Infantry Marine, based in the Midwest. Specifically interested in small arms history, development, and usage within the MENA region and Central Asia. To that end, I run Silah Report, a website dedicated to analyzing small arms history and news out of MENA and Central Asia.
Please feel free to get in touch with me about something I can add to a post, an error I’ve made, or if you just want to talk guns. I can be reached at miles@tfb.tv
Command Arms Accessories is currently showing a 10 part Facebook Live series narrated by Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) Mikey Hartman, discussing Israeli Defense Force combat marksmanship programs, of which Hartman himself was professionally involved in throughout his [Read More…]
DS Arms, Inc. was present at SITDEF 2017 this year with a number of the companies FAL modernization upgrades, continuing to offer their legacy upgrade packages to various South American Military/LE forces that are still armed with FN FALs or Brazilian Imbel license made versions. Although there were [Read More…]
Target designator and illuminator division Steiner eOptics of Steiner has introduced their latest DBAL, the DBAL-A4 v2 at SOFIC 2017. In this improved Picatinny mounted package, the company has added a visible white light capability (500 lumens), a modified IR [Read More…]
On top of introducing a 5.56x45mm carbine, MKEK is also showing current prototypes of an anti-material rifle that the Turkish state-owned company is in the process of perfecting and producing. The MAM-15 utilizes a manual bolt action, is chambered in .50 BMG, and has a [Read More…]
MKEK has taken to IDEF 2017 this year by releasing a 5.56x45mm NATO version of their 7.62x51mm NATO MPT-76, a Turkish made AR10. The select-fire, piston operated MPT-55 comes in two variants, a standard barrel configuration of 14.5 inches and 7.3 pounds, and a shorter [Read More…]
The Iranian Ministry of Defense has revealed a new locally produced semi-automatic, magazine fed, 12.7mm anti-material rifle to the public, dubbed the “Nasr”(نصر). In addition to the Nasr, what appears to be a locally produced 7.62x39mm Kalashnikov [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…]
Two Arabic news sources (Military-Zones, Middle East Panamera) have published independent posts about a remote control vehicle currently at least in the developmental phase of design within the highly contested Aleppo province in Syria. The designers are in areas still in control by Assad’s [Read More…]
In the latest twist of events to do with the 25mm XM25 “Punisher”, it appears the program is coming to a grinding halt after Military.com recently reported that the U.S. Army has completely canceled the program with Orbital ATK after almost two decades of [Read More…]
At the Security & Counter Terror Expo outside of London EFAFLEX introduced their EFAPROTECT Ballistic shutter. The shutter is a sort of garage door opener that rolls up into a box above an entrance and deploys extremely quickly to shield an entrance from various small arms threats up to [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…]
Recent photographic evidence has shown that Assad’s Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is equipped with DNS-1 Day & Night Vision Sights from the Belarusian company “Belarusian Optical & Mechanical Association”. These optics have been seen mounted on both [Read More…]
Recently we’ve been looking at a number of high-profile developments that came out of Special Operations Executive. Namely the infamous Welrod and Welwyn suppressed devices, and the Norm and Welgun experimental submachine guns. In this video, we take a look at some of the much lesser-known [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…]
Recent photographs out of the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib show a thorough manufacture of improvised anti-material rifles, all in 14.5mm. Local gunsmiths in the rebel-held city appear to be using the discarded barrels of 14.5mm KPV heavy machine guns, of an [Read More…]
Suarez International out of Arizona has released their latest Glock 17 slide, the V5. This slide improves upon previous Version of slides from the company and can be ordered with different optic cut outs. However, the base slide is meant for iron sights to be installed, [Read More…]
Soldier Systems Daily first reported on the Aimpoint M5 powered by AAA batteries almost a year ago. Oddly enough, it was spotted by an avid reader of SSD that noticed an optic being shown at a Diplomatic Security Service information seminar in Washington D.C. Not shown [Read More…]
Just in time for NRA 2017, Remington has just introduced their 870 Tac-14 shotgun which falls into a category not covered by NFA short-barreled shotgun regulations although it is a 14-inch barrel. The shotgun utilizes a Shockwave Raptor pistol grip that is neither a [Read More…]
Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa, or Polish Armaments Group is the holding company of 60 Polish armaments companies (one of which is Fabryka Broni, producing the MSBS). Recently an announcement was made on Polish defense news service Defense24 that PGZ will be bringing a suite [Read More…]
According to a report by Mönch Publishing Group, French Special Operations units and Danish Armed Forces are currently testing Knight’s Armament Corporation’s Stoner 5.56x45mm NATO LMG. Specifically the French Commandement des Forces Speciales Terre, and [Read More…]
The Indian Army has released an RFI that is requesting interested companies to submit a proposal for 1500 Anti-Material Rifles (AMR as per Indian Army). The rifles must be in a 12.7mm caliber (x108mm or .50 BMG wasn’t specified) and must weigh lighter than 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…]
Recent news reports have revealed that an arms cache in use by the Muslim Brotherhood was recently uncovered by Egyptian Security Forces in the vicinity of Alexandria. A number of small arms and explosive devices were uncovered, several of which will be noted below due to their peculiarity. However [Read More…]
The mostly Kurdish composed Syrian Democratic Forces were recently pictured in combat against the so-called Islamic State with a modified Zastava M93 Black Arrow anti-material rifle. The M93 is chambered in either .50 BMG or the Russian 12.7x108mm cartridge. The M93s in [Read More…]
The Iranian Ground Forces introduced a new .50 caliber self-loading rifle named the Heidar. The Heidar is a .50 caliber five round magazine side-fed, gas operated anti-material rifle with an effective range of 1,600 meters, maximum effective of 2,000 meters, and [Read More…]
Turkish defense technological company Aselsan will demonstrate a product originally introduced in January of this year (not covered on TFB yet) at IDEF 2017 in Turkey (late May). The Van Kedisi dual thermal/IR sight is similar in size to products that FLIR usually puts [Read More…]
Defense Blog has published evidence that Iraqi security forces are using a counter drone gun to aid in the fight against the so-called Islamic State’s many hobby drones that are either acting as forward observers for the terrorist group or weaponized themselves [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…]
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