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The Pentagon Wars
The Pentagon Wars is a 1998 comedy film from HBO, directed by Richard Benjamin and starring Kelsey Grammer and Cary Elwes. It is a loose adaptation of the book The Pentagon Wars: Reformers Challenge the Old Guard by retired USAF Colonel James G. Burton with many points exaggerated for comedic effect or the result of artistic license. The film centres on the bureaucracy surrounding the troubled 17-year development of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the efforts of Lt. Col. James G. Burton (Elwes) to conduct a live-fire test on the vehicle with a full load of fuel and ammunition.
The following weapons appear in the film The Pentagon Wars:
M242 Bushmaster Chaingun
The M242 Bushmaster chaingun appears in the film as the primary armament of the M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle prototype. M242s are also seen on a line of Bradleys supposedly being produced for Israeli use with "safer" features, an outright fabrication on the movie's part since Israel only purchased a single, standard configuration vehicle for testing.
Browning M1919A4 Machine Gun
At the start of the film, archival footage showing testing of various armored vehicles is seen, including an M3 Lee medium tank with early model Browning M1919A4 machine guns mounted coaxially next to the main turret armament and in the cupola turret.
Hotchkiss M1914 Machine Gun
During the opening credits montage, a French-built Renault FT-17 light tank can be seen climbing a terrain obstacle, the vehicle armed with a Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun as the primary weapon.
Colt MK IV Series 70
U.S. military guards can be seen throughout the film carrying holstered Colt MK IV Series 70 pistols (identifiable by the Colt logos on the grips) as their sidearms, likely standing in for military-issue M1911A1 pistols.
Winchester Model 70
When Lt. Col. James G. Burton (Cary Elwes) meets the fictional Maj. General Partridge (Kelsey Grammer) at the Pentagon, a scoped Winchester Model 70 rifle can be seen mounted on the wall of General Partridge's office along with various trophies and other memorabilia.
Mk 2 Hand Grenade
During the meeting between Burton and Partridge, a Mk 2 hand grenade can be seen on Partridge's desk, likely either a replica or one that has been rendered inert.
Type 69 RPG
During live-fire testing on the Bradley, one of the weapons tested on the vehicle is a Type 69 RPG, the weapon failing to penetrate the Bradley's armor, but this is discovered to be due to the use of inferior Romanian rockets, as opposed to higher-grade Soviet rockets.
FIM-43 Redeye
The FIM-43 Redeye anti-aircraft missile appears in the film, mocked up as an experimental heat-seeking anti-armor weapon.
M16A1 Rifle
The evening prior to the final live-fire test on the Bradley at the end of the film, Lt. Col. Burton visits the barracks of the soldiers charged with prepping the Bradley for the test and tells them a story about a soldier he encountered who was wounded in action in Vietnam after having his M16 rifle jam on him in combat, Burton holding an M16A1 rifle with A2-style handguards as he recalls the story.
BGM-71 TOW
In several live-fire tests on the Bradley shown during the film, the testing for some reason switches to the Bradley being fired on using a tripod-mounted BGM-71 TOW launcher on the back of a truck instead of an RPG as before. The Bradley is also armed with a twin TOW launcher mounted on the left side of the turret, though is never used and kept folded against the side of the turret throughout the film.
In this regard the movie is extremely inaccurate: Col. Burton (the real Burton was not a Lt. Col.) was empowered to test vaporifics, ie a claim, based on a British report of the time, that damage to the vehicle could result in production of toxic smoke from burning aluminum that would result in increased crew fatalities. This was found to be incorrect, and while Burton's live-fire test led to the unsurprising revelation that shooting a heavy anti-tank missile at the flank of an IFV would make it explode, the resulting experimental Bradley variant with all of the ammunition and fuel moved to armored boxes was much too large and the vehicle entered production in more or less its original configuration.
