The Arms and Security 2021 exhibition was held in Kyiv, Ukraine from June 15 to 18. Many Ukrainian small arms manufacturers released new products during the show most of which we have already covered. The Ukrainian FORT company (Science Industrial Association (SIA) “FORT” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine) introduced two new firearms during this exhibition – the FORT-230 submachine gun, which we talked about earlier, and the FORT-20 pistol, which we’ll take a look at in this article.

Arms & Security 2021 Coverage @ TFB:

• Ukrainian FORT-230 9mm Submachine Gun
• Ukrainian Snipex MONOMAKH 14.5mm Semi-Auto Anti-Materiel Rifle
• Ukrainian Snipex LASKA K-2 Heavy Machine Gun
• Ukrainian MAGNA BALLISTA Semi-Auto Multi-Caliber Bullpup Rifle

FORT-230 SMG and FORT-20 pistol, the two new guns of SIA “FORT” released at the Arms and Security 2021 exhibition.

FORT-20 is a polymer-framed striker-fired semi-auto pistol chambered in 9x19mm and fed from double stack magazines. It is a short barrel recoil operated pistol with a tilting barrel lockup. Unlike most of the similar modern handguns which barrels lock into the ejection ports of the slides, the FORT-20 utilizes an old-school Browning lockup with semi-circular lugs in front of the chamber area of the barrel locking into corresponding recesses inside the slide. The pistol also features a loaded chamber indicator and interchangeable backstraps.

Noteworthy design elements are the location of the safety lever and the disassembly mechanism. The ambidextrous safety lever is located above the trigger guard where a takedown lever can be normally seen on most modern pistols. That should be quite an awkward safety to operate but maybe it is a matter of getting used to. There is also a version equipped with a trigger safety that lacks the manual safety levers. The disassembly starts with pushing the rear slide plate up which unlocks the slide assembly from the frame and allows to remove it by sliding forward.

FORT-20 pistols with manual safety (top) and trigger safety (bottom).

To see the FORT-20 pistol in action, watch the below-embedded video.