Japanese commemorative veteran’s time in service sake cup with kanji denoting service in the Navy’s 40th Marine Regiment with a nicely detailed image of a…
Polish Central Gunnery School in Torun badge. Silvered multi-construction badge features the crowned eagle to top with a horizontal machine gun belt to the center…
Original pen and ink wash drawing entitled ‘Pirouette’ of a World War II British Home Guard soldier manning a Lewis gun on an improvised anti-aircraft…
World War I Canadian 3rd Machine Gun Company, 1st Canadian Division large white metal cap badge featuring a Vickers MkI water-cooled machine gun to the…
Al Thiago Gomes is quite pleased with the US Ordnance MK43 Mod 0 (M60E4 variant) that DSA brought to LAAD 2009. (www.usordnance.com) Tactical Electronics had…
Switzerland is well known for its exquisite time pieces, fine chocolate, and its highly professional banking practices. The firearms manufactured by the Swiss are of…
On April 19, 1879 Carl Gustave Swebilius was born in Vingaker, Sweden, one of five children of the town watch maker. He grew up working…
The “silenced” Walther PPK used by Sean Connery playing the role of James Bond (007) in Dr. No. The photo shows the right side of…
For those with strong personal interest in small arms or those engaged professionally in “the business” of weapons, ammunition and ancillary devices there are two…
There are few people intimately involved with the gun industry who have not had a favorite 1911 or two. Testing the latest .45 ACP offering…
0.45 inch British Gatling as manufactured by Sir W. G. Armstrong & Company in England. Caliber is .450 Boxer, like the Martini-Henry rifle of the…
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…
In 2003 when the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) identified a need for a 40mm day-night/low-velocity training cartridge, they went to the Army’s Program…
Right side view of the Steyr SSG 08 with Heavy Barrel-type of barrel. The SSG 08 is a new marksman bolt-action rifle intended to replace…
The second biannual BRIDEX (pronounced Brih-dex) exhibition was a marked success for this small Southeast Asian nation on the northern tip of the island of…
Canadian made LSW in the hands of Danish soldiers in Iraq. Notice the Elcan scope and Canadian designed and manufactured polymer magazine. The Danish soldier…
Four-gun turret undergoing testing. (Springfield Armory National Historical Site Archives) By the summer of 1918 he was nearing his 65th birthday and might have been…
Laurence Benét test fires the Hotchkiss Model 1897 mounted on a wheeled carriage. The Hotchkiss Model 1914 was the standard French Army heavy machine gun…
Russian magazines (from left): Russian Slab-Side, Early Izhmash Spine Stamped, Ishmash Side-Stamped, Aluminum Waffle, Izhmash AG4. Identifying all magazines, for all AK variants, would be…
Historically, U.S. export control policy has served to restrict products and technology to potential enemies, to support foreign policy goals, and by limiting exports to…
The new IZLID® Ultra is the smallest and most rugged 1-Watt IR laser pointer and illuminator. This laser combines the long-range brightness of the IZLID®…
With interest in the firearms industry growing exponentially, increased demand has become apparent for efficient and practical training for shooters of all walks of life….
