by David Crane david@defensereview.com The U.S. Army has been at a loss to identify a mystery projectile that penetrated an M1A1 Abrams tank late last year. The round created a pencil-thin entry hole, injured some of the crew inside with limited spalling, and came to a rest in the far side of the hull, after boring a 1.5-2"-deep hole through …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com May 27, 2004 This article was modified/updated on 12/16/04. Pinnacle Armor Inc., out of Fresno, California, is currently producing some of the most advanced hard and soft ballistic armor solutions in the world. This includes Pinnacle’s flexible hard armor systems, which employ a combination of highly advanced ballistic ceramic composite and titanium composite technology and ballistic …

The following is an advertisement that was submitted to Defense Review anonymously. Normally we don’t publish anonymous posts–and especially advertisements. However, we’re making an exception here as a courtesy to our members and readers who may have an interest in reading about the history of the Colt 1911 pistol and its precursors. We’ll research the source. Here it is: "Just …

According to Tantal’s Collector Resource, the KOBRA EKP-1S Fast Action collimator sight is "currently used in the field by Russian OMON SPETsNAZ. The site goes on to say that "The Kobra EKP-1S Fast Acquisition Collimator Sight is currently used by the Russian armed forces, to include the MVD and it’s OMON special forces. They have also been seen in service …

The Romak-3/PSL is the military version of a Romanian sniper rifle that is now available in the U.S. The commercial version is just called the Romak-3, and it looks to be an interesting foreign offering. The rifle is basically the romanian version of the… Russian Dragunov sniper rifle. Click here to visit the Romak-3/PSL page at Dragunov.net. Click here to …

by David Crane Well, it looks like we’ve officially entered the era of Directed Energy Weapon’s, a.k.a. DEW’s. It’s just been disclosed that two of our Apache attack helicopters got "illuminated" by a group of four North Korean MiG jets back in March. The actual illuminating was accomplished using what is believed to have been a Chinese-made ZM-87 anti-personnel laser. …

by David Crane There is growing interest by the military in the 20mm cannon round for anti-material use, since it’s capability in this area significantly exceeds that of the .50 BMG. Special Operations units are particularly interested in the development of sniper/anti-material rifles chambered for a cannon round, since they offer significantly increased performance to even the Nammo/Raufoss Mk211 Multipurpose …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com The U.S. Army is developing new thermobaric munitions for their BDM(Bunker Defeat Munition) and M203 grenade launchers, and ultimately for the XM29/OICW(Objective Individual Combat Weapon) as well. This is a long time coming. The Russian army has been using thermobaric light support weapons since its Soviet/Iron Curtain days. The Russian RPO-A Shmel is a perfect example. …

Back in September, I wrote a quick blurb on the Chinese QBZ-95(Type 95) infantry rifle, chambered for the proprietary 5.8x42mm cartridge. Now, while it’s true that I’m not a particularly big fan of the Chinese army, it must be noted that the Chinese are not stupid, and they decided on this caliber after conducting a rather extensive amount of ballistic …

By David Crane October 5, 2002 Over the last few years, I’ve been fortunate to own a number of top notch semi-auto pre-ban AK’s (AKM and AK-47 rifles) by some of the best makers. I’ve owned several Hungarian pre-ban underfolders and fixed-stock models made by FEG, a couple of Yugoslavian under-folders and fixed-stock models made by Zastava, and a couple …