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Saturday, January 28, 2012

U.S. Military Issued Combat and Survival Knives

I am pretty sure that the U.S. military either issues combat knives to all infantry, or at least to some special operations units.  But I would like some sort of official evidence of this.  Can someone find it?

6 comments:

  1. Try looking at a TOE, Table of Organization & Equipment or a TDA, Table of Distribution and Allowances.

    JLW III

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  2. Try looking at a TOE, Table of Organization & Equipment, or a TDA, Table of Distribution & Allowances.

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  3. Might be some ambiguity there - is the question issues to all or makes available to all - does knife include bayonet and such. AFAIK makes available is correct and riflemen get bayonets with tricky rules as to personal knives as personal weapons.

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  4. I meant in addition to issued bayonets. It seems that there are combat knives showing up on the NSN list, so there are definitely some soldiers apparently issued combat knives.

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  5. An active-duty US Army Infantry Officer who served last year in Afghanistan, at a Combat Outpost, tells me this: "I never got a knife before deployment but when we were deployed we got gerber multi-tools with knives, strap cutters for roll over emergencies, and gerber spring-loaded combat knives."

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  6. Define combat knife, first.

    If you mean "knife used in combat operations by Soldiers", then the answer is more-or-less as Pete puts it--There's a huge assortment of things issued from multi-tools to folding pocket knives, depending on unit and Military Occupational Specialty.

    If, on the other hand, you mean to ask if there's a specific knife issued for combat, a "fighting knife", then the answer is "no". The Army has nothing like the Marine Ka-Bar on issue, and there's no CTA 50-900 authorization for such, that I'm aware of.

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