by Charles Gaines This is the first time I’ve written anything here. The following is just a collection of my observations on the effectiveness of the M-4 with it’s current standard-issue systems based on my experiences here in Khandahar province. For starters, I’d like to take on the myth of how the M-4 doesn’t have enough range for this country …

by David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com November 6, 2003 Last updated on 10/11/11. The 1911 pistol that Kimber is currently supplying to U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) MARSOC/Special Operations Command Detachment 1 operators, according to reports, differs from the Kimber Custom TLE/RL II in several key respects (The following information is, as yet, unconfirmed/unverified): 1) It utilizes Kimber's Series …

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 The FN M240B 7.62mm GPMG is the current official 7.62mm machine gun for the U.S. Armed Forces, and is generally considered by many small arms experts to be a masterpiece in terms of small arms design. Masterpiece or not, the FN M240 GPMG, at 27 lbs EMPTY, is simply WAY too heavy for mobile infantry unit gunners …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com August 06, 2003 Let me say right off the bat that this gun doesn’t just fill an existing niche. It, along with one other competing weapon(read “Addendum”), literally creates its own new niche. I’m talking about the .50 Beowulf “Entry” Carbine by Alexander Arms that I had the intense pleasure to shoot at SWAT …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com With the Tactical Police Shotgun (TPS), FNH USA has given a very old piece of technology an interesting and utilitarian facelift. From what DefRev understands, the FN TPS is a essentially a highly modified and updated Winchester 1300 pump shotgun. Those modifications/updates have resulted in a very modern-looking 12 gauge pump-action shotgun that "borrows" various tactical …

by David Crane Heckler & Koch (HK) is currently developing a new 5.56x45mm belt-fed LMG(Light Machine Gun)/SAW(Squad Automatic Weapon). It’s called the MG43. The HK MG43 represents HK’s desire to compete against the FN M249 SAW on the world market. The HK MG43 LMG/SAW is, from all reports so far, not select-fire. It only has two settings, "Safe" and "Full-Auto". …

by David Crane This one’s pretty cool, folks. Unfortunately for all us guys, the "No Contact" Jacket only comes in one version right now, and it’s for women. Basically, the No Contact Jacket packs 80,000 volts of electricity, making the wearer a walking stun gun. The company calls the technology "exo-electric armor", which is basically a… fancy name for "you …

Apparently, the U.S. Army has a new combat mini-grenade in its arsenal. It’s called the HG-86 (short for SplHG 86), and it’s made by ARGES (Armaturen Gesellschaft m. b. H.) of Austria. Click here to read an active thread on the SplHG 86 mini-grenade on TacticalForums.com. Click in this link to go to a story that includes some good info …

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. …