The Firearm Blog

Over the past few months Colt has been unveiling a variety of new AR-15 firearms. If a replacement for the M16 or M4 is chosen they want it to be a Colt. To ensure this designed a range of weapons that should cover all bases. David @ Defense Review has been relentlessly covering the new firearms.

Many of the improvements Colt have developed have been applied to all these guns, I won’t list them all, click the links to read the full details.

Colt Sub-Compact Weapon (SCW)

A 5.56mm 10.3″ barreled sub-carbine/PDW featuring the new Colt side-folding stock. It is able to use an upgraded gas impingement system or the Colt Piston System (CPS)

Side Folding Stock. Photo by SMGLee.

Colt ACC-M (Advanced Colt Carbine-Monolithic)

This is basically an upgraded M4. It features many small improvements over the M4A1 and Colt’s new monolithic rail system. If it was adopted it I think it would probably be named the M4A2.

Colt Advanced Piston Carbine (APC)

David calls this the HK416 killer. It utilizes the Colt Articulating-Link Piston (ALP) system.

Colt Advanced Hybrid Carbine (AHC)

This carbine features a hybrid gas impingement and gas piston system. I am very interested to see how that works.

Colt Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR)

I covered this a few weeks ago on the blog. It is a light machine gun and Colt’s entry into the Marine Infantry Automatic Rifle competition.

Colt IAR. Photo by SMGLee

I saw this Хроники безумного Макса, the blog of Max Popenker who also runs the famous world.guns.ru.

The inscription says “U.S Army Special Forces Commemorative(?) Mac 10″.

Click to expand

I actually think it looks pretty classy, like that engraved MP5.

In case you are wondering, I cannot read Russian but I do subscribe to various overseas foreign language blogs.

From MP.net:

Army troops seized 400 pistols and rifles, 500,000 bullets, 165 grenades, several grenade launchers, six heavy machine guns and an anti-tank rocket launcher.

Assistant Attorney General Marisela Morales said the arsenal “is the largest in the history of Mexico.”

Click to expand.

Hollywood bling. Note the two revolving multi-shot grenade launchers.

That is some serious firepower!

More photos at MP.net

Earlier this year the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced they will be switching from the G3 7.62mm rifle to the HK416. The Turkish government owned arms and ordnance manufacturer MKEK will be producing the rifle under license from Heckler & Koch.

The H&K G3 battle rifle has been phased out in many countries and replaced with assault rifles chambered in intermediate cartridges. Along with the H&K G3, MKEK also produces the a variety of H&K MP5 models so the move to another H&K rifle is not surprising. Norway is also replacing the G3 with the HK416.

An important Turkish guy holding the Mehmetçik-1.Photo from worldaffairsboard.com

The pistol grip and stock look different to most of the HK416 photos on the internet. The wikipedia page has a photo with “HK416N” markings and the same configuration. The photo is marked for deletion from Wikipedia and there are few other references to the “HK416N” on google.

HK416N markings. Photo from Wikipedia.

Mehmetçik-1 markings

I cannot see any other differences between the Mehmetçik-1 and the HK416N other than the MKEK markings. The only different I have read about on a couple of forums is that MKEK are using different manufacturing techniques and different metals than H&K, which I take to mean a slightly different aluminum and steel alloys, which is not surprising.

The scope pictured above is the Elcan SpecterOS34x scope which well known for its use on the Canadian Diemaco C7/C8. The grenade launcher is the H&K AG416.

The Turkish Wikipedia page says the rifle will be manufactured in four different models. A Sub-carbine (10.5″ barrel), Carbine (14.5″ barrel), Rifle (16.5″ barrel) and “Distance” (Sniper/Marksmen, 20″ barrel).

Below is a video of a press conference with that important Turkish guy showing off the weapons and looking out of his depth:

By all accounts the HK416 is a great rifle combining the best of the AR-15 platform with the benefits of a gas piston system.

Turkey has also adopted a new sniper rifle that I cannot identify. Anyone know what it is? See the below photo.

UPDATE: Alcibiades, correctly identified it as the 7.62×51mm JNG 90, also made by MKEK.

Mehmetçik-1 and JNG 90 sniper rifle. Photo from worldaffairsboard.com

Hat Tip: GunPundit

This video is very intense. The beeping you hear is the ground proximity warning (under 1000 ft). The video player incorrectly states the length, it is only 5 minutes long.

There is a discussion about the video at MP.net

S&W have just released a press release saying that they are supplying 7500 M&P9 pistols to the Iraq Military and security forces. I don’t know how long they have been using the pistol. I was not aware they had adopted the M&P9 before reading the press release.

Nichols, added, “In addition to the M&P9s currently used in Iraq, Smith & Wesson firearms have also been used in active duty for the last two years with several security forces in Afghanistan including the Afghanistan National Army and Border Patrol as well as the Afghanistan National Police. To date, over 80,000 Smith & Wesson firearms are currently being used in these two countries. Reports from the field continue to indicate that the firearms are exceeding all expectations in the areas of reliability and durability. We are honored to continue delivering firearms that support men and women serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and we remain committed to supplying high-quality small arms to the military and federal government.”

