Presented in March 2012, it is the intention of Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) that the light machine gun (LMG) NG7 caliber 7.62 NATO will replace part of the Negev caliber 5.56×45 and part of the GPMG MAG 7.62×51 that are currently in use.

The design, as well as the action, the locking system and the operative system are clearly derived from those of the Negev 5.56 NATO, from which it inherits a good number of features.

The project, before going into production, faced an intensive period of field testing that the IDF nicknamed “ping-pong” that lasted about three years.  During this time several NG7 prototypes were issued to IDF combat units and returned to IWI with the related feedback.  Those feedbacks inevitably generated design modifications until a final version of the product, fully responding to specific Tsaha’l requirements, had been obtained.

The NG7 is equipped with an IWI ELOG system.  This electronically logs the real use of the weapon through a computer, allowing in turn the unit armorers to provide programmed maintenance according to real parameters and eventually to investigate any malfunction circumstances.

Operating System
The NG7 is a light machine gun (LMG) operated by a gas system called “gas impact.”  The firearm starts the shooting cycle with the open bolt to avoid cook-off after prolonged fire.  When the trigger is pulled the bolt, that is locked in a full rear position, is released and starts to go forward pushed by two compressed recoil springs.  During its travel a cartridge is taken from the belt, chambered and the bolt, thanks to its locking lugs, engages the corresponding lugs in the barrel extension and locks.  The bolt carrier, in this phase, keeps going forward, exposing the firing pin that strikes the cartridge primer.  Upon discharge, the bullet goes through the barrel, pushed by the rapidly expanding gas, until one third of the barrel length is reached, where the gas port is located.  A portion of the gas vents through the hole and runs through a regulating valve and the gas cylinder until it hits a short piston that is integral to two operating rods linked to the bolt carrier.  The gases then push back the piston and, through the two parallel operating rods, the bolt carrier located in the upper part of this subassembly that, operating a cam, makes the bolt head to rotate and unlock.  The cartridge is extracted and ejected along with the link of the feeding belt and, during the rearward movement, the bolt carrier operates the belt feeding mechanism making it advance and putting a fresh cartridge in position to be chambered until it reaches the maximum rear position.  If the trigger is kept pulled, and the fire selector is on the full auto position, the cycle is repeated until the weapon runs out of ammunition or the trigger is released.

Structure and Components
The NG7 structure is divided in four main groups: barrel, action, bolt/and bolt carrier, stock.

The NG7 can mount two different barrels, made by cold hammering process, of different lengths: one for the standard version 20-inch long (508 mm) barrel and one for the SF (Special Forces) version being 16.5 inches long (420 mm); both with 4 grooves right hand 1:12 inches (1 turn every 304.8 mm) rifling twist.  The chamber and bore are chrome lined to reduce barrel wear.  A 5 radial slot flashider is threaded on the muzzle and about one third of the total length there is the gas port block.  This component, mounted on the barrel by pressure and pinned, has three sub-components: gas regulator valve, gas cylinder and front sights.

The gas regulator valve, internally chrome lined to resist the high temperature of detonation gases, has only two positions instead of three, the assault rifle magazine feed option of the Negev in 5.56 is not present here: one for use in normal conditions and the other when the firearm is dirty, ensuring the correct operation of the gas system.  The front post-type sight, like the M16A1, is protected by two sturdy ears opened on the sides and adjustable both in elevation and windage to perform the mechanical zeroing.

A little before the cartridge chamber there is the carry handle that can be laterally folded and provided with a plastic grip for heat insulation.  It can also be used to remove the barrel when change is needed during a firing action.

Feed tray, with the feed lever protruding from the central slot. Note the wall of the feed tray shaped to allow a smooth belt feed.

The barrel ends with a barrel extension provided in the upper part with the lugs for fast locking it to the breech block.  Internally it shows the locking lugs to accommodate the bolt and completed with the feed ramp to facilitate correct cartridge chambering.

The NG7 body is made by ribbed and stamped steel sheets and assembled to machined steel and welded blocks.  The metal folding process is obtained using a particular industrial stamping method in order to obtain the metal box that forms the weapon’s receiver accurately respecting the project dimensions with minimal tolerances.