It is a rare opportunity to have the ability to own such a close copy of a current General Purpose Machine Gun. If you are…
The primary mission of small arms development is to increase individual hit probability. New developments in the field of infantry weapons are beginning to focus…
XS Sight Systems XS Sight Systems introduced the Glass Assault Tool (GAT) as a rapid and effortless means of breaching automotive or cosmetic glass while…
The Colt Defense IAR peers toward the desert during a pause in the firing. The 2009 NDIA Small Arms Systems Symposium, Exhibition, and Firing Demonstration…
Mark Westrom, owner of ArmaLite, Inc. and President of the DSAAC (Defense Small Arms Advisory Council), sat down with Small Arms Defense Journal to discuss…
While the insignia of US Infantry is crossed rifles, its spirit is the spirit of the bayonet. Every American infantryman, indeed every American soldier, learns…
FROM LEFT: LEFT TWO: A regiment in their own right, the cap badge and shoulder patch of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders as worn in…
Karen Davies, VP and General Manager of ATK’s Small Caliber Systems including the U.S. Army’s Lake City Ammunition Plant, happily hammers away with the Garwood…
(Sept. 14, 1932 – March 23, 2009) Norman E. Justice was born in Woburn, MA on September 14, 1932, the son of George and Ruth…
U.S. Ordnance M2HB shown with a U.S. Ordnance Mk93 cradle, Vinghøg AS Vingfoot Combi Lightweight Tripod, B.E. Meyers Flash Suppressor, and US Ordnance improved sighting…
The Soviet Union and its current iteration, Russia, have long been known for innovative weapon development; only some of which has seen the light of…
C. Reed Knight, Jr. is no stranger to most of the readers of SADJ. His Knight’s Armament Company (KAC) is an innovative major supplier to…
Located in the heart of Warsaw, Poland, the Museum of the Polish Army holds some 300,000 historical treasures dating from 966 through World War II. …
Indo Defence is the Indonesian military’s third in a series of bi-annual tri-service expositions. It is a good, solid, Southeast Asian military show with strong…
On October 29, 1918, just two weeks until the end of the war, and just before the 80th Division was committed to combat, the men…
Faisal Essa Al-Kaabi, Qatar Special Forces Group, stands guard at the Lekhwiya Historical and Current use displays. Note M2HB .50 caliber (12.7x99mm) Browning machine gun…
Milipol Qatar 2008 was officially opened by H.E. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Minister of Interior of the State of Qatar. He was…
It is necessary to clearly differentiate between infantry antitank weapon systems that are rockets, and those that are recoilless guns. Most frequently the majority of…
A lot of readers and deployed troops have asked us about the “Potato Masher” type hand thrown grenade that has been used in Iraq more and…
The Soviet era design referred to generically now as the RPG-7 was the fruit of decades of design development in many countries: there were forces…
As Poland emerged from the chaotic period after Communism, the country experienced many changes. Today, we are just a little more than 20 years from…
Shooting suppressed weapons will protect hearing far better than using hearing protection devices, because the sound is attenuated at the source. Hearing damage by bone…
U.S. Navy photo of pirates captured on Feb. 11, 2009 by the USS Vella Gulf, a guided-missile cruiser patrolling the Gulf of Aden to detect…
Nivisys Industries has announced their latest development in weapons mountable thermal technology for professional users. The newly released UTAM-32 incorporates a 320 x 240 U.S….
US MK19 Mod 3 40x53mm Automatic Grenade Launcher mounted on Vinghog’s soft mount, on the Vinghog High-Low light tripod. The world of 40mm Grenade Machine…
DoubleStar 1911 DoubleStar announced the release of their new 1911 pistol. Although DoubleStar is most widely known as a maker of high-quality gun parts for…
Marines just returned from front-line combat action in Iraq and Afghanistan provide valuable input to exhibitors who are continually seeking new and better ways to…
An armorer test fires the PSS silent pistol. (Photo by Dan Shea) Little is known in the Western world of the Soviet silent pistols utilizing…
March 2009, Brazil. Soldiers from the elite Ipiranga Special Border Platoon, armed with license-built 7.62mm NATO caliber FAL rifles, march in formation to honor US…
The 5.56mm wz.96 Beryl assault rifle in its original form – still with shrink tubes on the stock tubes, standard bipod, old type muzzle device…
Rochester Police Department Emergency Task Force Operator Henry Favor test fires the LWRC M6A1 rifle. The rifle is equipped with the Magpul CTR Stock, MIAD…
Chambering the Black Rifle in .308 Win. (7.62x51mm NATO) is anything but a new idea. From the early ArmaLites to the current selection of workhorse…
The face view of the M6X Tactical Illuminator. Shown is the illumination light with the laser off to the side. Throughout the years, flashlights were…
Sliding a Sloboda manufactured M91 Anti-Personnel barrel launched rifle grenade onto the end of Zastava’s M70 AK Variant. We thought it appropriate to focus and…
The US booth with PM Soldier Weapons showcased their new M320 40mm side-opening launcher with FCU and the new underbarrel mounted 12 gauge shotgun that…
Light artillery field pieces from World War I and World War II aligned along the outdoor terrace level. Located in the center of Athens just…
Machine Gun Squad, Company B, Second U.S. Infantry. Note the rare leather strap hanging arrangement for the steam condensing hose. Photo circa 1917. History 2004…
The Association of the United States Army held its annual meeting on October 6-8 in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington DC. As one…
4-foot tall warrior-demon figures from a 16th Century temple off of Bangkok’s main canal. Decorations were made from Chinese dishes that were broken up in…
Exporting defense articles or utilizing defense services from the United States? Like it or not, the U.S. State Department controls the export of all defense…
AAI 5.6x53mm SPIW with 3-shot sliding breech grenade launcher. (Author’s collection) Last August, the Office of the Secretary of the Army announced a 2009 project…
Weighing in at only 7.2 ounces including the recoil device and with a diameter of only 1.25 inches, the Gemtech Tundra more resembles a rimfire…
BAE Systems BAE Systems recently announced the Integrated Warfighter System (IWS). Still in the developmental stages, the IWS is BAE Systems’ first attempt to take…
(English translation of C.G. Haenel’s press release) The traditional Suhl company, Haenel, has created a sniper rifle system for police and special forces use. The…
The DS416 handguards are a 2-piece drop-in design that will replace any standard carbine-length handguard with no tools. They are well marked to easily facilitate…
Each year at the NDIA Small Arms Annual Meeting, the George M. Chinn Award is presented annually to honor a government or industry individual who, in the opinion of the Small Arms Systems Division Executive Board, has made significant contributions to the field of small arms and/or infantry weapons. Joel M. Goldman has devoted almost forty years in the pursuit of better ways to design, develop, and manufacture small arms weapons, ammunition, propellant and explosives….
