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WHEN IRELAND SENDS 130 troops to the Golan Heights this month, they’re going to have to be ready for anything.
And, judging on their preparations in the Glen of Imaal this week, the 50th Infantry Division will be just that.
They showed us two drills this week, the disarming of a bomb and this, a reaction to being ambushed while on patrol in an armoured personnel carrier.
The bad guys, identifiable by their hoodies, are made short work of by the Defence Forces.
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those new blank firing attachments are a joke. you have to recock after every shot.
Very esoteric.
I was wondering why they were doing that.
Why are lightly armed men attacking what I presume are heavily armed APCs?
it’s a drill. it’s only simulation.
Not very realistic though is it
the various drills go through many evolutionslike this before they are right. also 7.62mm bullets which ak47 (that most middle east groups use) fires can potentially penetrate the thin APC armor at under 100m what you also didn’t see was the 4 APCS firing smoke canisters and returning fire with their main armament on the turret probably because this gun cannot fire blank ammunition. and this was not a live fire drill In this respect it was realistic enough to drill exiting from an APC, forming up, winning the fire fight, assaulting the enemy position in bounding overwatch. reorganisation and mounting up. the same drills in a few weeks time will be a lot slicker.
Michael ….Have to agree with you on that point.
I would of wiped them out in call of duty, convoy stopped, 2 grenades at bunched up troops and short burst from Ak then reload.
Military too bunched together. One spray of a machine gun would have wiped it out.
Sir, yes sir.
yep, like little chicks, first time out of the nest. who’s training these soldiers? chancers
I would rather we hire some more Gardai and spend more on our hospitals , than to be paying billions on these kinds of fun and games.
Our country doesn’t spend ‘billions’ on our military.
Populist nonsense, this isn’t fun and games they’re training for peacekeeping in the Golan Heights. If the big powers had put more money into peacekeeping as opposed to destabilising maybe we wouldn’t have this colossal migration crisis, peacekeeping is important for stability in volatile regions.
@Norman Hunter,
I wasn’t very far out;
The military budget was €1.005 Billion in 2007 (estimated) and €1.354 Billion in 2010. By 2015 the budget had been cut to €885 Million and is projected to stay at that level until 2017 according to the latest Department of Finance report.
@Eamon, our hospitals certainly don’t need more money, however, they badly need to cut out the highly paid pencil pushers that choke up the system, this is were the money goes!!
@fiachra29,
We are getting the worst of both worlds, spending a fortune on peacekeeping AND the refugees.
@Joe Conlon,
That’s for sure.
No you were still quite far out Eamon with your spending estimation, the word billions is plural so there would need to be 2 or more billion spent.
@fiachra29,
Now you’re just nit picking.
You said Billions Eamon. We don’t even spend 1 billion.
@Cian O Donoghue,
Doesn’t really matter, they wouldn’t last 5 minutes against ANY United States Marine division, or any elite Canadian, Russian special forces unit.
Spending Billions!have you seen the Irish defense budget,it wouldn’t cover a night out in Bansha.
You know this from your wealth of military experience yeah?
To compare the irish army to the U.S. Or Russian army is a pointless endeavor. Irish army’s role is orientated more toward peacekeeping and aid to civil power operations. As opposed to other armies who’d be more drilled in warfighting operations.
It would be like saying who would win a match between a football and basketball team
@Karl Sullivan,
I was being over respectful. The time they were in the Congo they were beaten by a bunch of tribesmen with spears and bows and arrows. They seem to be in even worse shape now with women NCOs out performing them in PE.
You’re seriously clutching at straws to keep your argument alive now Eamon, the Niemba ambush which you appear to be referring to was 55 years ago how can that possibly be an indicator of the current state of the Irish Army. And how exactly are the Irish army in worse shape now what evidence do you have? or is this more of the sensationalist nonsense you’ve already spewed on this thread.
What a lowlife comment… Probably from some call of duty armchair warrior, who wouldn’t be fit to polish the boots of guys who served in the Congo.
@Robert Murphy,
What do you want me to do, pretend it didn’t happen?
No but you could have some respect for our fallen. If you haven’t worn the uniform then you’ve no idea what your talking about.
@fiachra29,
On RTE a few weeks a few weeks ago, it showed basic training. The women soldiers were out performing the men in PE, and the men were being drilled by female drill instructors.
The Kilkenny hurlers wouldn’t be all Ireland champions if the Kilkenny camogie team were better than them.
