Remember the US ARMY’s OICW competition back in the 90s? Well apparently South Korea has continued to develop their own version. S&T K11 DAW (Dual-barrel Air-burst Weapon) is the modern version and my friend Uk Yang test fired it.

Today, Kalashnikov Group (Russia) presented new assault rifle prototype called AK-308 at the International Military-Technical Forum “Army-2018”

In anticipation of the release of Fallout 76 in November, we’re taking a look at the guns of the Fallout universe and comparing them to real guns. The Fallout series of games is set in a post apocalyptic alternate history universe that diverged from our history somewhere after 1945. The transistor was developed later in the Fallout world than in our world and  nuclear technology is much more advanced while computer technology is much less advanced. It’s not too important to get wrapped up in the details of the whole alternate history thing. Just think of it as a picture of Morrow Morrow land, the  way we thought the future might have been in 1950.

Your enemy is the best teacher when it comes to combat. In a move that appears to be imitating what the Kachin Independence Army pioneered in 2010 when it comes to bullet trap rifle grenades being fired from locally assembled Type 81 derivatives (the Chinese Type 81 already uses one, but they tried a different method), Burmese Defense Industries has introduced a rifle grenade firing capable variant of the 5.56x45mm Myanmar Army (MA) family of infantry small arms (locally produced Galil ARM). At the current time it appears that the nomenclature of this variation is the MA MK II. Thus, MA-1 MK II (full-length rifle), MA-3 MK II (folding stock carbine), and the MA-4 MK II (UBGL variant). It most likely isn’t the case that the MA-2 has been retrofitted to fire rifle grenades as a light machine gun platform being used for that purpose is rare anywhere in the world. In addition, the MA-2 MK II is the new 7.62x54mmR variant of the LMG. In addition there has been modifications to the MA-3 carbine, but if the folding stock can withstand the recoil of the grenade isn’t known either.

Every field has its own mysteries and mystifications. And if we are talking about the history of Soviet small arms, the biggest puzzle is the notorious AKMSU. If you look it up on Russian gun websites, you can find a lot of fascinating information, for example:

Japanese newspaper called The Mainichi reports that a large cache of buried WW2 firearms and edged weapons was found during construction works near a Tokyo elementary school. Estimated 1,400 firearms (or rather what is left of these guns), 1,200 bayonets (maybe also swords) as well as a number of grenades and ammunition were dug out from the site. Let’s read the report of The Mainichi newspaper and take a look at the photos taken on the site.

If you’re having any problems with the embed video, you can use this link:  https://kalashnikov.media/en/media/videolibrary/4522502

Unlike many other countries, Russia always celebrates May 9. In fact, it is one of the biggest holidays of the year. On May 9, 1945, at 00.16 local time, Germans signed the Instrument of Surrender, which ended World War II in Europe.

Russian Federal Security Service (FSB (ФСБ)) in cooperation with the Russain Ministry of Internal Affairs and National Guard seized a large cache of illegal firearms that were smuggled from Europe to Russia. When trying to identify these firearms, I was amazed to see that most of them are historical guns many of which are quite rare specimens. Let’s try to identify the most interesting historical firearms seized during this operation.

Although the 9x19mm MA-13 MK II design was first seen online in 2012, there is still relatively not much known about it outside of the Myanmar Police Special Task Force that has been seen utilizing it as standard issue, albeit sparingly. Staying within the previous designation of the Burmese Defense Industries license produced copy of the Israeli IMI 9x19mm Uzi submachine gun as the MA-13 (MA for Myanmar Army), the Tatmadaw appears to have added a “MK II” suffix to the nomenclature to designate a variation.

At a recent amnesty program held by the Israeli Defense Forces, a first model Dror in .303 British turned up along with a number of other small arms that had been surrendered as part of a drive to return historical small arms from IDF veterans or otherwise. In this particular case, the Dror that was handed in is of special importance because of how rare it is. We talked about this on TFB TV a while back and Ian has an excellent post on Forgotten Weapons about it as well. The early variants of the light machine gun that was illegally manufactured in Canada, sent as contraband to Israel where it was assembled, were in .303 British and had a side mounted magazine slot that could fit a 20-round magazine based on the Johnson LMG’s design. They didn’t fare too well in Israel due to feeding issues and only 800-1000 were ever made before the second variation was improved upon and ironically entered service in Israel after the fight for independence had already been won.

