The Australian Government has announced that the Australian Defense Force will receive a further 8,500 EF88 rifles. This comes on top of the 30,000 already ordered and procured from the Thales owned Lithgow Arms. The move comes as Australia announced a major realignment [Read More…]
The Cove is an Australian Army blog that covers everything related to soldiering. In a recent series of posts, author Solomon Birch took an in-depth look into the previously issued EF88 bullpup rifle. Mr. Birch used the M4 rifle as a comparative baseline. The EF88 [Read More…]
The Thales EF88 assault rifle has seen its first operational deployment, and the reception is reportedly very warm. According to an article in Defence Connect, the rifles were deployed with Task Group Taji 5 (5th rotation), a battalion of Australian Defence Force [Read More…]
During the adoption of the Thales EF88 rifle by the Australian Defense Force, one of the operational requirements for the EF88 was to produce a tiered system for combatants. There is nothing new about this “system” when it comes to small arms throughout [Read More…]
Big news at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting 2016, importer Lithgow Arms USA will be bringing the EF88/F90 improved bullpup assault rifle to the USA. The F90 is a variant of the Steyr AUG developed for the Australian Defence Force to replace the F88 (their [Read More…]
Bob sent in this photo he saw on the Australian Army Facebook page. The soldier pictured is from the 3rd Brigade of the Royal Australian Regiment and is using the new Thales AUSTEYER EF88 which has many improvements over the old Steyr AUG. These includes rails, [Read More…]
Nigel saw this photo on the Australian Defense Force’s Facebook page showing one of Australia’s new AuSteyr EF88 rifle (the latest evolution of the Steyr AUG) with an interesting camo pattern painted on. Australian Army soldiers from 1st Battalion, Royal [Read More…]
Jane’s has come out with a report that Australia is in the final stages of procurement of the EF88 5.56x45mm service rifle, or the “Enhanced F88”. Currently, the Australian Defense Force (ADF) has just over 80,000 servicemen and women. With this [Read More…]
The Australian Army’s program to produce a successor to the F88 “Austeyr” is on the verge of bearing fruit. Army.gov.au reports that the F90, formerly designated “EF88” is now being issued for trials, in preparation for final modifications [Read More…]
I cannot help posting more photos of the Thales EF88 rifle. The olive green stock with flat dark earth barrel, rail and accessories looks great in my opinion. Nic Jenzen-Jones took these photos …
Jenzen-Jones had an opportunity to shoot Thales’ new EF88 (F90) rifle at Lithgow arms factory. I love the two-tone color combination of the olive green stock with tan metal finish. As superficial as it is, I am a sucker for a nicely finished gun.
Australia’s Lithgow Arms have established a new research and development hub for Australian defense industry companies with a new small arms collaboration and cooperation center. C3, as the hub is called, is housed inside the Thales-operated Lithgow Arms small arms [Read More…]
Thales has announced the introduction of their latest day/night sight, weighing 530g or 18.7oz, the XTRAIM combines a reflex red dot sight with thermal imaging technology. The sight can be mounted on rifles and light machine guns. It was developed a Thales’ [Read More…]
Photo Of The Day: The SL40 grenade launcher is made by Steyr Mannlicher and was selected by Thales Australia as the preferred choice when the EF88 assault rifle was under development by the Australian Defence Force (ADF). Note that the soldier aims through what is most [Read More…]
The US Army’s ongoing Next Generation Squad Weapon program has spawned capable designs from three companies. While the NGSW program has not yet selected a winner it was inevitable that the companies would begin to offer their weapons to other nations seeking to [Read More…]
True Velocity Ammunition have released a statement confirming that they have been selected to progress to the next stage of the Australian Army’ LAND 159 Force Modernization Program. TV will be partnering with Australian company NIOA, who were tasked by the [Read More…]
As India continues its unprecedented effort to modernise its Army’s small arms, fresh news of one of the early procurement efforts has emerged. Could a deal with Caracal for nearly 100,000 carbines be close to fruition? Back in early 2019 news of a flurry of [Read More…]
Which is better? That AUG or the AR-15? Let’s hear your opinion with this poll before James gets started: https://forms.gle/xei8FeLqgRo7f3rMA In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves goes over seven reasons that the AR-15/M-16/M4 carbine is better than the Steyr AUG bullpup. Based on [Read More…]
Unfortunately, we don’t go “down under” too often in Photo Of The Day, but today we go to Australia for the Joint Warfighter Series which took place in July 2019. This is the end of Battle Group Lion’s four-week Warfighter exercise, that culminated [Read More…]
Today’s Photo Of The Day features Australian Army soldiers from the 2nd Commando regiment conducting in a training exercise with their M4A5 rifles. In this photograph, taken by CPL Kyle Genner, we see Australian Army Commandos conducting in a series of [Read More…]
The Atrax bullpup rifle was developed as a semi-automatic version of the Australian Defense Force’s F90. Lithgow Arms has been planning to sell the Atrax on the civilian market in the United States since 2016. However, a spokesman for Thales, the company that [Read More…]
The firearms and museums communities were recently made aware of an online petition started by the Lithgow Small Arms Factory Museum aimed at saving the firearms (and the history) in their collection. Apparently, the government in New South Wales (that’s in [Read More…]
The 40x46mm low-velocity SL40 grenade launcher has been in Australian Defence Force service for some time now, serving primarily as a modular under-barrel grenade launcher attached to the 5.56x45mm NATO F90 service rifle within the infantry at the squad or section [Read More…]
According to ADBR (Australian Defence Business Review), Australian Minister for Defence Christopher Pyne has approved the LAND 125 Phase 4 Integrated Soldier Systems project. LAND 125 is a multi-phase program dedicated to equipping the Australian Defence Force [Read More…]
The Australian Defence Force has announced it will trial the Israeli SMASH computer aided sighting system from Smart Shooter. Smart Shooter, based in Yagur, Israel, offer a range of rifle mounted electro-optical fire control systems. The company claims that by [Read More…]
MKU Ltd. and Thales have announced that they will work together to enter India’s Close Quarter Battle Rifle trials. The announcement came on the 10th April, at Defexpo 2018, as the two companies signed two memorandums of understanding (MoU) for strategic [Read More…]
Good news for bullpup fanatics: The Lithgow F90, Australia’s improved version of the AUG, is in production in the USA right now under the name “Atrax”. Representatives of Dasan USA, the stateside manufacturer/importer, said that major components of the [Read More…]
Colt’s M5 Enhanced Carbine recently drew much interest and speculation at the formidable company’s latest entry into the AR15 market. However, we’ve recently learned more about the origins of the M5 and how it came to the U.S. market, oddly enough from [Read More…]
Non-mainstream firearms like the Steyr AUG normally have a little aftermarket support. The development of new products with a small potential customer base is not always justified or results in an overly expensive product. Nevertheless, even if there is a very small [Read More…]
Thales Australia has launched the newest update to its F90 bullpup assault rifle, at DSEI 2017. The weapon, which is the pre-production version of the prototype F90 Export shown off at IDEX 2017, sports a host of improved features versus both the legacy AUG and the [Read More…]
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