#Misc

Armageddon Tactical is a Littleton, Colorado-based company that produces and sells various firearms parts, mostly in the AR15 field of accessories, but with this new product, the company has stepped forth into the world of Kalashnikov components. The AK47 Hinged Side Rail Mount is a folding picatinny rail mount that is designed to clip onto the side of an AKM or AK74 receiver’s optic rails, providing a picatinny mount for the rifle that allows the use of the traditional iron sights already mounted to it by unclipping and folding the entire mount to the left of the rifle. There are numerous picatinny mounting options out there for the Kalashnikov platform, but none that allow the entire mount to flip to the left of the rifle as this one does. Unlike the AR15, where the picatinny rails allow for a co-witnessing of iron sights against mounted 1X optics that are fixed in place via an attachment system (negating quick removal of the optic if it goes down), the Kalashnikov iron sights are placed at a very low height to the top of the receiver. Currently, there aren’t many products that allow optics to be mounted AND allow shooters to still use their iron sights should their optics go down.

The Cobra buckle has been making waves within numerous communities in our industry for several years now. Some of the reasons behind this is the new application as a gun belt. Some of the hype around the design has to do with the buckle itself, being made by a company called AustriAlpin in Austria. The company originally made these buckles to be used in mountaineering equipment and aircraft rigging where sometimes thousands of pounds of material is being sustained by these buckles before their failure points. Some models have a limit of 2,000 pounds, others 4,000 pounds, and still yet some have 11,000 pounds of pressure that need to be applied before the buckle breaks. Essentially as my friend put it to me once, “The belt will fail before the buckle will”.

Our own Nathan S. gave the Neomag discreet magazine carrier a very throrough review back in June of 2015. The point of the carrier is to give an everyday concealed carry user the ability to have an extra magazine in their pocket, but in a very minimalistic manner, literally only using a magazine retainer made from rare earth magnets. To help keep the magazine in place, the retainer has wings on the sides to keep the magazine from slipping off, in addition to a rare earth magnet that actually retains the magazine to a certain degree. It isn’t an active retention system such as a velcro strapped cover, but it does a good job of holding the magazine in place and not have it slip off and bounce around in a pocket. At the same time the Neomag uses a clip to keep it secured to the outside of the pocket, but the point of this clip is made to appear like a folding knife clipped into the pocket and not a loaded magazine. Neomag does this by designing the “wings” so that the magazine itself is actually seated very low in the pocket and isn’t protruding at the top.

Last year Nathan S. posted about the introduction of the WarFytr companies IWB Kydex holster Fabriclip belt clips. I initially read about it with interest but soon found myself working on numerous other projects and eventually forgot about the product. However, fast forward several months later and I was trying to find a much better method to attach a Kydex holster to my pants or belt while appendix carrying. I initially started out with my Kydex trigger guard holster made for my Smith & Wesson M&P 9x19mm Shield, with a simple paracord loop that was attaching the holster to my belt. This began as an excellent idea, and still is in some situations, but for the most part it breeds a number of issues.

Clinton Westwood is no stranger to TFB, having been covered previously for different versions of his homemade barrel rifling tool, the first one slightly rough, and the second one much more refined. He has made a name for himself on Youtube through the various DIY firearms and devices that he produces from simple machines, tools, and materials that one could find at most hardware stores. The guy is extremely talented, and perhaps given a chance at working with a modern firearms manufacturer and a small budget, could probably do very well.

The  1/6 “Hard” Über Squad that Marine Infantry Gunner (WO5) Wade put into motion some months ago has taken on Golf Six, a live fire range in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. 1/6 is trialing several new pieces of kit, most importantly M27 IARs as a standard squad issued rifle, in addition to suppressors mounted to an entire squad’s weapons. Not discussed earlier but seen here is the addition of new ballistic helmets, squad level communications with every Infantryman, and a new plate carrier separate from currently issued ones. Alongside this Über squad were photographs of other squads that weren’t as lucky to receive all the latest in gadgets and gear.

A recent article in the Vietnamese online journal Nguyen Tan Dung discusses the latest updates of a remotely controlled 12.7x108mm DShK heavy machine gun that could see potential use among soldiers of the Vietnamese Peoples Army. The contraption was aired on the Vietnamese MoD’s public television channel back in January, however, it appears that further design and development work has been completed on not only a remotely controlled DShK variant but also an SA-16 MANPAD (Man Portable Air Defense System), and although not mentioned, there also appears to be a 37mm or similar caliber variant capable of a high rate of fire. Interestingly, the article explicitly states the development of remotely controlled weapon stations in Syria as one of the operational requirements for this, the Vietnamese Army understanding the need to be watching what other belligerents are arming themselves with around the world.

Nguyen Tan Dung is a Vietnamese defense website and posted about this graduated reflex sight that the Vietnamese Military Technical Academy has come up with to be paired with the 40x46mm low-velocity M79 single shot/ stand alone grenade launcher. Although the Vietnamese post was published in the summer of 2015, the innovation displayed here is too strong to be ignored and not shared. This article mentions that components of the sight are produced and assembled in Vietnam. It looks very similar to one of Hartman’s reflex sight designs and knowing that IWI and the Vietnamese government have a very close industrial relationship, I wouldn’t put it too far out that this is the case. The article wrote that although the sight is engineered for the M79 copy currently in use by Vietnamese troops, plans are being made to adjust it to the locally produced MGL copy of the Milknor design when that comes into service.

