During the height of the Vietnam War, the famed US Lake City Army Ammunition Plant made steel-cased 5.56mm M193 ammunition for the US Army, as part of an effort to conserve valuable copper. This ammunition did not make it past the testing phase, as the project was [Read More…]
The Indian Ministry of Defense has reissued an RFI for 44,000 5.56x45mm rifles due by July 15th, and to be completed by this August. We say “reissued” because this is actually based on a previous tender for a similar amount of rifles that has [Read More…]
Shepard Media has recently reported that the entire Latvian National Guard will soon be receiving a full fielding of 5.56x45mm NATO G36KVs infantry rifles and 7.62x51mm NATO KSP-58 medium machine guns (FN MAGs) from the Latvian National Armed Forces (NAF) to replace [Read More…]
The Georgian Ministry of Defense has released statements and even staged a demonstration wherein the land component of the Georgian Armed Forces will replace the 7.62x54R PKM medium machine guns with FN Herstal 7.62x51mm NATO M240Bs. This will be a gradual replacement [Read More…]
The “Izzy” Diplomatic Security Qualification (DS-Q) target is currently in active usage by a number of U.S. Government Law Enforcement entities but is primarily used by the U.S. State Department Diplomatic Security Service (shortened to DS for Diplomatic [Read More…]
In our final installment of looking at the handmade wonders of the gunmaking village of Darra Adam Khel, we finish it off with an in-depth examination of the Krinkov patterned Kalashnikovs produced in the village. Some of them display an excellent resemblance to the original AKS74Us, however others [Read More…]
While the US education system tends to highlight and overemphasize the effect of the United States in World War 1, C&Rsenal has not. For the first 50+ episodes, the channel has been covering the various primarily european weapons from The Great War (though there has [Read More…]
The key to mass production is historically tied directly to the simplicity (and repeatability) of individual parts. As Japanese manufacturing facilities were bombarded and destroyed by U.S. forces during World War II, this became increasingly important for the continued [Read More…]
Pretty much like many of the world’s countries in the early 20th Century, Brazil was a faithful user of German bolt-action Mauser rifles, to which the Spanish-favored 7x57mm round was chosen. The first adopted species was the Model 1894, soon followed by the Model [Read More…]
Special Operations Command recently posted a solicitation on the government ran Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) resource in regards to a need for a domestic U.S. manufacturer to produce exact copies of the Soviet 7.62x54r mm PKM medium machine gun, and the [Read More…]
Previously we looked at examples of long guns out of the Pashtun gun-making village of Darra Adam Khel in the FATA region in Pakistan. In this episode, Miles looks at some of the handgun copies that have emerged from the cottage industries there. We compare Makarov and Beretta copies side by side, [Read More…]
The Firearm Blog has learned that German Sport Guns will be shipping out at least 1,100 of their 9x19mm NATO MP40 pistols to a wholesale dealer in the U.S. Looking at American Tactical’s website, it shows the 9mm pistol available for $649.95, ready for shipping to [Read More…]
I don’t know about you, but I try to give any movie I watch in the theaters at least 30 minutes to see if it will get good. Case in point – John Wick – which if you don’t stay through at least 20 looks to be an incoherent mess. Now, over a half [Read More…]
Often more fascinating than the weapons developed is the history of developing weapons. In almost all cases, weapons are frought with initial troubles, constantly moving mechanical targets, and perhaps most trouble – politics. While today’s politics is well [Read More…]
Most of the time Forgotten Weapons takes a look at weapons that are indeed largely forgotten. Sometimes they cover modern weapons and some of their history, and at other times they cover weapons that many wish were just forgotten. This is one of those latter times, [Read More…]
The Sten machine carbine was one of the most hastily completed and most expediently made submachine gun of the Second World War. Although it was reliable, a number of users didn’t like it simply because they saw it as a cheap pipe gun created as a last ditch effort. Nonetheless, there were a [Read More…]
Marine Corps Systems Command has finally pushed .50 Caliber M2A1 Browning Heavy Machine Guns out to the Fleet and to Training Command throughout the Marine Corps. 3,600 M2A1s are within this fielding, primarily going to Infantry battalions in the Fleet and Reserves, Training Command, and [Read More…]
One of the more captivating and fascinating designs to come out of Russia in the past several decades, the 5.45x39mm AN-94 has recently been covered in great detail by Ian of Forgotten Weapons, in conjunction with Armament Research Services on The Hoplite Blog. If you have a chance, go over to The [Read More…]
The State Department and Department of Defense have announced a planned sale of almost $300 million of defense materials through the Republic of Iraq to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s Ministry of Peshmerga. The article specifically states that the deal is to [Read More…]
In a recent announcement, the U.S. Government has released a 7 million dollar award modification notice for Colt Defense’s over 35 million dollar contract to provide M4 and M4A1s in the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. This modification notice specifically [Read More…]
Eric Norman was one of the small arms designers at Special Operations Executive Station IX during the Second World War. The Norm Gun and Welgun were two of his designs that although never reached serial production, are interesting in their own right day, if anything due to their simplicity of [Read More…]
The mainstream internet is going crazy over our Nambu Type 94 video, published over a year ago on our TFBTV Youtube channel, presented by the much missed Alex C. Yesterday it hit the /r/videos subreddit. The Type 94 was a horrendous gun. At first glance I assumed it was a late war gun made out [Read More…]
The Welrod and Welwand are fascinating objects of a bygone era of espionage. Invented specifically for the British Special Operations Executive, they were purely weapons of assassination for use inside Fortress Europe or against Imperial Japanese Military officers. So effective and reliable were [Read More…]
A great part of living in the Internet age is that we have far more information at our fingertips than we ever have before. Until recently we had to rely exclusively on books and magazine articles, researched with varying degrees of thoroughness. Some of the information [Read More…]
The De Lisle Commando Carbine has fascinated small arms enthusiasts since knowledge of it became widespread after the Second World War. Almost entering myth like lore, it is claimed to have been the quietest weapon ever issued and used by Allied forces both in the European and Pacific theaters of [Read More…]
In what appears to be LWRC cornering the Swedish special operations and SWAT issue rifle market, we have yet more evidence of LWRC’s piston operated IC-A5 rifles in usage by the Särskilda operationsgruppen (SOG, Military SOF), the Förstärkt Regional [Read More…]
French Counter-Terrorism group National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN) recently announced at SOFINS 2017 that it would be adopting CZ’s 806 Bren 2 in 7.62x39mm with a 9 inch barrel. So far 68 carbines have been ordered for the roughly 400 man [Read More…]
A reliable “coffin” style magazine is perhaps the holy grain of high-capacity enthusiasts. While drums are certainly a proven technology, they often suffer from large volume relative to the ammunition contained inside which then causes other issues like [Read More…]
Unlike in the United States, Britain requires that every single firearm imported, produced, or modified on the isle to be “proofed”. This means that at least two high-pressure charges be fired through that firearm before it can be allowed for public sale or usage. Proofing has been an [Read More…]
This past week a Serbian product, the 40mm/6 M11 made by Yugoimport SDPR J.P. was seen in use by the Safwa Islamic Brigade & Suqur al-Shamal opposition groups in northern Aleppo. The launcher isn’t very prevalent outside of Serbia and thus it’s [Read More…]
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