China's MRE

rommel said:

So how's the australian army ?? Is it hard or relax like us over here (at least for the reservist like me ) What's your service weapon in Autralia ?? Talk about your army, I'd like to see how australian infantry reserve are different of canadian infantry reserve.

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The Australian army reserve recevies the same training as the regulars, just not as frequent as the regulars. The service weapon are Steyr AUG (F88). A very nice piece of equipment. easy to assemble and clean, and fairly accurate. SAW is Minimi(F89), two gun per section. Pistol is only issued when needed. COLT, M9 and some others have been seen. compaurrny firesupport have M60 pig and 82 mortar. We spent most time in bush. The Whole Aussie army are "bush masters". We fight base on active patrolling, and silent attacks. if 2 or less enemy are found, a section will attack them. If there are more, we will call fire support. Every one are trained on "all arms call for fire". The weakness is air defence and anti armor. The 40mm rocket is good for killing soft target and light Armored Vehicle, but not a real tank. Come to think of it, RAAF's F18 don't really have much of a match in surronding territory. And landing a sizable tank force in Australia is very very difficult. Reserve force is more a defensive force, so we don't trained much on anti armor warfare. Negotiating with harsh terrian is more useful for what we needed.

I'd say that we are light infantry ready to fight a limited regional battle.

They say Aussies and canadian are very much alike . The atmosphere is relaxed with a lot of hurry up and wait. A trait of Infantry. The Marchs are base on UK style with Australian salute.

Hope these helps

Lazzy Digger

Interesting.

Well, Canadian Army reserve are very similiar to Australian Army reserve, we train once a week, 1 or 2 week-end per month with the same training than the regular. But it seems, we got some different weapon, C7A1 rifle, Browning HP35 for gunner and NCO, P226 for officer (in theory), we don't have M60, only FN MAG instead. But we fight differently, we are trained to almost never call in support, we trained more on counter-infantry and sometime antitank. We use M72 and Carl Gustav for AT and 60mm and 81mm mortar for support. But it's true that we are really relax too, normally, it's 2 section in course while the 3rd one is relaxing (watching hockey most of the times) and we rotate like that maybe 8 time per 3-hour training.

Rommel

rommel said:

i think that the canadian army MRE are the best, and my favorite meal is the smoke salmon, unbeatable. We don't have can, only in the scelled metallic bag and I founded funny that some brother-in-arm made a note about the age of the ration, I remember eating this ration of 1992 and the bar of mint chocolate inside, didn't taste very good... and I also remember the compressed package of toilet paper, a bit weird...

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the new canadian imp's are some of the best field meals around

compared to the US mre's they are much better tasting and faster to heat

american heat packs are extraordinarily problematic

personal favourites for imp's have to be the turkey stew or scallop potatoes and ham

rommel said:

Wow, Mr C and lazzydigger, were you infantryman ???

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I was also an infantry grunt but then transferred to Medical Corps as a medical scientist. There is no relaxing in infantry...only pain and suffering.

Speaking of PLA MRE's and meals:


*** VERY GOOD ***
Photo of military meals around the world (not necessarily accurate, but fun to view):


If you look at the "Taiwanese military" photo, in the center is a pack of biscuits. Back when I lived in Taiwan they sold very similiar biscuits in plain packaging as emergency food (Taiwan has many typhoons every year). It was kinda plain but served as cheap snacks for kids, until they got tired of it and refused to eat it.


China's Army Marches on Satisfied Stomach
2005-03-25

How does the food in a Chinese soldier's knapsack taste when he is on manoeuvres?

"Well, not bad," answered a group of foreign military attaches with their thumbs up yesterday in Beijing after tasting the Chinese army's newest rations. A lot more goes into soldiering food than into an average 'niurou mian.'

The provisions have to be lightweight as well as durable and not taste awful, as people generally imagine.

The newly developed self-heating fried rice and noodles were praised by the military officers who said the rations satisfied both their stomachs and their taste buds.

Even the improved compressed cereal has become a tasty snack.

"Well, Chinese food is always good," said Frank Miller, a colonel from the US Embassy in China.

He said back in his country the staple food for soldiers includes bread, sandwiches and noodles.

At the invitation of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defence, 84 foreign military attaches from 57 countries visited the Quartermaster Equipment Institute of General Logistics Department of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) yesterday.

The institute focuses on research, development and pilot manu-facturing of military equipment such as rations, uniform, and body armour.

Some say that military uniforms set apart those who wear them. For the group of attaches, that feeling was highlighted during a visit to the protective clothing and material laboratory of the institute.

"It was amazing," said Colonel Basnyat from the Nepalese Embassy in China. "The uniform I am wearing now is made in China and I now know it has very good and special quality," he said. The Nepalese Government began to import its uniforms a couple of years ago.

Miller, from the United States, said high technology supports the institute's work.

Hwang Ho-sung from the Republic of Korea said he was not only happy to join the tour but looked forward to similar events in the future.

The Foreign Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defence started organizing visits to both army organizations and to observe military exercises.

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Lots of interesting PLA MRE pics (scroll down to PLA 1976 meal photos from "Sun Bin"):


Also, PLA MRE's are now avail in the civilian market:

MRE Articles:

The Best Field Rations?
by Harold C. Hutchison
July 21, 2005


The Gourmet (British) Army
Instead of hotpot and dumplings, troops will go into battle with tuna in a lime and coriander sauce
By Matthew Hickley

Japanese MRE page:


The French RCIR MRE:

Check the Menu items.

Russian MRE Review:

"I would not eat the ration again, the taste and quality are not good.
The two main meals are full of fat and oil - not enough spices and too much salt - but a lot of beef. I had to heat it in the microwave. It's like food from the Middle Ages."

Even the cow on the Russian beef can looks angry:


Versus French ration had happy cow (scroll down a bit):

What's with all these cartoon characters and happy colors on the French meals? they look more like a kindgarten's lunch than a MRE.

Well you cannot imagine how big moral boost colourfull backing can be on the woods....It kinda give your a sligth hope that there is still normal urban lfestyle left on the earth and you arent so alienated from it than you migth think. Its even better when they serve normal civil food and snacks...its amazing who single backet of cookies can make the whole horrible day in continuos rain whit the freakin howitzer seem more delighted and sunny...

G man.. can't agree less. My favoriate sight in the woods is that little green solvation army truck. all diggers know there are "Normal" not expired food such like Mars Bar, Chips/crisps, slab of chocolate. ICE cold cordial, and a unbelievable cup of hot coco. One they even had hot meat pie!! It was a god send after 2 day's of drizzle, They almost converted me right there.

Lazzy digger

Did you "diggers" had any cantine-trucks coming to the training site? We had these "sotkuauto"s coming once or twice when we where on long exercise...I can say never had better cup of koffee when getting one in the middle of our most exhausing training periods in the Rovajärvi....