Originally posted by San Francisco, 1911: Japan has a military?
Yes and no.
What they have is, by law, a "self defense force". Their postwar constitution technically prohibits the formation of a military, and bans the use of war to solve international conflicts. But their SDF performs the military functions of homeland defense, antiterrorism, and overseas peacekeeping. It is a de facto military, and a quite capable military at that.
Iceland is similar. They do not have a military, per se. But they do have a small de facto military to perform defensive, antiterror, and international peacekeeping military functions, which consists of a coast guard, an air defense system, and a crisis response ground unit.
Sweet. They chose a very good pistol, one of my favorites for a number of reasons. I'd be curious to see what they did as far as testing those pistol contenders.
________________ tempus edax rerum
Posts: 1251 | Location: Oregon | Registered: March 18, 2014
Technologically advanced but for the most part unproven in actual conventional warfare. The shadow of WW2 aggression looms heavily, both domestically and regionally, which some say severely ties the hands of the JSDF. They are often portrayed in the public eye as taking part in non-combat peacekeeping/relief roles.
Posts: 820 | Location: Michigan | Registered: November 02, 2010
Originally posted by .357MagNYC: Interesting that they chose the VP9 over the Glock 17. I wonder what the deciding factors were?
Way better sights/trigger out of the box. More ergonomic. Not saying one is better than the other, I have HK and Glocks but if I had to pick one and not alter it at all I’d probably go VP9
It probably helped that HK is already supplying the JSDF (namely their special forces) with some of their other small arms, including the G36, 416, 417, MP5, MP7, and USP.
This was interesting to read about the Howa Type 64 rifle!
quote:
The magazine capacity is limited to 20-rounds of 7.62×51mm NATO ammunition. A notable feature of the cartridge used in this weapon is that the powder charge is reduced by about 10%, to reduce its inherently excessive recoil and muzzle climb. It was purposely produced with a reduced powder charge to be more suitable to the Japanese physique.
Similar to what the Spanish started to do with their reduced power 7.62x51 load for their CETME rifles in the 1950s, before eventually abandoning that and just going with full power 7.62 NATO.
Originally posted by RichardC: Will the military surplus importers have a bunch of trade-in Nambus for sale?
The JSDF will be transitioning from a Japanese-made licensed copy of the 9mm Sig P220.
I'd say it's a damned shame none of them will make it over here, but the ones I've seen in pictures look as though they've been truly beat to hell for years.
Didn't they transition to a licensed copy of the 226 at some point?
Posts: 27291 | Location: Deep in the heart of the brush country, and closing on that #&*%!?! roadrunner. Really. | Registered: February 05, 2008
Interesting! Both the UK and France will wield the Glock 17's now, then. The French Press release in that article mentions the "reliability and durability" that the Glocks showed during testing.
