Armament Research Services has released Research Note No. 9 – Estimating Year of Production for FN Herstal FAL Rifles. Authored by ARES Director N.R. Jenzen-Jones with Stefan Elliott, the note discusses the relationship between serial numbers and year of production for the ubiquitous FN Herstal FAL rifle, and establishes a formula for determining the likely year
By Hassan Morajea. Header image shows AKM type rifle and PKMT undergoing refurbishment. In a militia-controlled garage in Misrata, Libya, workers service and refurbish weapons for fighters from different Misrata brigades. Free services provided range from fixing and servicing small arms and light weapons (SALW) to mounting multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS), anti-aircraft guns, and various
By Michael Smallwood. Header image displays an improvised launcher in a two-tube configuration mounted on the rear of a pickup truck. Photos emerging from Iraq purport to show members of the Islamist militant group Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH) in possession of 333 mm Falaq-2 artillery rockets and improvised launchers. In the photo below, a substantially
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
ARES is proud to release its first Arms & Munitions Brief. Authored by Timothy Yan, “The Chinese QLZ87 Automatic Grenade Launcher” examines the development history and technical capability of this automatic grenade launcher (AGL) and its ammunition, as well as a brief look at other Chinese-developed AGLs. Below are some extracts from the publication, which
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
Yuri Lyamin with Michael Smallwood Recent photos to emerge from Iraq show government troops with new Iranian AM50 (sometimes written ‘AM-50’) anti-materiel rifles (AMR) and Russian ORSIS T-5000 sniper rifles. Whilst initially misidentified as the Austrian Steyr HS .50, the photos suggest that these rifles are in fact an Iranian produced copy of the HS .50, known
Armament Research Services is proud to release its second Research Report. Authored by N.R Jenzen-Jones, Yuri Lyamin and Galen Wright “Iranian Falaq-1 and Falaq-2 Rockets in Syria” documents the use of these weapons in Syria’s ongoing civil conflict, and provides a brief history and technical appraisal of the systems and their munitions. Below are some extracts
N.R. Jenzen-Jones The seizure of former president Viktor Yanukovych’s estate in Mezhyhirya, an hour’s drive from Kiev, turned up a range of interesting arms and munitions. Nearby, a variety of ammunition was recovered from a private lake, including the cartridges shown in the image above. These are 5.66 x 39 mm rounds for the Russian made APS (Автомат
Yuri Lyamin with Michael Smallwood From Syria comes another video of interest, this time showing remnants of a cargo rocket which landed near Namar, in the southern governorate of Daraa. The video shows a component of the cargo section of a rocket, likely belonging to a 220 mm 9M27K series rocket (9M27K or 9M27K1, both
