Leapfest 2025 took place from July 29 to August 4, 2025, in Exeter, Rhode Island. It is the largest and longest-running international static-line military parachuting competition in the world. Paratroopers from 18 countries across 51 teams participated in the event. Competitors used steerable MC-6 parachutes to navigate toward designated targets on the drop zone. Scores […]
One of my new favorite YouTube channels is Baltic Defence Review. The Baltic region has long been an area of interest for me (I even wrote my International Affairs degree thesis on Swedish Defence Doctrine back in 1992), and with Sweden and Finland joining NATO a couple of years ago there have been a series […]
SAKO has officially launched the ARG (Arctic Rifle Generation), a next-generation NATO-standard rifle platform developed in close collaboration with the Finnish and Swedish Defence Forces. As we’ve previously reported, since joining NATO Sweden and Finland also decided to standardize on a common NATO-compatible rifle platform for the two countries to replace their legacy assault rifles […]
What is a Smock, and when is a Smock not a Smock? The military smock is a durable, four-pocket, loose-fitting outer layer garment. Modern smocks often have wind and water-resistant properties and can be found in almost every NATO camouflage pattern – as well as leading commercial patterns like MultiCam and PenCott. Hugely adaptable, smocks […]
On 27 March 2023, the Finnish and Swedish Defence Forces signed an agreement for a joint range of military small arms with Finnish firearms manufacturer Sako Ltd. The range of firearms to be manufactured will gradually replace the the Swedish and Finnish Defence Forces’ current assault rifles, semi-automatic marksman rifles and heavy precision rifles. […]
US Special Operations Forces in Europe training with members of Italy’s ‘Folgore’ parachute regiment. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Whitney Hughes […]
IWI – Israel Weapon Industries – a member of the SK Group – is launching the new ACE-N 52 assault rifle at MiliPol Paris. The latest model in the ACE family, the ACE-N 52 has an improved ergonomic design that is suitable for use with standard 7.62x51mm NATO (AR-10) magazines. Based on the reliable and […]
The UK Ministry of Defence published a tender a couple of months back for a new “Army Special Operations Brigade Rifle Procurement and Support of an Armalite Rifle (AR) platform Alternative Individual Weapon (AIW) System”. What that means in plain English is that the British Army is looking to equip its new Special Operations Brigade […]
Ukrainian Maj. Gen. Hryhoriy Halahan, Commander of the Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukrainian Politician, and U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. David Tabor, Special Operations Command Europe Commanding General, sit on the ramp of an MC-130J Commando II assigned to the 352d Special Operations Wing during a low-level flight […]
In the dying days of World War Two, well before the invention of the AR10 or AR-15, when the M1 Garand was king of the hill – and laser beams and night vision goggles were the stuff of science fiction – a rifle was conceived in Belgium that would come to be known as “the […]
