The following is a Sturm, Ruger & Co. press release: Southport, CT: August 26, 2010 — Sturm, Ruger & Co., Inc. (NYSE:RGR) is pleased to announce the new Ruger SR-556/6.8 rifle/carbine, a new chambering in the popular SR-556 two-stage, piston-driven, AR-Style rifle. The new SR-556/6.8 brings the power and downrange authority of the 6.8 SPC cartridge in a two-stage piston …

The following is a FN Herstal USA (FNH USA) press release: McLean, VA (August 16, 2010). The U.S. Special Operations Command notified FN that the Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle (SCAR) family of weapons—the MK 16 (5.56mm) and MK 17 (7.62mm) combat assault rifles and MK 13 grenade launcher—was approved for full-rate production. The Full-Rate Production Decision Review by …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com August 16, 2010 Updated on 8/21/10 DefenseReview (DR) has been publishing information on Spike’s Tactical products for a little while, now. Spike’s is a small company out of Apopka, Florida that puts together some nice select-fire and semi-auto-only tactical AR (AR15) carbine and SBR (Short Barreled Rifle) packages in various calibers. One …

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 David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com June 8, 2010 And, speaking of enhanced-capacity 5.56x45mm NATO (5.56mm NATO)/.223 Rem. 4179 STANAG AR (AR-15) magazines, MagPul Industries has just filed a patent application (#: 20100126053) for a quad stack 4×2 AR mag. Here’s how The Firearm Blog describes the magazine’s operation: The design is quite straight forward. A central partition …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com June 8, 2010 Armatac Industries just sent us a link to their video on the new SAW-MAG (also written SAWMAG) 150-shot double-drum mag (magazine), which represents an evolutionary improvement over their CL-MAG. The SAWMAG is billed as the “ultimate feed device” and “the solution” for the Marines’ HK M27 IAR (Infantry Automatic …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com June 2, 2010 In their ongoing efforts to upgrade/improve and/or replace the Colt SOPMOD M4/M4A1 Carbine with the “Next Carbine”, the U.S. Army Contracting Command just issued a sources sought notice/solicitation (Solicitation Number: W15QKN-10-X-0455) on May 27, 2010 requesting information on potential weapon capabilities for an “Individual Carbine” as part of a “market …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com All photos contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and are copyrighted. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. The photos were shot with a Canon PowerShot S90 10-megapixel digital camera (still camera with video capability). May 31, 2010 Back in September (2009), DefenseReview (DR) published a short piece on the …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com May 23 2010 On May 18, 2010, The Firearm Blog reported on yet another company developing yet another gas piston/op-rod AR (AR-15) rifle/carbine/SBR (Short Barreled Rifle) platform. The company is Holland Automatic Rifles (HAR). The piston/op-rod (operating rod) system is a tri-vent/progressive-vent, vectored-exhaust, recoil-attenuating/mitigating system that, according to “John” at HAR, requires …

By David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com May 3, 2010 Updated on 5/03/2010 Within the last couple weeks, British newspapers have published stories on two Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) programs under the Prompt Global Strike (PGS) initiative, who’s purpose is to enable the United States to launch precision conventional weapon strikes anywhere in the world within one …