by Roger Charles DefenseWatch October 15, 2007 When NBC News had a German lab conduct side-by-side, comparative tests of Pinnacle Armor’s Dragon Skin and the Army’s Interceptor Body Armor System on May 3 earlier this year, the real surprise was how well the Interceptor ESAPI (Level IV) plates performed. Yes, that’s right. The Army acquisition mafia "got lucky" in Germany, …

A Review by Air-Mech-Strike Study Group (AMS-SG). The following review is exclusive to DefenseReview. 9/27/07 Airborne Armour is a must-have book for understanding Airborne 3D maneuver operations, period. Flint is a superb researcher and writer and this book is a masterpiece. However, Keith Flint is also at times the typical whiny, turret tank dueler where every tracked tank is never …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com September 16, 2007 Article updated on 4/07/08. In the world of big business, and big military, money is power. The more money one controls, the more powerful one is. And, in the U.S. military, the bigger the program and sexier the hardware/technology, the more prestige you’ve got, especially if that hardware can …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com September 5, 2007 Rafael Armament Development Authority Ltd. (Haifa, Israel) has introduced a very interesting next-generation multi-threat passive/reactive add-on armor system for vehicles called M-TAPS, which stands for "Multi-Threat Armor Protection System". M-TAPS is designed/developed to protect Israeli infantry warfighters (a.k.a. soldiers) against the same lethal trifecta–IEDs, EFPs, and RPGs–as the Urban Fighter’s armor …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com This article may be modified/updated with new information in the coming days, so readers might want to check back in (to this article) over the next week. August 15, 2007 In late February 2006, DefenseReview broke the story on a developmental (but functional) prototype remote-controlled armed/weaponized semi-autonomous/fully-autonomous unmanned mini-helicopter called the AutoCopter Gunship, which …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com Speaking of combat pistol sights, a company called SureSight, LLC is billing their SureSight ST-1 triangular sight system as the "next generation of iron handgun sights". The SureSight ST-1 sighting system takes advantage of the Gestalt Principles of Organization, specifically the Gestalt Principle of "Closure", which exploits human beings’ tendency to see complete shapes, …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com All photographic images contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and they are the exclusive property of DefenseReview.com. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. All photos were shot with a 7.2-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot digital camera (Model #: DSC-P150). Long Mountain Outfitters, LLC (LMO) demonstrated a unique and very cool dual-M240 machine gun …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com Ever since the recent active-shooter incident at Virginia Tech (Blacksburg, VA), DefenseReview has been thinking about any/all technologies that could help law enforcement personnel–both SWAT and 1st Responders– deal with this type of threat. You may remember video footage of law enforcent 1st Responders (patrol officers, as usual) positioned outside the building–hiding behind trees …

By David Crane defrev at gmail.com DefenseReview recently got a chance to put approx. 1200-1300 rounds through two 5.56x45mm NATO (5.56mm NATO)/.223 Rem. select-fire FERFRANS SOAR (Special Operations Assault Rifle) subcarbines/SBRs (Short-Barreled Rifles) with 10.5” and 11.5” barrels, respectively. We ran both guns on semi-auto and full-auto. Designed specifically for Direct Action and Security Operations (particularly deployment/employment from vehicles), the …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com All photographic images contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and they are the exclusive property of DefenseReview.com. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. All photos were shot with a 7.2-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot digital camera (Model #: DSC-P150). March 24, 2007 Back in late October, 2006, DefenseReview published a short heads-up-style piece …