Army

If you have been following my Friday Night Lights Series, you will have read up on Nocturn Industries. They have established themselves in the commercial night vision market as an up and coming night vision housing manufacturer and have gained the respect of many in the industry.

Much digital ink has been spilled over the last several years regarding the US Army’s NGSW ( Next Generation Squad Weapons) Program. Most of the rifles/carbines and machine guns currently employed by America’s soldiers are not particularly modern, by any stretch. Today’s M4A1 has seen some notable updates and improvements, to be sure, but at its core it’s still based on the same M16 that first entered service in the Vietnam era, more than half a century ago. The 5.56×45mm NATO round it uses has come under fire from time to time, for being perhaps a bit too anemic for its purpose. This same cartridge is used by the belt-fed M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon), which was designed in the ’70s and has been in service since 1984. Though some update attempts have been explored since then, none came to fruition.

General Austin Scott Miller is a warfighter who knows a thing or two about firearms, and has previously been noted for preferring a 1911 over the Army’s recently-retired standard-issue sidearm, the M9. Now the former Delta operator has been seen carrying a modified Glock in Afghanistan, rather than the current M17/ M18 handguns that have been chosen to replace the aging Beretta service pistol. Of particular interest is that this is no stock Glock, as some Special Operations personnel have been authorized to use in the past. The General’s gun features some auspicious modernizations commonly associated with high-end handguns, often meant for competition. In these photos, you can see Miller is employing a red-dot optic, a mag extension, and a compensator added to the gun’s muzzle. It’s not clear whether his holster is concealing the weaponlight that would be needed to qualify the pistol as a full-blown Roland Special-style sidearm, but given the General‘s other accessory choices, it would not be surprising if this was the case.

The US military is constantly seeking to develop the next best thing in warfighting technology. Some of the most important pieces of this technology are our weapons systems. TFB has recently reported on some of these initiatives, like the new M110A1 Squad Designated Marksman Rifle, the Next Generation Squad Weapon program, and a potential heavy barrel upgrade for the M4. Of course, any kind of firearm, new or old, is going to have to have ammunition. In this realm, it is well-known that Federal is one of the best in the business. In addition to products like their renowned hunting rounds, every day carry, and target loads, they are also a major supplier of bulk military ammo. This does not appear to be changing anytime soon, as an August 4th press release details a new contract for them to continue supplying the US DoD for the Next Generation Carbine Technologies program.

SIG Sauer has been integrating their M18, the carry-size military version of their P320 pistol, into DoD elements since winning the XM17 Modular Handgun Competition in 2017. The M18 is one of the two handguns (along with its big brother, the full-size M17) replacing the venerable Beretta M9, as it phases out of service after more than thirty years in the US military’s arsenal. Part and parcel of the adoption of a new weapon system is the need for proper training and education about it.

The U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command plays an important role in guiding the future of our warfighters’ lethality and survivability. Their mission statement is “To provide the research, engineering, and analytical expertise to deliver capabilities that enable the Army to deter and, when necessary, decisively defeat any adversary now and in the future.” To this end, they engage in scientific pursuits like advancements in weaponry, exploring quantum communication, improving electronic warfare effectiveness, and working on new ways to purify water in the field. At the heart of these endeavors lies the Army Research Laboratory. These military scientists have been responsible for many breakthroughs in areas such as grenade-launched drones and better 3D printing. Now they have teamed up with academic scientists at Purdue University to develop lead-free explosive material that could be used to produce nontoxic ammo, as announced in a July 16th press release from Purdue.

“The M4A1 Carbine is a lightweight, 5.56 millimeter, magazine fed, gas operated, air cooled, shoulder fired weapon.” For many years, US Army Infantrymen have had this phrase, or a slight variation of it, drilled into their heads until they could recite it perfectly. The above version was the one I learned verbatim during my time training at Sand Hill on Fort Benning, and then serving as an 11C with the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum.

This year,  Molot Oruzhie was exhibiting first time in the largest arms exhibition in Russia called  International Miltary-Technical Forum ARMY. At ARMY-2019 they showed a variety of products designed both for military and civilian markets. In this article, we’ll take a look at two of the most interesting new Molot firearms – the VPO-183 bolt action rifle and the VPO-185 pistol caliber carbine.

In this video, I give a quick rundown of some of the newer small arms presented by Kalashnikov group at ARMY-2018 expo: AK-200 series, AK-308, AM-17 and AMB-17.