by David Crane defrev at gmail.com The September 2007 (Vol. 6 No. 8 ) issue of C4ISR Journal (The Journal of Net-Centric Warfare) magazine has an interesting article on The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (DARPA) Expendable Local Area Sensors in a Tactically Interconnected Cluster (ELASTIC) initiative. The goal of ELASTIC is to develop and eventually field "a set of …

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@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). May 17, 2007 DefenseReview Exclusive: First Look at the MagPul PDR 5.56 PDW Concept! Back in …

by David Crane david at defensereview.com Small arms designer/developer J.D. Jones of SSK Industries has developed what may just prove to be a superior solution to the 6.8x43mm SPC (a.k.a. 6.8 SPC) and/or 6.5 Grendel (6.5x39mm) cartidges as a replacement for the 5.56x45mm NATO cartridge for U.S. military general infantry and Special Operations (USSOCOM) use. Mr. Jones is calling it …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com June 20, 2005 The following story is a DefenseReview.com exclusive. All digital photos accompanying this article were taken by, and are the exclusive property of, DefenseReview.com. Click on photos to view them full-size. Back in July 2004, DefenseReview wrote about the Milkor MGL Mk-1S 40mm multiple grenade launcher, which is an improved version of their original …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com On April 27th (2005), Alliant Techsystems, Inc. (ATK) issued a press release on their semi-auto XM25 25mm "advanced airbursting" MGL (multiple grenade launcher) through PR Newswire. ATK calls it the XM25 "Air-Burst Assault Weapon". DefenseReview has known about the XM25 development program for awhile, now, but we never quite got around to writing about it. So …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com DefenseReview has been interested in the Nikonov AN-94 "Abakan" assault rifle for a pretty long time, now. I believe I first read about it in 1994 or 1995. Designed by Russian small arms designer Gennadiy Nikonov, the AN-94 is an interesting rifle, as it enjoys one of the same (major) advantages as the Ultimax 100 Mk3 …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com May 27, 2004 This article was modified/updated on 12/16/04. Pinnacle Armor Inc., out of Fresno, California, is currently producing some of the most advanced hard and soft ballistic armor solutions in the world. This includes Pinnacle’s flexible hard armor systems, which employ a combination of highly advanced ballistic ceramic composite and titanium composite technology and ballistic …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com March 16, 2004 The SAR-21, manufactured by ST Kinetics Land Systems (out of Singapore) and marketed by VT Kinetics in the U.S., is a roughly 2 1/2 year old, "state-of-the-art" bullpup 5.56mm assault rifle that is currently going head to head with the Israeli TAR-21(Tavor) bullpup rifle, and all other modern 5.56 assault rifles on the …

This one’s kind of interesting. It’s another Israeli offering. Basically, it’s classic M1 Carbine meets Tavor-2 subcarbine. At least that’s how it looks. The HEZI SM-1 PDW (Personal Defense Weapon) is chambered for the .30 Carbine (7.62x33mm) round which was utilized to mixed effect by troopers in WWII with their M1 Carbines. The HEZI SM-1 PDW is… manufactured and marketed …