#F90

The Cove is an Australian Army blog that covers everything related to soldiering.  In a recent series of posts, author Solomon Birch took an in-depth look into the previously issued EF88 bullpup rifle.  Mr. Birch used the M4 rifle as a comparative baseline.

Thales Australia have teamed up with Indian corporation, the Kalyani Group, to submit the F90CQB bullpup to fulfil India’s 5.56x45mm carbine requirement. The partnership also spans Thales’ other products including the Hawkei protected mobility vehicle and Bushmaster gun system.

The Atrax bullpup rifle was developed as a semi-automatic version of the Australian Defense Force’s F90.  Lithgow Arms has been planning to sell the Atrax on the civilian market in the United States since 2016.  However, a spokesman for Thales, the company that developed the upgrades for the Steyr AUG variant, announced that they were canceling plans for the civilian version based on “ethical grounds”.

The 40x46mm low-velocity SL40 grenade launcher has been in Australian Defence Force service for some time now, serving primarily as a modular under-barrel grenade launcher attached to the 5.56x45mm NATO F90 service rifle within the infantry at the squad or section level. It was first chosen to accompany the F90 family of  rifles in 2014, a derivative of the Austrian Steyr GL40 launcher (the SL40 being a derivative of the GL40). The original design competition was between the Steyr GL40 and the Madritsch Weapon Technology ML40AUS, another Austrian armaments company. The Steyr design was selected for integration.

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 combining “simple-to-install hardware with our own advanced image-processing software” they can cost effectively turn “basic small arms into 21st century smart weapons.”

MKU Ltd. and Thales have announced that they will work together to enter India’s Close Quarter Battle Rifle trials. The announcement came on the 10th April, at Defexpo 2018, as the two companies signed two memorandums of understanding (MoU) for strategic co-operation.

Good news for bullpup fanatics: The Lithgow F90, Australia’s improved version of the AUG, is in production in the USA right now under the name “Atrax”. Representatives of Dasan USA, the stateside manufacturer/importer, said that major components of the Atrax, including the barrel, were already being produced in their facilities within the country, to allow production weapons to comply with US import laws. Dasan Representatives said that the technical data package for the US-made components was transferred to the US from Australia, so each component made in the States adheres exactly to Lithgow’s methods and standards for that component.

The Steyr AUG is not dead! The latest iteration, the  Thales F90MBR (Modular Bullpup Rifle) was announced just before DSEi and as expected was on display. Our good friend Lionel took these photos of the modular bullpup.

Thales Australia has launched the newest update to its F90 bullpup assault rifle, at DSEI 2017. The weapon, which is the pre-production version of the prototype F90 Export shown off at IDEX 2017, sports a host of improved features versus both the legacy AUG and the F90. Thales released a press release describing the rifle, just prior to DSEI.

Josh Whi, over at Lithgow Arms USA , clued me in that they have launched a new website and they are taking pre-orders right now for the ATRAX.

Recently, I wrote  an article about one negative aspect of bullpups which is caused by their much-touted rearward balance. Even though its scope was extremely limited, this article caused a lot of discontent in my comments section, and many of my readers expressed a feeling that I was trying to slam bullpups or otherwise promote conventional rifles as the ideal weapons. In this post, therefore, I wanted to address the underlying issue behind this: How do I really feel about bullpups? Put differently, which do I think is better, bullpups, or conventionals?

The Firearm Blog would like to extend its thanks to reader and contributor Giorgio, who lent his journalistic services to us at this years IDEX conference in Abu Dhabi in February. Thanks, Giorgio!

The bullpup rifle tends to be – when it comes up – a pretty divisive subject among “tactical” rifle shooters. Bullpup detractors dismiss the layout as clunky and awkward, while its proponents cite the advantage of longer barrels and shorter overall lengths. Both camps are often correct in their criticism, but there is another aspect of the bullpup that I think often goes poorly addressed – if it is addressed at all. That is the subject of balance.

While the primary consumer of PMAGs continues to be the general American shooting public, various companies and countries have paid close attention to the success of the polymer magazine “PMag” offered by MagPul. The magazine’s success has not been by accident. Its durability, reliability, and performance have become the metric by which other STANAG magazines are measured.

Big news at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting 2016, importer Lithgow Arms USA will be bringing the EF88/F90 improved bullpup assault rifle to the USA. The F90 is a variant of the Steyr AUG developed for the Australian Defence Force to replace the F88 (their designation for the AUG) bullpup rifle.