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Posts Tagged ‘FightLite’

FightLite Introducing New Products at SHOT Show

Thursday, January 4th, 2018

(Melbourne, FL) January 3, 2018 – FightLite® Industries, the country’s leading manufacturer of innovative, mission-configurable firearms, parts and accessories announces that it will be introducing some groundbreaking new products at SHOT Show this year in Booth #12971, located in the upstairs Main Hall, Level 2 Section of the show. The annual SHOT Show is being hosted at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas January 23-26, 2018.

FightLite® Industries is also hosting live-fire, full-auto range activities at the official SHOT Show Industry Day being held on Monday, January 22, 2018 at the Boulder Rifle and Pistol Club range facility and invites all attendees to shoot exclusive FightLite® products by visiting FightLite® Industries’ Full-Auto Bay #SR39 during the event.

“We’re always excited to exhibit at the SHOT Show each year and spend time visiting with both new and established US and International customers, while introducing new products that we’ve come up with since the last show. One of the hot new products we’ll introduce to dealers at SHOT this year is our brand new FightLite® SCR® “Raider” Pistol in both 5.56 NATO and 300 BLK. We first introduced the SCR® Pistol to sporting goods wholesale Distributors this past fall at NASGW in San Antonio and it was an instant smash hit generating record sales along with some very excited wholesale buyers!” said Geoffrey Herring, President-CEO. “The FightLite® Raider™ is a direct-gas operated pistol and is based on our very successful and patented SCR® receiver set, featuring a free floating 7.5” barrel with a choice of KeyMod or M-Lok® accessory interface and is finished off with a Shockwave Technologies® grip for a very compact, rifle caliber handgun that can accurately engage targets far beyond the reach or range of traditional pistols!”

In addition to exhibiting its exciting new FightLite® Raider™ Pistol, the company will also showcase its flagship 8.5 lb. select-fire Squad Automatic MCR® that shares the excellent ergonomics of the M4A1 and which feeds reliably from both M27-linked ammunition belts and standard M16 magazines at operator discretion. Featuring reliable gas-piston operation and a tool-less quick-change barrel system; the patented MCR® is the lightest and most portable belt fed machine gun in the world. Optionally available as an upper receiver upgrade “kit” that retrofits to all MIL-Spec AR15/M16 and M4 lower receivers, the MCR® can also be purchased in a semi-auto configuration for civilian users.

There’s a product for everyone at the FightLite® booth this year including the innovative and patented SCR® (Sport Configurable Rifle) which is not only legal almost anywhere in America including New York City and California, but is the only rifle to have ever successfully combined the traditional lines of a hunting pattern rifle with the modularity and caliber options of an AR-15 type rifle.

The SCR® blends the strength, reliability, accuracy and rugged all-weather characteristics of America’s longest serving infantry rifle with the classic lines of an American sporter. Lightweight, accurate and featuring a MIL-STD 1913 flat top upper receiver that accepts most modern optics, the SCR® is designed to perform under the most demanding field, competitive shooting or tactical conditions and its multi-caliber, modular design permits sportsmen to instantly change calibers in the field by simply pressing two pins and exchanging one upper receiver assembly for another.

To learn more about innovative products from FightLite® Industries including its new and highly efficient RipBrake™ muzzle compemsator, please visit Booth #12971 at this year’s SHOT Show.

www.fightlite.com

FightLite Donates Belt-Fed MCR to NFA Review Channel Expo

Monday, December 4th, 2017


(Melbourne, FL) November 30, 2017 – FightLite® Industries, the country’s leading manufacturer of innovative, mission & sport configurable firearms, parts and accessories announces that it will be exhibiting its products at the NFA Review Channel Expo this weekend and making several of its products available for attendees to shoot. In addition, FightLite® is donating one of its popular Dual-Feed MCR® Upper Receiver assemblies to the NFA Review Channel 2017 Raffle. Valued at over $4,400. The Dual-Feed MCR® Upper is a premium raffle prize for attendees of the event.


The NFA Review Channel Expo is hosting its annual event this year at the World Class indoor Reload Gun Range in Tarpon Springs, Florida. Dates for the event are December 2-3, 2017 with live-fire activity scheduled throughout the event and featuring silencers, machine guns, SBR’s and other types of NFA firearms.

“We look forward to the NFA Review Channel Expo 2017 as an opportunity to connect with our customers and to let them try our products first hand. Adam Johnson and his team have done a really great job putting this event together as an annual gathering for NFA aficionados and we’re thrilled to participate in this event.” said Geoffrey Herring, President-CEO.


This year, FightLite® Industries will be exhibiting and permitting attendees the opportunity to fire its premium grade Dual-Feed™ MCR® rifle line along with its 50-State semi-automatic SCR® sporting rifles. FightLite® will also have its brand new and exciting SCR® Pistol with Shockwave grip that’s based on the SCR® receiver group and that’s being offered in 5.56 NATO and 300 AAC Blackout (300 BLK).

www.fightlite.com

FightLite Reveals Next Generation (Squad Automatic) MCR and Lightweight Polymer Ammo

Friday, July 21st, 2017

FightLite® Industries, a division of ARES Defense Systems® Inc. located in Melbourne, Florida announces a development program for next generation, lightweight polymer ammunition to work in conjunction with its patented Dual-Feed™ Squad Automatic MCR® (Mission Configurable Rifle).

In a radical departure from the directions of both case telescoped ammunition and conventional polymer ammunition, FightLite® is pursuing an innovative development strategy for a 5th generation hybrid cartridge that is projected to lighten ammunition weight by up to 30% and deliver reduced ammunition cost, while also supporting legacy infantry weapons and machine guns.

There are millions of 5.56mm and 7.62mm NATO weapons in both the US military and around the globe where users stand to benefit from a significant reduction in ammunition weight without sacrificing performance or reliability. FightLite® Industries and its parent organization ARES Defense have been very successful with their outside-the-box approach to problem solving in the small arms business during the past 20 years.

The company’s flagship weapon is its 8.5 lb. select-fire Squad Automatic MCR® that shares the excellent ergonomics of the M4A1 and feeds reliably from both M27-linked ammunition belts and standard M16 magazines at operator discretion. Featuring reliable gas-piston operation and a tool-less quick-change barrel system; the patented MCR® is the lightest and most portable belt fed machine gun in the world. Suppressor and grenade launcher capable, its select-fire operation allows soldiers and contractors to quickly and accurately engage both point and area targets. And when coupled with FightLite’s finalized 5th Gen lightweight cartridge, the MCR® and FightLite® ammo combination will represent the lightest 5.56mm automatic rifle with full combat load available anywhere.

The select-fire FightLite® MCR® is derived from the ARES-16 AMG-2™ (Assault Machine Gun) that was selected for testing by the US Army’s Soldier Enhancement Program (SEP) and includes product enhancements that were made to the AMG-2™ following experience with M855A1 EPR ammunition and earlier military testing done during the Army’s AEWE Spiral H experiment at Fort Benning.

Such enhancements include further weapon weight reduction and simplification, a square shaped feed roller housing, a heat treated steel feed plate that reduces feed ramp wear from M855A1 steel tipped projectiles, refinements in the breech bolt lug profile, a reinforced charging handle assembly, the company’s highly effective RipBrake™ muzzle compensator, and a proprietary method of mitigating cookoff risk while maintaining a select-fire, closed bolt system of operation that is more accurate and user-friendly than standard open-bolt light machine guns.

Some additional key elements of the MCR® are that it shares a 52% part commonality with existing NSN components already in the government system and the core technology can retrofit to any MIL-Spec AR15, M16 or M4 type lower receiver; meaning that it is rearward compatible to the very first Colt Mod. 01 (M16) manufactured in 1960. These accomplishments reduce a military’s logistical footprint and costs including spare components and operator and armorer training. Additionally, the dual-feed MCR® permits squad automatic rifle users to operate during the assault with 100 and 200 round magazines of M27-linked ammunition, but also retains the ability to reliably feed from 4179 STANAG (M16/M4) magazines from other squad members should linked ammunition run low during combat.

“The Army and some of our commercial customers have been interested in lightweight ammunition for quite some time, so our R&D team is pretty excited about the progress we’re making to finally solve the elusive lightweight ammunition equation for conventional rifles and machine guns,” says Geoffrey Herring, CEO of ARES Defense Systems®. “We’re aware that various iterations of polymer cased ammunition have been introduced to the commercial market during the past several years, but we also know some of the setbacks they’ve experienced along the way such as ballistic underperformance, case melt, moisture absorption, case separation or deformation, and catastrophic failures when the heat or pressure is up. Most of the polymer ammunition manufacturers are employing first through third generation technology which can be predisposed to fail when subjected to rough handling, temperature extremes, environmental conditions, and the pressures necessary for full ballistic performance of modern rifle ammunition.”

