Ops-Core is releasing a new line of Fast Helmets in both ballistic and carbon fiber. The ballistic version will first be released with an MSRP of $1700 and weighs lighter than its predecessor. A sales rep at the Ops-Core booth said the SF was 6% lighter when compared to [Read More…]
In today’s episode, we follow Miles to Shot Show 2018 and visit the FN Herstal booth. Miles meets with Ben, who tells us the history and origin of the FN Scar SC which is short for sub-compact. The SC is a shortened version of the Scar Light with a collapsed overall length of only 21″. [Read More…]
Until now, the US Army’s 7.62mm XM1158 Advanced Armor Piercing (ADVAP) round has been a mystery. The round, which was rumored to be the basis for the now-cancelled Interim Combat Service Rifle (ICSR) program, is supposed to allow existing weapons in the 7.62x51mm [Read More…]
If you aren’t already subscribed to us, you’re missing great content! Click here to subscribe. The FK Brno 7.5mm Field Pistol is a high end boutique pistol based on the CZ75 and chambered in a rather intriguing proprietary cartridge. At first glance, it seems almost like 9x25mm [Read More…]
In an interview given to TASS news agency, Dmitriy Semizorov, the CEO of TsNII TochMash has revealed some of the features of the Ratnik-3 future soldier equipment that is being developed for the Russian military. Let’s see what new has become known. Designations [Read More…]
When the subject is the future of infantry, the conversation inevitably turns to one thing: Powered, armored exoskeletons. Since the publication of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers in 1959, the concept of an armored suit with enhanced mobility from an internal power [Read More…]
With Level IV armor rising in availability, calls for “overmatch”, and the increased presence of urban warfare, will designers be able to meet the requirements for future small arms? Forumgoer Poliorcetes raised this question in a discussion at the Military [Read More…]
The US Army’s latest improvement to the soldier’s gear has finished its final round of field testing. The testing was conducted in mid-October by soldiers with the 71st Ordnance Group and the 10th Chemical Hazardous Response Company, at Fort Carson, [Read More…]
Saw this odd video. Well I say odd, but I call it clown shoes. A French instructor, who I dub as Captain France, is demonstrating how to utilize the Universal Shield while using a handgun. I particularly enjoyed his fumbling of a mag reload. The Universal [Read More…]
The experiments dedicated to finding out whether magazines can stop this or that caliber bullets or not have been arranged by many different people. Some of them seem to be done just for fun. But others’ goal is to find out whether loaded magazines can be a [Read More…]
Being a defense show rather than a firearms industry show, there are a bunch of interesting products to see at AUSA that one might not get a peek at elsewhere. An example of this kind of product is the Modular Interlocking Ballistic Barriers from KF Armory. These [Read More…]
In a recent letter released to Army general officers, Chief of Staff of the Army Mark Milley outlined a plan for reform of the Army’s development and procurement arms. In it, he also made mention of the Army’s plans for future individual weapons and [Read More…]
It’s currently in fashion to disregard steel armor. To be sure, there are some significant differences between steel and ceramic composite armor, but there are a few things that steel can indeed do better than ceramic composite. It tends to be thinner and it [Read More…]
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 [Read More…]
If you were designing the next small arms round, how would you do it? What methods would you use to determine its physical characteristics and performance attributes? How would you know what was too large or too small, too powerful or too weak? Perhaps more critically, [Read More…]
A YouTube channel called 704 TACTICAL has published a video where the host of the channel makes a DIY body armor plate out of simple and cheap items found in Dollar Tree store. He applied glue into a cookie pan, glued some decorative stones to the pan, put a book as a [Read More…]
It’s natural for a manufacturer to want to portray their product in the best possible light. But when the capabilities of your product are technical in nature, it can be tempting to advertise in such a way that less informed consumers might get the wrong idea. [Read More…]
The Republic of Georgia’s state owned “State Military Scientific-Technical Center “Delta” has recently unveiled an entire line of body armor that was first fielded in 2016 by the Georgian Armed Forces in Afghanistan, and then later in the [Read More…]
In an era of increasingly resilient body armor, new small arms ammunition solutions are required to even the odds between the shooter and shootee. The company Stiletto Systems, based out of the UK, is advertising its new bullet as a possible solution for this problem. [Read More…]
OK, who would win in a race: A soldier, a firefighter, or a knight? What, you’ve never asked yourself that? Well, for those of you who did, you finally have your answer thanks to a video released by Daniel Jaquet of the Centre d’Études Supérieures de la [Read More…]
In the rush to augment the infantry’s firepower with new advanced small arms technologies, we may be on the precipice of crippling their ability to fight wars. The push to equip the infantryman with more powerful rifles and machine guns risks reducing his mobility [Read More…]
A concept for an advanced suit of powered personal armor was unveiled late last month at the Moscow Prototyping Center, sporting hexagonal modular armor panels, full face helmet with mocked up information display, and a bullpup rifle. The suit, revealed to the internet [Read More…]
Aside from huge rifles like .50 BMG and the like, that is. NIJ 0101.06 Level IV specifies that the plate must be able to stop .30-06 M2AP at 2,880 fps. I’m case you’re not familiar with M2AP, it is a copper jacketed projectile with a hardened steel core. It [Read More…]
Having worn it before and knowing many who have lived because of it, body armor – specifically hard plates – have become indispensable life-saving tools for police and military. Designed specifically to defeat high velocity ballistic threats such as the AK [Read More…]
In the wake of Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley’s testimony to Congress on the present and future state of the US Army, there has been a significant amount of speculation and in some cases misleading reporting regarding his statements on small arms and [Read More…]
Body armor has saved a lot of lives – but its arguable that it has taken a few too. By being heavy, it reduces the mobility of the combatant, which in today’s mobile combat, can be detrimental to health almost as much as a bullet. As such, the warning of [Read More…]
TacProGear (TPG) announced a new line of armor plates in its Black line. The Black line is the company’s premier line of tactical gear that is all made and designed in the United States. The new line of plates, called the Citadel line, has a total of 11 different [Read More…]
A professor and her team at NC State has developed a type of metal foam that is capable of stopping some of the most powerful small arms rounds in use by the military. Sandwiched between a ceramic strike face and a Kevlar or aluminum backplate, the ballistic composite [Read More…]
That seems like a pretty straightforward question, doesn’t it? On the surface, armor piercing ammunition ought to be ammunition that pierces armor, right? Seems pretty simple. Except it isn’t. At least, not according to the BATFE. Under 18 United States [Read More…]
As a researcher and history enthusiast, one of the issues I often have to wrestle with is that of eyewitness accounts, specifically when to trust them and when not to. That subject itself is one for another time, but today I want to look at a specific example of an [Read More…]