“Solving the Riddle of Steel” By Dan Shea “The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery. You must learn its riddle,…
27-30 April 2020, Columbus, GA Advancing Combat Lethality Recently the influential and well-known NDIA Small Arms Symposium combined with some sister NDIA groups to add…
[REQUIRED SPECS: Product description for each caliber Caliber: Projectile style: Projectile weight: Velocity FPS: Energy (Ft. Lbs.): Accuracy: How packaged: Cartridge weight: % weight savings:]…
By Dan Shea June 21, 2019, in the Swiss Alps outside of Montreux: “Smoke on the Water” playing on the radio as we drove around…
Thomas B. Nelson The name Thomas B. Nelson is synonymous with the small arms community of the last 60 years. Since Tom’s first book, The…
Arrow Tech prodas.com The James Ambrose Award is presented periodically to recognize, in the opinion of the Small Arms Division Executive Board, an Industrial Firm…
Passing the Torch The ASM Materials Education Foundation By Dan Shea I’m writing this in the first person for a reason; I want to speak…
ABOVE: Two 37mm “Pom-Pom” guns- large Maxim water-cooled machine guns with brass jackets, grace the entry to the exhibits. This pair of consecutive serial number…
There have been a number of attempts in the last decade to integrate all of the possible futuristic ideas for the modern “Battlespace.” Most are…
One of the most prominent and prolific military bullpup-style rifles in history reaches its 10th anniversary in the field in 2016. SADJ wants to acknowledge…
Many are familiar with industry ammo manufacturers, but who makes and upgrades the machines that produce the ammo? BCN Technical Services, Inc. has been in…
The Royal Malaysian Police Museum Modern Malaysia is a beautiful country, rich in agriculture and history, with a growing industrial base. It was born from…
National Defense Industrial Association’s Small Arms Group: NDIA started out in 1919 as the Army Ordnance Association and through various mergers over the last century,…
ABOVE: Firing the MGA SAW K in .300 Blackout from an overlook in the badlands of Utah. “Squad Automatic Weapon”- the “SAW.” The phrase has…
This was the seventh bi-annual PARTNER Exhibition held in Belgrade, Serbia. This regional show is maturing, and gathering some momentum. There were many delegations from…
ABOVE: In another part of the Trust International Group’s booth, Jerry had placed the OOW HCAR in 30-06 caliber with suppressor. This rifle system, the…
The Kuwait Shooting Sport Federation has its base at an amazing facility on the Sixth Ring Road in Kuwait City, called the Kuwait Shooting Sport…
ABOVE: 1939 Lahti 20mm anti-tank cannon, converted to .50 BMG, mounted on FN30 tripod. Note in the inset, how the magazine has been shortened to…
ABOVE: CZ Engineer Martin Sanda puts rounds downrange and brass in the air during the test of the 5.56x45mm CZ 807 AI assault rifle, using…
Barracuda Signature Management, a SAAB company, held their Customer Conference on 21-22 May 2014 in Sweden. These conferences are held periodically, when management feels they…
ABOVE: IWI eLog SADJ has always traveled the world in search of the innovators in small arms and weapons. Sometimes we’re able to coordinate visits…
This was the second biannual Gulf Defense & Aerospace show held in Kuwait City, Kuwait. It’s always difficult starting a new show, and the promoter…
ABOVE: US team ready to go for Precision Rifle. “We have to understand that it is called “international” terrorism, however, we as Special Forces, special…
ABOVE: Beretta’s ARX160 5.56x45mm rifle was on display, and has been purchased for testing by Jordanian Armed Forces. Of course, the ARX160 is available in…
SADJ has known and covered the products from U.S. Ordnance in Reno, Nevada for many years. Their US MK43 Mod 0 (M60E4) machine gun is…
Expodefensa in Bogota, Colombia is a bi-annual show that has strong regional attendance. It is heavily attended by the Colombian military groups, and their buyers…
ABOVE: Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) flagship machine gun, the MG3, is considered to be one of the best made versions of the old high-speed design….
