A recent article published by the Daily Mail shows London Metro Police outfitted in the latest equipment supplied by Edgar Brothers, Arc’teryx LEAF uniforms and SIG SAUER MCX rifles, the latter of which were missidentified within the article as G36s.
You can check out the photos at the following link: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3229819/Don-t-mess-Met-terrifying-machine-gun-toting-anti-terror-police-guarding-Israeli-PM-Netanyahu-visit-London
Magpul is now shipping the long-awaited Hunter 700 stock. The Hunter 700 is made from reinforced polymer, with a machine finished, anodized A380 cast aluminum bedding block, and is compatible with all Remington 700 Short Actions, along with other receivers using the 700 pattern. It features a fully adjustable length of pull and comb height, and the stock is M-LOK compatible for attaching all manner of accessories.
The Hunter 700 is also designed to accept the upcoming Magpul Bolt Action Magazine Well, allowing the shooter to use detachable box magazines without the need for custom inletting.
Additional Features
The Magpul Hunter 700 Stock comes in Black, Flat Dark Earth, Olive Drab Green, and Stealth Gray. Made in the USA.
www.magpul.com/products/hunter-700-stock-remington-700-short-action
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah – September 10, 2015 – Continuing in their innovative and roguish nature, SilencerCo has once again thrown the gauntlet in a big way – by forming their own technological skunkworks outfit, SilencerCo Weapons Research.
Located in Austin, TX, SilencerCo Weapons Research, or SWR for short, is based around bringing technology within reach of the Everyman. For too long, technological advances surrounding the shooting industry have been priced out of the attainable range of most citizens, kept a secret, or the public has simply been told that they can’t have them. SWR not only believes that you deserve better – they plan to show it.
SWR will use their expertise in the various arenas of the industry to design their own technology geared toward cutting-edge solutions for the discerning sportsman. The initial product offering will be announced in mid-September, with a steady pipeline of products to follow. Consumers can anticipate products that will enhance the shooting experience and bring into civilian reach capabilities that were formerly only available to government end users.
SilencerCo continues to keep the industry on their toes and test the line of what is considered possible. SWR represents the purest form of that effort, venturing into an uncharted territory with the goal of bringing the best within reach.
Magpul is now shipping the PMAG 20 and PMAG 10 LR/SR GEN M3 magazines in Sand. As a reminder, the new M3 magazines incorporate a new material technology and manufacturing process which improves the strength, durability, and reliability of the magazines. Additionally, these new mags are more receptive to water-based dye processes, so they more easily be altered to any number of colors.
www.magpul.com/products/pmag-10-lrsr-gen-m3
www.magpul.com/products/pmag-20-lrsr-gen-m3
Additionally, here’s a quick preview of the upcoming MOE SL furniture in Sand, which includes the MOE SL Stock, Grip, and Hand Guard.
Before I even dive into this I’ve got to say that I’d really like to see the US military adopt a new pistol. However, having watched the process to replace the M9 stutter step for almost a decade, I’m a bit skeptical. First it was USSOCOM, then the Air Force took a shot at the issue, and now the Army is trying to find a new sidearm. I’ve read through the Request For Proposals but I’m not going to pick it apart. There are quite a few great concepts in there and I love the fact that they are doing full size as well as compact models out of the gate in addition to suppressors. There’s even consideration for UTM rounds and some creative thinking regarding the use of ‘Special Purpose’ aka hollow point ammunition. All awesome. But for me, the most troubling issue is this open caliber business. In my mind, it calls the entire enterprise into question.
The Army is so thorough in describing the attributes for this new pistol that this open caliber provision makes me wonder if they really want a new pistol at all. Lately, we’ve seen some solicitations, such as Individual Carbine, that have resulted in a big expenditure in dollars by industry with no adoption of new capability by the military. Interestingly, in the case of IC, the Army also included a provision for industry to introduce new ammunition (caliber as well as load) into the mix, and we know how that ended up.
Ammunition Placeholders
At the heart of issue are the XM1152 and XM1153 cartridges discussed in the RFP. They are placeholders for industry to propose ammunition. No matter that the industrial base that produces our military’s ammo is set up for 9mm Ball ammo or that we belong to a club called NATO that considers 9mm Ball its standard sidearm round.
The current 9mm Ammunition stockpile will most assuredly be an issue as the bean counters consider the transition to a new round. Take for example the USMC’s Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon II program. Since they already had so many rounds of ammunition on hand, they were unable to consider a new weapon such as the M84 Carl Gustav, in use with the US Army and USSOCOM. Ironically, the SMAW II is incapable of firing from an enclosure so the Marines are at work to develop a such a round. To add insult to injury, the ‘Goose” has ammunition that can be fired from inside a building but they couldn’t consider it because they had too many SMAW rounds.
