#ISDEF2019

The 5.56x45mm Carmel was introduced recently by IWI Israel. We haven’t really gotten a chance to get our hands on one until now when we caught up to IWI in Tel Aviv, Israel. No word yet on whether or not the rifle would be introduced to the U.S. commercial market but it does look like IWI wants to market it for the international export marketplace with military users.

The Fobus APN holster is the company’s latest IWB offering and is currently for sale in the United States. It is designed as an ambidextrous all polymer IWB holster with a sweat guard and comes in three different configurations; the APN26 for the Glock 26, APN365 for the SIG P365, and the APN43 for the Glock 43 (not mentioned at ISDEF but available on the website is the APN Shield for the Smith & Wesson Shield).

Israeli start-up ReCover Tactical was displaying some of their new Glock 43 components on a massive, scaled up handgun which drew the attention of almost every passerby. But the best announcement from the company is the confirmation that their Hi-Power grips are finally available for order in the United States at a price point of $49.99 on their website. These were initially premiered at SHOT 2019 but due to unforeseen manufacturing issues, the grips couldn’t ship until this summer. The primary market for the grips is going to be civilian Browning or FN Herstal Hi-Powers in the United States where owners want to put polymer grips and a rail on their handguns. Another possible market for the grips could be international LE groups or even militaries that still use Hi-Powers and might not have the funds to completely replace their handguns with new ones. Hint, Hint Canada…

A.C.S Industries is an Israeli startup that has been successful in producing and selling a quick-deploy polymer grenade pouch wherein users simply unlatch and rip a grenade out of a polymer casing to immediately deploy it. At ISDEF 2019 they were demonstrating a similar concept in terms of a polymer STANAG magazine pouch design wherein the magazine is retained in the pouch by a catch that holds it against a spring-loaded follower that rests against the front of the magazine as it is encased in the housing. Pressing against an exterior trigger allows the magazine to be ejected out of the pouch and into a shooter’s hand. This might raise concerns about how ‘far’ the magazine will be ejected, but we were told that when fully loaded the magazine shoots out just enough to slightly pop out of the pouch allowing a shooter to grasp the magazine and then insert it in their rifle.

Dongrun Safety is a Chinese company that presented an armored dress-vest that could be ordered in various ballistic ratings up to the Chinese GA141-2010 Level 3, or roughly equivalent to an NIJ IIIA. Incorporating Kevlar ballistic material into dress attire has existed for some time now, albeit it hasn’t taken off too much within the VIP protection circuit that it is designed for. One company in the US has even tried to turn a line of everyday clothing into armor as well, in addition to another one even offering a two-piece suit armor combination. The reasons for both might appear to be that having a very basic set of a standard (Point Blank or Velocity Systems) soft armor vest allows for a much more versatile clothing option for a client or security detail because one isn’t stuck with a single outer layer. Users can also ‘armor-up’ by simply putting on a steel or ceramic plate over their soft option, thus gaining more protection by incorporating their soft armor into a system.

Orsis was at ISDEF 2019 with the relatively new to U.S. readers .308 Win ‘Bro’ semiautomatic precision rifle. Known more for their T-5000 manually repeating rifles in use throughout the world, the K15 is the company’s entry into the semiautomatic field. As of yet, we don’t know of any large scale Military or Law Enforcement orders for the K15 and company representatives didn’t mention any upcoming ones at ISDEF 2019 either. Since our earlier post on the rifle, we’ve noticed some minor differences to this most recent version, most that appear to be cosmetic or accessory-based in nature. First and foremost, the safety pictograms have been redesigned and moved about an inch up on the receiver. The selector is of a different design than earlier as well. Looking at the stock, we now see that the display rifle has a FAB Defense GL-CORE CP AR-15 telescoping and cheek rest configurable stock, mounted on a Russian Hartman AR15 buffer tube.

Flex Force Enterprises (formerly Radio Hill) is more widely known for their counter UAV handheld DroneBuster device but the company also makes machine gun mounts that are currently in use by the U.S. Government. Their ASP-Land and ASP-Maritime are gyrostabilized mounts that are designed to be used in both a manual operator role and in a remote-controlled capacity as well. Although most of the photographs of the mount itself show it with a .50 BMG M2 Heavy Machine Gun, it can be configured for any particular platform that a client wants. This is done via a mounting bracket that serves as a ‘sled’ that can have proprietary bolts affixed in it allowing practically any NATO or Soviet-bloc weapon system to be mounted to it.