Smith & Wesson M&P9

Full press release here.

A big thanks to Ed for correcting my mistake, I had misread the logo. What I thought was called the NRX is in fact the ARX-160 as you can see in the blown up logo below. I had assumed the “NRX” was the M4 equivalent of the ARX-160.

I have update the blog post. Ed has more info about this rifle/carbine at Tell Me Why.

Deminer posted scanned images from a Russian sniper handbook. The picture below is interesting. It shows how to setup MON-50 (claymore like) mines so that a cluster can be set off by a sniper.

More images here.

I have previously discussed the Ultimax 100 Mk4. This is the latest iteration of the Ultimax 100 design and is being entered into the IAR competition by General Dynamics, although it designed by Singapore Technologies Kinetics (STK).

Photos by SMGLee. Click to expand:

Quick Change Barrel

I like the design of the ambidextrous fire selector.

Compared to the Mk4 the Mk5 takes unmodified STANAG (M16) magazine, has quad rails and a bipod/foregrip rather than a separate bipod and foregrip.

I am not sure if the Ultimax 100 Mk4 100 round drum magazine will be made compatible with the Mk5. The Mk4 took modified STANAG magazines.

Ultimax 100 Mk 4


Ultimax 100 Mk 5

UPDATE: Defense Review has more info.

The Colt IAR is Colt’s entry in the Marine IAR competition for a lightweight automatic rifle to replace the SAW in certain situations. It is an interesting weapon.

Photos by SMGLee. Click to expand

Under the barrel you can see a hefty heatsink. This is used to prevent cook-offs (when the primer of a chambered round is ignited by a hot chamber). It weights 9.5 lbs and has a 16″ barrel.

It looks like the barrel may be be changed by simply removing the bolt you can see just in front of the magazine well.

Surprisingly the rifle/machine gun does not use a gas piston and uses the AR-15/M16 direct gas impingement system.

The above photo does show a Magpul PMAG but the Marines have specified that the IAR must be compatible with 30 USGI magazines, so it is unlikely the military will be adopting PMAGs, even in a limited role with the IAR.

Other IAR entries can operate with either an open bolt, in automatic fire, or closed bolt in semi automatic mode. This allows the accuracy benefits of a closed bolt with the heat reduction and reduced chance of a cook off of a closed bolt. I am not sure if this weapon has this feature.

Colt already have a lightweight automatic rifle, the Colt Automatic Rifle (CAR), which itself may meet the Marines requirements. I do not know if the Colt IAR has anything in common with the CAR, other than the shared AR-15 heritage.

Colt Automatic Rifle

UPDATE: Defense Review has more info.

The new ARX-160 Carbine is Beretta’s entry into the M4 replacement competition. Photos by SMG-Lee

M16 magazine, folding iron sights

Folding stock

UPDATE:

Originally I called this rifle the NRX after misreading the logo. It is in the ARX-160. Below is a photo (from MP.net) of the ARX-160 carbine (left) and the rifle version (right). Both have the new Beretta grenade launcher attached.

A big thanks to Ed who was kind enough to let me know about my mistake after he spoke to Beretta. He and has more info on the rifle/carbine.

Apparently the Italian Special Forces will be adopting it in 2009.

About 6 months ago Metal Storm was awarded AU$1.4 million in development contracts from the US Navy to develop a 12 guage (.729″ caliber, not the 12 gauge shotgun cartridge) multishot weapon that mounts under an M16 and M4.

The MAUL has no moving parts and weights just 2.75 pounds.

All four rounds can be loaded into the chamber at once and are electronically ignited. It can fire lethal rounds, such as grenades, and non lethal rounds.

The weapon system was exhibited at AUSA Expo this year and should be in production next year.

Marine Corps Times has an interesting article on the IAR competition. It seems the Army is not interested in a lightweight automatic rifle.

That’s why the Army, which also uses the M249, has ruled out a soldier version of the Marine IAR.

“We are not considering adopting an auto rifle for the infantry squad,” said Col. Robert Radcliffe, director of the Infantry Center’s Directorate of Combat Developments at Fort Benning, Ga.

…

The plan is to buy 4,100 IARs and reduce the number of SAWs in the Corps from 10,000 to 8,000, Cantwell said.

“We are still going to maintain SAWs in the company,” he said. “Only 2,000 SAWs will be replaced. The reminder will be kept as an organizational weapon for when commanders need them.”

KABUL, Afghanistan: Afghan national security forces will receive a huge capability and mobility boost throughout the next year with more than 6,000 up-armored vehicles and more than 75,000 M-16 rifles from Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan.

…

“Accuracy will always be more important than lots of shots,” McPhail said. “They wanted a weapon that doesn’t waste shots. That’s the reason the Afghan government asked for the M-16.”

Do you want fries ammo with that?

More @ Defense Talk