The Africa Aerospace and Defense 2008 held in Cape Town, South Africa has just finished. Denel Land Systems, a South African firm, launched the new SS77 Compact.
The only photo I could find.
UPDATE: prion @ MP.net posted this photo:
The compact version of the 7.62mm NATO machine gun features a telescopic stock, foregrip with bipod, picatinny rail and gas regulator. The gun is 150mm (6″) shorter and 2 kg (4.4 lbs) lighter than the full sized SS77.
The full size SS77 can be converted to the 5.56mm Mini SS and presumably the compact version can be as well.
Developed in the 1970s during the arms embargo which forced the South Africa to develop its own arms industry. The machine gun is used by South Africa, Philippines, Malaysia and Jordan. It was pulled from Service by the South African Defense Force during the 90s due to reliability problems. The problems were fixed in part by reducing the rate of fire from 900 rpm to 800 rpm and the gun reentered service in 2003.
Mini SS 5.56mm. Click to expand.
The RPG-40 was on display at MSPO 2008. The Centre for Research and Development Equipment Mechanics (OBR SM) and Military Technical Academy, which I assume are Polish organizations, have developed the RPG-40. Despite its name it has nothing to do with the Russian RPG-* arms and does not fire rocket propelled grenades, just the standard 40mm variety.
The RPG-40
It holds 6 rounds and features an oversized chamber so a variety of lethal and non-lethal ammunition can be chambered - limited by how much pressure the weapon can withstand.
Oversized 40mm chamber
It may be in direct competition with the South African Milkor MGL (M32) that is currently used by the Marines in Iraq. It looks like it has a very similar spring-loaded magazine, which rotates after a shot has fired. I would not be surprised if the MGL technology has been licensed.
Marine with M32 MGL (MGL-140) in Iraq.
Photo from Wikipedia
MGL MGL Mk-1
The MGL is a scaled up version of the Striker/Streetsweeper/Protecta rotary magazine 12 gauge shotgun:
Striker shotgun with 12″ barrel. Photo from guns.ru
More info here (translated in google)
I have done my best to find accurate information about this firearm on the Polish MSPO 2008 website. I do not speak or read Polish so I had to rely on Google Translate. If I got something wrong, please correct me in the comments.
If you have been following this blog you know the Chinese have been in the news recently.
A Chinese ship carrying 3 million rounds of 7.62×39mm and 1500 RPG rounds destined for land locked Zimbabwe tried to offload in the South African port of Durban.
Robert Mugabe’s Zanu (PF) party have been arming militias to drive out farmers and terrorize opposition supporters since the election they probably lost (but refuse to announce the results). Despite this the South African Defence Secretary approved the shipment: “This is a normal transaction between two sovereign states and we don’t have to interfere”. Not that surprising since the South African president openly supports Robert Mugabe.
Luckily for the people of Zimbabwe the dock workers have refused to offload the cargo.
Read the article here.
Poster from SearAndHammer.com
(and yes … I am aware this post does violate my non political rule 
GunPorn wrote a post on this very interesting shotgun. It is a reverse pump action bullpup shotgun invented by a South African company.
From what appears to be the official website.
Neostead Features
* Selectable twin tube magazine
* 13 shot capacity
* Overall length is 27 inches with full length barrel of 22.5 inches
* Totally ambidextrous as all controls are centrally mounted
* Pump action is reversed
* Straight line stock with magazines above barrel
* Negligible muzzle lift
* Intergral carry handle houses ghost ring sights
* High stength polymers for main external components
* Boltless design
* Sling swivels on top
Safety Features
* Trigger safety locks trigger positively
* Pump handle operates trigger disconnector
* Pump lock
* Firing pin positive return
* Out of battery firing prevention
* Reversed pump action
Wikipedia has this to say
The NeoStead 2000 (NS2000) is a type of shotgun developed by the South African company NeoStead. Along with the Pancor Jackhammer, it is considered one of the most technologically advanced shotguns ever created. The NS2000 has been used in trial runs for a few years by special forces like the British SAS and there are hopes at NeoStead that larger weapons manufacturers will license the production rights. Production of the shotgun began in 2001 and the first models were made available in October of that year.
The NS2000 is a 12-gauge pump action shotgun weighing in at just over 3kg, designed primarily for security and civil disturbance situations.
The firearm includes a 22.5 inch (572mm) barrel despite the overall weapon length of just 27 inches (686mm). The short length makes the weapon easier to handle in close quarter situations however, unlike most firearms of this type, it can still remain accurate at relatively long ranges. The long barrel length is achieved by using a bullpup configuration, with a rear-fed tubular magazine.
Another aspect of the NS2000 is its dual six round magazines. The selector switch can be set to left, right, or alternating. For example in riot conditions less-lethal flexible baton rounds can be used with standard rounds in reserve.
A possible production variant of the NS2000 has an 18 inch barrel in a weapon with an overall length of 22 inches. The shorter length reduced the magazine capacity to 5+5 rounds and makes the weapon easier to import or license in many countries.
Its pump mechanism operates in a forward-back motion, due to its rear-load configuration. This is different from conventional pump methods as the pump action is achieved by shifting the hand forward-back, as opposed to the standard back-forward motion of the non-trigger hand.
Some more photos
This photo makes it look a bit like a side by side shotgun. The two cylinders next to each other on the top are the magazines.
Patent application drawings:
This shows how the magazines are inserted:
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