At the 2018 SHOT Show Industry Day at the Range, Florida gunmaker FightLite Industries, best known for their SCR “ban state” lower receiver that allows “compliant” rifles to be made using AR-15 components. FightLite also is the manufacturer of [Read More…]
The golden age of polymer cased ammunition has probably already begun. Certainly, Norwegian-Finnish ammunition manufacturer Nammo seems to believe that, as they recently took a significant stake in American company MAC, LLC, makers of polymer-cased composite ammunition, [Read More…]
Arms of the 80’s, a blog that focuses on firearms advertising from the 1980s, has uploaded and shared a fascinating documentary made in the 1990s. The Stoner Machine Gun: A Navy Seal Remembers, features an interview with retired SEAL Lt. Cmdr. Michael J. Walsh. [Read More…]
With what appears to be a gadget straight out of Star Wars, a Ukrainian developmental agency by the name of Innovations Development Platform is looking for international partners and possibly investors to take part in the agencies Limpid Armor product. Using an [Read More…]
al Masdar News has recently shared photographs of so-called Islamic State fighters using belt-fed 12.7x108mm W85 (Chinese derivative of the Soviet DShK) Heavy Machine Guns mounted on commercial motorcycles. The machine guns appear to be using a standard pintle [Read More…]
A new remotely controlled weapon system has recently emerged from Syria. The Sham R3 is the third variation of the original Sham series of remotely controlled weapons stations that use a 12.7x108mm DShK Heavy Machine Gun to engage targets from a stationary position. One [Read More…]
Taking drones down with so-called “soft measures” has so far been the fruit of most efforts to counter enemy UAVs. From using Picatinny rail mounted devices to interfere with signals to the enemy UAV, to using 40x53mm ammunition fired out of an automatic [Read More…]
The Pakistani Ministry of the Interior made an announcement in November of this year, that Pakistani citizens who have Prohibited Bore licenses with registered fully automatic firearms will have to either surrender their firearms or convert them to semi-automatic by [Read More…]
The Armalite AR-10 is the original lightweight 7.62mm combat rifle – a space-age amalgam of aluminum, steel, and advanced plastics capable of a rate of fire of 800 rounds per minute and weighing just a hair over 7 pounds, unloaded. Its younger, 5.56mm caliber [Read More…]
WarLeaks recently published a video on their Youtube channel showing Ukranian Paratroopers of the 1st Battalion, 95th Separate Airmobile Brigade in a live fire range shooting modified DShKs. This footage is actually U.S. DOD footage shot during Rapid Trident 2017, a [Read More…]
In an earlier TFB TV episode, we covered some of the experiences that combat veterans have gone through while under fire. We continue that discussion in this final episode, going into much more detail about some of the nuances and specific aspects of being in combat and actually returning fire back [Read More…]
Is the US Army pushing for a new high-powered 6.Xmm caliber with their new NGSAR program? Recently, the listing for the NGSAR industry day in December was updated with a document describing in part the agenda of the second conference. Scheduled for 9:45 in the morning [Read More…]
A Twitter user has recently posted a video apparently showing members of the Syrian rebel group Tahrir al-Sham firing a Chinese W85 copy of the Soviet 12.7x108mm DShK heavy machine gun from a short mount that is somehow clamped to the back seat of a common motorcycle. The video only lasts a few [Read More…]
Whatever the next infantry small arms configuration is, I hope it does away with the failure that is the belt-fed Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). Why? Let’s talk about it. On the surface, the idea of augmenting the firepower of a rifle squad with a belt-fed machine [Read More…]
In the comments section of my recent Brief Thoughts article regarding caseless ammunition, there was a discussion about whether the cookoff issues of caseless would also be problem for LSAT-style polymer cased telescoped ammunition. Based on conversations I have had [Read More…]
Our last episode with Col. Dillon, the infantry officer discusses U.S. small arms and some of their finer points of employment within the Vietnam War while on his two tours there as a battalion field grade officer. The Colt 1911? Great for shooting off locks. The M16A1? Dillon actually credits that [Read More…]
Caseless: The ammunition designer’s holy grail, and the engineer’s worst nightmare. It would obsolete the cartridge case overnight, resulting in cheaper, lighter, and more compact ammunition. Weapons would be able to carry 50, 60, or more rounds in slim, [Read More…]
Norwegian ammunition company Nammo has come up with a solution to the anti-drone predicament. The company’s answer is to develop 40x53mm high-velocity grenades using programmable components that allow soldiers to lase the distance to an enemy UAV, transmit that [Read More…]
Last month drawings of MKEK’s domestically produced FN MAG were released to the public, along with a 5.56x45mm NATO design. Through that and the specification pages on the companies website, we know that the company is finally coming out to the public over [Read More…]
Turkish owned, Kazakh manufactured, and soon to be Malaysian based subsidiary of Aselsan recently demonstrated a Remote Weapons Station based around the 7.62x51mm NATO Dillon M134 Minigun at Defense & Security 2017 held in Bangkok Thailand. The design [Read More…]
Rounding out our coverage of Machinegunapalooza 2017 – by which I mean the numerous machine guns of the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting – we have the IWI Negev (5.56mm) and Negev NG-7 light machine guns. These Israeli belt feds are, [Read More…]
In the coming decades, it is likely that one of the biggest challenges facing small arms ammunition designers will be solving the problem of how to deal with advanced body armors. The problem is already percolating to the surface, as Level IV body armor – which is [Read More…]
We have already seen the 6.5mm CT Carbine prototype brought out by Textron for the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting, but TFB also got an up close and personal look at Textron’s cased telescoped machine guns. Textron has two different cased [Read More…]
At IPAS 2017, Iran’s Defense Industries Organization showcased various grenade launchers and anti-material rifles the state owned company is bringing to the Iranian (and possibly Iran’s allied customers) market. Displayed first is almost an exact copy of the [Read More…]
This year’s IPAS 2017 held in Tehran featured a number of designs seen previously such as Iran’s 7.62x54mm PKM GPMG, and 12.7x108mm Dshk Heavy Machine Gun copies. But of particular interest was what appears to be a shortened PKM with a barrel cut to around [Read More…]
Marcolmar makes semi-automatic, legal copies of the Czech Uk.59, and similar copies of the Soviet PKM General Purpose Machine Gun. So why not clone the two together and bring the resulting creation into the 21st Century, with polymer furniture, an updated design, and Picatinny rails? Meet the UKM, [Read More…]
While the majority of the defense industry is fixated on the adoption of the 7.62x51mm NATO MPT-76 select fire rifle by the Turkish Land Forces (which is still not complete in the least), or the more recent release of a 5.56x45mm version, MKEK has quietly been rolling [Read More…]
Marcolmar is a small but very dedicated company in northern Indiana that produces semi-automatic beltfed versions of historically significant small arms from the Soviet era. Tackling a very difficult task such as taking the Czech Uk.59 GPMG and turning it into a legal, semi-automatic, ATF approved [Read More…]
This year at DSEi 2017 a number of countries had their lesser known and newly developed vehicle mounted Remote Control Weapon Stations (RCWS) on display for the defense industry exposition in London. Rather than list each entry individually, it is fitting that we [Read More…]
A father and son from Somerset, UK made a surprising discovery while dredging a local river for scrap with a magnet. They pulled up parts from dozens of rifles, pistols, machine guns and shotguns. Neil Hopkins and his son Billy’s rusted haul included parts from [Read More…]
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