In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves visits the KCI booth at Red Oktober 2021 to try their magazines and drums with a full auto RPK Light Machine Gun. James talks with Mark at KCI – a former Green Beret – about the RPK and about KCI’s magazines. ««« GUN AND GEAR GIVEAWAYS [Read More…]
Last week TFB travelled to the UK’s largest defense exposition, Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI), where we took a look at some of the newest small arms technology – including FN Herstal’s new EVOLYS. Officially unveiled in May, DSEI [Read More…]
In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves gets to take the SIG LMG-68 for a test drive at SIG Academy in New Hampshire. We talk to members of the design team about the LMG-68’s development, history, production, and capabilities. As previously reported on The Firearm Blog by Matt Moss: “The [Read More…]
Israel’s IWI recently made a significant flex with the posting of a photo of their Negev light machine gun production line. The photo features Negev LMGs for as far as the eye can see. Posted simply with the caption: “Just another day in the office, NEGEV [Read More…]
In this episode of TFBTV, James Reeves visits Surefire’s gun vault and looks at an incredibly rare find: The Surefire MGX. This light machine gun or “LMG” is something like the mix between an Ultimax 100 machine gun, an AR-15/M16, and a Stoner 63. This LMG has almost no recoil due [Read More…]
Almost a year ago TFB reported that the Indian Army was on a tour to source 16,400 Light Machine Guns. The tour included visits to three (to our knowledge) firearms manufacturers, including Arsenal in Bulgaria and S&T Motiv in South Korea. The winner has now been [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern have confirmed that their new light machine gun the RPK-16 has been adopted by Russia’s National Guard, the Rosgvardia. Back in September, the National Guard of Russia announced their purchase of a small number of the new AK-200 series of [Read More…]
Today’s guest post is written by Andrey Ulanov. Andrey is a firearms enthusiast, historian, researcher and writer. He is the author of numerous interesting small arms articles in various websites. Here is an example of an article written by Andrey. Let’s [Read More…]
A year ago we reported that the Russian Federation’s army had adopted the 5.45x39mm RPK-16 Light Machine Gun. Reports from Russia’s MoD’s official newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda (or Red Star), confirm that the RPK-16 has begun operational testing with Russian [Read More…]
The RPD was the culmination of Soviet light machine gun designs that began with the DP-28 of pre-World War Two days, and ending with the RPD, or Ruchnoy Pulemyot Degtyaryova. It was a lightweight, belt-fed from a drum, gas operated machine gun chambered in the Soviet M43 7.62x39mm cartridge. Some [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 AMELI light machine gun was Spain’s answer to what the Ministry of Defense needed in a squad automatic weapon, as a base of fire for the Spanish Infantry fire team. It was based on the late war German MG45 design, or as we see here, possibly just another version of the Mauser-CETME Light [Read More…]
At the end of the past month, we reported about the adoption of AK-12, AK-15, AEK-971, and AEK-973 rifles by the Russian military. Back then it was not clear if they are going to adopt the RPK-16 light machine gun, too. Today, Kalashnikov Concern and TASS [Read More…]
This experimental Soviet light machine gun was designed in a military academy called “F.E. Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy” by a gentleman named Major E. Gorov. In 1942, Gorov finished the designing process of his light machine gun and submitted it to [Read More…]
It’s almost 3 in the morning, and I’m lying awake in bed thinking about small arms. I’m trying to put everything out of my mind so I can go to sleep and wake up in the morning, go to the range, and bring you some raw ballistic data. So of course what [Read More…]
Is the US Army pushing for a new high-powered 6.Xmm caliber with their new NGSAR program? Recently, the listing for the NGSAR industry day in December was updated with a document describing in part the agenda of the second conference. Scheduled for 9:45 in the morning [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 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…]
Rounding out our coverage of Machinegunapalooza 2017 – by which I mean the numerous machine guns of the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting – we have the IWI Negev (5.56mm) and Negev NG-7 light machine guns. These Israeli belt feds are, [Read More…]
After World War II, the UK sought to modernize its small arms, many of which were based on designs originating from before the First World War. For its medium machine gun, the British were still using the reliable but increasingly obsolete Vickers water cooled gun in [Read More…]
After over 30 years of using the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, it seems the US Army may be moving away from the concept of squad-level belt-fed automatic firepower in favor of a lower-capacity but more precise (and probably magazine-fed) weapon. In a recent Special [Read More…]
In January, just before the 2017 SHOT Show, I got the opportunity to travel to Cody Wyoming to visit the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, to see some of their rare firearms and bring photos of them to our readers. Today’s weapon is a [Read More…]
Miles is at it again on World War II small arms, with the awesome help of Corey, a very dedicated and knowledgable Reenactor who has taken the time to showcase and discuss the “Light Thirty”, or the Browning 1919A4 light machine gun in use by U.S. Infantrymen in the Second World War. [Read More…]
Thanks to my friend Irfan for sending this photo to me. The photo is a bit confusing. The camo is Navy AOR1 which is typically the camo of choice for Navy Seals. However due to the helmet and plate carrier design, as well as the American Flag patch on the chest, the [Read More…]
The Type 73 looks somewhat like North Korea’s attempt at copying the Bren LMG with a lot of influence from the Russian PK guns. Here is another photo that looks like it might be taken from the same photo shoot. I wonder how the sights work? Are they offset so they [Read More…]
In this installment, we’ll be looking at a very unique round. The 6mm SAW was probably the first small arms round ever designed using computer-calculated parametric analysis, and it was also probably the first American rifle round designed from the outset for [Read More…]
An image of a mysterious new Russian machine gun was leaked to the public recently, during a visit to the Kalashnikov factory by Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov. The weapon is an intriguing dual-feed magazine/belt loading gun that features distinctly un-AK-like [Read More…]
As part of the recent Russian re-armament program including the T-14 Armata man battle tank, the T-50 air superiority fighter, and the AK-12 and A545 rifles, the Federation has initiated a program for a new 5.45mm caliber squad support weapon, called [Read More…]
The KAC Light Machine Gun is a weapon that appears in media often, but has so far existed in the real world as a prototype only. Knight’s Armament Company announced at the 2016 SHOT Show that the thirty-year development of the weapon was nearing its conclusion and [Read More…]
One of the types of weapons that saw a lot of service in the period from 1918-1945 is the top-fed detachable magazine rifle-caliber light machine gun, or automatic rifle. Beginning with the Danish Madsen, reaching its height before and during World War II with [Read More…]
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