SIG SAUER P320 Fire Control Units are now available. The heart of the pistol, these serialized parts can be combined with a myriad of factory OEM and after market parts from a variety of partners to create a truly custom pistol, with simple hand tools. There’s no need to involve a gunsmith. You can do it all on your own.
Now you can build your dream pistol from the ground up. The Custom Works FCU lets you create like never before. Countless options, endless possibilities.
The 320 Design Studio is a virtual space where you can check out how different components will look on your dream P320.
The Advanced Police Carbine (APC) series was developed to meet and exceed the demands of modern police, special forces, and military units around the world and represents the ultimate in performance, reliability and accuracy. For these reasons, the United States Army selected the APC9K as its Sub Compact Weapon (SCW) to support global personal protective missions.
In recognition of the initial delivery of 333 SCW’s, B&T commissioned 350 SCW-serialized APC9K PRO models, 333 of which will be made available exclusively to US-based collectors.
Commemorative Case Includes:
• APC9K “Sub Compact Weapon” PRO Pistol
• Telescoping Brace / Stock Adapter
• Gearhead Works Tailhook Mod 1 Brace
• Aimpoint Nano Optic on a B&T Low Profile Riser
• Serialized Letter of Authenticity
• Custom Pelican 1600 Series Protector Case with Fitted Foam
• Three 30-rd B&T Magazines with Bumpers
• B&T Co-Branded Microtech Dirac Automatic Knife with Matching Serial Number
• Commemorative Co-Serialized Challenge Coin – 1 Troy Oz .999% Pure Silver
• Vertx Dead Letter Sling Bag
DEPLOYMENT
The APC9K is expected to be issued to, and employed by, Personal Security Details (PSD) personnel tasked with protecting senior United States Army leaders, and other principles traveling to less secure areas. An operational need was identified for a highly concealable sub compact weapon system capable of engaging threat personnel with a high volume of lethal and accurate fire at close ranges, with minimal collateral damage — a compact submachine gun fills this niche. The APC9K was procured to fill this capability gap in lethality and concealability; essentially bridging the gap between pistol and rifle.
The APC9K accomplishes this, in spades. At less than 15-inches in length, the AP9K is an incredibly concealable platform optimized for low visibility carriage and discreet deployment; use in and around vehicles, and within confined spaces — all while delivering unsurpassed accuracy, controllability and ergonomics.
Sold as a 5.7mm pistol, it can be converted to an SBR or you can add a stabilizing brace thanks to the vertical Picatinny rail at the rear of the receiver.
The reciprocating charging handle is reversible. It also incorporates a 4-position dual piston gas system and 8″ barrel.
It features AR-style safety and mag release.
The DBX57 currently accepts the FN Five-Seven magazine but they are working in a model compatible with the Ruger magazine.
Plano, TX (November, 2020) – The U.S.-based handgun manufacturer has launched its direct-to-agency website, shadowsystemsdefense.com to help Law Enforcement departments and Military units purchase directly to outfit their officers and servicemembers.
Shadow Systems, makers of the compact MR920, the long-slide MR920L, and the soon-to-be-released full-size DR920 have designed their pistols with LEOs and servicemembers in mind. Most Shadow Systems employees have a background in either law enforcement or military service, so for this team producing a bet-your-life-reliable pistol has always been the top priority. With the launch of shadowsystemsdefense.com, Shadow Systems is streamlining the process for agencies to test and evaluate Shadow pistols for their team. With just four clicks, procurement officers can request guns for testing and evaluation.
“Once you shoot a Shadow Systems pistol, you understand why the design works so well for so many different people. The interchangeable backstraps that change the grip angle to fit natural point of aim, the drop-safe flat-faced trigger, the directional serrations, they all work together to make this firearm incredibly intuitive. The features of our pistols and the fact that, in many cases, there is no new gear or training required make it easy to see why Shadow Systems pistols are starting to be adopted by agencies.” Chad Jewett, National Director of Sales.
T&E guns are now shipping for agencies considering Shadow Systems pistols for their team. Learn more about the pistol offerings and request T&E at shadowsystemsdefense.com.
FORT BENNING, Ga. – The Army is on track to equip its Soldiers with state-of-the-art gear that will give them a decisive edge in close-quarters combat, items that include a high-tech goggle, a more lethal rifle, and binoculars that see in the dark, a senior Army leader says in an official video.
The items are among those the Army is working with industry to develop for Soldiers to use on future battlefields in close combat against “near-peer” adversaries, Brig. Gen. David Hodne, the Army’s Chief of Infantry, says in the video.
Hodne also heads the Army’s Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team, which is working to develop the three items. Three other officers from the team also appear in the video.
