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 david at defensereview.com By now, everyone who hasn’t been living under a rock in the middle of the Sahara desert (or similar-type isolated location) has heard about China’s supposedly successful anti-satellite shoot-to-kill missile test that has the West, including the U.S., "up in arms" (excuse the pun) about the safety of our military and civilian communications and …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com The U.S. Transportation Security Agency (TSA) is currently testing an on-site biometric-response-based lie-detector system called the Cogito device (Cogito1002) at an airport in Knoxville, Tennessee. If adopted, the Cogito1002, made by Israeli company Suspect Detection Systems Ltd. (SDS), will augment a human-based screening system called SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique), which first began testing at …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com DefenseReview recently received an updated fact sheet on the AAE Stealth Technology System (STS). The new document focuses on an updated/upgraded version of STS called "Stealth II", which can protect helicopters and ground vehicles from heat-seeking missiles, artillary, and personnel with night vision viewers. AAE claims that Stealth II accomplishes this by cloaking/camuflaging helicopter and ground …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com FERFRANS Specialties is currently producing and marketing a proprietary cyclic rate reducer for AR1-15/M16-based select-fire rifles, carbines, and subcarbines (including the M4/M4A1 Carbine). It’s called the FERFRANS "Rate Reduction System", or "RRS". According to MilitaryMorons.com (MM), the FERFRANS Rate Reduction System (RRS) reduces the full-auto (FA) cyclic rate, or rate of fire (ROF) on any AR-15/M16 …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com The 6.8x43mm SPC, according to DefenseReview sources, has been performing extremely well in the field against enemy combatants. Special Operations end users are thus, reportedly, very pleased with it. Unfortunately, it’s also been reported to us that the 6.8x43mm SPC has been running into a considerable amount of resistance from some U.S. Army brass, who are …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Anybody who’s been keeping abreast of small arms and ammo develpments in the USSOCOM arena should already be aware fo the 6.8x43mm SPC a.k.a. "6.8mm Remington SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge)" cartridge concept. The 6.8x43mm Special Purpose Cartridge (SPC) was conceived and designed with the help of members of the U.S. Army 5th Special Forces Group as …

by David Crane Well, it looks like we’ve officially entered the era of Directed Energy Weapon’s, a.k.a. DEW’s. It’s just been disclosed that two of our Apache attack helicopters got "illuminated" by a group of four North Korean MiG jets back in March. The actual illuminating was accomplished using what is believed to have been a Chinese-made ZM-87 anti-personnel laser. …

Back in September, I wrote a quick blurb on the Chinese QBZ-95(Type 95) infantry rifle, chambered for the proprietary 5.8x42mm cartridge. Now, while it’s true that I’m not a particularly big fan of the Chinese army, it must be noted that the Chinese are not stupid, and they decided on this caliber after conducting a rather extensive amount of ballistic …

O.k, here’s the second installment highlighting the excellent "AK Mania" issue of SAR(Small Arms Review), Nov., 2002. By the way, this is a really great AK issue for all those Kalashnikov lovers out there. In this DefRev installment, we’re going to discuss ASD Firearms LLC’s authentic-looking AK variants, both full-auto and semi-auto only. The SAR story we’ll be discussing this …