By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com July 20, 2010 Updated on 7/22/10 On July 14, 2010, the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center/Soldier Systems Center awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.1 million contract to field a few test articles of the Lockheed Martin / Berkeley Bionics Human Universal Load Carrier (HULC) (pronounced “Hulk”) hydrolic-powered anthropomorphic soldier exoskeleton system. The HULC, …

By Chen Lee a.k.a. “SMGLee” (Edited by David Crane) defrev (at) gmail (dot) com July 16, 2010 Some have said the SCAR is dead (at least the MK16 SCAR-L variant), but from the start of the SCAR program (PDF format document link), its goal has been a receiver that can handle both the 5.56mm NATO (5.56x45mm) and 7.62 NATO (7.62x51mm) …

By Mike Pannone Info@CTT-Solutions.com All photos contained in this article were taken by Mike Pannone for DefenseReview.com, and are copyrighted. Mike Pannone and DefenseReview.com own the copyright on these photos. March 19, 2010 Here’s my question for those that subscribe to the direct impingement fouling concept: I fired 2400 rounds of M193 through a 14.5” M4-type upper receiver from Bravo …

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 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 defrev at gmail dot com All photographic images contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and are the exclusive property of DefenseReview.com. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. All photos were shot with an Olympus Stylus 790 SW 7.1-megapixel digital camera, which is advertised as "shock + waterproof". This article last updated on February 7, …

Why M4's have reliability issues…and why it's our fault! By Michael Pannone December 24, 2008 I fired 15,000 rounds through a semi-automatic M4/M4A1-type direct-gas-impingement (DGI) carbine in 31 weeks without a single malfunction attributable to anything except bad ammunition or bad magazines, with a grand total of 9 malfunctions. The least number of rounds fired between cleanings was 960 rounds, …

By David Crane defrev at gmail dot com All photographic images contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com at SHOT Show 2008, and they are the exclusive property of DefenseReview.com. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. July 27, 2008 DefenseReview has been been writing about 6.8mm cartridges, lately, so it’s only appropriate that we mention Charlie Cutshaw’s article …

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.com December 17, 2007 This article was updated on 12/19/07 and 5/15/09. Ya’ know that Colt M4 Carbine vs. Heckler & Koch (HK) HK416 vs. FN MK16 SCAR-Light (SCAR-L) vs. HK XM8 LAR extreme dust conditions reliability test that the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Center (ATEC) at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG), Md. was conducting? …