Dr. Philip H. Dater was born in the latter part of April, 1937 on Manhattan Island in New York City. He has two brothers, Tom and Sheldon, and a sister Emilie. Dr. Dater has two daughters from his first marriage, Diana and Valerie, and one daughter Julie with his wife, Jane, to whom he has been happily married for over thirty years. He is one of the brains behind Gemtech and his private consulting practice with Antares Technologies has done a lot behind the scenes for the modern small arms community….
Sectioned IMI 40mm LV HEAB round. Note the secondary HE/fragmentation element in the base, to provide a spherical fragmentation pattern. The US Army’s programmes for…
At the 22nd annual Small Arms and Cannons Symposium held in August 2008 at the Defense Academy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to simply as “Shrivenham” for the small town in England where the event is held, Volker Kurtz, formerly with Heckler & Koch GmbH for nearly two decades, received the coveted NDIA Professional Service Award for his dedication to the small arms end user, to advancing the state-of-the-science of small arms systems, and to the industry as a whole….
There are two small arms conferences in the West that this author considers to be the most important in the world for the serious small arms community to attend: the NDIA Small Arms Symposium held every May in the United States, and the Small Arms and Cannon Symposium at Shrivenham held every August in the UK. While there are many excellent, larger trade shows that have some educational aspects to them, these two conferences stand out as events that encourage the dialogue between the shakers and movers in small arms design and end use….
Going Ballistic, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation television documentary from 2000, has a collection of fascinating interviews with O’Dwyer himself and key persons in his life and work. Through it we learn that the inventor admits to being “not a particularly good student” during his high school years in a small town in Queensland, Australia. Interested primarily in the odd combination of physics at school and working on cars in his stepfather’s auto repair business, after graduation he chose to enter the workplace rather than continue on to college….
Metal Storm is a radically different concept for weapons and ammunition, the brainchild of a self-educated Australian inventor with brilliant intuition for practical applications in engineering, physics and electronics. Following its genesis in the early 1990s, this novel electronic ballistics technology has suffered from what might charitably be termed unrealistic expectations. Early claims of a rate of fire capability at 1 million rounds per minute inspired some fanciful applications ranging from covert wrist guns to missile defense….
There has long been a requirement for a personal defence weapon, or PDW, for soldiers whose primary duty does not involve carrying a rifle. They need something much smaller, lighter and handier which does not burden them or distract them from their main task. Originally, the main priority was for officers, who were almost invariably given revolvers or pistols; but handguns also found a place with cavalry and, later on, with soldiers such as gunners who might come under infantry attack or with tank crews whose space was at a minimum….
Skarżysko-Kamienna is a relatively young city receiving its city charter in 1923, yet a settlement has existed in the Kamienna river valley since prehistoric times due to the ore-rich region in which it is located. Steel mills prospered in the region and the State Ammunition Factory, as well as many other defense related industries after World War II, are located in the city. It was here where Polish squads ordered by Józef Piłsudski fought during World War I….
