By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com On January 22, 2010, during the last day of SHOT Show 2010, coincidentally, the U.S. Army Contracting Command (ACC), Joint Munitions and Lethality (JM&L) Contracting Center issued a Sources Sought Notice/Solicitation for “market survey” for a drop-in Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS)/Non-Developmental Item (NDI) “modification kit” (i.e. performance upgrade kit) for “improvements to the M4 …

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 November 10, 2009 Back in April (2009), DefenseReview has published a short “heads-up”-style article on the FailZero AR-15 Basic Kit, which is a bolt carrier group (BCG) and hammer upgrade kit with a proprietary and patented self-lubricitous/self-lubricating nickel-boron (Ni-B) coating that the company calls EXO Technology. In the video below, DefenseReview.com contributor …

The following is a UCT Arms/FailZero Press Release: 10/22/09 UCT Arms Introduces its FailZero 1911 Upgrade Kit and Expands its Exo Technology Coating Service to Include Consumer Firearms Stuart, Florida — UCT Arms, LLC introduces its latest product under the FailZero brand of tactical upgrades. The FailZero 1911 kits, featuring EXO-coated Caspian slides and frames, provide consumers the foundation from …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com August 26, 2009 Back on June 7, 2009, DefenseReview published a heads-up piece on the new Ruger SR-556 gas piston/op-rod AR-15 tactical carbine. In that piece I wrote this: “One of the things were going to investigate is whether or not the SR556 is completely debugged, or whether it has the normal/usual …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com Photo Credits: Sturm Ruger & Co., Inc. June 7, 2009 Updated on 6/16/09 Ever since the late

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com May 20, 2009 According to Army Times magazine, The 75th Ranger Regiment is scheduled to battle test the Special Operations Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR) very soon. The Rangers will reportedly be taking 600 FN SCAR rifle/carbine/subcarbine/SBR (Short-Barreled Rifle) weapons packages into battle, but DefenseReview doesn’t know how many of these are the …

by David Crane May 6, 2009 The April 2009 issue of Special Weapons for Military & Police (SWMP) (Gun Buyer’s Annual #74) has an article on the Smith & Wesson (S&W) M&P15R 5.45x39mm Russian (a.k.a. 5.45x39mm Soviet a.k.a. 5.45x39mm Kalashnikov) semi-auto tactical AR-15 carbine. It’s an interesting offering, since the 5.45mm Russian is an interesting little cartridge, and combining it …

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com April 23, 2009 All photos contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and are copyrighted.