Copy of `Tea and medals - Military glossary`

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Tea and medals - Military glossary Category: Military and Defence Date & country: 17/11/2007, UK Words: 149

Ported
Holes cut at an oblique angle to the surface, e.g. port hole on a boat. Usually used to vent gases from on a real firearm.

PPK
Polizei Pistole Kriminal, notably the Walther PPK as used by James Bond.

Rat Pack
Abbreviation for Ration Pack.

Red Dot
A type of aiming device. The red dot is frequently confused with a laser sight, but the two are different. A red dot uses a HUD to project an image of a dot on the target, and this can only be seen by the person aiming.

RMP
Royal Military Police

RO
Royal Ordnance (UK).

RoE
Rules of Engagement. A set of guidelines that determine how combatants are allowed to act on a given mission. In Top Gun, the RoE were 'Do not fire until fired upon'.

RoF
Rate of Fire, normally in RPM.

RPM
Rounds Per Minute.

RSAF
Royal Small Arms Factory

S10
Type of respirator currently in use with the British Army.

SA80
Standard issue weapon of the British Army. AKA the L85A1. A weapon universally cursed by squaddies.

Safety
Switch that determines if weapons can be fired. The safety usually disengages the trigger mechanism when active, or physically prevents the hammer from falling. Weapons should always have the safety on when you are not actively engaging the enemy.

Sangar
Usually used to describe a makeshift bunker or barricade. Probably originates from the Hindi 'sunga', as a sanga(r) is 'stone breastwork used by Indian hill-tribes'.

SAS
Special Air Service. Formed in 1941 by David Stirling, the SAS are one of, if not the, finest fighting forces in the world. Their most high profile operation was the storming of the Iranian embassy at 7:23pm, 5th May 1980, but they have conducted numerous covert operations for the last 60 years.

SAW
Squad Automatic Weapon

SBS
Special Boat Squadron. Originally commanded by Earl George Jellicoe, the Special Boat Squadron was a small division within the WWII SAS. The SBS sowed water-borne havoc against the Germans in the Aegean. Once the war was over, the SBS was separated from the SAS and renamed the Special Boat Service, and since then the SBS has conducted a number of extremely successful and in most cases secret operations around the world. Possibly the most famous SBS operation was during the Falklands War, when member of the SBS were sent on long-range reconnaissance against the Argentinean Forces, weeks before the rest of the British fleet arrived.

Scran Spanners
Knife, fork and spoon.

Semi-Automatic
A weapon which automatically reloads after each shot, but requires a trigger pull for every shot.

SF
Sustained Fire, AKA Suppressing Fire.

Shoot & Scoot
See: Fire & Movement

Single Action
1. (Handguns) More sensitive trigger firing mechanism, weapon must already be cocked. 2. (Rifle) A bolt-action weapon requiring manual recocking between each shot.

Skirmishing
Playing 'wargames' with Airsoft or Paintball models.

Slide
Top section of a pistol which moves either for cocking or in cyclic action

Slot
Slang; To neutralise the opposition. See 'Bump'.

SLR
Self Loading Rifle

SMG
Sub Machine Gun. Small fully automatic gun which fires a pistol calibre round.

Snake Eater
Slang; Member of Special Forces personnel. So called because their specialist jungle training invariably involves cooking and eating snakes.

SO
Special Operations. The Police force in the UK have several special operations teams, designated by number. These are: SO1 - Major Enquiry Teams SO3 - Director of the National Identification Service S04 - National Identification Service SO6 - Specialist Crime SO7 - Serious & Organised Crime SO10 - Covert Operations SO11 - Intelligence SO12 - Special Branch SO13 - Anti-Terrorism Branch SO14 - Royalty Protection SO16 - Diplomatic Protection Group SO17 - Palace of Westminster Division SO19 - Force Firearms Unit (recently redesignated as CO19)

SOCOM
Special Operations Command

SoftAir
Original version of Airsoft using 7mm plastic pellets

SPAS
Special Purpose Automatic Shotgun

Spetznaz
Russian Special Forces. Translated, 'Spetsialnoye nazranie' : troops of special purpose.

Squaddie
British Army Soldier.

Standard
A non-upgraded, off the shelf Airsoft model.

Steyr
Steyr Mannlicher or Steyr Daimler Puch (same company)

STI
Strayer Tripp Incorporated, handgun manufacturer.

Stock
1. Section between breach block and butt of a model. 2. Non-upgraded airsoft model.

SUSAT
Sight Unit Small Arms Trilux. Type of 4x optical sight found on the British Army SA-80.

SV
Special, Super or Sniper Version. Usually seen on the APS-2 rifle.

SVI
Strayer Voight Incorporated, handgun manufacturers.

SWAT
Special Weapons and Tactics, a unit that is trained and equipped to handle special, high-risk incidents (e.g., barricaded suspects, snipers, armed encounters). Most law enforcement agencies have SWAT teams.

Tango
Slang for a terrorist. So named after the military's designation for the letter 'T' (Tango) in the phonetic alphabet.

Tracer Round
Luminous BB's which glow green when exposed to bright light.

Tracer Unit
Screw on unit resembling a silencer which contains a bright light. By means of an IR sensor this illuminates BBs as they leave the barrel.

Trigger Guard
Protective guard around the trigger to stop you accidentally pulling it. Well what did you think it was?

USMC
United States Marine Corps.

USP
Universal Self-loading Pistol.

Zero
1. The range at which the point of aim and the point of impact are one and the same. 2. To sight in a rifle/scope/load combination so that the bullet`s point of impact coincides with the point of aim at a preselected distance. Called this because at that distance, zero hold-over is required when aiming