L85 rifle new manufacture receivers?

[bigduke6]

Do the ration packs still contain the holy grail Oatmeal blocks? They've been in the rations since 1952

Peter, can't say I've come across them, but still contain Biscuit Browns......... last ones I had the other week were poor, out again soon......tuna pasta isn't too bad and the Chicken biryani keeps you regular..........

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[Peter Laidler]

And those BISCUITS, AB which someone told me stood for Axxx Blocking! Those 'dead fly' biscuits were nice too. I think that they were called Garibaldi

[Brian Dick]

Funny, I always thought the MRE's were bad. Designed that way to create a special breed of mean "***" soldier.

[Vincent]

Does the British Army still have petrol cookers?

Best bit of kit ever!

[Flying10uk]

I've seen plenty of petrol cookers for sale as surplus but don't know if it's something that's still used by the British Army; personally I wouldn't be brave enough to actually light one myself.

When the British Army was operating in Bosnia, I seem to recall hearing on the news, that a tracked armoured personnel carrier was not used as this would appear heavy handed and so a wheeled monstrosity (Saxon?) was used instead.

[Vincent]

I've seen plenty of petrol cookers for sale as surplus but don't know if it's something that's still used by the British Army; personally I wouldn't be brave enough to actually light one myself.

You don’t have to use petrol. They are like an M1 tank and will also work with Kerosene (what you call paraffin), more or less the same as jet fuel or even diesel.

If you are lucky enough to be around some oil wells, it will burn natural gas condensate, sometimes called "casing head gasoline” or " natural gasoline." Some condensates are odorless and others stink of sulfur, like the exhaust of a Tijuana taxi... so I am told.

[Vincent]

The German military in particular is in a terrible under resourced state these days, a faint shadow of its cold war composition!

AND THIS IS A BAD THING?????

[bigduke6]

don't know if it's something that's still used by the British Army

No.... but Ration Packs still issued with a hexamine cooker, but a lot take or use there own stove, the big thing at present is the jet boil cooker, looks a good bit of kit but your paying for the name, I've just bought a poor mans version for £5.00 from China or Taiwan, yet to try it but will post some pics.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

We had little "petrol" cookers that were supposed to used to make the contents of the famous "Ten Man" ration pack "edible"

Pump them up like an old-time plumber's blowtorch or "pressure lantern" and they got hot REALLY fast.

Then, all of a sudden (ish) they were a problem. EVERYTHING started being run on DIESEL fuel.

You could huff and puff as much as you liked, but those little stoves WOULD NOT work with that stuff.

Next thing, the "fashionable" Digger was sporting a variety of Gucci, camping-store-bought, gas cookers which may just be a bit of a liability on the two-way rifle range.

The good old Hexamine solid-fuel cooker still works fine; even finer if you have friends in low places (Assault Pioneers, Engineers) who have C4 to spare. It burns VERY hot, makes a brew REALLY FAST, but also burns the bottom out of the flimsy, folded tin-plate stoves VERY fast. Was always advised to NEVER douse burning C4 by tipping it on the ground and stamping a big boot on it.

[mrclark303]

As Geoff said, at least we won't be waisting scarce MOD resources on yet another great EU wrong turn!

Astonished that the French and Germans are prepared to commit their thinly spread resources to such a pointless duplication of NATO structure.

The German military in particular is in a terrible under resourced state these days, a faint shadow of its cold war composition!