STRIKE-HOLD - the international military and tactical blog

The Skill of Layering Clothing for Cold Weather Performance

One of the reasons for the poor performance of the Soviet Army in the Winter War with Finland in 1939/1940 was that, ironically, the Soviets were poorly trained and equipped for combat operations in an extremely cold, snow-covered environment.  [caption id="attachment_8567" align="aligncenter" width="820"] Wounded and freezing Red Army soldiers after...

UF PRO: Why Ergonomics Matter

Fashions and styles come and go in the world of military clothing just as they do on the civilian market - just not as rapidly. For example, the dust colored 4-pocket tunic and straight leg trousers of the "safari suit" worn by British explorers and adventurers all around the world...

The Russo-Finnish Winter War: 1939-1940

The "Winter War" between little Finland and the mighty Soviet Union began on this date eighty-one years ago.  [caption id="attachment_8543" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] A Finnish machine gun crew during the Winter War. Photo credit: PUBLIC DOMAIN/ WIKIPEDIA.[/caption]   With Britain and France preoccupied with preparing themselves for war against Nazi Germany,...

Friday Foto

U.S. Marines with Marine Rotational Force-Europe 21.1 conduct cold weather live-fire training in preparation for "Exercise Reindeer II" in Setermoen, Norway. Reindeer II is a bilateral training exercise hosted by the Norwegian military to increase support capabilities between NATO allies in extreme conditions. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. William...

Operation Ivory Coast – Son Tay Prison Raid 1970

On November 21, 1970 - 50 years ago this past weekend - a milestone event in the history of Special Operations Forces took place. This was "Operation Ivory Coast" - the Son Tay Prison Raid - which is sadly often overlooked and forgotten outside of the US Special Operations Community. ...

‘SturmGFAL’ – Frankengewehr or Sexy Beast?

Those mad scientists at Dave's Custom Airsoft in the UK have done it again. This time it was actually one of their apprentices - and he's created a really unique and impressive work of art in our opinion. A German G3 combined with a dash of British SLR, and a...

Friday Foto

Royal Marines of 45 Commando carry out mountain training in Scotland ahead of their Arctic deployment next year. At the heart of this is Future Commando Force. This bold modernisation is a restructuring that will overhaul how the world-famous green berets operate. It is about returning commando forces to their...

More Airsoft Guns We Want To See

Due to the overwhelming response to our post last year, we've decided to do a second part to the "Airsoft Guns That Should Exist" list. While some of the guns on this might have existed as expensive custom builds, or classic collectable replicas, no one (as far as we can...

ARES Airsoft Announces Kel-Tec RDB Replica

ARES Airsoft recently announced that they will be releasing an officially-licensed AEG replica of the Kel-Tec RDB .223 / 5.56mm bullpup rifle next year - in collaboration with EMG Arms. The Kel-Tec RDB (Rifle, Downward-ejection, Bullpup) is a .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO semi-automatic rifle, developed and manufactured by Kel-Tec...

Defiant – New Soft-Shell Jacket From PDW

Prometheus Design Werx introduces their fully seam taped, technical, soft-shell hoodie made with All-Weather, 4-way stretch Swiss Schoeller fabric. The purpose driven design of the Defiant is born from almost 2 decades of R&D experience in this class of outerwear. The development process included the input of real-world user feedback...