We can divide the weapon body in three sections: front, central and railed.  The front section is a stamped steel cradle where is attached by means of screws the plastic front handguard.  On the sides of the handguard, front portion, there are two short Picatinny rails to mount electronic devices such as target designators or any other electronic/optronic device useful for the mission.  At the front end of the action is welded the first steel block, used as a front support for the barrel, which also holds the gas cylinder and the locking base for the weapon bipod.  Welded on the left side there is the swivel ring to hook one end of the assault sling.  The NG7 bipod is folded toward the muzzle, allowing the shooter to aim the weapon not only to the left and to the right, but also to rotate it on its longitudinal axis and to be adapted to any configuration of the supporting surface.  In the central section is another machined steel block, welded to the action metal sheet.  The block shows at the front side the locking lugs to lock the barrel.  The action of locking and unlocking the barrel is operated by a side button, on the right upper part of the action, just before the receiver cover.

When a barrel is inserted in place during a barrel change, the top locking lugs, thanks to inclined plans, move sidewards to the corresponding metal projections until the insertion is completed.  At this point the barrel catch button is operated by a spring and returns to the initial position locking the barrel in place.

A safety mechanism on the left side of the barrel catch button does not allow that it can be depressed if the receiver cover is not opened.  The bottom of the steel block is milled to allow the bolt group to move; the rail section starts from the central block and reaches the rear end of the action, were the stock begins.  This section takes its name from the two rails that guide the bolt group during its cyclic movement.  They are welded to the internal walls of the action to ensure the maximum precision for a smooth operation while firing.

NG7 breech showing on the top of the barrel extension, the locking lugs to lock the barrel to the action.

On the right side of the rail section just behind the central block are two ejection ports: the upper one is for the links of the disintegrating ammunition belt, the lower one is for the spent cases.  Both are closed when carrying the weapon by two metallic lids to prevent dirt and debris from getting inside the machine gun’s mechanism.  Note that even being two different lids, they are articulated by a hinge.  When the lids are closed a little projection in the internal wall lower lid engages and locks to a notch in the bolt carrier.  When the bolt is armed and starts its rearward movement, the projection unlocks and, operated by springs, the two lids open and fold over the action.

The cocking knob is non-reciprocating and located on the right hand side.  Welded to the weapon is the related rail where the knob travels.  The cocking knob is provided with a ratchet safety mechanism to avoid accidental discharges of the gun if the cocking knob is not put in the full forward position after cocking the bolt.  The case ejector is internal, a pivoting type, located under the left bolt rail and operated by a suitable bolt carrier curve.

Different from its smaller “sister” in intermediate caliber, the NG7 does not have a magazine well for the assault rifle magazine nor the related lid to keep the dirt out.  This machine gun is belt fed only, from both a standard ammunition box or fabric and polymer drums with capacity of 100 or 125 7.62 NATO rounds, docked to the proper rail located in the lower part of the weapon body.  The absence of a magazine well opening allows the NG7 to take a great benefit in terms of action rigidity.

The “SF” suffix stands for “Special Forces” and designs the version of the ARX160 known in the United States as ARX160A2.  Leaving intact the operating system, Beretta refined its polymeric assault rifle in many aspects.

Afghanistan, November 13, 2011: A gang of armed Taliban terrorists hold 18 hostages in the Kabul offices of Esko International, a North American company specializing in food distribution.  Task Force 45, the intervention unit of the Italian Armed Forces composed of elements taken from Italian Special Forces units; storm the building in a well coordinated, multidirectional, simultaneous attack.  The raid of TF45 ends with the liberation of all the 18 hostages and the total elimination of all the terrorists winning attention and praise from the international Special Forces community for the perfect way they executed their mission.

In Italy, a handful of units have the status of Special Forces: 9th Paracommando Rgt. “Col. Moschin” (Army), Commando Operative Group or G.O.I. “Teseo Tesei” from COM.SUB.IN, (Navy), Special Intervention Group or G.I.S (Carabinieri), and 17th Commando Wing (Air Force).

