#ArmedForces

The Turkish Government has awarded the Turkish companies Sarsılmaz and Canik two contracts resulting from the “Original Indigenous Gun Project” trials. Sarsılmaz received a 110,000 handgun order of the company’s 9x19mm SAR-9, while Canik received a 45,000 handgun order of their 9x19mm TP9SF ELITE S model. The Sarsılmaz handguns will be divided up between the Turkish Coast Guard, Naval Forces, Land Forces, and National Police. The 45,000 Canik TP9SF Elite S handguns will be solely for the Turkish National Police Forces. In the Armed Forces, these handguns will be replacing aging CZ, Beretta copies that have been locally manufactured in Turkey. As for the National Police, these Caniks will be replacing the Yavuz 16 (a Beretta copy) and the Sarsılmaz Kılınç 2000, in addition to perhaps older Canik models as well.

Select-fire 5.56x45mm NATO Beretta ARX-160 rifles have been adopted en masse by the Turkmen armed forces, most recently seen in the media through the 26th anniversary of the country’s Independence Day parade held in the capital of Ashgabat. Replacing previous AKM and AK74 Kalashnikov patterned designs that Turkmen soldiers had been armed with since the days of the Soviet Union when it was a Soviet Socialist Republic until the early 1990s. From what we can gather at the military parade, it appears that the entire military has been equipped with the ARX160, and not just the land component or the infantry. The ARX160 acquisition program began sometime after 2011, with an initial sighting of the rifle among a Turkmen platoon in the 2014 Independence Day parade. Along with the ARX160 is what appears to be a smaller purchase of the IWI select-fire 5.56x45mm NATO Tavor TAR with Integral Meprolight reflex sight and what appears to be an image magnifier co-witnessed with the reflex sight. The IWI connection appears to roll over with handguns, with what appear to be Jericho pistols.

The Austrian fantastic plastic handgun Glock has won a contract to supply pistols to the Philippine Department of National Defense, which will supply the new handguns to the Philippine armed forces. The contract award is for the supply of 74,861 Glock 17 Gen 4 handguns, which will be used by all branches of the Philippine military.

S&T Motiv, the successor to Korean defense company Daewoo Precision Industries, was showing off a new variant of their K2 rifle that equips the Republic of Korea Armed Forces, alongside the M16A1 which remains in use with second-line units. The new rifle is called the K2C1, and features a new quad accessory rail replacing the previous plastic handguard, full-length 1913 Picatinny optics rail, and AR-15-style six position collapsing butt, which also folds. The new rifle will come in two variants, short and long barreled, with 305mm (12″) and 465mm (18.3″) barrels.