The craft-modified bullpup PKM design that has popped up in different iterations (albeit sparingly) throughout Syria, Yemen and Libya takes its roots in the Russian 7.62x54mmR Pecheneg PKP GPMG that became popular within the Russian Ministry of Interior due to the need for a beltfed weapon system that could be compact as possible. Originally the Pecheneg wasn’t a bullpup, but simply a shortened PKM with integrated carrying handle. Later, bullpup versions became available but at this point, it doesn’t appear that they are seeing a tremendous amount of use within Russia. The bullpup variant appeared on the scene at least in public around 2016. It didn’t take long for craft-modified variants to appear in hotspots in the MENA region, first in Libya in early 2017, then in Syria possibly around late 2017, and most recently in Yemen this summer (May, June 2018). Dates are very approximate with these timelines due to images making their rounds on social media from their respective communities until they get picked up by Western sources and analysts. So we can’t pin down exactly when these designs were developed or even entered service, but we do know none seemed to exist before the Pecheneg bullpup in late 2016. For more information about that original design, Russian presenter Sergey Badyuk got his hands on a variant in one of his episodes on Youtube.

This is the first guest post by Grigory, author of “Kalashism” blog:  https://www.instagram.com/kalashism/
Grigory is a passionate gun enthusiast and spent his entire career working in Russian military-industrial complex in various capacities. He travels a lot, mostly to the Middle East and South Asia, and has a unique perspective on a lot of modern small arms and tactical gear.

Starting when the notorious terrorist leader found refuge in the company of Mullah Omar’s Islamic Emirate in the mid-1990s, Osama bin Laden became a vociferous proponent of constantly appearing in propaganda footage armed with a Soviet AKS74U “Krinkov”. Many have pointed to this being a very deliberate choice and not a haphazard appearance of a particular weapon system for maximum impact. If the leader wanted to simply demonstrate that he was armed in every recorded or photographed event, then of course any nearby rifle of sufficient weight and size could do. Indeed, the “Sheikh” could have pulled one off his Arab staffed security team at any time. But he didn’t, and instead he specifically chooses to be depicted in visual media as carrying the AKS74U. From what appears to be the time he began his work in Afghanistan and ending in some of his last televised propaganda messages, UBL constantly and consistently has an AKS74U by his side.

For this episode, we took a trip to the folks at Battle Arms Development in Las Vegas and were able to get our hands on some of the companies newest rifle entries that were premiered at SHOT this year. The Tanker and the Paratrooper is sort of the manifestation of Battle Arms in the company entering the full rifle market from the parts manufacturing business. They also have a lightweight piece, a .308 rifle, but these aren’t covered as much in the episode above.

After a brief hiatus, the infamous Mahama Tactical training team is back in the spotlight again. The group’s former leader, Uzbek national Abu Rofiq was killed a while back and since then the team appears to have lost some key leadership. Since then, a Twitter account under the handle of Salman Belarus started posting older media of the group on April 19th and has continued to grow to include much newer material, in addition to posting about the group coming back into the picture.

Early prototype of AM-17, first public demonstration. August 2016

Since Jim Fuller founded Rifle Dynamics more than a decade ago, the company has risen to an extremely high standard of craftsmanship within the AK industry in the United States. Jim talks about the story of the company, starting with his very first introduction to the weapon system as an electrician on a job site to making mistakes with Chinese import guns, and ending with what Rifle Dynamics will be coming out within the next year of production when it comes to the Kalashnikov derivatives that it has become famous for manufacturing.

Pictured is an ultra minimal, highly compact submachine gun design which is a clear contender for the simplest ever conceived. Disassembled It consists of only nine parts including screws and springs. Almost every main component is fabricated using steel box section tube, including the one-piece thumb operated trigger.

Generally speaking, firearms laws in the United States are better than those in the United Kingdom – except when it comes to museums.