Do They Even Know What They Want?
We can’t even have a discussion about the technical merits of the Army’s decision for a new caliber, because they haven’t made one. Instead, they’ve made it a variable in the search for a new handgun. When the Army changed to the M855A1 round for the M16, it cost around $100 Million to retool the ammo plant and they weren’t changing calibers, so even a swap to a new 9mm round is cost prohibitive. Plus, I doubt we’ll get NATO on board with a switch to a new handgun caliber.
I can’t even imagine what’s going through industry’s minds. It’s a bit of a mystery what the Army actually wants considering the mixed messages they are sending. Publicly, there’s been this running theme that 9mm isn’t powerful enough, in spite of the FBI’s move back to the caliber after several years with .40. And then there’s this requirement in the RFP specifying a barrel for the M1041 9mm UTM round, but they never reference caliber for the Ball and Special Purpose ammo in the requirement. Are they telling industry to stick with 9mm? Or do they want something new, but the pistol to be agile enough to accept a special barrel and magazine (not in the solicitation) only for the marker rounds?
Big Guns Need Big Hands
There’s an ergonomics question as well. The associated real estate needed for double stack pistols in larger caliber pistols is also an issue as the military opens combat jobs to women, who tend to have smaller hands.
Let’s not forget how USSOCOM’s Offensive Handgun Weapon System (OHWS) turned out. The .45 H&K MK 23 ended up being a great gun, but one that nobody wanted to carry.
First The Caliber, Then The Gun
This should have been a two step process. What should have happened is that DoD should have asked industry to determine the best ammunition based on its requirements and then asked industry to develop handguns optimized for that round(s). Now, the Army will have to figure out whether the handgun is what is great about a proposal, or the ammunition. These variables make the task of choosing a pistol infinitely more difficult. NATO standardization and current military ammunition industrial base aside, what if the Army selects a handgun/ammo combination that is just dynamite but then realizes it cannot afford to actually manufacture the ammo? Don’t think that could happen? Let me tell you a little story.
Those Who Fail To Learn From History…
After playing around with it for a few years, the US Army adopted the M16 in 1965. In doing so, they made a few upgrades to the rifle but they also, as a cost saving measure, decided to unilaterally change the powder used in the M16 from the original IMR 4475 powder, to the less difficult to produce Olin powder. While cheaper for the tax payer, this option ignited poorly, leaving the weapon dirty and requiring additional field maintenance. Combine this issue with weapons arriving in Viet Nam’s tropical environment with insufficient cleaning equipment and Soldiers found themselves with jammed weapons in the middle of firefights. This frightful situation resulted in dead American service members and a general sense among Soldiers that the M16 was unreliable.
In Summary
I believe that, based on this insistence on open caliber selection, the Army will be unable to adequately determine which, if any, of the candidate handguns best fit their requirements. Or, they will choose a solution and then fix it until it breaks, as in the case of the original M16. In either event, how unfortunate for the American service member.
This is PEO Soldier’s announcement regarding the release of the XM17 Modular Handgun System solicitation last Friday. I’d like you to peruse the actual RFP here.
FORT BELVOIR, Va. (Sept. 2, 2015) – The U.S. Army announced Aug. 28 that it is seeking bids for its new modular handgun system, the XM17, to replace its current sidearm, the M9 pistol.
The announcement accompanied the release of the request for proposal (RFP), which is the official solicitation that specifies the new weapon system’s contractual requirements. It also details the procedures and schedule vendors must follow to compete for the contract.
The RFP was published on the government’s Federal Business Opportunities website. Interested vendors will have 150 days to respond to the RFP. This extra time allows the vendor to submit their proposals as well as sample “systems” that have integrated the handguns, ammunition and magazine prior to testing. Its release marks the official start of the “full and open” competition that will lead to selection of the new modular handgun system.
The selection process involves a two-phased competition. The first phase will evaluate all submissions received and will complete with a down-selection to up to three vendors who will participate in the second phase, the culmination of which will be a single production contract at the end of the competition.
The Army wants a new handgun system that outperforms its current sidearm. The weapon must be modular so it can be adjusted to fit all hand sizes and configured to meet mission needs through the use of rails and enablers. In addition, it must surpass the M9’s accuracy, ergonomics, reliability, durability and maintainability. The RFP calls for vendors to submit a weapon that meets the unique needs of the military services. It does not specify any particular caliber. The RFP encourages industry to optimize the weapon, ammunition and magazine for maximum performance.
Current plans call for the Army to purchase more than 280,000 full-size handguns from a single vendor, and approximately 7,000 compact versions of the handgun. The other military services participating in the XM17 program may order an additional 212,000 systems above the Army quantity.
