The Czech Ministry of Defense has announced on 12/21/2021 that it will be purchasing 949 FN Herstal manufactured Minimi Light machine guns in a CZK1.12 Billion ($50.73 Million) deal with the Czech company, CB Servis Centrum SRO. This deal also includes optics, armor [Read More…]
Photo Of The Day – We’re happy to see that the life of exhibitions is going back to normal. FN Herstal are exhibiting at DEFEA 2021 in Greece next week. There are no real new firearms to be exhibited, but FN Herstal attached a few really nice photos to their [Read More…]
In today’s Photo Of The Day, we travel back in time and stay in the present at the same time. We’re in Norway for the 75th anniversary celebration of the reconquest of Narvik during World War 2. Above you can see Norwegian Army soldiers, anno 1940 and 2015. [Read More…]
Norway’s Armed Forces are using the FN Minimi Light Machine Gun (5,56×45 NATO) since the late 80s. As late as 2011 they bought another 1,900 of them. They are in use with forces like the HJK/FSK, KJK, and MJK. The name FN Minimi is short for Mini [Read More…]
We have already seen the 6.5mm CT Carbine prototype brought out by Textron for the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting, but TFB also got an up close and personal look at Textron’s cased telescoped machine guns. Textron has two different cased [Read More…]
At the 2017 Association of the US Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting, Textron System displayed for the very first time their firing 6.5mm CT Carbine prototype. Previously, only non-firing mockups had been shown to the public, but after successful tests this summer the real [Read More…]
The elusive Tokar-2 5.45mm belt-fed machine gun made an appearance at the recent Rosgvardia Open House event late last month. The event demonstrated weapons and equipment being used by the Russian National Guard (Rosgvardia), and was open to the public. Russian media [Read More…]
Not long after SHOT Show, I got the chance to interview Mrs. Kori Phillips, former program officer for the Army’s Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT) program, and current program officer for the Cased Telescoped Small Arms Systems (CTSAS) program. We talked [Read More…]
Not long after SHOT Show, I got the chance to interview Mrs. Kori Phillips, former program officer for the Army’s Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT) program, and current program officer for the Cased Telescoped Small Arms Systems (CTSAS) program. We talked [Read More…]
Not long after SHOT Show, I got the chance to interview Mrs. Kori Phillips, former program officer for the Army’s Lightweight Small Arms Technologies (LSAT) program, and current program officer for the Cased Telescoped Small Arms Systems (CTSAS) program. We talked [Read More…]
The Land Component of the Belgian Armed Forces will soon be retiring the venerable 7.62x51mm MAG M2 (FN MAG medium machine gun) for FN Herstals 7.62x51mm Minimi Mk3. Specifically 242 machine guns will be bought with an order of 2 million Euros from the countries own FN [Read More…]
A report from Jane’s highlights a move within the British Army to review the requirements and usage of their LMG, the famously nicknamed “Minimi” (FN Para Minimi), and their M6-640 Commando 60 mm mortar system. Both of these weapon systems are [Read More…]
We love our readers. No really, we do. You send us lots of great stuff from all the tradeshows around the world. One of your eagle-eyed kin spotted the upcoming Astra MG556 5.56 semi-auto rifle. Externally very similar to the M249 SAW or FN MiniMi, the Astra is a [Read More…]
New Zealand Defence Force is switching from the 5.56mm FN Minimi to the 7.62mm FN Minimi as their standard Light Support Weapon (LSW). This continues the general trend across the globe of moving away from the 5.56mm round for everything but assault rifles. The [Read More…]
Copies of the FN Minimi have been photographed in use by Chinese police. The existance of this clone was first reported by Max Popenker & Tony Williams, both well known to TFB readers, in their book Machine Gun: The Development of the Machine Gun from the Nineteenth [Read More…]
Both the United Kingdom and New Zealand are adopting the 7.62mm version of the FN MINIMI machine gun. The NZ Defense Force is procuring (PDF link) the 7.62mm model, along with ACOG scopes, micro red dots and ground mounts to replace their 5.56mm model. The UK Ministry [Read More…]
It is nice to report some good news for FN Herstal after their run of bad luck. The FN MINIMI won the competition to select a new light machine gun for the Norwegian Armed Forces. Norway will be purchasing 1,900 MINIMI guns. From the press release … Belgium-based [Read More…]
Korean firm Dong In Optical specializes in red dot sights for machine guns, miniguns, grenade launchers and auto-cannons. The Model DCL100 Red Dot Sight (below) is designed specifically for the FN Minimi / M249 and FN MAG / M240 light machine guns. It is seen here [Read More…]
[ I have done my best to ensure there are no spoilers in this blog post, but read forth at your own risk and DON’T read the comments that are below the blog post. All pictures are from the trailers and promotional material, not the movie itself. ] Two readers [Read More…]
British troops “desperately” need 400 of the jumbo 0.5in calibre heavy machine guns – the weapon most acutely missed. The Army has also run out of the 7.62mm GPMG and Minimis. Supply has collapsed partly because of a dispute with the manufacturers, [Read More…]