Task Force 45 enjoys the same status as the U.S. Navy Seal’s Team Six or U.S. Special Forces Detachment Delta and officially does not appear in any order of battle of the Italian Armed Forces.  It’s silent, efficient group of highly trained soldiers that quietly works out of the sight and the glamour of information media to hit the enemy or rescue civilians or their own comrades in danger.

These gallant warriors in 2009 issued their specifications to Beretta to modify the new ARX160 to meet their own needs.  Beretta responded to the challenge giving birth, in 2010, to the ARX160SF.

The ARX160SF inherits the operating system from the infantry version of the rifle.  It’s a self adjusting gas operated rifle with a unique system halfway between a short stroke and long stroke gas piston.

ARX160SF flashider. Different from the infantry version, there are no integral compensator ports – only upward slots.

The Bolt Group
The ARX160SF bolt group is made of two components: the bolt body and the bolt carrier.  Both components are built using CNC tool machines from high resistance steel bars, requiring complex processing and a careful quality control on dimensional tolerances to ensure the strictest uniformity of each piece and interchangeability.

Once assembled, they will be kept together for normal weapon maintenance, thus reducing the number of pieces the soldier has to handle when cleaning his rifle and keeping simple the logistic chain.

The bolt carrier has a long frontal flat bar on the top of its body that protrudes forward reaching the piston of the gas system, working as the operating rod.  This allows a better distribution of the moving masses, helping the balance and control of the weapon while shooting.  The bolt carrier has a prismatic shape with flat sides that seal the two ejection ports when the bolt is closed, thus not allowing dirt and dust to penetrate inside the receiver.  Half way along the bolt carrier there is the charging handle that is held in position by a long laminar spring located in the flat operating rod.  The charging handle can be positioned on the left side or right side, as the shooter prefers.  To change the side is easy: just pull the bolt carrier group rearward up to an indicator mark in the middle of the ejection port and pull outward the charging handle until the bolt carrier group is locked.  Then rotate on the opposite side the charging handle, push it inward to unlock the bolt carrier group, and pull the bolt all the way back.  There is a third position for the charging handle, along the longitudinal axis of the gun, and it is used when the soldier needs to strip the weapon for cleaning.

Permanently attached to the rear of the bolt carrier is the recoil spring with the spring rod that ends with a polymer block that engages the notches in the body of the receiver, keeping the bolt carrier group in its position inside the weapon.

ARX160SF telescopic buttstock. Notice the black trigger shaped button to adjust the stock length.

The bolt has a bolt head with nine locking lugs, similar to those ones of the Stoner systems.  The lugs at the three and nine o’clock position are integral with the two extractors.  This is another unique feature of the ARX160 family: two extractors operated by two rods that run through the bolt body and protrudes to the rear complete with springs that keep the extractor in the right position.

The ARX160SF has two extractors because, according to how the ejection selector in the rear of the polymer receiver is positioned, one works as an extractor and the other works as an ejector.  When moving the ejector selector in the other position, the roles are inverted and also the ejection direction is reversed.

The cam is realized by the interaction of some grooves machined on the bolt body and the bolt carrier, transforming the rectilinear movement of the bolt carrier in the rotating movement of the bolt head.  Other grooves are machined on the bolt body in order to avoid the eventual mud or dirt inside the receiver that would clog the mechanism causing the carbine to malfunction.

The Barrel
While the ARX160SF can mount, like the infantry version, both barrels of different length (normally, the ARX160 is delivered with two barrels, one 12-inches long and one 16-inches long) chambered in 5.56mm NATO, the ARX160SF mounts usually the shorter one.  The version tested is the most recent, different from the version presented in 2010, and has the flashider modified to mount a sound suppressor made for Beretta by Brugger & Thomet.  The barrel is made from a high resistant steel bar and realized by a cold hammer forging process.  The barrel is chrome lined to increase barrel life and the rifling is the usual 1:7-inch RH twist according to NATO standards for use of the SS109 military cartridge.