The Army held four industry days and issued a draft RFP prior to the announcement. These forums encouraged vendor-government communications, involved would-be competitors in the planning process and provided the Army with feedback on the proposed handgun system and strategy. Throughout the process, industry was encouraged to suggest ways in which the Army could improve the plan and process, a number of which have been considered and implemented.
The competition will result in selecting a handgun that performs best in the hands of Warfighters. More than 600 military personnel from all of the Services will play a critical part in the evaluation and provide feedback on the performance of the candidate systems after firing them in simulated combat scenarios. This assessment is an important part of the evaluation process.
Badger Ordnance’s RAPTAR Mount is designed to integrate range finding and laser aiming devices with the day optic and mounting system. It is compatible with all Badger Ordnance Scope Rings and UniMounts, and is optimized to clear the objective on most optics currently in use. Originally offered only to Military end users, it is now available for general purchase. The RAPTAR Mount is compatible with all M1913 Picatinny devices.
KRISS USA recently opened a new manufacturing and distribution facility in Chesapeake, near Solider Systems HQ, which gave us the opportunity to try out a few weapons in the Vector and Sphinx line of firearms. After a visit to the facility, KRISS packed up the range guns and we all headed out to C2 Shooting Center to try them out on the steel plate range.
Sphinx Arms is a Swiss pistol manufacturer under the KRISS Group. They offer standard, compact, and subcompact pistols, all chambered for 9x19mm. Sphinx pistols are constructed using steel slides, and two-piece frames which consist of an upper and lower component. The upper components are manufactured from either aluminum or steel, and the lower components can be manufactured from aluminum, steel, or polymer, depending on the model of pistol.
The pistols feed from double stack magazines, with capacities of 17+1 for Standard, 15 + 1 for Compact, and 13 + 1 for Sub-compact models. Additional features shared throughout the various pistol models include ambidextrous decocking levers, reversible magazine catch, a visual/tactile loaded chamber indicator, front and rear slide serrations, and match grade trigger. Most models also support an interchangeable rubberized comfort grip system.
Here you can see a comparison between the standard iron sight, and a model equipped with a fiber optic front sight.
All of the pistols were very smooth firing, accurate, and comfortable to shoot. We favored the compact models the most, as their size made them very comfortable guns to hold, roughly equivalent in size to a Glock 19.
The Vector line of pistols, carbines, and SMGs utilize the KRISS Super V recoil Recoil Reduction System which redirects recoil energy downward, reducing muzzle climb up to 95% and felt recoil up to 60% when compared to traditional weapon designs. At the range, we had the chance to try out the CBR Enhanced, the SDP pistol variant, and the full-auto .45 ACP and upcoming 9mm SMGs.
The Vector series consists of an upper and lower frame, which can be separated by removing three assembly pins along the upper frame. This allows the user to quickly swap out lower frames, and will even allow for a quick caliber change between the .45 ACP and 9mm frames, when the later becomes available later this year.
This is the Vector CRB Enhanced. The CRB is the semi-automatic civilian carbine variant of the Vector, chambered for .45 ACP. It comes with an M4 stock adapter, a Magpul UBR stock, and the enhanced square barrel shroud.
The CRB in action. The recoil reductive action coupled with the pistol caliber makes for an easy to handle and accurate weapon.
Here is the SDP, the Vector pistol variant. It features a 5.5″ barrel and a rear QD sling point.
It can either be fired with both hands on the weapon, or with a single hand, although this is best done with a sling to support and stabilize the weapon.
Here’s the Vector SMG in .45 ACP. This particular model was outfitted with the M4 stock adapter, a Magpul UBR stock, a vertical foregrip, and a Defiance HPS 4GSK Cal .45ACP, a suppressor specially designed for the Vector family of weapons. The SMG variants of the Vector feature a selector switch which allows the operator to switch between semi, two-round burst, and full auto.
For the final gun of the day, we checked out the upcoming Vector SMG in 9mm. The one we fired was marked serial number 000001, no less, and don’t let the frame markings in the image above fool you, was indeed the 9mm variant. Like the .45 ACP model, the 9mm variant is designed to accept Glock magazines, with the 17-round Glock 17 magazine fitting flush with the chamber, although we also had a few 33-round G18 magazines as an analogue to the extended magazines used in the .45 ACP model. As expected of the lighter round, it featured a higher rate of fire than the .45 ACP model, and burned through even the extended magazines quite quickly, yet still remained quite controllable even in full auto.
After what was quite likely a couple of thousand rounds of ammunition spent, it’s quite fair to say that KRISS USA has a solid line of firearms on offer. The Sphinx pistols are solid, accurate sidearms, and the Vector line’s recoil mitigating technology makes them a joy to shoot. We offer our sincerest thanks to KRISS USA for allowing us the opportunity to try out their firearms on the range.
You can find out more on the Vector and Sphinx brands at:
