On the 19th January, the Irish Defence Forces issued a request for tender notice calling for submissions to fulfil their requirement for a new 7.62x51mm ‘Designated Marksman and Sniper Support’ weapon to replace the FN FAL currently in service. The Irish [Read More…]
For those of you following the “What Would Stoner Do” (WWSD) series on the InRangeTV YouTube channel, you know that a monolithic polymer AR-15 Lower receiver is in the works. This polymer lower is being produced by KE Arms, and they’ve dubbed the new [Read More…]
There is so much going on in Germany and their attempts to renew the small arms for their Army at the moment. If you think it’s confusing, you have our sympathies and full understanding. First, it was announced that the Haenel MK556 had won the tender to replace [Read More…]
Seekins Precision has announced that their DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle) rifle which was previously chambered only in .223 Wylde, is now also available in Hordany’s new cartridge, the 6mm ARC. Unlike its .223/556 siblings that are offered with shorter [Read More…]
Earlier this year the Canadian government confirmed it would be procuring a further 3,626 C6A1 FLEX General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG) from Colt Canada. This large contract is worth CA$96.97 million and was awarded under the Canadian government’s Munitions [Read More…]
The Canadian Army have ordered just under 300 new semi-automatic precision rifles from Colt Canada. The initial order for the new 7.62x51mm C20 is worth a reported CA$8.5 million. We at TFB got our first look at Colt Canada’s new C20 rifle last summer at DSEI [Read More…]
It’s been a while since Vorn Defence got mentioned here at TFB. The Vorn Equipment Fast Access Rifle Backpack written by Nicholas C was the last time, and I really like their quick-release system. If you carry longer and larger rifles and firearms from time to [Read More…]
Sons of Liberty Gun Works, a boutique AR-15 manufacturer, has introduced the Broadsword at SHOT 2020. The Broadsword is a Precision Rifle Shooting focused AR-15. It is specifically designed as a law enforcement marksman rifle, that excels at short range high-pressure [Read More…]
Back in 2016, Kalashnikov Concern officially introduced the SVCh Chukavin Sniper Rifle (Снайперская Винтовка Чукавина – СВЧ) which was initially called SVK. The gun was designed to replace the venerable SVD Dragunov Sniper Rifle, [Read More…]
Hakan Spuhr has been thinking about his new project off and on since 2012. Best known for his Spuhr optics mounts, accessory interfaces and the in-line G3 stock, recently adopted by the Portuguese Navy and the Swedish Army and Home Guard, Spuhr has now unveiled the [Read More…]
NOTE: We previously reported that the Tavor 7 might be fielded as a designated marksman rifle for the IDF. However, according to our source at IWI, the prior article we cited from the Jerusalem Post contained misleading wording with comments from IWI taken out of [Read More…]
From 2019 Česká zbrojovka (CZ) will offer their 7.62x51mm BREN 2 BR (Battle Rifle), to military and law enforcement customers. The rifle was officially launched back in September, check out Vlad’s right up on it here. Now we have some new product photos to take [Read More…]
At the Arms & Hunting 2018 exhibition, Russian TsKIB SOO has introduced the civilian version of the OTs-129 designated marksman rifle. The civilian rifle is called MTs-566 and it is largely a copy of its military counterpart. Let’s see what interesting [Read More…]
As part of France’s continuing small arms modernisation the French Army has announced the search for a new semi-automatic marksman’s rifle to replace the ageing FR-F2 bolt action sniper rifles. This is a requirement that has been rumoured for some time. On [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…]
On the heels of the USMC’s effort to field 15,000 more Heckler & Koch M27 Infantry Automatic Rifles, as well as the M38 Designated Marksman Rifle variant, The Firearm Blog has received a copy of a 2016 report intended to justify procurement of accessories and [Read More…]
In the late ’50s, there was a need in the armed forces of Soviet Union for replacing the rifles deployed in sniper and DMR roles. By that time they were mainly using scoped Mosin-Nagant, SVT and SKS rifles. All these rifles were outdated and they needed something [Read More…]
The British Army is set to move away from its use of the FN Para Minimi or L110A2/A3 at the fire team level. During a seminar at the 2018 Future Soldier Technology conference, held in London 12th-14th March, the CO of the British Army’s Infantry Trials and [Read More…]
The Sig Sauer P365 was one of the most talked about semi auto pistols to SHOT Show this year. TFB sat down with Sig’s media team and got the low-down on the newest member of the Sig Sauer family. The Elephant in the Room The very first thing I noticed about the [Read More…]
ORSIS has first introduced their semi-auto rifle about a year ago during MILEX-2017 arms exhibition in Belarus. Recently, they have released it to the Russian civilian market. The Russian designation of the rifle is ORSIS-K15 “Брат”. The word [Read More…]
The US Army wants to give its soldiers more punch and reach: In the Fiscal Year 2019 Budget Estimate Justification Book for the United States Army, the service outlined its strategy for procuring M110A1 Compact Semi-Automatic Sniper System (CSASS) rifles from Heckler [Read More…]
While doing a research for another article I came across a set of photos taken during live firing exercises of Russian Ground Forces’ snipers in Alabino proving grounds. Reportedly, the images are taken in December 2017. Let’s take a look at them and [Read More…]
The USMC has begun fielding an unspecified number of M38 Designated Marksman Rifles. Converting existing M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle’s to the designated marksman role by adding a Leupold TS-30A2 Mark 4 MR/T 2.5-8x36mm variable power scope, replacing the standard [Read More…]
Whatever the next infantry small arms configuration is, I hope it does away with the failure that is the belt-fed Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). Why? Let’s talk about it. On the surface, the idea of augmenting the firepower of a rifle squad with a belt-fed machine [Read More…]
The US Army’s embattled CSASS program has moved forward slightly with a sources sought notice posted to the Fed Biz Opps website, seeking manufacturers who can make many of the accessories that equip the M110A1 rifle. The notice isn’t itself for a contract, [Read More…]
The US Army will be holding a second Industry Day for its Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle program, which seeks to replace the M249 light machine gun with a new longer-ranged, lower signature automatic rifle. The Industry Day will be held at Picatinny Arsenal on [Read More…]
A warning against romanticism in military planning. In the early 1940s, the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) made a fateful decision that would affect the lives of tens of thousands of men over the next decade. Two years prior, the Army had just begun testing her newest [Read More…]
Earlier this month, the Serbian Army debuted a new 6.5 Grendel weapon system, developed by Zastava. The rifle, called M17, is a heavily modified variant of the M70 AK family that has been developed by the company for decades. It incorporates a number of significant new [Read More…]
At the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting, Oberndorf gunmaker Heckler & Koch had on display the latest configuration of their CSASS winning rifle, the G28E-based M110A1. The rifle is similar to the M110A1 displayed at the 2017 SHOT Show in Las [Read More…]
In examining the future of infantry capability, we must not only be aware of potential technological solutions, but of the need to re-think and re-work what it means to train and prepare troops for future battlefields. At the core of this is the simple matter of man and [Read More…]