Barrel-life specifications are a familiar sight in government solicitations, technical documents, and manufacturer literature, but what do they actually mean? A barrel rated for a certain number of rounds is not necessarily guaranteed to perform identically throughout that entire service life, an...
The modern light machine gun sits at an interesting crossroads. For decades, the basic concept has been the same: provide a small infantry unit with a belt-fed weapon capable of delivering sustained fire while remaining mobile enough to maneuver with the riflemen. But the character of modern comb...
Kalashnikov Concern and Tula Cartridge Plant (TPZ) continue work on a new assault rifle cartridge. This has sparked new public interest after the publication of a Russian patent RU 2809501 C1. The Tula Cartridge Plant developed the new assault rifle ammunition in collaboration with the Kalashniko...
Back in May, when NSWC Crane posted the Hypervelocity Improved Capability Assault Rifle (HICAR) solicitation, I closed my article by asking whether any currently available carbine platform was genuinely built to handle sustained fire at 82,000 PSI, or whether every vendor would need a...
Jonathan Wild has spent the better part of a decade working his way up the escalation ladder of DIY destructive devices — from a patented caseless ignition system to a hand-built Panzerfaust, then a Fliegerfaust, then the M202A1 FLASH, and most recently a hypervelocity kinetic rocket built ...