Just after the bayonet lug, at the beginning of the 12-inch barrel, are the gas port and piston (on the 16-inch barrel the gas port is almost half way).  The telescopic piston extends when the bullet passes over the gas port and gas pushes it out backwards pressing the op-rod integral to the bolt carrier.  The full extended piston protrudes for a considerable length, comparable to the size of a 5.56 brass case.  The piston does not give only a simple “impulse” like short stroke systems, but it keeps going on pushing the operating rod of the bolt group, allowing a smooth, continuous action that greatly helps reliability and the case extraction and ejection process during the shooting cycle.  In this the ARX160 gas system is similar to long stroke systems.  The piston is in no way permanently connected to the bolt group operating rod, and this is a characteristic peculiar of the short stroke systems.

The safety and fire selector of the Beretta carbine has only three positions. The 3-round burst, present in the AR70/90, has been eliminated. The hole behind the flat sling mount is to reverse the ejection direction.

Beretta took the best from both systems merging them in what it seems the most efficient way.  The absence of permanent mechanical link between piston and bolt group allows also one of the most interesting characteristics of this assault rifle made in Gardone Val Trompia: to change the barrel literally in a matter of seconds without the need of any tool.

The barrel ends on the breech side with a barrel extension similar to the Stoner locking systems provided with nine notches for the bolt locking lugs and, at the bottom of the barrel extension, two feeding ramps.

The barrel is locked to the action with a latch operated by two sliding cursors on both sides of the rifle body: to remove the barrel the shooter should open the bolt and lock it open, to slide down the cursors, disengage the gas valve from the opening at the front tip of the handguard and pull out the barrel.

To remount the barrel, or switch it with another barrel, the shooter just has to follow the sequence in reverse order.  Quick and simple.

This feature, and other ones Beretta R&D included in the AX160, as we will see later during the range test, allows the Beretta ARX160 to have maximum flexibility in configuring the rifle according to operator need.

Upper Receiver, Stock & Rail System
The ARX160 body has been realized in the same reinforced polymer as used in the aerospace industry, but to meet Italian SF requirements the color has been changed from the dark gray of the infantry version to the current tan.

The design of the body has been modified in many little details.  For example, the rail under the front handguard has been changed: in the infantry version there is only one rail with two different portions, the front portion was a classic Picatinny Mil-Std 1913 rail, to allow the shooter to mount the needed accessories: front handle, tactical light or other items, while the rear portion was a proprietary T rail to mount the UBGL (Under Barrel Grenade Launcher), the 40mm GLX160.

A direct derivation from the TAR-21 Tavor bullpup rifle, adopted in 2003 by the Israel Defence Forces, we are going to introduce to SADJ readers the version designed for the Sayeret (Special Forces) units, a shorter and more modular rifle that, in case of need, can be converted into a SMG.

The TAR-21 project in Ramat Hasharon was started in 1995 when the Israeli company name was still IMI (Israel Military Industries).  In recent times, IMI ownership has been handed over from the State of Israel to a private company, the Samy Katsav Group (the same holding that includes also Meprolight, Selectron International Optronics and Global Shields) and changed its name to Israel Weapon Industries or IWI.

It was the intention of IWI that the new rifle design would have to satisfy the needs of the Israeli infantryman due to the most recent battlefield requirements.  A large majority of the combat actions of the IDF happened in urban areas, where soldiers must fight in harsh CQB conditions: apartments, narrow roads, restricted spaces typical of small villages where the terrorist enemy have their site and hold their positions.

Another tactical consideration comes from the fact that IDF is a highly mechanized army.  Even if the Israeli soldiers, during their GIBUSH (the selection for the combat units), are trained to cover long distances marching by feet, it is an operative reality that most of their movements on the battlefield are done travelling by APCs, IFVs or by helicopters.  This requires to have the equipment, including the assault rifle, as compact as possible.  IDF learned this lesson when they adopted the FN FAL, in the 1960s.  Aside from reliability problems they had with this rifle, the FN FAL was a very long rifle and very uncomfortable to carry inside an armoured vehicle or to be handled inside a helicopter during an airborne infiltration behind enemy lines.

Currently IDF is armed with a very small quantity of IMI Glilon (the Galil short version), and mainly with M16A1s, refitted with round handguards and different sling system, and Colt M16A1 Carbines, with old style polymer collapsible stocks, both with fixed carrying handle on the upper receiver.  Only in recent times has the series 900 Colt M4A1 carbines been issued.  According to battlefield reports, even the M4A1 has been judged by the Israelis as too long to fit the need of the Israel mechanized infantry.