Aimpoint has had a lot of success in the individual weapon categories, with their military and civilian programs. After years of being asked to address…
ABOVE: South Africa’s famous SS77 machine gun from Vektor has a venerable history, replacing the FN MAG as the General Purpose Machine Gun in South…
SADJ has been in contact with IDEAS Media Manager Ehtesham Bari for many years, planning to attend the IDEAS show in Karachi. We missed the 2008 show due to some issues with travel restrictions and the 2010 show had been unfortunately canceled due to the flooding tragedy. It was exciting to finally be able to set up at the show, and LMO’s Chief Armorer Instructor Matt Babb, Jason M. Wong from Hurricane Butterfly and I set out for Karachi to man the booth, explore the show, and then travel north to Islamabad and the Pakistan Ordnance Factories at Wah Cannt, and the Khyber Pass region.
The fourth biannual BRIDEX (pronounced Brih-dex) exhibition was another marked success for this small South East Asian nation on the northern tip of the island of Borneo. While a relatively small regional show, it drew a solid representation of buyers and vendors in the region, reaching all the way to Africa and the Mideast. The U.S. and UK were well represented as were other European nations. In some ways this event was a bit smaller in scale than the last, but the floors were packed with VIPs who engaged with the vendors, and that’s what counts.
A large group of friends and family gathered today at the front of the old MOD Pattern Room at Enfield Lock, England, for the dedication of a plaque honoring the life and contributions of Herbert J. “Bertie” Woodend, the former Curator of the famous MOD Pattern Room in England. This is one of the largest collections of military small arms in the world, and starting in 1966 “Herbie” was the driving force at Enfield Lock and later in the 1980s-90s at Royal Ordnance in Nottingham, until the Pattern Room was moved over to the Royal Armouries in Leeds in 2002. The collection is now the core of the National Firearms Centre at the Royal Armouries.
This was the fifth year in a row that the ISDEF show was put on in Tel Aviv. It shows strong growth and the show has expanded from last year. What started out as a show sponsored by large contractor TAR Ideal Concepts, Ltd. to gather their associates and customers together, has turned into a small but increasingly world class event. We booked SADJ in for 2013’s show, of course. The promoters have decided to switch to an every two year format, like many other military shows. This gives the attendees time to work on their contacts and prepare for the next show….
During our last visit, we were able to see the newest offerings from the ST Kinetics Small Arms Division. The CPW, or Compact Personal Weapon, was the first item we looked at. We were impressed with the ergonomic design, the light weight, and the multiple caliber concept. On this visit, we got a deeper look at a matured design that is coming to market. The choice was made to stay with 9x19mm due to the prevalence of the caliber…
Recently there has been an upswing in interest regarding the weapons of North Korea. This is due not only to the current saber rattling in the region and the changing of the leadership, but to how difficult it is to obtain accurate information as well as the disinformation campaigns that have been successfully waged by the North Korean propaganda bureaus. Heebum Hong and Dan Shea have studied the small arms of North Korea for decades….
Arms & Security Kyiv is the Ukraine’s yearly military, police, and hunting show. It is a smaller show than the big internationals, but it is well attended. The first day was a lot of Ukraine military with a smattering of Russian military as well. The next two days were comprised of military and police attendees in civilian clothing, and civilian hunting enthusiasts. There were quite a few knowledgeable people about small arms, with their orientation towards the old Communist Bloc weaponry. However, the Western influence can be seen in many designs, with European weapons…
The NDIA Small Arms Symposium is an all inclusive show regarding small arms, ammunition, and related subjects for military use. It is in three parts: the primary is the lecture series, then there is the trade show/exhibition, and finally, the live fire demonstrations….
The 10th International Defence Industry Fair (IDEF) was sponsored by the Turkish Armed Forces Foundation under the auspices of the Ministry of National Defence on 10-13 May, 2011. The show was held at the Tuyap Fair, Convention and Congress Center in Büyükçekmece-İstanbul, Turkey, and had record turnouts. The majority in attendance was Turkish military and procurement, and the foreigners were typically influential buyers and end users from over 104 countries. There were 633 exhibiting companies from over 45 different countries. This, the 10th IDEF, shows remarkable growth from the already well attended earlier shows….
The fifth bi-annual PARTNER Serbia show was held over the course of four sunny days in Belgrade, Serbia in late June 2011. The show has grown considerably since the first show, as well as from the previous one in 2009 (reported on in SADJ Volume 3, Number 1), having now moved into the largest of the exhibition halls in Belgrade Fair. Expectations are that the 2013 show will have grown significantly from 2011, both in vendors and attendees. YugoImport is the co-promoter of the show and the various factories they represent take up a significant portion of the floor space….
