Dio: Range Vipers (Cobra’s LRRPs)

Who would be crazy enough to force march scores of miles just to get around the enemy camp and hit his flanks and rear, with no prospect of artillery or air support? Cobra Range Vipers.

Modelled after the US Army’s Long Range Recon Patrols (LRRPs) in the Vietnam War-era, these troops are battle-savvy enough not to engage the Joes head-on, but raid them from an unexpected quarter, are resourceful enough to support themselves with local food once their supply runs out, are proficient with both NATO and Warsaw Pact arms thus enabling them to use whatever weapons are at hand, are excellent in small unit tactics, skilled in directing air assets on designated targets and are either courageous or crazy enough (depending on your point of view) to attack in small disciplined formations once they achieve tactical surprise. Truly, they are Cobra’s lean and mean killing machines.

In my Joe-verse, Range Vipers deploy in small units of four, both for reasons of stealth and speed. They can be inserted via air or land. Extraction? It’s the last of their priorities; getting the job done is.

To compensate for their small numbers, Cobra’s behind-the-lines raiders lug a formidable firepower. The pointman is armed with an SMG. He is also the designated marksman, so he carries a Dragunov. Two of his mates carry 7.62 mm general purpose machine guns. Take note, the Range Vipers use them as personal weapons, not as crew-served ones. The fourth member is armed with an automatic-firing grenade launcher.

If these guns still won’t do the job, the Range Vipers’ skull-faced helmets would perhaps be sufficient to give their foe a fright-induced heart attack!

 

Here they are, in classic diamond formation, with the pointman ahead, a machine gunner and the grenadier on the flanks and another gunner in the rear.

 

 Tactics dictate staying within the treeline, but these Range Vipers discovered that it was mined. Between an identified threat (minefield) and an unidentified one (in this case, open grassland), they risk the latter.

 

Which is scarier, the machine gun or the gunner’s helmet?

 

This reminds me of the last scene in Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.” You can hear these guys singing, “M-I-C-K-E-Y  M-O-U-S-E / Who’s the leader of the band /…”

 

There’s the pointman, supported by a gunner.

 

When the merde hits the ventilateur, this grenadier would start pumping 40mm rounds at the enemy.

 

With two gunners watching your back, how can things go wrong?

 

I just love this grenade launcher, though it would have been better if Hasbro retained the original design (i.e. the ‘revolver’ underneath, not on the top).