by David Crane david at defensereview.com January 31, 2007 The latest episode of the Discovery Channel series FutureWeapons (a.k.a. Future Weapons), titled The Protectors, features Pinnacle Armor, Inc.’s Dragon Skin body armor (flexible hard armor/scalar armor system) and the Milkor USA, Inc. M32 MGL (Multiple shot Grenade Launcher a.ka. Multiple Grenade Launcher), two technologies that DefenseReview has already covered. Our …

by Jim Jensen Assault Rifle/Carbine with interchangeable bolts, barrels and magazine wells can shoot 5.56mm, 7.62mm Russian, and 7.62mm NATO bullets Iraq: ”Ping” “ping” “ping” an U.S. Army light infantry Soldier firing from the top cargo hatch of a BAE Systems M113 APC (Armored Personnel Carrier)/armored vehicle is placing well-aimed 5.56mm (5.56x45mm/.223 Remington) M16A2/A4 rifle shots on an Iraqi rebel …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com This article was updated on 2/26/08. Back in July 2005, DefenseReview published information on the HK416 Weapon System a.k.a. HK416 Enhanced Carbine (5.56x45mm/.223 Rem.) in our article titled HK416 Piston-Driven 5.56 Carbine and High-Reliability 30-Round Steel Mag. Well, Heckler & Koch Defense Inc. (HK Defense Inc.) recently introduced the HK417 Weapon System (7.62x51mm/.308 Win.), which is …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Greg Grant has written an interesting article for DefenseNews.com about Hizbollah’s (Hezbollah’s) "innovative" (Grant’s term) use of man-portable anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) systems. Mr. Grant cites several examples of Hezbollah’s "innovative" urban warfare/guerrilla warfare tactics with ATGMs. 1) Hizbollah guerilla fighters "swarmed" Israeli Merkava MBTs (Main Battle Tanks)–including possibly Merkava Mk4 MBTs–and fired at the sides …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com   KBP Instrument Design Bureau (Tula, Russia) displayed an updated/upgraded version of the of the RPO Shmel Infantry Rocket Flamethrower thermobaric weapon system (a rocket launcher that fires a thermobaric warhead) called the RPO Shmel-M (full designation: RPO Shmel-M PDM-A) at Eurosatory 2006. Adopted by the Russian Army in December 2003, the RPO Shmel-M is billed …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com A company called More Industries, LLC is manufacturing and marketing a remotely-operated weapons system (i.e. remote-controlled weapons system) called HAMMER for use on UGVs (Unmanned Ground Vehicles, a.k.a. ground robots), manned ground vehicles (i.e. HMMWVs/Humvees, APCs/IFVs, and civilan vehicles like flatbed trucks and SUVs/4x4s), and UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), turning the latter into UCAVs (Unmanned Combat …

by Steven Donald Smith American Forces Press Service July 13, 2006 The Missile Defense Agency successfully completed a developmental flight test of a major element of its ballistic missile defense system today at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., agency officials said. Initial indications show that the test achieved what it set out to do: test parts of the Terminal High …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com DefenseReview has just received exclusive video footage (links below) of an MPS Auto Assault-12 Full-Auto Shotgun (a.k.a. MPS AA-12 Full-Auto Shotgun) successfully firing (and cycling) British FRAG-12 munition (12-gauge grenade) on full-auto at 300 rpm (rounds per minute). The test (AA-12) shotgun sucessfully fired (and cycled) a total of 60 fin-stabilised FRAG-12 grenades/munitions over the course of the full-auto …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Some folks at Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), a.k.a. NAVAIR Weapons Division (China Lake, CA), are currently developing a "man-packable, shoulder-launched guided missile" system for U.S. infantry warfighters called SPIKE. The developmental system is essentially a low-cost, compact, and lightweight man-portable shoulder-fired fire-and-forget missile system that incorporates three separate guidance modes–inertial, laser, and imaging …

by David Crane david at defensereview.com – Vltor Weapon Systems is now manufacturing Russian-type 7.62mmx54R (7.62x54mm) PKM General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG) for U.S. military forces. It’s our understanding that the Vltor PKMs will be used for familiarization training, and possibly OPFOR (just seems logical). DefRev got to view and handle one of these guns at the Vltor booth, and …