n 1968 the Kennedy administration closed the Springfield Armory. For the most part, it ended a long-standing process where the Government designed and produced small arms and medium cannons. The change resulted in private industry competing for contracts to procure weapons on a “best value” basis that ended up saving the taxpayer money. The change also meant that private industry would need to develop sales campaigns in order to get their products in front of military customers. Companies need promotional material, giveaways, and advertisement campaigns….
The B&T AG (Brügger & Thomet) Police Equipment Show took place over the 12-13 of June 2013. The show, which is an invitation only event, is organized by Brügger & Thomet and takes place in their home city of Thun, in Switzerland. The show, as the name implies, is aimed at the law enforcement community and is held at the large spacious Swiss Army range facility of Guntelsey on the outskirts of Thun. There were two indoor exhibition areas, the ground floor and first floor of the range firing points where nearly 40 manufacturers and distributers had more than ample space to display their product lines….
The Pacific Salt shares size, basic blade design and handle ergonomics with the Endura, but this generation was purpose built to survive maritime environments. Most notably, Spyderco forged their 3.8-inch PlainEdged blade out of H-1 Steel. (Steel generally consists of iron alloyed with carbon, (1050 usually around 1% carbon by weight as opposed to H-1 with .15%). The Carbon provides hardness and strength, but carbon steels corrode easily. Stainless Steels also add manganese, nickel, chromium, molybdenum, boron, and vanadium….
The origin of the company lies in the establishment by the Finnish government in 1923 of a cartridge factory in the town of Lapua in western Finland. The State Cartridge Factory (as it was named in 1927) was the main supplier of ammunition to the Finnish Army during the Winter and Continuation Wars with the USSR between 1939 and 1944. In 1991 it became an independent company under the new name Cartridge Factory Lapua, Ltd. The next year, Lapua acquired the German cartridge factory SK Jagd- und Sportmunitions GmbH. In 1996, Finnish military manufacturers were combined under the banner of Patria Industries; Lapua became Patria Lapua. In 1998 Patria Industries Oyj from Finland….
Law enforcement and military ammunition has come a long way in the last 20 years. Military ammunition, not so much due to the Hague and Geneva convention restrictions but advances in LE ammunition have made calibers known for being poor man stoppers into very effective and efficient man stoppers. Federal has always been one of the top industry leaders in advanced ammunition development – perhaps the first true high performance hollow point with the introduction of the Hydra-Shok round that really saw its popularity peak in the mid to late 1980s. The new HST round has currently in the opinion of many been found to be one of if not the best LE/personal defense projectile on the market….
The only military trade show in Taiwan, the Taiwan Aerospace and Defense Technology Exposition was held from August 15 – 18, 2013 in Taipei, Taiwan. As the premier opportunity for the Taiwanese Ministry of Nation Defense to highlight equipment and capabilities, the show was hosted at the Taiwan World Trade Center, in the shadow of the Taipei 101 skyscraper. Although the show was a means to highlight and display of Taiwan’s military might, a number of international exhibitors were present to show off weapons….
The name Barnes is renowned in the firearms industry. It has been since its founding in 1932 by Fred Barnes. In 1965, the company was sold and renamed the Colorado Bullet Company. Then in 1974, Randy and Coni Brooks purchased the company. After getting consult from Fred Barnes, they acquired the right to change the name back to Barnes Bullets. To date, Barnes has been known for producing solid copper projectile for hunting, law enforcement and military applications. They also load cartridges with OTM (Open Tip Match) projectiles….
Steyr Mannlicher is located in the town of Steyr in Austria. Josef Werndl founded the “Josef und Franz Werndl & Comp Waffenfabrik und Sagemuhle in Oberletten” and subsequently the Steyr Werke AG of which Steyr Mannlicher was a division. In 1885 the Austrian Hungarian army accepted a new bolt action rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher from whence came the Mannlicher name….
The origin of RUAG Ammotec can be traced back to the Eidgenossische Munitionsfabrik established by the Swiss Confederation in Thun in 1863. In 1995, this was merged with another Swiss firm, Munitionsfabrik Altdorf to form the Schweizerische Munitionsfabrik (SM), following which expansions and reorganization occurred rapidly. In 1999, RUAG Holding was formed to incorporate SM; the name changed to RUAG Munition in 2001. The small arms ammunition sector of Dynamit Nobel was acquired in 2002, leading to the….
The speed at which the United States geared up for World War II in the days after Pearl Harbor must be the paramount industrial wonder of the 20th century. Peacetime manufacturing and occupations quickly became part of the war effort with an agility that seems impossible today. Many manufacturers with no experience in small arms were tasked with converting all or part of their operations over to produce them. Singer Manufacturing, Rock-Ola, and several divisions of General Motors are among these well-known to have made the hasty transition….
Maneuvering with pinpoint accuracy and efficiency at night as well as in daytime requires situational awareness, target classification and target identification capability. Cooled thermal imagers provide superior range performance and large field of view at night and in adverse weather conditions, with a compact design and sensitive detectors with high resolution together with large depth of focus. As part of the Soldier Modernization Program IdZ, the Federal Armed Forces of Germany implemented a cooled thermal sight for infantry weapons….
The corporate symbol for Sirarms rifles is the halberd; a two-handed pole weapon (5 to 6 feet long) that consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft with a hook on the back side of the axe for grappling mounted combatants. For over two centuries, the halberd was one of the most valuable tools of war in use among soldiers, a weapon that allowed them to be able to withstand cavalry charges, unseat the attackers and counter attack. The emotional appeal to its effectiveness in the field therefore makes the brand mark….
In the early 1980s a requirement came down from the U.S. Army for a new pistol that would replace the legendary but well aged M1911 pistol. With the new NATO standardization, the new pistol would be chambered in the 9x19mm NATO cartridge: hence the beginning of the XM9 program. This would be entered by several manufacturers including Smith & Wesson, Colt, FN, H&K, Star, Beretta and SIG Sauer. After the testing was done and the reports were in, there were only two left standing: the Beretta 92F and the SIG Sauer P226….
(Left) Pre World War II U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Armored Tank Corps Division with red horse’s head and red stripe on yellow shield designating the…
In 1939, just a month after the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland in September, the Soviet Red Army invaded Finland. The primary reason used for the 30 November 1939 attack was to reclaim territory lost during the Russian Civil War of 1917. Soviet leaders wanted to extend their borders primarily as a buffer zone to protect the city of Leningrad from a foreign invasion….
The M203 grenade launcher has been in continuous service since 1968. It was developed during the Vietnam War to get the grenadier into the battle when his launcher was either out of grenades or in an area where it would be ineffective. The grenadier armed with a standalone M79 grenade launcher was considered a man down in an ambush or firefight because he did not have a rifle. The thought was to combine both the grenade launcher with the M16A1 rifle. Now we have severely increased the firepower on that individual level….
During the 12 long years of brutal and bloody internal conflict in the 1980s, military correspondents mentioned the Salvadorian Maestranza countless times. Among others, the Armed Forces National Workshop built over 130 guntrucks and IFVs in the 70-80s, using Jupiter (7 ton), Man 630 (5 ton), Unimog (2 ton), GM/Ford (5 ton) trucks, F-250 and Dodge M37B pickups, as well as 23 tracked Woodmaster tractors. It also tackled the conversion of elderly Madsen LMGs to 7.62mm caliber, many other small arms transformations, and became notorious for performing conversions and modifications….
