The SHOT show in Vegas is in full swing right now and I always keep my eye out for new products that really seem to be innovative for the modern battlefield. Out of all the stuff I have seen from this year this video on Beretta’s ARX-160 is really cool. There are lots of quality carbines out there, of which a handful, along with the ARX-160, are still in the running for the US Army’s “Individual Carbine” competition that will by and large replace the M4 and potentially other weapons as well. Still, this Beretta really has some great features and expands on defunct polymer based attempted M4/M16 replacements from the past. Beretta’s are great guns if you buy the right “lineage.” Some of their off products can be finicky but the 92/96/M9 series of pistols are one of my favorite handguns, and without a doubt my favorite steel hi-capacity pistol hands down. Also, their AL391 line of automatic shotguns is unsurpassed in recoil reduction and points naturally while retaining a classic look. Anyways, good luck to Beretta on this, it seems to be a worthy replacement for the M4, both in evolution and in function, if it performs as promised during testing.
I was reading “Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun” the other day, and I was impressed how a guy who makes belts and knives at home managed to revolutionize the firearm industry, simply by thinking out of the box.
All these modern firearms are extremely nice, but they really do little but improve on the standard (plastic, barrel change, ambidextrous controls…). What interests me most are the more novel concepts, like the ones we see on the Kriss, the A-12, the P-90… And what are they doing on caseless ammunition, I’ve always thought the H&K G11 was a very interesting idea.
Caseless Is more or less Dead the only program with it I can think of Other then the new Euro chaingun and Chinese GP30 based Clone is the LSAT program and that’s not moving forward.
There is however polymer Cassed ammo in the workd and that looks like a winner.
Personialy as to the ARX 160, I think it has a bright future but I like the ACR from Remington more. I just Hope Freedom Arms Gets and American Buyer.