A confidential source has revealed to TFB the current contestants that have passed the most recent phase of the Next Generation Squad Automatic Rifle Competition (NGSAR). This phase is less of an actual competition between small arms prototypes but more of a theoretical feasibility of design concepts before any trials progression ensues. Results from this recent Prototype Opportunity Notice (PON) showed that out of ten industry contestants, only six were advanced to the next stage of the competition. These six companies are in order of most successful: Aircraft Armaments, Inc. Textron (AAI Textron), PCP Tactical (a division of PCP Ammunition), Sig Sauer, General Dynamics Ordnance & Tactical Systems (GT-OTS), and two entries from FN America (labeled as Lightweight and Adaptive).

Back in 2009, Chesapeake Police Department seized a fully-automatic, undocumented Sturmgewehr 44. Now they want to donate it to the US Navy’s Naval History and Heritage Command.

Everyone knows about Binary Triggers by Franklin Armory by now. It is a clever design that allows your firearm to fire on pull and release of the trigger. This has been approved by ATF as two independent manipulations of the trigger and therefore considered semi-automatic. At SOFIC 2018, Franklin Armory debuted their latest Binary Trigger the TR-4. It is a Binary Trigger with a full auto option.

Last week we looked at the Stoner 86/ARES LMG-1 in depth while at the Institute of Military Technology in Florida. This week we are comparing the older design to the much more modern Knight’s Armament 5.56x45mm NATO Light Assualt Machine Gun (LAMG) that the company brought to SHOT Show last year and this year. In addition to the 5.56x45mm version, there is also a 7.62x51mm version as well. Hopefully we’ll be able to get an in-depth look at it in the future, but for the time being, we were only able to see the smaller caliber version.

About a year ago we reported about several new firearms that were designed or were in development by the Russian TsKIB SOO. Among these guns, there was a semi-auto marksman rifle called OTs-129. Apparently, that was one of the guns of a project called “Alatau” (Алатау). A couple of days ago, Kalashnikov Gun Magazine has published images of the OTs-128 machine gun that was also a part of the Alatau project.

A local TV channel of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has published a video telling about two domestically made firearms: an anti-materiel rifle and a twin-barreled machine gun. They adapted or used the parts of standard-issue guns to build weapon systems that could be used in different roles than the donor firearms. Let’s take a look at each of these guns.

The US Army’s PEO Soldier – Project Manager Soldier Weapons has issued an Request for Information (RFI) to obtain industry feedback on possible submissions to Sub Compact Weapons (SCW) evaluations. The specification details offered by the Project Manager Soldier Weapons (PMSW) are scant and extremely broad. Describing potential SCWs as being select fire weapons, chambered in 9x19mm and having MIL-STD 1913 rail (Picatinny Rail) space.

Similar to many small arms in use by Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), the diversity of Soviet patterned Heavy Machine Guns is quite high among the ANSF forces of today. Almost to a point where every derivative and variant produced in other countries is represented within the ANSF ranks from the Afghan Uniformed Police (AUP), Afghan National Army (ANA), the Nationa Directorate for Security (NDS), and the Afghan Border Police (ABP).

Viewers of TFB TV will be especially aware of a number of episodes that I completed with a local reenactor that represents elements of the 82nd Airborne Division all over the Midwest. To date we’ve filmed episodes about the BAR in the First World War, the M1A1 “Paratrooper” Carbine, 1903 Springfield rifle grenades, and even an introduction on blank rounds for various uses. Indeed, if I hadn’t left the Midwest I would most likely be still interested in producing content for TFB TV with his excellent insight.

A short video clip has recently emerged depicting an Indian soldier in contact with a distant enemy. It appears the soldier is suppressing the enemy positions more than his own bunker is receiving any fire throughout the video. The video was initially posted on an Indian Facebook page but was sent to TFB by an eagle-eyed reader. Apart from the combat, what is particularly interesting about the encounter is that the soldier’s INSAS-LMG starts to fail about a quarter of the way through the video. Which isn’t unexpected given the plaguing reliability problems that the Indian Armed Services have faced with the weapon system ever since its inception, or any program designed to replace it.