By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com DefenseReview has covered the 6.8 SPC (a.k.a. 6.8 Remington SPC a.k.a. 6.8x43mm SPC a.k.a. 6.8mm Remington SPC a.k.a. 6.8mm SPC) round for quite some time now. We’re a proponent of the cartridge, due to its superior efficacy over 5.56x45mm NATO (5.56mm NATO)/.223 Rem. within its (6.8 SPC) operational envelope of 400-500 yards, …

by David Crane defrev at gmail dot com Back in May, DefenseReview learned that Raytheon is teaming with an Abu-Dhabi, UAE-based company called Emirates Advanced Investments (EAI) to create an advanced semi-active-laser-guided 2.75"/70mm Hydra rocket under the moniker "Laser Guided Rocket" (LGR). The concept, of course, is nothing new. Back in September of last year, DefenseReview reported on the sudden …

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com DefenseReview has been contacted by a number of journalists (reporters and writers) to get our take on the Northrop Grumman/EADS (Airbus) aerial refueling tanker aircraft contract award and subsequent Boeing protest situation. This is a big-deal situation, since our current fleet of KC-135 tanker aircraft are getting quite long in the tooth, …

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com Perhaps the single most exciting thing that happened at NDIA International Infantry & Joint Services Small Arms Systems Symposium 2008–away from the firing range, of course–was a confrontation between Jim Battaglini (Retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. James R. Battaglini) of Colt Defense and U.S. Air Force Col. Robert Mattes, the director of …

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com June 23, 2008 Imagine having a 100% Kevlar high-strength woven aramid ballistic fiber solution with 15% less backface deformation signature (BDS), yielding reduced impact trauma a.k.a. blunt force trauma, along with a 10% reduction in overall (OA) weight. This is the promise of DuPont Kevlar® XP™ woven ballistic aramid fiber for military …

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com Kevin Brittingham from Advanced Armament Corp. (AAC) just sent us a link to AAC’s new blog at www.aacblog.com. The new AAC blog would appear to be the place to go for all the latest news on AAC silencers/sound suppressors and related products. One of the blog entries shows pics of the new …

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com Frank Borelli of Borelli Consulting has a product review up on a a weapons-mounted "Advanced Tactical Camera" made by Pacific Concepts ATC/HBD Inc. called the TacCam. While TacCam doesn’t transmit live video and audio, it does store about an hour of it (A/V) on a 2-Gig SD card for after-action analysis of …

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com June 2, 2008 For the last 4 months, DefenseReview has been using a Blackhawk! Medium A.L.E.R.T. Bag tactical load out bag for travel to industry trade shows and other destinations, and the verdict is in. We like it! The bag holds a lot of stuff for its size and is exceptionally easy …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com May 30, 2008 DefenseReview has been hearing some pretty great things about the Eurofighter Typhoon multi-role combat fighter aircraft’s performance, from its excellent flight characteristics to its pilot-friendly cockpit, to its helmet-mounted display and targeting system. What’s interesting is that it can perform so well acrobatically, even without thrust vectoring. Advanced electronic fly-by-wire flight …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com May 25, 2008 Aaaand we’re back. Sorry for the delay in reporting in, but we’ve been fighting the travel demons and illness (minor and temporary) simultaneously. We shot some good video at the 2008 NDIA International Infantry & Joint Services Small Arms Systems Symposium, but we’re not sure how much of it we can …