Dat Viet, a Vietnamese language news website has reported that the production of Vietnamese made bolt-action, five round magazine-fed12.7x108mm KSVK anti-material rifles has commenced at the Israeli IWI built, Vietnamese MoD owned factory Z111 in Vietnam. The factory has churned out Galil ACEs for some time now, to also include Galil Snipers, Negevs, Uzis, and even Negev light machine guns for the Vietnamese Peoples Army. This would make Vietnam the first and only country to be fully equipped with the 7.62x39mm version of the Galil ACE.

Canadian machine gunners will be receiving approximately 1,148 7.62x51mm NATO C6A1 FLEX (Flexible) GPMGs to replace current C6s throughout the armed forces in late 2018. Part of this $32 Million contract is to upgrade the components of the machine guns with polymer buttstocks, M1913 Picatinny rails, and adjustable gas tube regulators similar to the U.S. M240 “Golf” models. The other half of the deal is that the current C6s are decades old, still with wooden stocks, a throwback to the pre-Cold War era. The machine guns will be manufactured at Colt Canada’s Kitchener, Ontario facility and as claimed by the Government will add an additional 13 jobs to the plant, while maintaining around 100 jobs through the contract.

The Polish national Central Board of Prison Services has released a solicitation for 600 5.56x45mm rifles and 500 pump action, tubular-magazine fed shotguns. Currently, the Government service has a number of Polish MSBS rifles in the inventory, the most recent of such were seen on parade in a memorial service held by the Central Board of Prison Services. These rifles were also seen in use with what appears to be 10 round magazines inserted. At this point we are guessing that it was a ceremonial practice, possibly loaded with blank rounds Although most likely not used within prisons, the rifles are most likely designated for the special response teams, or more realistically perimeter guards who have to cover long distances around prisons. As is evidenced in the memorial video below, these new MSBS rifles could possibly be ordered to replace Kalashnikov rifles still in service with certain contingents of the Prison Services.

The 5.56x45mm NATO FX-05 Xiuhcoatl (Fire Snake in Aztec) has a design history dating back to 2006 but has only recently really entered into service with the Mexican Defense Forces, replacing 7.62x51mm G3s. The rifle has seen various enhancements since the early 2006 design, most notably replacing the built-in optic with a picatinny rail (although still present in some modern version), and a number of exterior changes, with the internal portions of the rifle being a combination of various older rifle designs and the addition of some new ones. There was some legal heat over the rifle with Heckler & Koch, with alleged design infringements, although H&K agreed to not press further. One of the reasons why the Mexican Army had such an issue with getting the rifle to the troops was due to financial issues wherein the Government couldn’t pay the cost of production setup and manufacture on time.

Defense Blog and a  Polish defense website  have published details about an automatic 40x53mm High Velocity grenade launcher that two Polish companies have been collaborating on, called the LGA-40. The overall intent is to offer an alternative to replace aging U.S. 40x53mm Mk.19 grenade launchers currently in service (since the early 2000s) with the Polish Armed Forces while being both lighter at 21 kilograms (a 14-kilogram difference) and with a higher rate of fire of 450 rounds per minute (an 80 RPM difference). The two companies producing the grenade launcher are the Polish Institute of Precision Mechanics (Instytut Mechaniki Precyzjnej), known for being a research and design firm, and the Jakusz company, specializing in such fields as ordnance and hazardous material. Unfortunately, the only photograph we have released to us thus far is the title one of the grenade launcher being mounted on a remote-controlled vehicle. This is really only an option for the weapon system, and not a true depiction of the platform by itself.

Lost Weapons on Twitter has posted screen grabs from a recently released so-called Islamic State propaganda video show a remote controlled 73mm SPG-9 recoilless rifle (Russian in origin, derivative country origin unknown) in use by the rebel group in Syria. The contraption uses a camera hooked up to the optical sights, linked back to a controller. It appears that the launcher’s elevating and traversing mechanisms are locked in place however, thus negating any form of actual control over the launcher’s point of aim from the operator point of view. This is unlike other RC controlled platforms, such as this SVD, also in Syria. Thus, the launcher is really just pointed at a predesignated target, or target reference point, where the operators hopes that an enemy would appear. And even if the round is successfully fired, there would still have to be someone present in the room to reload the next casing, which almost entirely negates the point of it being remotely controlled in the first place. The other point is that it doesn’t appear that the connection to the video monitor can go very far, with screen grabs indicating that the video monitor is in the same room as the launcher.

News footage from a Kurdistan24 television crew, and overhead drone footage taken from a so-called Islamic State propaganda video both show a so-called IS attack in the Syrian city of Raqqa, where Kurdish SDF forces are battling the rebel group with the support of the United States. Driving heavily armed SVBIEDs (Suicide Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device) into enemy positions is one of the most deadly tactics of the group in the current conflicts of Syria and Iraq. A study from the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point highlighted the fact that the so-called Islamic State was using as many as fourteen SVBIEDs a day in the Mosul fight against Iraqi forces.