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 Beretta CX4 "Storm" carbine is a pistol caliber carbine that will eventually come in 9mm, .40 S&W, and .45 ACP. Right now, it only comes in 9mm Parabellum. The CX4 Storm carbine is a a modular design. Both upper and lower receivers are primarily made of polymer. The main selling point of the Beretta CX4 Storm …

by David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com May 6, 2003 Several months ago, DefRev attended the AUSA 2003 Winter Symposium (Feb. 26-28). During the show, we ran into the fine people at IMI (Israel Military Industries), and got a chance to handle their Tavor assault rifle variants, the Tavor TAR-21 Commando Carbine (shortened version of the Tavor assault rifle, …

Duane Dieter is a well known tactical and combat instructor in both military and LE SWAT circles. Apparently, he’s now making parts and accessories for tactical weapons that will hold up to the pounding and stress of CQB (Close Quarters Battle). One of these products is his new CQD Vertical Foregrip designed to slide onto a standard mil-spec 1913 picatinny …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com A little over a year ago, I wrote a story on the Arms Tech Recon Rifle. Well, in early November 2002, I got to shoot Arm’s Tech’s Compak-16 select-fire subcarbine/SBR (Short-Barreled Rifle), which is basically a shortened version of the Recon Rifle. I actually had a lot of fun shooting ths gun. Ideally, I would have …

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 defrev@gmail.com September 03, 2002 Well, the folks at Leitner-Wise Rifle Co., of Alexandria, VA, have certainly been keeping busy over there. They’ve just come out with two new weapon systems speciifically geared for military Spec-Ops and LE tactical use. We’ll start with the Leitner Wise LW15.499 Mini-.50(or .499), a.k.a. Multi-Level Threat Response System (MLTRS). As this is …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Force-on-force tactical CQB training and Real Action Gaming(R.A.G.) just got bumped-up in the realism department. Asia Paintball Supply(APS) out of Hong Kong is now marketing their Real Action Marker(R.A.M. or RAM) here in the U.S. The mastermind behind the U.S. marketing campaign is Harry Wong, an ex-British Army soldier who’s now an APS executive based in …

I was talking with one of my brothers about some different calibers and velocities. Something we often talk about. This led to the IPSC’s Power Factor, which is simply Bullet Weight in Grains, Times Velocity, Divided by 1,000. This is an easy formula that one can use when comparing loads… but doesn’t take into effect Caliber. W x V / …

As I sat there listening to Rick Demilt, Director of Law Enforcement Sales and Marketing for FN Herstal USA, at the company’s corporate presentation at Shot Show 2002, I immediately realized that FN Herstal is on an absolute warpath to literally take over the law enforcement and military markets of the free world. This is not an exaggeration. The company’s …