#5.56

If you want a Mini-14 buy one.

Manufacturer SIG Sauer brought along their brand new MCX Rattler ultra compact 5.56mm and .300 Blackout assault rifle/carbine to the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting. The Rattler is an ambitious design intended to bring a reliable extremely short barreled AR-type rifle to the military and civilian market. Historically, designing very short barreled gas operated rifles that function well has been a serious challenge, so the Rattler’s designers had a tall order to fill.

Poland is another step closer to issuing the new MSBS 5.56 (AKA the GROT) as the rifle completes its first round of operational testing ahead of schedule.

Hartford gunmaker Colt’s Manufacturing has introduced a new carbine model at the 2017 Bahrain International Defence Exhibition & Conference (BIDEC). The weapon, called the M5 Enhanced Carbine, is an AR-15-style rifle fitted with Geissele Super Modular Rail handguards sporting low profile screw mounting points, an ambidextrous lower receiver, and a short-stroke gas piston and operating rod gas system. The website Army Recognition has posted an article on the new carbine, as well as what appears to be a segment of a press release from Colt:

The HK433 family is going full power, Heckler & Koch told TFB at the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting. When speaking to representatives of the company about their new rifle which was being shown off in the USA for the first time, I asked the question (expecting a sly wink and a “we can’t tell you that” as a response): “Will the HK433 family be available in 7.62mm NATO?” Much to my surprise, the answer was “yes, we are working on that now.” Beyond that, the representatives would not comment any further.

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 rifle, of marksmanship.

The Arsenal ARS30-1 made it’s public/dealer debut this week at the NASGW Wholesaler Expo in San Antonio, Texas. Made by Gemtech, the ARS30 is obviously purpose-built for the AK47/AK74 platform but is capable of withstanding a variety of calibers and barrel lengths. Constructed of titanium it weighs in at 19.5 ounces and features a quick disconnect system.

Every gun must serve a purpose. Said the most boring person in the world. The truth is, the new RAIDER pistol from FightLite Industries looks nearly useless in every defensive scenario I can think of in today’s world. However, for some strange reason (maybe it’s my new found love in the 870 with the short TAC14 firearm) I find myself drawn to this little blaster. Hitch up a silencer, drop in some subsonic 300BLK and you have yourself a party!

Recent images have emerged of the Pakistani Special Service Group (SSG), the countries Naval Special Operations component, with New Hampshire based  Sig Sauer, Inc. 5.56x45mm NATO SIG 516PDW carbines with 7.5 inch barrels, along with Steiner DBAL I2 ATPIAL s mounted on the handrails. SSG operators have been seen with both Magpul and STANAG magazines inserted. The images appeared on two recent threads in Pakistan Defense, from July of this year, and from early October as well.

During a routine traffic stop, a man from Tennessee was caught transporting two illegal homemade fully automatic assault rifles. While that sounds like the leader for a poorly written article about perfectly boring semiautomatic assault rifles, in this case it is accurate! Among other (apparently legal) weapons, two rifles, complete with three-position selectors and auto sears, were seized from the vehicle of one Scott Edmisten, who was stopped after driving 25 miles an hour over the speed limit on a suspended license.

Let’s start off with a question: What is the best round for the AR-15?

With the recent push for small arms ammunition with increased range, power and capability, are military customers in danger of being taken for a ride by industry marketeers working to sell rifles in new calibers? Is the primary driving force behind new infantry calibers not in fact a need to be addressed, but a desire to sell weapons in a stagnant small arms market?

The G36’s replacement is now known to be one of five guns – or at least that’s the report coming from reputable defense outlet IHS Jane’s. Competing in Germany’s System Sturmgewehr Bundeswehr (Bundeswehr Assault Rifle System) will be the Rheinmetall RS556, Heckler & Koch HK433, Haenel Defence MK556, SIG MCX, and FNH SCAR. For four contestants, no known 7.62mm variants exist; only the FN SCAR has a 7.62mm variant – the SCAR-H – that is known publicly. This means the Bundeswehr will likely not be going back to .30 caliber infantry rifles any time soon.

Ruger dove into their hat of tricks once again to bring out a more specialized version of their bread ‘n butter AR-15. They have developed the AR-556 MPR (“Multi Purpose Rifle”).

In yesterday’s article, we took a look at examples of two different methods of design, which I called “preference-driven” and “process-driven”. For these examples, I supposed two engineers from two different cultures – called “Romulan” and “Vulcan” after the aliens from the Star Trek universe.* In the “Romulan” example, we explored preference-driven design, where a final product is outlined by amalgamating preferred characteristics from previous works to create a desired whole. For the “Vulcan” example, we examined the more elaborate method of developing processes that can be fed data to procedurally generate characteristics as an example of process-driven design.