The solution chosen by IWI engineers was to design a bullpup rifle; allowing this way to have a short rifle without limiting the ballistic of the 5.56mm cartridge because of very short barrels.  The result was the TAR-21 rifle (the acronym stands for Tavor Assault Rifle – 21st Century), officially adopted in 2003 by the IDF.

Due to the high number of Elite and Recon units in the IDF, IWI was requested by TSAHA’L to modify the TAR-21 design for its own special forces.  The Micro Tavor was born, and after some intensive field testing, the design was refined and modified into the last version, currently delivered to the Israeli army: the IWI X95 Special Forces carbine.

The X95 is really compact: only 590 mm long with its 13 inch barrel.  To make a fast comparison, an M4A1 with fully extended stock and a 14.5 inch barrel is 880 mm long.

The rifle is built around a backbone made of a “U” shaped steel rail, where its mechanics moves and the polymer receiver is fixed.  It’s hard to say that the X95 is beautiful, but its appearance, in the gray-black polymer livery, is very aggressive and martial and less “toy” looking than the previous green polymer.  The change reflects the fact that the polymer chosen for building the external body of the carbine has been changed from the previous models.

The old greenish polymer was studied to be rigid and impact resistant as much as possible.  But with the frequent use during field testing, the main problem was that even if it was able to absorb hard shocks, the polymer was not able to last: after a while cracks in the body started to appear, compromising structural integrity of the weapon.  The solution was to adopt another polymer, the current black gray looking one that was “softer” but did not show cracks after intensive use, being also more resistant to the strong UV middle-east sun radiations.

The X95 operates with two different mechanics: the 5.56×45 carbine with gas recovery system and 9×19 caliber blowback operated submachine gun, both using the same body.

The 5.56 carbine uses a long stroke gas recovery mechanism.  During the shoot sequence, the bullet in the barrel uncovers a hole, the gas port, which blows high pressure gases into a tube where there is a gas piston that starts to move rearward due the effects of the gases.  The gas piston is permanently locked with the prismatic bolt carrier, that starts, in its turn, to move rearward too, and so doing, due to a cam on the bolt carrier body, causes the bolt head to rotate and unlock the breech only when gas pressures are on safe values.  The group bolt-bolt carrier keeps travelling rearward for about 70 mm, compressing the recoil spring and ejecting the spent brass.  When the kinetic force of the shot ends, the recoil spring pushes forward the bolt-bolt carrier group, feeding a fresh cartridge from the magazine, chambering it and locking again the bolt in the breech locking lugs.

When shooting the 9×19 SMG version instead, it is only the prismatic bolt weight and the force of the recoil springs that define the bolt opening delay to ensure a safe opening of the breech, the rest of the operation sequence being identical to the 5.56 version.

The X95 barrel is produced using a cold hammer forging process, with 6 right-hand grooves, 1:7 twist.  This is quite curious since the IDF uses both M193 and M855 ammunitions.  The explanation is due to the IDF doctrine, since they do not want to renounce to the better terminal effects given by the 55 grs ball, and reserve the heavier 62 grs ball ammunition only for squad sharpshooters.  On the muzzle end of the barrel is mounted a flashider with 5 radial slots located only in the upper portion of it, while the lower part is closed, being this solution identical to the one adopted on the American M16A2 assault rifle.

The gas port is located 187 mm from the end of the barrel extension.  On the breech is mounted the barrel extension, with the locking lugs for the bolt.  The bolt face presents a singular asymmetric locking lug configuration: the three locking lugs, in fact, are located at 12 o’clock, 4 o’clock and 7 o’clock.  This last one, in its turn, is split into two smaller ones.  The bolt face is hollow, to create a belt that completely surrounds the cartridge rim ensuring a level of safety in case of gas leak from a broken primer or shell rupture.

On the bolt face there are also a big extractor claw that engages the cartridge rim for almost one quarter of the diameter, and a spring loaded ejector pin.  To reverse the spent case ejection, the bolt head must be replaced – an operation that must be performed by the unit armourer.