What Hodne calls the “signature modernization efforts” are: the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, known as IVAS; Next Generation Squad Weapons, or NGSW, and the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular, or the ENVG-B.
The National Defense Strategy drafted under former Secretary of Defense James Mattis and published in 2018 “identified a worrisome erosion in overmatch between U.S. Forces and our near-peer competitors around the world,” says Hodne.
“Nearly two decades of sustained combat operations continues to yield seasoned leaders and combat veterans skilled in small-unit action,” he says. “However, near-peer competitors studied how we project power, how we fight, and what we fight with.”
Also informing the effort was the “Russian New Generation Warfare Study” that was led by retired Brig. Gen. Pete Jones, a former Chief of Infantry.
“This study,” says Hodne, “combined with the Close Combat Strategic Portfolio Review, and the 2018 National Defense Strategy revealed gaps that warranted serious consideration.”
“Near-peer threats have capabilities that match and in some cases exceed our capabilities,” he says. “In some cases, our adversaries can detect before they’re detected, and that means they can target, and engage, before we do.
“Our current capabilities are not sufficient for battlefields distributed in urban and subterranean environments,” says Hodne. “And we have to anticipate the implications of new technologies on the battlefield and foster a culture of experimentation and calculated risk-taking.”
A major focus of the effort, says Hodne, is the Close Combat Force, or CCF, those who close with and destroy the enemy in close combat.
That force is made up of Soldiers in five military job categories: Infantry, Cavalry scouts, combat engineers, and their accompanying forward observers and medics.
Together they account for 4% of the overall force, Hodne says, and the major percentage of battlefield casualties.
“Historically, 90 percent of battlefield casualties generally occur among four percent of the force,” he says.
“It’s for these specialties, those Soldiers with the purpose of closing with and destroying the enemy in close combat, where we’ve focused our efforts,” he says.
“It’s worth noting this particular cohort of close-combat Soldiers generally receives a small fraction of the budget portfolio intended for modernization,” says Hodne.
Integrated Visual Augmentation System
The first project highlighted in the video is the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. It’s a head-mounted digital goggle that connects to a small computer and a radio. A Soldier can see through it both in daylight and in the dark.
“IVAS takes night vision to a new level with leap-ahead digital technologies,” Lt. Col. Brad Winn says in the video. Winn is the Soldier Lethality CFT’s lead action officer for the IVAS.
“Department of Defense leaders wanted a single device Soldiers could use to fight, rehearse and train,” Winn says. “IVAS is that device. It improves Soldier sensing, decision-making, target acquisition, target engagement and situational awareness.”
According to the video, IVAS can show the Soldier battlefield information about where the enemy is and where others in the Soldier’s unit are; helps Soldiers see a target they need to shoot at, uses facial recognition software that can tell the Soldier who a person is; can translate various languages into English; and allows Soldiers to send one another various kinds of digital information, including map coordinates and imagery of what’s happening on the battlefield.
“IVAS has incorporated Intra-Soldier Wireless Connectivity and the ability to pass data among squad, platoon and company formations,” Winn says. “They can talk to each other and share images on and off the objective.”
That could include, for example, what a certain building or other objective looks like.
“The Soldiers following behind, or the next one on the objective, will know exactly what that objective looks like, whether it’s the inside of a building, wooded terrain – anywhere,” Winn says.
“IVAS enhances every aspect of Soldier lethality,” he says. “It improves and increases the Soldier’s situational awareness and enhances his or her ability to maneuver and outmaneuver our adversaries. IVAS will make a smarter, better-informed, more agile and lethal Soldier. It will save American lives on the battlefield.”
The Army has gathered more than 20,000 hours of testing involving nearly 1,000 Soldiers, Marines, and members of special operations forces, and expects to field the first unit in the latter part of 2021, Winn says.
The Army plans to field it to the entire Close Combat Force in the Army’s 58 brigade combat teams, in the Army’s Active and National Guard components, he says.
Next Generation Squad Weapons
A second item highlighted in the video are Next Generation Squad Weapons, or NGSW.
“Near-peer adversaries continue to acquire and develop capabilities that counter Army squad weapons and ammunition, reducing, and in some cases negating, our combat overmatch,” Maj. Wyatt Ottmar, the Soldier Lethality CFT’s project officer for the NGSW, says in the video.
The NGSW fires a 6.8 mm round. It would replace in the Close Combat Force the M249 and M4A1, both of which fire 5.56 mm rounds, says Ottmar.
Development of the NGSW is an outgrowth of the Army’s 2017 Small Arms Ammunition Configuration Study, which showed the need for a new weapon, Ottmar says.
The Army will test several rifle prototypes produced by various companies and expects to field a new squad weapon in the latter part of 2022.
Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular
The third project outlined in the video is the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular, or ENVG-B.
Night Vision Goggles are far from new, but the ENVG-B gives Soldiers a clearer view and are easier to use, Maj. James Siebert says in the video. Siebert is the Soldier Lethality CFT’s action officer for the ENVG-B project.
“The ENVG-B enables superior combat overmatch by providing Soldiers a binocular system that delivers unparalleled vision day and night in low light, no light, fog, smoke or inclement weather,” says Siebert.
“It offers greater clarity and better depth perception,” he says.
“Rather than looking down at a 2D map or smartphone device, Soldiers see virtual icons overlaid on their real-world view in real time,” says Siebert.
The video was one of several warfighting-related “Warrior Corner” videos produced for viewing by participants in the 2020 Virtual Maneuver Warfighter Conference, held online Sept. 9-10 by Fort Benning’s U.S. Army Maneuver Center of Excellence. The MCoE has since made them available to the public on YouTube.
LMT Defense, America’s premier weapons manufacturer, is pleased to announce that it has begun delivering weapon systems and providing new equipment training (NET) to the Estonian Defense Force (EDF). A unique MARS-H 7.62 caliber rifle with a piston operating system was developed for this contract. This new variant, in the 7.62 family of rifles, utilizes LMT’s patented Monolith Rail Platform (MRP). LMT Defense plans to offer the 7.62 piston operated rifles and components.
The contract award was announced in May 2019 LMT Announcement. The rifles are the LMT Modular Ambidextrous Rifle System (MARS) family of rifles (5.56 and 7.62) – Developed in 2014 and delivered, under contract, to New Zealand Defense Force. The MARS weapon platform is a true ambidextrous system – including: bolt catch, bolt release, safety selector, magazine release, and charging handle. Additionally, the EDF purchased 40mm grenade launchers.
These EDF rifles include a single position piston setting, a bayonet lug, and a European-style trigger that allows the operator to put the rifle in the safe position when the hammer is un-cocked. Furthermore, shot counters have been installed into a new LMT ergonomic grip.
General Dynamics-OTS is competing with Textron Systems SIG SAUER in the US Army’s Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program which seeks to replace the current M4A1 Carbine and M249 Light Machine Gun in the close combat squads with a Rifle and Automatic Rifle designed to fire 6.8mm ammunition. The intent is to provide similar characteristics to 270 Win Short Mag. It’s important to note that the 6.8mm settled on by the Army is the equivalent of .277 in Imperial measurement.
General Dynamics-OTS is partnered with Beretta Defense Systems and True Velocity to offer their NGSW candidate system. The .277 ammunition size has influenced the naming of their rifle and ammunition, the RM277, which also makes it handy to begin marketing to other customers.
General Dynamics-OTS designed the bullpup RM277 and Beretta provides Research and Development support and future high-volume manufacturing capabilities at its new Gallatin, TN, facility.
When the Army decided on a 6.8 cartridge, they left it up to industry to develop the actual ammunition. True Velocity has named their composite cased cartridge the 277 TVCM.
The composite construction makes it 30-40% lighter than current, conventional ammunition. Additional benefits are reduced heat transfer as the composite insulates the chamber and bolt face, the production of extremely concentric and consistent case and precise powder drop which results in consistent pressure and muzzle velocities for improved accuracy, and elimination of heavy metals that produce adverse health effects on Soldiers.
Unlike the weapon candidates from their competitors, GD-OTS’ M277-R and RM277-AR are extremely similar. The AR is naturally longer and heavier for sustained fire.
Rather than introducing a box-fed rifle and belt-fed automatic rifle like the others, the bullpup design called for both weapons to be box-fed. The bullpup also allows for longer barrels for both increased velocity and accuracy.
They are gas and recoil operated and impulse averaged with short recoil to offer controllable, accurate automatic fire. They also incorporate dual firing modes, closed bolt in semi-automatic mode and open bolt in automatic mode. Naturally, the weapons feature ambidextrous controls. The suppressor is 3D printed and provided by Delta-P.
Having participated in Soldier Touch Points and reliability and performance testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground, next up for General Dynamics-OTS is to incorporate feedback from Prototype Testing #1 into their design and produce the Prototype Testing #2 samples of weapons and ammunition.
Images supplied Beretta.
For some more background on how the Army ended up with NGSW, read this. Admittedly, I was quite skeptical at first, particularly after the Army had just a failed to select a replacement for the M4 just a few years before with the Individual Carbine program and then the start-stop fiasco of the 7.62mm Carbine effort. But, after watching industry rise to the challenge, I quickly went through the stages of grief to acceptance and am now quite optimistic that the Army will field a new capability.