Brass cased ammunition has been relied on for over 150 years and has presented many challenges for the arms industry to find an alternative material that accomplishes everything that a standard brass case does. In addition to providing a convenient capsule to house the bullet and components, keep the powder dry and reliably feed into the chamber, it is also a critical gas container that keeps the shooter safe from the 50,000-70,000 psi chamber pressure when the round is fired. When the malleable brass case expands against the chamber wall during obturation, it performs as a mechanical brake reducing bolt loading and embeds many impurities from the chamber such as grit, carbon or unburned propellant into the case body which is then extracted from the chamber in a semi self-cleaning arrangement. Since brass is an excellent thermal conductor, it also absorbs and removes with each shot a small amount of heat generated by the friction of the projectile traveling down the bore. It can be stored for extended periods of time and can tolerate temperature extremes such as freezing cold, rough handling, hazardous environmental conditions and water submersion. But some of the biggest strikes against it are weight and cost, and depending on the individual manufacturer the 12 to 20 step manufacturing process necessary to fabricate a single cartridge.

FightLite® isn’t sharing any proprietary details at this stage about the (5th Generation) construction methods being privately developed in house with IRAD until its patents for the hybrid technology are solidified. But the FightLite® R&D team is systematically addressing and overcoming the hurdles that have plagued early players in the lightweight ammunition space and is confident in its decision to pursue development of a lightweight cartridge that will also support legacy weapons in the US arsenal and NATO countries, and other users around the world.

“Our company’s approach to product development has always been to invest in inclusive technologies that benefit a greater consumer base as exemplified by our MCR® being rearward compatible from today’s production M4A1 to the very first M16’s that the Army ever purchased. To date, our company has produced and delivered thousands of dual-feed MCR® type upper receiver assemblies and rifles throughout the US and overseas, so we’re very comfortable with our product, its capabilities and the ability to produce it,” says Herring. “The primary objective for developing polymer ammunition is to additionally lighten the soldier’s ammunition load by at least 20% and we think that our hybrid case will be able to achieve that while maintaining safety and ballistic performance and also supporting legacy systems. We’ve already accomplished significant weight savings for the soldier with our squad automatic MCR® which currently weighs 50% less than the current M249 and is 3-times more accurate as verified by US military testers during live fire exercises. In fact, our gun was so effective at improving the squad’s speed and mobility during our participation in the Army’s AEWE Spiral H experiment that there is soldier support on record for adding two additional weapons to the current 9-man squad for a total of two of our guns per fire team.”

No firm date is being stated at this time for delivery of FightLite® 5.56mm hybrid ammunition to market. In the interim, FightLite® Industries and its parent organization ARES Defense Systems® will continue supplying its customers with its commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) Squad Automatic MCR® and AMG-2™ weapons which can currently use almost any of the billions of rounds of 5.56 NATO ammunition stockpiled throughout the world. Once the R&D cycle on FightLite® 5.56mm hybrid ammunition is completed, the company will likely either seek mass production of the ammunition through established high-volume ammunition producers or consider licensing its next generation squad automatic rifle (NGSAR) and ammunition technology to one of the USA’s larger prime defense contractors.

To learn more about FightLite® Industries visit www.FightLite.com. Follow FightLite® Industries on Facebook at facebook.com/FightLite , on Twitter @FightLite and on Instagram @FightLite.Industries.

FightLite Announces Jesse James Firearms License Agreement

Thursday, April 27th, 2017

(Melbourne, FL) April 27, 2017 – FightLite® Industries, the small arms division of ARES Defense Systems® Inc. is pleased to announce that Jesse James Firearms Unlimited, LLC entered into a non-exclusive License Agreement with ARES Defense Systems, Inc. at the beginning of 2017 that grants Jesse James (JJFU) certain rights to manufacture firearms under a patent owned by ARES Defense.

Under the general terms of the Agreement, Jesse James is licensed and authorized by ARES Defense to manufacture and sell rifles that rely on some of the technology and the patent common to the ARES Defense and FightLite Industries SCR® (Sport Configurable Rifle).


Custom artist Jesse James on left with Geoffrey Herring, CEO of ARES Defense & FightLite® Industries holding a JJFU “Nomad Califas”.

“Jesse James has a very unique and creative style to his artwork and products whether they’re motorcycles, cutlery or firearms. So when he approached us with an interest in building rifles that rely on our patent and technology, we were very excited to see what custom models he would come up with and we haven’t been disappointed with the rifle that he calls the “Nomad Califas” first introduced at SHOT Show 2017” said Geoffrey Herring, President-CEO. “Jesse’s selection of materials, product styling and attention to detail is second to none in the custom firearms world as expressed by his many beautiful creations such as his “Skulls” Cisco Especial, “Kingdom of Shadows” Cisco 1911 and most recently his “Bishop” Cisco 1911 pistols set in their custom live edge presentation box. It will be exciting to watch the custom series of Nomad Califas rifles evolve from his imagination and into finished pieces of art that you can still take to the outdoors and shoot.”