The bolt carrier is a prismatic rectangular shaped block of steel CNC machined to accept the cam and the bolt head.  Protruding from the upper front of the bolt carrier body there is the integral operating rod, ending with the stainless steel terminal of the self adjusting gas valve.  Internally the operating rod is hollow to accommodate the recoil spring and the recoil spring rod.  The bolt, bolt carrier, recoil spring and spring rod are permanently joined and do not need to be separated during field maintenance.  The bolt carrier side walls are straight, sealing the ejection port on the polymer body, avoiding the need of a ejection port lid to keep dust and debris out of the action.

The X95 body is realized in a black-dark gray highly UV and impact resistant polymer plastic.  While the rear portion of the body is identical to the standard TAR-21 rifles, the front and middle portion differ greatly for their shapes and commands collocation.

The front handguard has a round section, with ribs on the lower part to give the shooter a better grip.  The front and upper part has ventilation holes to allow air to circulate and cool the barrel.  At the upper tip of the front handguard there are the backup front sights, realized in polymer and adjustable only for windage.  After the backup front sights there is a short Picatinny rail to allow accessories to be mounted.  Standard configurations foresee for X95s a tactical lamp, with its PTT button strapped with Velcro on the front handguard.

The authors were invited to attend the presentation ceremony of the new Beretta ARX 160 Assault Rifle from the world’s oldest firearm manufacturer still in business and test fire the weapon on an Italian Army firing range located in Nettuno, a city facing the Mediterranean Sea, roughly 35 miles south of Rome.  This location is well known in America for being, together with Anzio, the beachhead and battle site for the Allied Forces landing of Operation Shingle in World War II.

The ARX 160 is currently delivered in a hard case containing all accessories.  A special waterproof and floating soft bag is also available for maritime operations.  It is a gas operated, select-fire assault rifle, with a piston action located above the barrel, which fires from a closed bolt.

The weapon’s design is streamlined and stylish, with a dark, flat grey colored Polymer body and is totally different from the sharp and edgy lines of the well known AR70/90.  It loosely resembles the lines of the FN SCAR, especially in the stock design, but the rifle is lighter, more compact and structurally very different.

We tested the final version of the weapon that was assembled in a small scale production line that will be ramped up for full scale production in a few months.  This version was preceded by a long series of prototypes, built patiently pursuing the best results and performance, taking seriously in account vital feedback from military beta testers, including operators in actual combat scenarios.

The ARX 160 has been engineered from the start to be extremely flexible and modular so as to tailor its individual performance for the mission or task at hand.  There are two barrel lengths available at this time for the weapon: 16-inch (standard) and 12-inch (defined, by Beretta, “for special operations”).  A 20-inch barrel has been tested, and a 16-inch HB with Match grade rifling should be available shortly to fill in a DMR role.

Both the 16-inch and 12-inch barrels have a flash hider/compensator fitted with 5 radial cuts, plus other 4 smaller cuts, indexed so as to aid in controlling muzzle climb when shooting full auto.  Barrels are chrome lined and have a 1:7 twist, optimized for the SS109/M855 ball, and L110/M856 tracer ammunition.  Barrels are user changeable in the field, and replacing a 16-inch barrel with a 12-inch barrel, reconfiguring the ARX 160 for CQB scenarios, is amazingly simple and fast.  Obviously, there will be a POI shift, and the sights have to be re-zeroed, but the POI shift is consistent from change to change and zero settings can be noted down for both barrels.

To remove the barrel, one only need to simultaneously pull down two slide levers located on the sides of the upper receiver in front and above the magazine well.  Once freed, the barrel assembly, which includes the gas block, piston system and the barrel extension, can easily be lifted out of the fore-end.  The barrel is not free-floated.

The barrel has an integral gas block from which a short telescoping cylinder protrudes.  It took a while to fully understand the rather unusual principle of operation: an evolution of the basic gas operated, short stroke piston system.

The engineers at Beretta managed to design a relatively low pressure gas system that is conceptually somewhere in between a long stroke piston system as used in the AK (and the AR 70/90) and the short stroke piston, i.e. of the AR-18 and recent weapons such as the H&K G36 or 416, FN SCAR, Magpul Masada and others.  The piston is not limited to fractions of an inch in its travel under the gas pressure drive, imparting a sharp blow to the bolt carrier.  Instead, it is free to move for almost two inches, practically following the bolt carrier for most of its rearward travel, and the gas pressure level in the cylinder is relatively low, yielding a gentler and more constant, positive rearward push to the bolt carrier group.

This system allows the barrel to be mechanically free from the bolt carrier group and operating rod, simplifying barrel removal.

The ARX 160’s bolt carrier sports an integral and monolithic milled operating rod, which projects in front of the carrier and also allows some of the weight to be moved forward, helping to tame muzzle lift.  Other benefits that this system offers include the chance to position the gas block in the most efficient location.  The absence of mechanical constraints between the barrel and the gas system itself prevents any vibration and interference affecting the weapon’s accuracy, a trait of the majority of long stroke firearms with piston and op rod permanently joined to the bolt carrier, such as the AK.  It also solves the problem of carbon build up and hot gases entering the action, so typical of AR weapons employing Stoner’s “direct gas impingement” system.

The gas block features a front sling swivel that is free to rotate 180 degrees allowing it to be out of the way when not needed, and a standard M7 bayonet lug, unorthodoxly positioned over, and on top of, the barrel.

The breech end of the barrel features a multi-lugged barrel extension, similar to the one used in the AR-15 family of weapons and of direct descent from Johnson’s system as used in his Model 1941 rifle.  The barrel extension solves any headspace related problem and, being the only other part other than barrel, bolt and gas system subject to propellant gas pressure, allows the use of light materials such as polymers for the receiver of the weapon.

The bolt uses seven locking lugs, each radially placed at 40 degrees and two extractors are located respectively at 3 and 9 o’clock of the bolt face.  Apparently, there is no ejector.  Each extractor is spring loaded and has a small actuating rod that rides within, and extends beyond the rear of the bolt.  Depending on how we move a steel block, accessed thru a hole in the rear of the receiver with the tip of a cartridge, an ejection side is selected.  The receiver has an ejection port open on both sides and very shallow case deflectors are present just behind each ejection port.  They work surprisingly well and the spent round is ejected towards the front with a 45 degree angle from the barrel.

When the bolt unlocks, and starts moving toward the back, the spent case rim is captured by both extractors.  Approaching the end of the bolt’s travel, one of the two actuating rods of the extractor assembly hits the steel block and stops, while the bolt and the other extractor assembly keep moving rearwards.  The case is violently pushed by the extractor that suddenly stopped, and that now acts as an ejector.  The thrust is exerted not on the base of the cartridge but inside the extractor groove, on the chamfered portion of the groove, to be precise.

The bolt itself is a rather complex block of CNC machined forged steel.  The body of the bolt is deeply fluted.  The grooves serve as cam guides to rotate the bolt, thru an integral pin within the bolt carrier, to actuate locking and unlocking and also to prevent carbon and other grime build up.  The firing pin is spring loaded.  The bolt rear presents a milled slot where the firing pin head is located.  If the bolt is not fully locked, and this slot is not perfectly vertical and aligned with the hammer, the latter cannot reach the firing pin head and even partial out-of-battery firing is totally prevented.

The bolt carrier is quite interesting as well.  It is very long and the flat, strip shaped, front portion acts as an operating rod and receives the impulse from the gas cylinder.  The upper portion of the carrier presents a milled channel that contains the recoil spring and guide, while the rear portion interfaces with the bolt.  The vertical sides of the bolt carrier are flat and smooth.  When the bolt is locked, the carrier seals both ejection ports – meaning a port cover is not needed.  Between the bolt and the bolt carrier, right behind the bolt head, we find the hinged, small cocking handle and its flat spring.  The cocking handle can be positioned indifferently to the left or to the right side of the weapon, depending on the operator’s choice.

The weapon’s body is entirely made of an impact resistant Technopolymer plastic charged with composite fibers, and can be divided in two main assemblies.  The upper receiver contains the bolt carrier group, barrel and gas system, and includes the integral handguard and ends with a folding, and partially collapsible, stock.  The smaller lower receiver houses the trigger pack, the magazine well and pistol grip.  The upper and lower receivers very cleverly interlock with each other when assembled together, and there is no need for receiver push-pins.