of Gush Katif. That special menorah commemorates the miracle of Jewish survival throughout the ages, and reminds us of the symbolic role Gush Katif has played in the saga of Jewish history: a community standing victorious despite constant attempts by Arab terrorists to wipe it out. 5000 mortars rained down on Gush Katif, from the onset of the Oslo War in September...

The original artillery was towed, primarily by horses. Towed guns bring some advantages as opposed to self-propelled guns. They are lighter, which makes it easier to deploy them via aircraft (thus ensuring that a light division will have support). They are cheaper, which makes the bean-counters happy. They are also simpler, which means much less can go wrong. That said, the low price, light weight, and simplicity comes with a trade-off in tactical mobility. Towed howitzers, which rely these days on trucks to move them, have a harder time keeping up with mobile units (like armor and mechanized infantry) than...

Iraq Insurgents in First Attack on Korean Troops Korea's Zaytun Division in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil took cover late Sunday evening when four shells presumably fired by insurgents landed near the unit's base compound, the first direct attack on Korean troops since they were deployed to the area last September. There were no casualties among Korean soldiers or civilians, but the division's activity is likely to be curtailed for some time. "At around 11:00 p.m., there were blasts and flames as two shells landed in wheat fields 500 m south of the Zaytun Division base walls, and two...

April 11, 2005: The U.S. Army continues to try developing an artillery shell that can hit with precision accuracy. Two new such shells are about to enter service: Excalibur and PGK. Back in the 1980s, the 155mm Copperhead round was developed, at great expense, to take out tanks with one shell. The Copperhead was laser guided. That is, it homed in on laser light that a forward observer, with a laser “gun”, was creating by pointing the laser at the target. Same deal with laser guided bombs. But this was expensive technology. Each of the 3,000 Copperhead shells cost several...

Secret bunkers held chemical weapons, says Iraqi exile April 1, 2004 Print this article Email to a friend A scientist describes Saddam's weapons and stealth technology programs, reports Russell Skelton. For seven years, before he was tortured and sentenced to death, Rashid (not his real name) worked at the top of Iraq's scientific establishment. He says he regularly met Saddam Hussein and his cousin and strongman deputy prime minister Abdul Tawab Huweish. After the Gulf War he was put in charge of a taskforce code named "Al Babel" to develop stealth technology to make aircraft and missiles undetectable on radar....

I have been strongly criticized in a newspaper for mentioning the sarin shells found in Iraq as evidence of the existence of WMD. Here's one paragraph of the reader's response: "Any sort of follow-up to the television watching Mr. XXX did which led to his rant would have let him in on the fact that the sarin gas shells that were found by the Poles and Americans were either left over from the Iran-Iraq War 25 years ago (in which case there is a possibility that the shells actually belong to us) or left over from the first Gulf War....

FORMER chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said that a shell containing sarin nerve gas used in an attack in Iraq was most likely a stray weapon possibly from the first Gulf War. Blix said today that the discovery of the nerve agent was not a sign that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction before the war last year. The US-led coalition used that claim to justify the invasion even though UN inspectors failed to make any significant finds before the war. The former Swedish foreign minister said the 155-mm shell used to attack a US military...

All reports are that Sarin Gas is being used against the troops in Iraq. This is the type of Weapons of Mass Destruction that the President wanted to destroy. This is the reason we went into Iraq to get rid of WMD like Sarin Gas. We need to make a loud and public issue of this. We need to bring WMD back to the forefront of why we went into Iraq. This sarin gas could only be manufactured in a large plant and there have to be more WMD factories somewhere. Let's get really vocal about this and put it...

A fourth round of tests conducted on mortar shells found in Iraq 10 days ago by Danish troops has determined that they did not contain chemical weapons, contradicting field tests by British and Danish experts last week. The results of the latest evaluation by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in Idaho were announced Sunday by the Danish Army Operational Command. The results mirrored findings late last week by a U.S.-led Iraq Survey Group, which was dispatched to the site in Basra after the British and Danish tests indicated that the shells contained a form of...

Danish troops have found suspicious mortar shells in southern Iraq and plan to test them to see if they could be chemical weapons, military officials said. A Danish official in the city of Basra said troops had uncovered 36 120milimetre mortars on Friday and had asked British specialists to analyse them. "The first inspections have shown that the mortars contain some liquid," he said. "We don't now what sort of liquid or the age of the mortars." He said soldiers had cleared the area where the weapons were found. There are several hundred Danish soldiers working with a British-led multinational...

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Dutch marines said Wednesday that several dozen artillery shells discovered last month in Iraq contain no biological or chemical agents. The 130-mm artillery shells, which dated back to the 1991 Gulf War, were found just north of the town of Samawah in the Dutch-monitored al-Muthana province on Oct. 8. The shells were initially considered suspect because they showed signs of discoloring. They will undergo more tests by British and American experts. Marines spokesman Albert Markus said "testing until now has shown no signs of chemical or biological weapons." Around 1,100 Dutch marines have been in the...

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - A new renewable energy source has emerged in Australia with the development of the world's first power station to be fueled by waste macadamia-nut shells. Construction began this week on the A$3 million ($2 million) power plant in the northern state of Queensland, which will use 5,000 tonnes of shells annually from Australia's native macadamia nuts as fuel for the 1.5 megawatt generator. The biomass co-generation plant, which is a joint venture between Queensland state-owned Ergon Energy and macadamia nut producer Suncoast Gold Macadamias, will generate 9.5 gigawatt hours of electricity annually to supply more than 1,200...

'CHEMICAL SHELLS FOUND' US Marines have discovered 278 artillery shells carrying a substance that tested positive as a blistering agent, senior officers have said.Major Stephen Armes, of the Marines 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment, said the shells were found in trailers parked in a schoolyard. Three were mounted on launchers, he said.But the battalion commander said more tests were required before any conclusions could be drawn.Coalition forces have yet to find any evidence of chemical weapons since launching the war in Iraq on March 20.All the alleged finds have so far turned out to be false upon further analysis.But military commanders...

Shells with suspected chemical agent found in Iraq US marines have discovered 278 artillery shells carrying a substance that tested positive as a chemical agent, senior officers said. Major Stephen Armes, operations officer of the Marines 1st Battalion, 5th Regiment, said the shells containing suspected blister agents were found on Saturday in trailers parked in a schoolyard in Baghdad. Three were mounted on launchers, he said. "They tested positive for chemical weapons," he said. But Lieutenant Colonel Fred Padilla, the battalion commander, said more tests were required. US forces who invaded Iraq on March 20 in a declared bid to...

Militia shells liberated villagers given food by British troops By Jack Fairweather in Gul Ashab (Filed: 04/04/2003) The villagers of Gul Ashab yesterday paid a terrible price for the welcome they have shown to British forces distributing aid in the newly liberated village. On Wednesday the entire village, just outside Basra, had gathered to thank A Squadron of the Queen's Dragoon Guards as they handed out much needed food and water. But early yesterday the village centre was in flames after an artillery and mortar attack by Iraqi militia groups Nine shells fell on the village, taking off the leg...