Flamethrowers. Why aren't they used?

A good one? A hundred meters at the right angle.

Heavy, low capacity (outside of vehicles), vulnerable. Cluster munitions and thermobarics do roughly the same job.

Whoops.
>Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.

>They're demoralizing to both sides, and especially to the wielder. A malfunctioning flamethrower is a lot more likely to kill you than a malfunctioning shotgun.
Let the most violent people use them then. I'm sure there's alot of pyromaniacs who would enjoy always taking care of their weapon and roasting the enemy.
Also, the military should research on how to improve the design so it's less hazardous to the user.

>Their primary useful purpose (burning out bunkers) is no longer relevant at all, and they're worthless if your enemy is sitting 200m away plinking at you.
Well of course it's close range. But it beats the shotgun when you want to clean out rooms and shit in urban warfare or other close combat shit

You mean the Hauge, which the US did not sign you dumb fuck?

Can you read?
It only prohibits their use against civilians.

I think the Russians got it right, they have thermobaric/incendiary rockets with the Shmel RPO-A or Z.
It's a good way to get the fire effect to a target without burdening and endangering the user.
In general, fire is a scary weapon. If I saw someone walking up with a flamethrower or lobbing rockets like that, I'd very quickly change to a different position.

>stops using flamethrowers & napalm
>Upgrades arsenal to white phosphorus shells/bombs/ hand grenades/rockets and FAE bombs
I miss the classics and it seems like the US is falling behind. Russia has some man portable rocket launcher munitions of basically every thing I listed above including fae.

>Russia has some man portable rocket launcher munitions of basically every thing I listed above including fae.
And the US has had the same for ~20 years now.

Spoon feed me an American WP rocket. I know of the others but I have only found a video of a wp rocket hitting a tank nothing else and I'm not even sure it's American/western.

Learn to read you fucking nigger.

>it seems like the US is falling behind.
Most reloadable infantry launchers in US inventory have some form of FAE/thermobaric ammunition. The only difference is we dont have a dedicated launcher for it, the obsolete m202 notwithstanding.

The M202 flash

For specifically incendiary stuff, what does the US have? The Army retains the M202 but it's always had some reliability issues.

Essentially anything that's labeled 'Smoke' that's not an actual grenade in the west is actually WP.

Ty bro I hate bring a retard and having to ask like that but I really had never seen something like that. This is that shit from Commando I remember it so well. Very cool I love Jow Forums today

Attached: 400px-M202A1_rocket_launcher.jpg (400x288, 42K)

>These antipersonnel weapons are the most effective close combat weapons.

>heavy, 30kg filled
>bulky, denies the use of a pack or any secondary weapon other than a handgun
>only 7-seconds of fuel
>20 meter range, even shotguns can hit farther
>user must expose himself to fire the weapon
>long gout of flame will attract attention, when combined with the above, the user will not survive for very long
>questionable niche, its only purpose is to burn defenders out of a stronghold, but both thermobaric weapons and guided bombs are capable of doing so

tank mounted flamethrowers lasted longer, since they alleviate many of the problems above
but even they were eventually declared obsolete and pulled from service
even the M202 FLASH, whose missiles have more range and does not leave its user as vulnerable while still smoking out bunkers and its intended replacement, was only used very briefly before being relegated to a stockpile

Fucking pussy

Yeah they should issue them to penal battalions which leads to another question, what the fuck happened to the penal battalions?

>what the fuck happened to the penal battalions?
they were never very useful
soviets only used them because they were desperate, and even then people greatly exaggerate the amount of penal legions there were
remember, needing barrier troops to prevent retreat means you are equipping guns and able bodied men to ensure a second-rate battalion does its job instead of just fighting directly

and all the hard jobs you would want to assign a penal battalion to would be better performed by well trained troops anyways

What is the M202 FLASH you dumb slavaboo niggers?

couldn't their minders function as a reserve? It's not like the Soviets, or any military for that matter, has 100% of forces engaged at any time. It could help conserve manpower. All the other problems like them just being inferior are true though

Cant speak for any other branch, but Marines have the Mk80 rocket for the SMAW. I would imagine there would surely be some equivalent round for the Carl G or variant of the AT4 for the Army, but not one that I'm familiar with.

Fucking hell. I watched the little minidoc on this guy, how do you fix that fucking ugly.

you don't. you let the God fix it.

A coat hanger

What in the fuck...

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video.bigmir.net/show/419892-ognemetno-zazhigatelnoe_oruzhie-ognemetno-zazhigatelnoe_oruzhie/
this used to be on youtube under titie Opyжeйкa - Oгнeмeтнo-зaжигaтeльнoe opyжиe.avi
lots of peeps on fire

Because collateral damage.

Attached: AgonizingBlandBlueandgoldmackaw.webm (400x214, 213K)

Flamethrowers were outdated before the end of WWII. White Phosphor rockets were used to much greater effect on D-day.

But aren't rockets bad for close range?

Because fire is a dangerous friend.

They really aren't. What would you prefer:
>a heavy as fuck explosive tank sitting on your back that gives you just enough fuel for maybe 10-20 seconds of firing
>not that much damage actually, so the victim will likely live, albeit severely burned
>shit mobility because of said heavy tank
>a range of maybe 100 meters
or
>a shotgun, the most versatile firearm in existence

>the military should research on how to improve the design so it's less hazardous to the user
Why? The weapon is borderline useless in modern times. Any money spend on it could be spent on a dozen other weapon systems that actually have a purpose besides costing you money, manpower and morale.
>But it beats the shotgun when you want to clean out rooms and shit in urban warfare or other close combat shit
You know what else does that? Grenades. Grenades also don't require you to lob around an explosive backpack and expose yourself to enemy fire to use.

You forgot to mention
>a very, very clear line for the enemy to know exactly where you are
>a very, very good reason to be the first guy they shoot in a firefight and the first guy they execute afterwards
>a great way to light yourself on fire with a minor malfunction

White Phosphorus grenades are for close range burning and smoking out of people. Grenades in general are great substitute for flamethrowers. Everyone can carry some and they're much lighter.

Everyone in this thread who is saying flamethrowers are banned for whatever reason is a fucking know-nothing know-it-all. Flamethrowers were never banned for any reason by any agreement anyone matters anything on this planet ever followed. Flamethrowers are simply obsolete weapon system, like revolvers. In second half of 20th century they were replaced by incendiary and thermobaric rocket launchers like FLASH and Shmel RPO. They do everything flamethrowers do, and have an order of magnitude more range.

Incendiary and later thermoberic rockets do the same things, at greater range and lower weight, much more reliably.

The M202 Flash is still in innovatory, although it hasen't been issued in decades. more recently they just used thermoberic rockets out of the regular AT rocket platforms for anti bunker work.

This should have been the only answer in this thread

Fire washes the skin off the bone and the sin off the soul. It cleans away the dirt. And my momma didn't raise herself no dirty boy

Technically that's trimethylaluminum and not white phosphorus.

I wouldn't mind being a firebat

>war
>caring about being humane
Lol