With the recent official news that the new AK-12 and AK-15 rifles have been adopted by the Russian Ministry of Defense it’s with interest we with Kalashnikov’s help can take a deeper look into how the rifles were developed and engineered. Nathaniel F [Read More…]
According to TASS news agency, Mikhail Petukhov, the deputy director of a Russian government organization called “Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation“, has announced about a contract signed by Russia and Thailand. The subject of the contract [Read More…]
ORSIS has first introduced their semi-auto rifle about a year ago during MILEX-2017 arms exhibition in Belarus. Recently, they have released it to the Russian civilian market. The Russian designation of the rifle is ORSIS-K15 “Брат”. The word [Read More…]
At the end of the past month, we reported about the adoption of AK-12, AK-15, AEK-971, and AEK-973 rifles by the Russian military. Back then it was not clear if they are going to adopt the RPK-16 light machine gun, too. Today, Kalashnikov Concern and TASS [Read More…]
The Russian Defense Ministry has made a decision regarding its next infantry rifle: It will adopt everything, it seems. Not only will Russian Army forces receive the improved 5.45x39mm AK-12 (the new AK-12, not the different previous version), and the 7.62x39mm AK-15, [Read More…]
Russian archaeological team called “Yuri Gagarin” publishes on its YouTube channel videos of excavations of WW2 relics from the battlefields of the war. In several recent videos, they show how they retrieve many really well-preserved firearms and other items [Read More…]
A recent visit by the Vietnamese Vice President Ngong Thinh to the MoD’s state arsenal factory Z111 has revealed that the country is currently producing what appears to be a licensed copy of the Russian 12.7x108mm OSV-96 semi-automatic magazine fed anti-material [Read More…]
In an interview given to INTERFAX news agency, Vladimir Lepin, the CEO of Russian “Techmash” Concern, told about the current status of the 40mm AGS-40 “Balkan” automatic grenade launcher. Acording to Lepin, the AGS-40 is being extensively tested [Read More…]
Next up for the Big Freakin’ Cartridge Test is Vympel’s budget 55gr FMJ load in .223 Remington, made in Amursk, Russia. This ammunition features a lacquered steel case, bimetal jacketed 55gr FMJ bullet and purple neck sealant. This is one of my favorite [Read More…]
Next up for the Big Freakin’ Cartridge Test is Vympel’s budget 55gr FMJ load in .223 Remington, made in Amursk, Russia. This ammunition features a lacquered steel case, bimetal jacketed 55gr FMJ bullet and purple neck sealant. This is one of my favorite [Read More…]
Vitaly Kryuchin is the president of IPSC Russia. You have probably seen him in videos where he makes music by shooting at different steel targets dual wielding and hip firing two Glock pistols. If you haven’t seen these videos, you can watch them by clicking [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…]
A couple of months ago Interfax news agency reported that according to Russian military officials they are going to adopt an unmanned ground vehicle called Nerekhta (name of a town in Russia). The Russian military has been testing a number of similar UGVs during the [Read More…]
In March of 1963, a man named Lee Harvey Oswald purchased an M38 Carcano rifle and some quantity of ammunition from Klein’s Sporting Goods in Chicago. Oswald would later use this rifle and ammunition (or so the official narrative goes) to assassinate the [Read More…]
According to Russian ROSTEC state corporation, a scope (Pilad PV1-7×25ML) made by Shvabe Holding has been recognized as one of the top 100 best products made in Russia by winning in an annual award ceremony called “100 Best Goods of Russia”. Shvabe is [Read More…]
The Cold War is famous as the squaring off of two superpowers: The United States, and the Soviet Union, and their duel-by-proxy in Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas. The standard rifles of each side, as well, became proxies: On the Soviet side, the famous AK-47 [Read More…]
Boats built like a floating tanks, sometimes fitted with T-34 tank turrets, anti-aircraft guns and lots of machine guns, were used in the fight for Stalingrad. Volgograd, as the city is called today, was called Stalingrad between 1925 to 1961. Last month the Soviet [Read More…]
This Russian sniper rifle resembles quite a bit to the AR15 Potato launchers, but that’s about where the similarities end as well. VSSK stands for Vintovka Snayperskaya Spetsialnaya Krupnokalibernaya, so thank’s to the Russians for abbreviating that. [Read More…]
What usually makes it difficult to write about rare and obscure firearms is the absence of any visual content (photos, videos etc.) of reasonable quality. If you write about any particular firearm or mechanism and have the description only or a couple of poor images [Read More…]
If you have a Mosin-Nagant rifle or if you are a member of Internet communities of military surplus firearms, then you’ve probably come across a marksmanship chart (in Russian) for the Mosin-Nagant rifles. It looks to be a very handy reference. Although many of [Read More…]
A Russian company called ASIKA (АСИКА) makes a Kel-Tec SUB-2000 copy called ASK-17-9. I am not sure whether it is a direct reverse-engineered copy or not. Nevertheless, what we can tell from the images is that at least most of the key features are copied. This is [Read More…]
Although the Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle is the one that is most famous, it is arguably the Chinese Type 56 AK that made the bigger impression on the world in the 1960s and 70s. This rifle was initially developed with Russian technical assistance just before the [Read More…]
According to Russian news agency TASS, Russian state corporation Rosoboronexport has decided not to take part in the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs tender of procurement of about 20,000 assault rifles chambered in 7.62x39mm caliber. The TASS source (undisclosed) said [Read More…]
Sometimes there is virtually no way to see images of long-forgotten Soviet firearms that were not ever adopted. Even if any samples of such firearms exist, they are most likely gathering dust in some vault. Thanks to the video and description released by Kalashnikov [Read More…]
Russian Interpolitex 2017 exhibition was full of various less lethal solutions. Particularly, we had a chance to see the Taser-style GARD less-lethal weapon. We’ve earlier wrote an article about it on TFB. In this article, we’ll talk about more features of [Read More…]
During Interpolitex 2017 arms exhibition a Russian startup company called TechArms has introduced a blank fire laser engagement training system. It is similar to MILES system, however, TechArms solution is available both for the military/LE and civilian markets. The [Read More…]
The Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte announced on 11 October that Russia would donate a substantial amount of defence hardware in support of the Philippine military’s fight against pro-Islamic State militants that have occupied city of Marawi since May. [Read More…]
Before we all go crazy let us make this clear, the online ordering does NOT include any real, working firearms. According to Kalashnikov it is not possible to convert any of these mock-ups to fire live ammunition. Still it’s interesting to see Kalashnikov opening [Read More…]
ORSIS has introduced a new modular sniper rifle with the possibility of quick changing the calibers. The model designation is F17 and it was first shown during the Arms & Hunting 2017 exhibition held in Moscow, Russia. In order to change between the .338 Lapua [Read More…]
According to Russian news agency TASS, as a result of the official visit of King Salman of Saudi Arabia to Russia, a memorandum was signed between Saudi Arabian Military Industries and Russian Rosoboronexport State Corporation. The memorandum is about the purchasing of [Read More…]