By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com December 17, 2009 On December 4th, 2009, DefenseReview published an article on the HK IAR (Infantry Automatic Rifle) candidate–a modified HK416 5.56mm assault rifle/carbine/SBR–winning a U.S. Marine Corps IAR contract. In that piece, I tried to make the point that it’s a good idea to give warfighters a carbine/SBR with machine gun-level …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com December 15, 2009 Now, this is interesting. “The Korea Times” is reporting that some of the 350 South Korean troops deploying to Afghanistan (to protect 120 South Korean civilian reconstruction workers) will be armed with the Daewoo K11 semi-auto, mag-fed 20mm grenade launcher/select-fire 5.56x45mm NATO (5.56mm NATO) assault rifle a.k.a. airburst assault …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com December 4, 2009 Updated on 12/15/09 Marine Times (a.k.a. Marine Corps Times) is reporting on the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) selecting the Heckler & Koch Infantry Automatic Rifle–or HK IAR, for short–to replace the FN M249 SAW/LMG (Squad Automatic Weapon/Light Machine Gun). The HK IAR is a 5.56x45mm NATO (5.56mm NATO) gas …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com November 23, 2009 A company called VBR-Belgium (Van Bruaene Rik – Belgium) has developed a rather interesting and potentially important pistol-format compact PDW (Personal Defense Weapon) system. While it may look like a futuristic movie prop, the VBR-B Compact PDW is arguably the most intelligently-developed PDW weapon/ammo concept to date. So, what’s …

By Chen Lee (a.k.a. “SMGLee”) smglee (at) gmail (dot) com All photos and video contained in this article are courtesy of Chen Lee, writer/photographer. November 2, 2009 For the longest time, I was against the idea of adding a bipod to a tactical carbine or rifle. I thought “why in the world do you need a bipod on a gun …

October 26, 2009 DefenseReview contributor Chen Lee a.k.a. “SMGLee” recently got a chance to run a FERFRANS SOAR 5.56x45mm NATO (5.56mm NATO) select-fire/full-auto gas piston/op-rod tactical AR carbine and SBR (Short-Barreled Rifle) at the range. In the above video, you can see him perform 90-round full-auto mag dump using an MWG 90-Rounder snail drum magazine. Company Contact Info: Ferdie Sy …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com October 15, 2009 There’s a scene at the beginning of the 1985 film Real Genius showing a fictional “Crossbow Project” demonstration video of some unlucky bastard (perhaps a third-world dictator or politician?) getting instantly vaporized by a space-based laser weapon fired from a satellite. The video is being shown to a bunch …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com October 6, 2009 Well, it’s official,

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com October 1, 2009 What do you get when you combine a (wheeled) manpackable mini-UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) / ground robot with a flee-type (or grasshopper-type) jumping capability? You get the Precision Urban Hopper (PUH) jumping UGV. The Precision Urban Hopper, brought to you by the friendly folks at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com <p> September 23, 2009 <p> In the embedded video below, DefenseReview.com owner/editor-in-chief David Crane demonstrates the FERFRANS Specialties SOAR (Special Operations Assault Rifle) 5.56x45mm NATO (5.56mm NATO)/.223 Rem. select-fire/full-Auto AR SBRs (Short Barreled Rifles)/subcarbines at the range. The two guns featured sport 10.5" and 11.5" barrels, respectively, operate via direct gas impingement (DGI), and utilize …