When the subject is the future of infantry, the conversation inevitably turns to one thing: Powered, armored exoskeletons. Since the publication of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers in 1959, the concept of an armored suit with enhanced mobility from an internal power [Read More…]
Looking for a new car? Want something… Different? How about, say, an armored car? Well among their catalog of AK clones, AR-15s, pistols and other assorted firearms, Atlantic has recently listed for sale a Fox armored reconnaissance vehicle. Of course, [Read More…]
Rock Island Auction Company has released a video where they shoot some of the largest non-military cartridges and rifles ever produced. The three calibers include the .700 Nitro Express, 4 bore and .950 JDJ. And if you are going to shoot this kind of hand cannons, [Read More…]
A couple of Russian web sources have published images of a .50 caliber (12.7x108mm) anti-materiel rifle said to be domestically manufactured in self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. They call it an anti-sniper rifle. They also nicknamed it [Read More…]
This guest post has been submitted to TFB on behalf of Marawan M, an Egyptian firearms designer currently working in Turkey for a civilian Turkish firearms company. Recently he visited the Istanbul Military Museum and wrote up a summary of his visit along with [Read More…]
Here’s a bit of trivia fun for you. Question: Why is a “tire” (as in a car or bicycle) called a “tire”? Answer: If we look at old wagon wheels or a Gatling gun carriage, we see the central wood hub, the spokes, and a metal band around the outside. In fact, [Read More…]
Yes, you don’t own a flying car, but at least some of the promises of the future are coming true: The United States Navy has successfully tested its railgun prototype in multi-shot (autoloading) mode, earlier this summer. Although the US Navy has been testing [Read More…]
Orbital ATK, the defense contractor who manages and operates the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, will soon be bought by defense giant Northrop Grumman, according to an article released on Reuters. The purchase price is expected to be close to $8 billion USD. From [Read More…]
The A-10 “Warthog” attack aircraft is beloved by pilots and gun enthusiasts alike, and not the least because of its powerful 30mm GAU-8 Gatling cannon. On the other side the Cold War, though, another aircraft was developed with matched an equally rugged and [Read More…]
Polish arms maker Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów (ZMT) has released a new large-caliber semiautomatic sniper rifle system. The 100 year old company, formerly known for their bolt-action sniper rifles and autocannons, introduced the new advanced rifles at the [Read More…]
I know, that HK USP45 looks wicked operator and it’s a lot easier to shoot well than your 638. But where is it right now? In your safe? Big handguns are more fun to shoot and we can shoot them much faster and more accurately than little guns. But most folks end up [Read More…]
Good things come in lightweight, 84mm packages: Following its fielding of the M3 MAAWS last year, the US Army has announced its decision to sole-source 1,111 improved lightweight M3E1 MAAWS recoilless rifles from Saab Dynamics, in a listing at FBO.gov. The new weapon is [Read More…]
The website InterestingEngineering.com recently published an article titled “Why Do We Even Bother with Muzzle Brakes?” While readers of The Firearm Blog hardly need a reminder of what a muzzle brake is or what it does, I was excited to see a more academic approach [Read More…]
I recently had the pleasure of taking part in a prairie dog hunt in Elk Mountain, Wyoming. Triple Curl organized the event. The stars of the show were Sauer, who premiered their new rifle, the Sauer 100 Classic XT, and Minox. Minox had a suite of scopes available for [Read More…]
We all know how awesome the A-10 and GAU-8 is in aviation history. It is a flying gun. Well apparently it is not the first plane built around a gun. The Germans made something similar back in 1942. Henschel built the HS129. According to worldwarwings.com: Made by a [Read More…]
IDEF 2017 occurred in May of this year, but we missed this important Turkish development when it comes to ammunition. MKEK, the Turkish state-run armament company, and privately owned Aselsan signed agreements at IDEF 2017 to cooperate on the design and manufacture of [Read More…]
Over the weekend, a Port Authority Bus Driver lost control of the bus she was driving. She turned the bus but for some unknown reason was unable to straighten the wheels. The Howitzer is actually not the original WWI cannon. The present-day Cannon is [Read More…]
When in Russia and Moscow, you should take time to visit the Kubinka Tank Museum. It’s not a fancy place, and some of the artifacts have been moved to the more modern and nearby Patriot Park, but it’s still worth a visit. If you want to hunt WWI and WWII [Read More…]
“…Not until they invent handheld laser beams or something” – maybe you’ve heard this tacked on the end of an argument about how small arms are at their peak, and unlikely to change very much anytime soon. Well, the day when Star Wars-style [Read More…]
When one mentions an air force, what almost immediately probably comes to mind are images of sleek, fast-flying jet fighters, huge transport aircraft, and helicopters of all variations. However, it should be remembered that a whole lot of equipment is involved in the [Read More…]
If and when the machine overlords decide to take over the planet, the Skyshield will likely be their air defense weapon of choice. The Skyshield, a modular and potentially mobile air defense system, has been developed by Switzerland’s Oerlikon Contraves Air [Read More…]
When it comes to IFV’s (Infantry Fighting Vehicles), South Africa certainly gained a wealth of experience during their “Bush Wars”, including the largest armored engagement in the Southern Hemisphere in history during the Battle of Cuito Canevale in [Read More…]
The war in Syria and Iraq has seen the development of a whole range of scratchbuilt and improvised weapons that are as ingenious as they are destructive. Recently, a kind of serially-produced rocket launcher has come to light as part of Da’ish (ISIS) propaganda, [Read More…]
While at the Nightforce industry event back in November 2016, TFB received the privilege of talking one on one with Ray Dennis, the Australian dentist who founded one of the premier optics companies of our time. The Firearm Blog- Before we get into the history of [Read More…]
The Puckle Gun is one of those firearms of which only a couple of examples exist in the world, but which is covered in a great deal of introductory firearms books, usually in their section on the history of machine guns. This has led many to assume the Puckle Gun was [Read More…]
Dickson has shared another factory tour with us. This time he went to Hungary to check out Sero Engineering, the people how make the barrel recoiling GM6 Lynx. Have you ever seen that really cool .50BMG bullpup rifle that shows the barrel recoil like a howitzer cannon [Read More…]
Ah, what more do you need on a long winter’s night than a crackling fire, a warm drink and a pistol that you can use to fight your way back to your rifle. That saying never seems to get old… however, without starting a full-on blizzard of angry comments, a [Read More…]
The phrase, “In my opinion, the M1 Rifle is the greatest battle implement ever devised” is possibly one of the more enduring and iconic of all quotes to emerge out of the Second World War in relation to American small arms. The quote itself stems from a [Read More…]
DI Optical is a South Korean optic manufacturer that have been around for 25 years. Their main products are various gunsights for auto-cannons and crew-served weapons. Those bigger DI Optical weapon sights are often re-labelled by other companies and sold to militaries [Read More…]
Swedish Dynamite is a YouTube channel, which had a lot of success lately and spreading. It’s run by “Dynamite Erik” who apart from running his farm is a professional dynamite expert in the northern part of Sweden. History tells us that Alfred Bernhard [Read More…]
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