Developed in the aftermath of WWII and fielded in 1957, the light and handy 7.62mm NATO caliber M60 General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG) has been alternately praised and cursed by GIs who have carried it combat from Vietnam to Iraq and beyond. Inspired by the WWII German MG42, the M60 was intentionally designed for mass production – cheap and fast on a stamped sheet metal receiver that houses a clever gas operated, carrier-cammed bolt mechanism first seen in the Lewis Gun of WWI….
What’s not to like about a real machine gun that’s significantly lighter than a chunky M240, about the same size as a puny SAW, pumps out powerful 7.62mm rounds with reliability and accuracy, and has long been a force multiplier in elite Navy SEAL Teams? GIs who’ve tried ‘em love ‘em, they’re comparable in price to buy and sustain as the FN guns, they’ve been in the logistics and combat doctrine chains for ever, and they’re 100 percent American designed and built. Slam dunk? Sorry….
Over the past 10 years the industry has seen several new weapon systems emerge with the older piston technology making a comeback. Due to the campaign of certain manufacturing firms, the consensus is that the older retro piston operating system is superior to the current direct gas system of the current issue M16 and M4 weapon systems. While no statistical data has come forth to support the claim, several manufacturers are coming out with piston operated 5.56mm weapon systems including Colt, POF, Heckler & Koch, LWRC and, now, Magpul Military Industries….
The War & Peace Show, also called “The Beltring Show” by many, is an incredible experience. SADJ decided to bring the readers a short report on this amazing civilian “Militaria” show, since it is coming again this summer and, without question, is the largest militaria show in the world. War & Peace also provides an opportunity for military historians, end users, and people in the industry to see up close the weapons and kit used in conflicts all over the planet. The displays cover the full 450 acres of the Hop Farm recreational facility which is southeast of London in Paddock Wood, Kent. You read that right, 450 acres of display areas….
Eurosatory 2008 was held at the Parc du Exposition, located outside of Paris, France on June 16 – 20, 2008. As one of the largest tradeshows in the world dedicated to the international arms trade, nearly 1.3 million square feet of exhibition space was filled by 1,180 exhibitors from 51 countries, including 127 exhibitors from the United States. Approximately 50,000 individuals from over 145 countries attended the show. Of note were several new product releases and market trends from well known and lesser known manufacturers….
The sniper and spotter have been lying in their concealed position for hours observing the handful of windows and doors. Luckily they were shaded from the heat by the hide chosen in the rear corner of the room looking thru a hole in the wall caused by earlier combat in the area. Intelligence had indicated that the insurgent commander was in the area and likely using the observed structure as a safe house. The team had inserted by dropping off the back of a patrol sweeping thru the area. Range was not going to be a problem as the spotter and sniper had….
During the 1920s China was embroiled in a civil war between the Chinese Communists led by Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) who were led by Chiang Kai-shek. The fighting briefly subsided after 1937 with the Japanese invasion of China. During World War II, the United States became allied with the Chinese Nationalists and provided massive military and financial aid to help China fight the Japanese. The wartime plan of the U.S. was to assist China in becoming a strong ally and a stabilizing force in Asia after the war….
The conflicts in the Middle East go on, as they have through the ages. The shores of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan look out over the salt-mineral flats towards the West Bank, as they have through the ages as well. There is trouble brewing in that West Bank community, claimed to be the oldest continually occupied city on the planet, and to the East is Iraq, then Iran. Looking north is the Syrian border. Not far away, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. This is the cradle of Western Civilization, the wellspring for the three great religions of the West – Christianity, Judaism, and Islam…
Argentina was an early user of the Maxim and began by ordering 50 Maxims from the Maxim Nordenfelt Guns and Ammunition Company Limited in England in 1895. These first 50 guns were given Argentine Army serial numbers 1-50 and chambered in the 7.65×53 Belgium Mauser caliber. In 1898, a second order of the Model 1895 was placed with Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (DWM), a licensed Maxim manufacturer in Germany, for another 150 guns still chambered for the Belgium Mauser 7.65×53 caliber. These guns were serially numbered 51-200.
The 2005 Lion’s Gate film The Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage, is well known in the international small arms industry. Allegedly based upon the acts of former KGB major Viktor Bout, the movie makes a political statement against the international arms industry and claims that the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council) are the world’s leading arms suppliers.
Sound is defined as air in motion, which produces pressure variations that the human ear can detect. It is a form of overpressure, and how it is interpreted depends on a variety of factors, including frequency, duration, intensity (amplitude), and variations in the observer’s hearing acuity. The subject of this column is related to firearm sounds.
