The US Army Contracting Command, New Jersey, has issued a sole source notice to find potential future manufacturers of the Army’s 7.62x51mm M240 general purpose machine guns. This is an exercise in market research as the Army try to identify potential sources for [Read More…]
A G3 patterned self-loading rifle with a collapsible stock has recently been observed through numerous online sources with Houthi fighters in Yemen and with an Al-Aqsa Brigade fighter in the Gaza strip. The rifle in question is a 7.62x51mm NATO G3-patterned rifle that [Read More…]
The craft-modified bullpup PKM design that has popped up in different iterations (albeit sparingly) throughout Syria, Yemen and Libya takes its roots in the Russian 7.62x54mmR Pecheneg PKP GPMG that became popular within the Russian Ministry of Interior due to the need [Read More…]
Confirming our report back in June that the US Army’s future Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle program has identified five current contestants and awarded opportunity notice awards to facilitate prototype development. Back in June Miles reported that five [Read More…]
The Turkish firearm component manufacturing company MERTSAV Defense has recently unveiled an under barrel 40x46mm Low-Velocity grenade launcher, as revealed by posts on Pakistan Defense forum. The launcher utilizes an M1913 Picatinny rail attachment system to marry to [Read More…]
A recent flood of images from the excellent Turkish defense armaments based Twitter account Aybars have revealed that Turkish infantrymen are receiving the latest variant of the 7.62x51mm NATO MPT76 as a Designated Marksman’s Rifle. To be clear, this isn’t [Read More…]
Starting when the notorious terrorist leader found refuge in the company of Mullah Omar’s Islamic Emirate in the mid-1990s, Osama bin Laden became a vociferous proponent of constantly appearing in propaganda footage armed with a Soviet AKS74U [Read More…]
Two of France’s national police forces the Police Nationale and the Gendarmerie Nationale are set to adopt the Heckler & Koch UMP. Following an request for information in 2017 a contract, worth 3.2 million Euros, will see the police and gendarmerie replace [Read More…]
The Iraqi Al-Kadesiah rifle was named after a battle bearing the same name in 636 AD which marked a key point in the Islamic conquest of what is current-day Iraq and Iran. The naming of weapon systems whether it be small arms or missiles in Saddam’s Iraq was often based on important events [Read More…]
Army Contracting Command, New Jersey, have issued a synopsis/solicitation to negotiate a five year indefinite quantity contract with firm fixed price orders for a number of SIG Sauer weapon systems including rifles, submachine guns, pistols and suppressors. The [Read More…]
With a contract to replace the French Army’s bolt-action FRF2 sniper rifle expected in the near future, Verney-Carron, one of France’s premier sporting gun makers is positioning itself to win the contract. Verney-Carron was established in 1820 and has a [Read More…]
On the 26 June the US Army posted a pre-solicitation notice stating that they are looking for an optic for mounted machine guns. The US Army Contracting Command notice calls for an optic which can be mounted on both the 7.62x51mm M240B, the .50 calibre M2/M2A1 Machine [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…]
Over the last few weeks TFB have been keeping abreast of the US Army’s Sub Compact Weapon program. The program to arm Personal Security Details with a new compact, concealable submachine gun saw contracts awarded to as many as 13 companies to supply weapons for [Read More…]
The US Army Contracting Command, New Jersey, posted a sources sought notice for a ‘Modular Combat Shotgun’ based upon the Remington 870 on 23 May. The Army Contracting Command shared the notice on behalf of the Armament Research, Development and Engineering [Read More…]
A recent story shared by a Chinese media site has showed a slide of photographs consisting of Military Police from the anti-chemical warfare unit in Guangxi Province shooting a 1960s era flamethrower developed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (most likely [Read More…]
After a brief hiatus, the infamous Mahama Tactical training team is back in the spotlight again. The group’s former leader, Uzbek national Abu Rofiq was killed a while back and since then the team appears to have lost some key leadership. Since then, a Twitter [Read More…]
Initial production runs of small arms are always objects of great interest and fascination. They represent the tangible beginning, the first of many, a historical landmark. Especially if they are of designs that go on to influence small arms history. Usually when they [Read More…]
Russian media has reported on the recent acquisition of .50 BMG HS .50 patterned Anti-Materiel rifles by the Syrian Arab Army in the fight against the ongoing insurgent groups within Syria. The article claims that the rifles are assembled from Iranian components [Read More…]
Early prototype of AM-17, first public demonstration. August 2016 Recently, Larry Vickers visited Russia to get some pictures of rare and unique AKs for his upcoming Vickers Guidebook. He also visited the factory in Izhevsk and tried some of the newer weapons, including [Read More…]
At this year’s 100th Anniversary of the Azeri Army Parade in Baku, Azerbaijan we were able to get a glimpse of some of the recent developments within the Azeri Armed Forces while on parade. In terms of small arms the most significant observation is the recent [Read More…]
Since 2016, TFB has been closely following the Pakistani Army’s search for a new service rifle to replace its indigenously produced G3 rifles and the Type 56s currently in service. It has now emerged that the Pakistani military may also be interested in FB [Read More…]
An image of the sidearm that has replaced the Beretta M9 in U.S. Army service has recently surfaced through DOD media outlets. The image is of a soldier from the “Brave Rifles” 3rd Cavalry Regiment that is currently deployed to Operation Inherent Resolve in [Read More…]
Back in April, we reported that the Danish Armed Forces had selected the SIG Sauer P320 X-Carry. Trials of new pistols to replace the venerable SIG P210 began in late 2017. The Glock 17 Gen 5, Beretta APX, Canik TP 9 SF, and the SIG P320 X-Carry were tested with the [Read More…]
At the 2018 NDIA Armaments Forum the US Air Force detailed some of their current major small arms programmes. One of these was for a new ultra compact Aircrew Self Defense Weapon. This is a compact conversion of standard M4 carbines into a package small enough to be [Read More…]
Although these photographs were published by at least mid-2014, the presence of an HK69A1 in the hands of any insurgent group is interesting enough to those of us at TFB. The pictures were taken by a Reuters photographer Goran Tomasevic while embedded with the then [Read More…]
Metravib, the defense wing of the European based ACOEM Group was recently in the news for displaying a Picatinny rail mounted variant of their acoustic gunshot detector and locator. The company must be revamping their publicity efforts because the device was displayed [Read More…]
We shoot 5.56mm Barnes 85gr open tip match ammunition from a 10.5″ AR15.com upper with a 1:7″ twist, 10.5″ barrel into Clearballistics ballistic gel to measure velocity, penetration, expansion/fragmentation, and retained weight. If you aren’t already subscribed to us, [Read More…]
In the first part of this series, we looked at the numerous pistol calibre AR-pattern entries and the promising B&T designs submitted to the US Army’s Sub Compact Weapon program. If you missed it you can check it out here. Attack of the Clones: The MP5s While [Read More…]
Australian Defence Magazine reports that Australian Army awarded three contracts with a total value of about $2.2 million to two domestic arms and equipment manufacturing companies. Here is how the publication describes the process of submission and selection of these [Read More…]
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