#Beryl

POTD, short for Photo Of The Day, is TFB’s recurring articles where we go to great length trying to find the best pictures out there.

Halcyon Defense is a new company founded by Daniel Fisher, one of the engineers behind many KNS Precision products. This company is specialized in building custom firearms. They have several interesting ongoing projects and in this article, we’ll talk about one of them – AK rifle (Polish Tantal) chambered in .277 Wolverine.

Arms of America has announced the availability of a new AK rifle called WBP FOX. These new rifles are imported from Poland. They are made by WBP Rogow from completely new parts. Let’s take a look at the features of this rifle.

According to Jane’s 360 and the producer Fabryka Broni the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (abbreviated DICON) and the holding company Polish Armaments Group (PGZ) have agreed to begin the production of the Beryl M762 military rifle.

Arms of America and Atlantic Firearms have announced that they are starting the importation of Polish Beryl rifle parts into the USA. The two companies are the official distributors of the Polish FB Radom ( FABRYKA BRONI “ŁUCZNIK” – RADOM SP. Z O.O.). While American Arms will be selling these parts separately, Atlantic Firearms will also build rifles using the imported parts. Here is an excerpt from the Arms of America Facebook page announcement:

With that disappointment out of the way,  let’s get to the good news:  PGZ (Polish Armaments Group), which consists of FB Radom and Zakłady Mechaniczne Tarnów has a good system setup now to submit firearms for import approval, and a few have gotten approved!  First off from FB Radom, we have their M22 Beryl.  This is an all-metal gun in .22lr, with a proprietary magazine.  Pricing is yet to be set.  The gun seemed very well made when I handled it.  The semiautomatic pistol version of the PM-98 Glauberyt are being resubmitted for approval soon, as will be the semiautomatic version of the MSBS.

At the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting, gunmaker FB Radom was present at the Polish pavilion, displaying their MSBS modular assault rifle, recently named “Grot” (arrowhead) by the Polish government. The new rifle has been selected by the Polish government to replace their legacy AK fleet, many of which are the upgraded 5.56mm “Beryl” variant. The first order for the new rifles was signed in mid-September, and will result in the delivery of 53,000 rifles to the Polish government, which is expected to be completed by the end of November.

Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa, or Polish Armaments Group is the holding company of 60 Polish armaments companies (one of which is Fabryka Broni, producing the MSBS). Recently an announcement was made on Polish defense news service Defense24 that PGZ will be bringing a suite of 40x46mm grenade launchers to market, specifically aimed at adoption by Polish armed forces and law enforcement entities. Produced by a collaboration of PGZ owned Dezamet and ZM Tarnów, these are the SBAO-40 suite of GPBO-40 UBGL and it’s modified variant, the GSBO-40 stand alone launcher. These launchers are very similar in concept to H&K’s 320 which can be ordered as a UBGL or a stand alone as well. Also similar is the short barrel length, left side opening breech to accommodate longer grenades, and a user-friendly pistol grip. The UBGL is designed to be coupled with the 5.56x45mm NATO Beryl assault rifle currently in use by Polish forces. If the MSBS rifle completely takes over, there will most likely be a picatinny attachment that allows the GPBO-40 to mount to the underside of the MSBS.

As an update to Miles V’s post from last September, Polish arms manufacturer Fabryka Broni has recently debuted their previously announced polymer magazines for the MSBS rifle. Originally reported on the MilMag Facebook page, the new mags appear to come in both black and semi transparent versions and have the ability to run in other AR-patterned rifles.

Previously on TFB we covered the 26,000 Beryl rifle order by the active component of the Polish Land Forces. That May 2016 contract was at the time the largest acquisitions order in recent Łucznik-Radom history, but this confirmed order of 53,400 5.56x45mm NATO 96C Beryl rifles and 3,800 wz. 96C Mini-Beryl carbines doubles the contract size of the earlier 26,000 rifles for the active component. Details from Polish Defense site Defense24 specify the contract valued at PLN 350 million for this particular order. However, there is more to come, with the planned overall contract of 86,000 rifles (including the aforementioned 57,200) to possibly include the MSBS modular infantry rifle ( Or not, as Nathaniel F. points out). There hasn’t been a specification as to what optics these wz. 96Cs will be issued with.

The Polish Army has just signed a new contract to have 26,000 Beryl rifles and Mini-Beryl Carbines produced for use. The Polish arms manufacturer Fabryka Broni “Łucznik” Radom (FB Radom), which loosely translates to “Radom Armory,” will be making these firearms.

Polish gun manufacturer Fabryka Broni recently announced the full line up for the MSBS “Radon” modular dual conventional/bullpup layout rifle, in development since 2007. The MSBS is an improved relative of the Remington ACR/Magpul Masada. Frag Out! released a video recently of the MSBS in action, with a guest appearance by the 1930s Radom wz. 35 “Vis” pistol, embedded below:

Jane’s has a report out about a second batch of Beryl M762 rifles being purchased by the Nigerian Armed Forces. This isn’t the first international export of the rifle, among other countries that Beryl has sold or donated to are Afghanistan and Lithuania. This random transaction most definitely has to do with Nigerian Special Operations forces in their fight against Boko Haram, and not alot to do with their overall military of 80,000 active duty troops. The total would bring it up to 1,500 rifles, and that would make sense numbers wise to equip a battalion of troops. In addition, there really doesn’t seem a need for a short barreled rifle or carbine in the open terrain of Nigeria, another unique requirement of a Special Operations unit. And in fact, such a force already exists and has been photographed with the earlier shipment of rifles. They’re called the 72 Mobile Strike Force, and SOFREP has a pretty good collection of open source information on them.

The Polish Army has ordered almost 8,000 Beryl rifles, an improved AK variant. Does this mean the Polish Army no longer has interest in the MSBS, or that they are refilling their stockpiles as MSBS production comes on line? Defense24 has the story:

On this last day of the SHOT Show, I took a detour downstairs to see our friends at Fabryka Broni of the Bumar Group. I covered their MSBS (Polish for “Modular Weapon System” – alternately called “Radon” according to the Polish element naming scheme and not to be confused with Radom, the home of Fabryka Broni) rifle on Industry Day, but Krzysztof told me then to come to their booth at the show for more information.