The City of Split, Croatia, was an excellent choice for a show in the region. The April weather is wonderful, the sights are breathtaking, the people are hospitable and the accommodations and expenses are very reasonable. Split is located on the Dalmatian Coast of the Adriatic Sea, and the Croatian heritage is influenced heavily by millennia of interaction with Italy, just across the Sea. Split is also centrally located to many of the regional military groups, making it readily accessible and providing a good flow of attendees….
Chinese submachine gun technology has come a long way in the past 50 years. From the days of chop-shop PPSh-41 variants through the copies of Thompson submachine guns and M3 Greaseguns, a very efficient and high-technology infrastructure has evolved. Westerners may not be quick to understand the devotion the Chinese have to developing the manufacturing base in their defense industry….
SADJ has brought a number of articles on the RPG-7 and its technology and history to our readers. We’ve covered light armorer work, as well as operational idiosyncrasies, and we’ve dispelled myths perpetuated by a generation of writers and Internet gurus who insist on saying “RPG” means “Rocket Propelled Grenade” no matter how many times it’s explained that this is a recoilless launcher system…
LAAD Brazil has grown in leaps and bounds over the last decade and today it is a formidable contender as a top Latin American military trade show. We find it second only in size to the FIDAE show in Chile but that’s not a fair comparison, as FIDAE has a massive airshow attached. Attendees and the 600+ exhibitors alike were pleased with the large turnout (24,000 people and delegations from 53 countries) that….
(Left) LRB6000CI 7×50 laser range finder by Newcon-Optik will give excellent identification up to 6 km. (Right) The NVS33 clip-on night vision mounts either forward…
A soldier from the 1st Battalion the Scots Guards looking through the scope of his Sharpshooter rifle. Members of B Company, the 1st Battalion The…
19 February, 2011. A small group of firearms community writers from the United States had been invited to the Caracal facility in the United Arab Emirates. (David Fortier, Bryce Towsley, Tim Ford, and Mike Seeklander joined this author). We gathered at our hotels in the morning, and were taken to the facility where we were greeted by Saeed Ali Al Shamsi from Caracal and given the grand tour of the manufacturing facility….
The International Defence Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) of 2011 is a biannual show that has reached its 10th anniversary with this event. It is a mature show with well developed habits and procedures for the exhibitors and attendees. Having established itself as a benchmark show much like Eurosatory, Milipol, DSA or AUSA, IDEX attracts a rich diversity of attendees from around the world. The show itself is centered in Abu Dhabi, the capitol city of the United Arab Emirates….
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 fourth bi-annual Partner Serbia show was held over the course of four sunny days in Belgrade, Serbia in June 2009. The show has grown…
The United States Marine Corps put their best foot forward once again for the 30th annual Modern Day Marine (MDM) show at Quantico, Virginia. This…
With the addition of Romania to the European Union in 2007, the EU stretched from the North Sea to the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic…
Agencija Alan presented the latest and reportedly final version of the Type VHS assault rifle. This rifle is 5.56x45mm in a bullpup configuration using gas…
Tactical attendee live firing the M55A3 triple barreled 20mm anti-aircraft machine gun in the ground anti-material roll. This weapon system is highly portable, and provides…
The TR-85 M1 tank from Romania has a crew of four. It’s armed with a rifled 100mm cannon that has a maximum rate of fire…
We received an invitation to come to ST Kinetics in Singapore and view their newest small arms offerings. As quickly as possible, we made the…
Example of the museum’s diorama section: The Battle of Cibadak – 9 December, 1945. “On 9 December 1945, a British military convoy escorted by several…
TASER introduced their TASER X12 dedicated less-lethal shotgun done in cooperation with Mossberg but did not have the actual X12 on display. The X12 is…
Over 150 exhibitors from 23 countries gathered in the sunny Singapore Spring for IMDEX 2009. This was the seventh biannual IMDEX, and it was opened…
The strategic placement of elements on the battlefield has been the subject of millions of words, from many sources, both experienced and those who are…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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….
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….
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….
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…