That’s your “evidence” some women appear to be excelling in one group of recruits in basic training in an RTÉ programme, so what? along with an ambush that happened 55 years ago, the billions that we actually don’t spend on our military, the fact that they would lose in a conflict against special forces that they’re never going to come into conflict with and from all that nonsense you reckon we shouldn’t send peacekeeping missions abroad.
You’re talking out your arse and haven’t produced a single decent reason why this mission shouldn’t go ahead, you clearly have some pre-existing prejudice against the Irish army, your argument has no basis in logic and you’ve no clue what you’re talking about.
Eamon you’d be hiring more speed camera’s if you hire more garda.
fiachra I wish I could like your put down a second time!!!! well f***ing said that man. eamon go boil your own head.
@fiachra29,
Just to please you; “we have the toughest army in the world.”
Happy now?
All very well when there’s two blokes attacking your three APCs. If there was an IED involved they’d have been down one APC from the start. They then piled out of the second APC bunched like a group of grannies off to bingo…
Clusterf**k.
What you are seeing is only 1 drill out of 2 weeks on the ground pre-deployment. No doubt there’re are all other sorts of drills they go through, including IED strikes, heli-vac and traditional military manoeuvres
One of these APCs was hit by an IED in Syria and survived it lost a wheel but still returned fire and drove back to base at full speed. And in reality the APC’s would be returning fire on the enemies with a .50cal/ grendade launcher or the 20mm cannon. But because the these weapons dont fire blanks they cant do that in this simulation. You may have also noticed that when they dismounted the Mowag they held position at the other side of it until they had formed up.
Surely any ambush by irregulars would take the form of an improvised land mine with the planters well gone.
Of course that’s a likely scenario and they’d still for that too. This was a staged event for the cameras and had to be more action orientated. That’s not to say it’s not a likely scenario too.
*drill
The cameras were a bit of a giveaway for an ambush though, no ?
Has anyone served in the Irish Defence Forces
Ready to be sent to Syria to fight ISIS so?
@Bottleneck,
Or ISIS could be coming here.
I was told this is the free state army not the real army which is the IRA. You Irish are very confusing at times.
Its only confusing if you want to be confused. This is Ireland’s Army.
@Paul Wallace, the IRA are a bunch criminals…
@PhotographybyMeAB, Here comes the West Brit.
Obvious troll is obvious
You must be Australian Paul….Only Australians are stupid enough to think they’re an independent nation even though the Queen of England, 10,000 miles away , is their head of State.
These Guys are the Irish Defense Forces….Not answerable to any Royal anybody..
My History is a little Hazy Cassius. .. But didn’t the Free State army win the wat of Independence
@Garwig,
There was no Free State army during the war of Independence, it was the IRA who did the fighting.
but the free staters won.
Very surprisd to see the guys standing around like a group of fairground dummies after exiting APC, they would be in deep trouble if some one with an RPG or even an AK was on the flank.
bunch of clowns who comment to these articles
Anyone think there’s a ramp up in military type stories for some reason? Neutrality will be dropped. We’ll be sending combat troops to the Mideast sometime in the next 10 years I reckon.
no I think it’s about time the defence forces had more coverage. judging by some of the uninformed or disrespectful comments under military articles on the journal, a lot of Irish people will benefit from learning more about their military.
Malvolio32,
It was Shatter who started the drift away from neutrality, he was very pro Israeli.
we’re no longer neutral if the truths were known.
We were never neutral after World War 2 if the truth be known, just politically Non-aligned.
I can’t really see a scenario where two guys armed only with rifles and some grenades would be crazy enough to attack a convoy of apcs, in reality there would be a lot more than two guys.Having said that I wish our troops the best of luck in the golan.
The scenario for the exercise we were not privy too, it may well have involved an IED or RPG hit on a vehicle, the problem is how do you simulate that realistically in an exercise, with green smoke possibly.
the gangsters out on the streets have better guns than the Irish army. by the time they reload for the 2nd shot they’ll be shot
a lot a casualties and misguided rounds. all over the shop. soldiers today are more sitting duck than ever. a snipers paradise now.
What part of Newgrange was that?
Don’t think you’d ever see an ambush party setting up an attack facing up hill. Drill very sloppy by army lads, but only training I suppose!
Very surprised to see the guys standing grouped up right like fairground dummies after exiting APC, all it would need is an RPG or AK on the flank and they would be in deep trouble.
50th infantry division ???? You mean battalion !
Good luck to the men and woman of our army heading to Golan heights! Safe home!
Not if it is a biological agent in Yemen?
Garwig. The Free state army didn’t exist until we were independent.
The Citizens army won the war of independence.
have your say