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By David Crane
david (at) defensereview (dot) com
All photos contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and are copyrighted. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos.
January 12, 2011
Updated on 1/31/11.
FERFRANS Specialties, manufacturer of the truly excellent FERFRANS SOAR (Special Operations Assault Rifle) select-fire/full-auto AR (AR-15) SBRs (Short Barreled Rifles), recently introduced their Infantry Automatic Rifle (IAR)-type H.V.L.A.R. piston/op-rod (operating rod) AR carbine, which stands for “High Volume Light Automatic Rifle” or “High Volume Lightweight Automatic Rifle”. Just like with all FERFRANS SOAR SBRs, the FERFRANS HVLAR 5.56x45mm NATO (5.56mm NATO)/.223 Rem. AR carbine/rifle employs the patented FERFRANS Rate Reduction System (RRS) Bolt Carrier Group (BCG) and a medium-weight “Delta-Profile” machine gun barrel, however the HVLAR utilizes a longer 14.5-16” barrel for increased bullet velocity and range. The FERFRANS RRS reduces the weapon’s cyclic rate of fire (ROF) below the 700 rpm threshold, making it significantly more controllable on full-auto, especially for mobile infantry applications (moving while shooting). Like all FERFRANS weapons, the HVLAR IAR-type AR carbine is made specifically for high-round-count full-auto usage under adverse combat conditions, and is one HARD-USE gun.
The good folks at Falcon Security Group (FSG) recently shot some video on the FERFRANS H.V.L.A.R., including a full-auto 150-round mag dump and weapon temperature/heat test, utilizing an Armatac SAW-MAG 150-shot double drum mag (drum magazine).
As we’ve written in the past, DefenseReview (DR) likes the IAR/HVLAR-concept, provided it’s employed/deployed in order to provide an enhanced rifleman role/capability alongside, and as a compliment to, the belt-fed LMG/SAW gunner (Light Machine Gun/Squad Automatic Rifle gunner) role/capability, rather than as an LMG/SAW replacement. With the latest enhanced-capacity box and drum magazines, the IAR/HVLAR can prove to be very effective. A IAR gunner will be more mobile than a machine gunner, and his full-auto-firepower advantage over a standard infantryman will be camouflaged by the IAR’s/HVLAR’s M4/M4A1 Carbine-type visual profile, especially if he’s using box magazines instead of drum or double-drum mags. The IAR/HVLAR gunner can also reload much more quickly than a SAW gunner, since reloading a mag-fed rifle is much faster and easier than reloading a belt-fed machine gun.
In high-threat infantry combat environments, ideally, you’d probably want to have one FN MK48 MOD 1 or U.S. Ordnance M60E4/Mk43 MOD 1 7.62x51mm NATO (7.62mm NATO) MMG/GPMG gunner, one FN M46 MOD 1 5.56mm NATO LMG/SAW gunner, 1-2 IAR/HVLAR gunners, and one 7.62mm/.308 select-fire or semi-auto carbine/rifle marksman (who could be armed with a Colt CM901, KAC SR-25 EM, LMT .308 MWS, or BullDog762 battle rifle/carbine outfitted with a Leupold 1.1-8x CQBSS tactical rifle scope ) per infantry squad. And, frankly, if we could replace the MK46 MOD 1 with a GDATP/ST Kinetics Ultimax 100 MK5 drum-mag-fed LMG/SAW, we would. We think the Ultimax is the better way to go. Theoretically, you could replace the 5.56mm SAW-gunner with another 7.62 MMG-gunner, and then add another HVLAR/IAR-gunner, so you have 2-3 HVLAR/IAR gunners in the squad. It would also be nice to have an Auto-Assault-12 (AA-12) full-auto-shotgun and Milkor USA Mk14 MOD 0 6-Shot MGL (Multiple Grenade Launcher) along for the ride.
Defense Review looks forward to T&E’ing the FERFRANS HVLAR/Armatac SAW-MAG combo, ourselves, soon. DR would also like to test and evaluate it with the MWG 90-Rounder drum mag, SureFire MAG5-60 60-shot and MAG5-100 100-shot 4×2 “quad stack” HCM (High Capacity Magazine) aluminum box mags, and Higher Capacity 55-round and 75-round stainless steel box mags.
Stay tuned for a follow-up DR article on the FERFRANS HVLAR!
Company Contact Info:
Ferdie Sy
FERFRANS Specialties
2649 E. Valley Blvd., Suite D
West Covina, CA 91792
626-893-8155 Office
[email protected] Email
http://www.ferfrans.net Website
Mailing Address:
FERFRANS Specialties
214 Calle Moreno
San Dimas, CA 91773
909-599-8094 Office
Falcon Security Group Inc. (FSG)
Huntington Beach, CA
Main Number: 714.248.6509
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://falconsecurity.us
Armatac Industries Inc.
P.O. BOX 340
Lyndhurst, Va 22952
Phone: 540-943-6735
Fax: 540-942-8702
Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.armatac.com/
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