by David Crane david@defensereview.com Back in April (2004), DefenseReview published a short article about the Monolithic Rail Platform (MRP) and QuickChange Barrel System (QCBS) for AR-15/M16-based rifles (including the SOPMOD M4A1Carbine/CQB Subcarbine), made by Lewis Machine & Tool Co. (LMT). Gary Paul Johnston has just written an excellent piece on the LMT MRP/QCBS for the September 2004 issue of "Soldier …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com The Compact Police Carbine (CPC) Model 556, by Arms Tech LTD is one cool little semi-auto 5.56mm carbine. Designed specifically for police 1st Responders (First Responders) (specifically patrol officers and motorcycle officers) the Arms Tech Compact Police Carbine (CPC) will provide patrol officers, including motorcycle officers with a handy 5.56x45mm subcarbine for 1) dealing with threats …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com DefRev’s previous article on te 6.8x43mm SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge), a.k.a. "6.8mm Remington SPC", was titled "6.8x43mm Round for Urban Warfare CQB and Short-to-Medium-Range Sniping." The 6.8x43mm SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge) was developed with the help of the U.S. Army Special Forces community (specifically, the U.S. Army’s 5th Special Forces Group) to create a significantly superior …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Included in Gary Paul Johnston’s October 2003 "Soldier of Fortune" article is some great info on both the Armalite Mid-Length Carbine and A.R.M.S. Mid-Length S.I.R. System. The Armalite Mid-Length Carbine was designed specifically to overcome the long-known gas system-related problems associated with the standard M4/M4A1, problems that have been plaguing end-users for years. These include greatly …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com This company has just come across DefRev’s radar. Troy Industries, Inc. appears to be a specialized small arms manufacturer with a specific focus on Special Operations applications and the CQB (Close Quarters Battle) role. According to the company, the Rock SOPMOD (Special Operations Peculiar Modification) M14 Commando Carbine has been designed under contract for the Naval …

Several months ago, in a phone conversation, Alex Robinson, owner of Robinson Armament, told me he was working on a new rifle project for the military. He couldn’t disclose very much at the time, but it certainly sounded very interesting. Well, it now appears that he was talking about the brand new Robinson Armament RAV02 MC (pronounced "RAVE") select-fire rifle/carbine. …

Rock River Arms out of Cleveland, Illinois has come out with their own version of a LETC(Law Enforcement Tactical Carbine), and it’s called the LAR-15 LE. Features include a rather interestingly designed flattop receiver with full-length Picatinny rail, redesigned safety/fire selector lever, M4A1 double heat shield handguards, and match grade two-stage trigger. Barrel is heavy with 1:9" twist. Click on …

By Jeff Gurwitch It’s been 8 years since my last Competition to Combat article, written back in 2018. It was the last year of use for both the Daniel Defense 10.3 CQBR upper and the 14.5 RISII non-front sight post upper. Beginning in 2019, U.S. Special Forces started to switch over to the Giessele URGI upper with mid-length gas system …

by David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com October 26, 2022 DefenseReview’s (DR) published a lot of information about Vortex Optics combat optics and scopes AND fire control systems/smart scopes in general (see “Related Articles” below for both). However, to date, we haven’t done a piece on the US Army’s new smart scope, the Vortex Optics XM-157 Next Generation Squad …

By David Crane david (at) defensereview (dot) com Photo(s) Credit(s): Garand Thumb July 17, 2022 Back in early May, DefenseReview (DR) published a quick heads-up piece about the SIG SAUER XM5 Rifle and XM250 belt-fed light machine gun winning the US Army Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) System contract to replace the M4/M4A1 carbine and FN M249 SAW (Squad Automatic …