Local Procurement: Fill & Download for Free

Well, there are three grades of rations, as others have pointed out.You have your “field rations” — these are in a can or a pouch and likely a few decades old. They will keep you alive, but the taste is not much to write home about.You have your T-rations, prepared in mobile kitchen trailers by cooks. These are better, but mostly, they are prepackaged “heat and serve” meals, so not the greatest.You have your garrison mess hall rations. These are freshly prepared, from good locally procured ingredients, they are as good as anything you might get in a local restaurant.But if you really want the good food….Wait for it…Go to an Air Force base.Those guys famously eat well, are quartered well, and have creature comforts from hell. The running joke is that they use all the money to build barracks and clubs and amenities and then go back to congress and say they need more money for runways.Always eat at the Air Force chow hall. You will not be disappointed.

The stationary NKVD and military commandos in the German-occupied territories of the USSR (“partizány”).Apart from disrupting German troops logistics and military intelligence, their explicit task was to maximize confrontation between the occupation authorities and local population. This often involved false flag rampage expeditions, or entering local communities in Hiwi uniforms to spot out collaborators, or attacking German troops in a way that would release their most furious retaliation against civilians, e.g. poisoning. They were also tasked with extra-judicial executions of those suspected in collaboration and hostage-taking for operative purposes.When my Dad’s regiment was transferred from Poland to Hungary in 1945, they received some reinforcement from former members of these partizány troops. They told stories about a widespread “trade in Jews” that happened in Western Belorussia.In these territories, they had a lot of Jews who tried to hide from the German extermination. For locals, these were a prized prey. Germans often paid a reward for each captured Jew. Besides, many were from Lithuania and Poland, where a lot of Jewish families managed to salvage their valuables from the Soviet rule and Germans—a treasure trove for greedy extortionists.The NKVD commanders soon took over a large part of the trade. Locals who turned Jews directly to Germans were often shot on the spot, so the collection soon moved under the control of partizány. There, the NKVD operatives used their network to locate the hidden zhidóvskiye chóchki (“Jewish trinkets”). Men would then be recruited into the commandos units, where they made a very reliable and motivated force. Women, old people and children would be dispatched na bolshúyu zémliu (“to the mainland”). This often involved gathering them in “safe houses” or sending them into transit where they would be intercepted by Germans. The reward for the capture would then be shared between the partizány and collaborators among Germans and Hiwi.One of the tricks was to organize an interception of a German transport with captured Jews, free them, give them new IDs with changed names, “dispatch to the mainland”, and organize another capture by Germans. This “recycling” made it possible to collect reward for the same people several times.The poster below, “Partizány, retaliate without mercy!” In the Soviet patriotic tradition, partizány have been always pictured as civilians who organized themselves—armed with captured weapons and using local procurement—into guerrilla forces, called partizán regiments and partizán armies.

Where do mercenaries get their weapons?Well, those I know were issued American and European made weapons, purchased by the company that was contracted to provide security for individuals, locations and routes in hostile countries.Of course, this is supplemented by locally procured weapons.It’s amazing how time has passed, but it’s been a long time since they were steadily in the news. Here is a photo of some in country security contractors.Saudi’s Crown Prince has created a private force. I am going to guess these are top of the line, maybe HK rifles.Something totally unique!Now an interesting one, for some middle east contract did something very unique. They not only opted for their own, special ammo, but a firearm needed to be developed.FK BRNO 7.5 mm.The 7.5 FK Field pistol is a single action, tilting barrel type mechanism, with a proprietary recoil attenuating system. This is not a modified design of another product or pistol model. This is a completely new and unique concept and design, and the intellectual rights to the system have been registered and claimed by FK Brno. The Design is very ergonomic, and even though the magazine holds 16 35 mm long rounds, the smallest hands will be able to fully wrap around the optimally angled grip of the pistol. The frame and slide are very slender and streamlined for such a size cartridge and caliber.I shit you not!The rounds and the ammo. That’s a heavy pistol, but still service sized.This thing was developed for a contractor for a special application. They needed to potentially take on AK armed threats, out to around 100 meters, but needed discrete carry, like a holstered sidearm. So they had the money to come up with something that could own that envelop, accurate enough, hard hitting yet compact. Imagine the submachine gun in that caliber.7.5 FKThe 7.5 FK or the 7.5 FK BRNO is a bottlenecked rimless centerfire automatic pistol cartridge developed by the Czech firearms and ammunition manufacturer FK Brno Engineering s.r.o. It is reported that the cartridge has recently been adopted by some law enforcement agencies and militaries engaged in ongoing conflicts by their special operations units. The cartridge is known for its long-range accuracy and high incapacitation capability when compared to other automatic pistol cartridges.