Firearms and Accessories Seen at ArmHiTec 2018 Exhibition

[Zarvan]

ArmHiTec 2018 arms exhibition was held on March 29-31 in Yerevan, Armenia. There were both local Armenian manufacturers and companies from Russia, China, India and several other countries. In this article, we will take a look at the companies who brought small arms and firearm accessories to ArmHiTec 2018. The companies are listed in no particular order and their names link to their websites.

ASPAR ARMS
This company is probably one of the most recognized small arms manufacturers in Armenia. They hold licenses both for manufacturing and selling firearms.

Arms makes aluminum handguards for the SVD rifles. One of these handguard versions has an angled rail section to mount a forward grip at about 7 o’clock position. Grips mounted in this location are supposed to provide a better control over the weapon when shooting offhand. All versions of these handguards are not free floated and designed to be a simple drop-in replacement for the factory SVD handguard.

This company also uses Lothar Walther barrel blanks to make shorter but thicker barrels for SVD rifles. They call these rebarreled rifles SVDM Compact and they are designed to retain the accuracy in more intensive firing sessions. According to the company officials, they are also developing a version of the riflewith a much thicker barrel which would be capable of longer range and more accurate fire. The latter will also have a free floated aluminum handguard.

Note that the barrel of this rifle is shorter and has a larger diameter than the factory SVD barrels. This particular rifle also has a front sight block located next to the gas block.

Next two SVD accessories made by this company are the side rail to Picatinny rail adapter and the folding stock. The stock is also made of aluminum and has an adjustable length of pull, cheek piece height and buttpad height.

Aspar Arms also makes a variety of upgrade parts for the Zastava M93 Black Arrow anti-materiel rifle. This rifle is adopted by the Armenian Armed Forces, which is the reason why this company has developed accessories for the rifle. Aspar Arms makes a folding stock with a monopod, more robust bipods, top Picatinny rails and suppressors for the M93.

We also saw a couple of stocks made for two different Russian rifles.

First one is a polymer stock for the Mosin-Nagant rifle. The company also makes a bent bolt handle with a larger serrated bolt knob.

Mosin-Nagant stock

The second one is a tactical chassis for the Russian Ural 6-1 competition rimfire rifle. With this chassis and a suppressor, this rifle is dedicated for police use.

Aspar Arms also makes a wide variety of suppressors with different thread pitches and mounting systems, caliber options and material use (steel, aluminum, titanium).

They also brought to the show a railed AK gas tube and a Picatinny rail section for PK machine guns.

GARNI-LER OJSC
Some of the products of this company have been showcased earlier. Nevertheless, their booth at ArmHiTec was quite crowded. We tried to take some pictures and gather more information concerning their products.

One of their rifles is an SVD-based straight pull rifle. They borrowed the receiver and the bolt carrier group from an SVD and equipped it with a rather long bull barrel. The result is basically a straight pull bolt action rifle that is fed from SVD magazines. The reason for making such a rifle should be the need for an increased accuracy. That being said, the bipod clamped on the barrel should be there for display purposes only, otherwise, it is probably not the best bipod mounting solution for a precision rifle.

Another SVD based rifle made by GARNI-LER is called K-8.1. It is a bolt action rifle based on an SVD receiver and using SVD magazines. This rifle is chambered in 7.62x54R. It has an overall length of 1,140mm (45″) and a barrel length of 620mm (24.4″). The rifle weighs 5.8 kilograms (about 12 lbs 12 oz). The follower of the SVD magazine stops the bolt of the rifle at its rearmost position if the magazine is empty.

K-8.1 rifle is in the middle

Closeup view of the action of K-8.1 rifle.

Next rifle is called K-11M. It is a bolt action rifle chambered in 5.45x39mm and fed from AK-74 magazines. The overall length of this rifle is 920mm (36.2″) with a 416mm (16.4″) barrel. The K-11M weighs 4.5 kilograms (9 lbs 15 oz).

K-11M

Lastly, there is a bolt-action anti-materiel rifle developed by this company. The rifle is called K-15. It is chambered in 12.7x108mm. It has a 1,100 mm long barrel (43.3″) and an overall length of 1,500mm (59″).

K-15

 

[Zarvan]

KB-X
This is another local company that mainly develops unmanned vehicles. They also brought to the show a remote controlled sentry gun system called Skorpion-S.

This system consists of a PKT machine gun, night vision observation and aiming devices as well as a sealed housing and a mechanism that deploys/stores the weapon from/into the box housing. In the video below, you can see the operator (on left) controlling this weapon system and showing how it is stored and deployed.

The idea behind this system is to have it buried in the ground up to the top handles and have it as a backup measure for the areas that normally do not require constant observation. If the situation requires observation or firepower in these areas, the remote control weapon can be deployed and used within a matter of seconds.

The battery life of this system is 10 hours when continuously used and 3 months when stored. The displayed version is a prototype. The final version will have a completely sealed box housing.

UNICUM ENGINEERING
This is another local company that introduced at ArmHiTec a wide range of thermal vision devices. From stationary patrol turrets to binoculars and thermal scopes. Here is a set of photos of this company’s products.

APPLIED CHEMISTRY R&D INSTITUTE JSC
This is one of the Russian companies exhibiting at ArmHiTec 2018. It is the manufacturer of OSA less-lethal pistol which reminds a large four round derringer. OSA itself is nothing new and there is a lot of information available on it. However, what caught my attention is the version mounted on the 6 o’clock rail of an AR-15 handguard.

I think it is quite an interesting solution for a police gun. The availability of traumatic, flashbang or CS gas ammunition can be a handy tool for the police officer in many different scenarios.

In order to load the OSA when it is mounted on the rifle, all you need is to unlock the action, pivot down the breech block/grip assembly, load the ammunition and close the breech block.

These were the most significant firearms and accessories that we saw during the ArmHiTec 2018 exhibition. Share your thoughts in the comments section.


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