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
Jonathan Ferguson The Syrian conflict continues to yield interesting expedient small arm designs. Syrian rebel forces have been documented craft producing anti-materiel rifles (AMRs). ARES has received video links (see below) that document the manufacture of this weapon, which appears in two variants. It is a homemade bolt-action anti-materiel rifle similar to and perhaps even inspired
N.R. Jenzen-Jones and Yuri Lyamin In early April, representatives of the armed opposition group Harakat Hazm from the Syrian province of Idlib uploaded a YouTube video showing Hazm combatants launching a missile from a TOW type anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW), near the town of Heesh. This video, representing the first time the TOW missile was
ARES Director, N.R. Jenzen-Jones, has authored a report examining small-calibre ammunition documented in Syria, released yesterday by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey. From the Survey press release: The Working Paper Following The Headstamp Trail: An Assessment of Small-calibre Ammunition Documented in Syria analyzes 70 different small-calibre cartridge headstamps (ammunition identification markings) documented in Syria. The assessment is
Yuri Lyamin and N.R. Jenzen-Jones One of the greatest mysteries of the Syrian military industrial complex is a 302 mm rocket system known as the Khaibar-1 (also referred to as the M302 or M-302). Information about this system is limited, largely due to the lack of primary source material and low number of useful photographs.
Armament Research Services is proud to release the first in a series of long-form ARES Research Reports. Authored by Yuri Lyamin and N.R. Jenzen-Jones, “Improvised Employment of S-5 Air-to-Surface Rockets in Land Warfare” aims to provide a brief history and technical appraisal of a battlefield phenomenon which has received little attention to date. Below are
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
Yuri Lyamin with N.R. Jenzen-Jones Update 04/07/2014: It appears that 9M55K cargo rockets and 9N235 submunitions may have been employed in Ukraine. Two interesting videos have surfaced from the area around the town of Kafr Zita, in the northern part of Syria’s Hama governorate. In recent days, heavy fighting has raged between government forces and armed
By N.R. Jenzen-Jones In recent months, Chinese HJ-8E anti-tank guided weapons (ATGWs) have been documented in the hands of anti-government fighters in Syria. The HJ-8 (Hong Jian-8, or “Red Arrow-8″) is a second generation ATGW, operating on the semi-automatic command to line-of-sight (SACLOS) principle. Use of the HJ-8 requires that the operator continually keep the
