Category: Ammunition

West African arms trafficker arrested in Ghana

Oscar Nkala Police in the Ghanaian city of Kumasi last month arrested a 72-year-old suspected arms dealer from Burkina Faso and five Ghanaian accomplices in an operation that recovered a sizeable cache of small arms and ammunition. The seizure included 11 AK type and 10 G3 type self-loading rifles; 45 self-loading handguns of undefined make

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Arms & Munitions Brief No. 2: The Russian GM-94 Grenade Launcher

Armament Research Services is proud to release the second publication in our Arms & Munitions Brief series, The Russian GM-94 Grenade Launcher.  Authored by former Russian army officer and small arms historian Maxim Popenker, with ARES Director N.R. Jenzen-Jones, Arms & Munitions Brief No. 2 gives an overview of the GM-94’s development history, technical characteristics, and employment

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Research Report 4: Less-lethal munitions in Ferguson, Missouri

Armament Research Services is proud to announce the release of the latest publication its Research Report series. Research Report No. 4: Less-Lethal Arms & Munitions Documented in Ferguson, Missouri examines impact and riot control agent (RCA) munitions employed by security forces during the 2014 riots in Ferguson. Authored by chemical weapons specialist Peter White and

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ARES Research Note 7: Cartridge Headspace

Armament Research Services has released its latest Research Note, authored by ARES Technical Specialist Jonathan Ferguson. Research Note 7 gives an overview of the concept of cartridge headspace (CHS), and its importance in the correct functioning of a firearm. ARES Research Notes are short form publications, designed to provide brief, accurate information on a single

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Small Arms Survey releases ‘Research Note 48: Automatic Grenade Launchers’

The Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based research institute, has released a new publication authored by ARES Director N.R. Jenzen-Jones, with contributions from ARES staff members Jonathan Ferguson and Graeme Rice. Research Note 48: Automatic Grenade Launchers looks at the technical features, development history, and usage of this light weapon system. The automatic grenade launcher (AGL), which

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Kornet anti-tank guided weapon captured from Sudanese Armed Forces

N.R. Jenzen-Jones According to a freelance journalist on the ground in Sudan and South Sudan, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army – North (SPLA-N) captured a variety of arms and munitions from Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) fighters yesterday, during fighting in Genezya, 18 km east of Kadugli, the capital of the Sudanese border state of South

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Kurdish YPG forces with Iranian tandem HEAT RPG-7 projectile

Michael Smallwood The above image is a still taken from the following video of Kurdish YPG forces fighting the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq uploaded on 29 December 2014. It shows a Kurdish fighter with an RPG-7 type rocket-assisted recoilless weapon, and what appears to be an Iranian tandem-charge RPG-7 projectile. Previously documented in Syria, these

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Soviet & Russian ‘flame weapons’: incendiary, thermobaric, and FAE systems in Ukraine

N.R. Jenzen-Jones Recent news reports indicate Russia’s intention to modernise much of its military in the coming years. The commander of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense (RChBD) troops, Maj. Gen. Eduard Cherkasov, announced a focus on so-called ‘flame weapons’ – incendiary, thermobaric and fuel-air explosive (FAE) weapons – describing a program of modernisation and development. “For the future

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44 Bore – 7.62 x 39 mm AK rifles modified to fire 7.92 x 33 Kurz ammunition

Ian McCollum The rifle above is a curious example of weapons coming full-circle and being reinvented. This is the “44 Bore” rifle, a colloquial name given to AK type rifles rechambered for the German 7.92 x 33 mm Kurz (sometimes referred to as 8 x 33 mm) cartridge in Pakistan. How this cartridge came to be

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Small Arms Survey Issue Brief: Profiling ammunition in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia

ARES Director N.R. Jenzen-Jones has co-authored an Issue Brief for the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based research institute, published in late July. With an aim to inform measures for reducing illicit proliferation, the paper discusses small arms ammunition found in the holdings of non-state armed groups within Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia. An excerpt from the

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