Tactical Weapons AR-47

     Notes: The AR-47 is the descendant of long experimentation and design; in about 2000, USSOCOM asked Colt to make an M16 that fired 7.62mm Kalashnikov instead of 5.56mm NATO rounds.  This weapon was intended for use behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, but only 12 were made.  The Colt weapon was fed by modified 20-round M16 magazines which reliably held only 10 rounds of 7.62mm Kalashnikov ammunition.  They were called the SPR-V, and were none too successful, but were promising enough that USSOCOM looked for something better.  In addition, US police forces and the government were interested in the idea.

     Years went by, and a new design was introduced by Tactical Weapons.  This is one of the first such successful designs.  The upper receiver is a modified AR-15 receiver, and the lower receiver is a heavily modified AR-15 lower receiver. The receivers are modified to take the larger 7.62mm Kalashnikov round, primarily by relieving both sides of the receiver while modifying the magazine well and the bolt carrier to accept the higher-riding magazines.  The bolt face also has to be widened, and the extractor has to be strengthened to reliably eject the heavier 7.62mm casings.  Of course, the barrel and chamber have to be modified to accept the round.  The handguards are standard M16/AR-15, as is the front sight post.  The top of the receiver has a MIL-STD-1913 rail, and can accept a modified M16-style sight of other optics or a detachable carrying handle with sight.  The stock is the collapsible one of an M4.  Military/government models have a flash suppressor, and can fire on automatic, while police and civilian models have no flash suppressor and are semiautomatic only.

     Twilight 2000 Notes: Though this particular weapon was not available in the Twilight 2000 timeline, similar weapons were deployed to the Middle East, South Asia and Southeast Asia during the Twilight War.  These ones were made by Colt.

Two Rivers Arms Tabuk

       Notes:  Their home page says it all: “Building What Soldiers Could Not Bring Home.”  Two Rivers builds several weapons that US servicemen encountered during the various wars of the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries, including the Tabuk, PM-63, RPD, PSL, and MPi-KM (with more planned).  Two Rivers also does custom work and supplies AK parts. 

     Two Rivers’ Tabuks are built to look like the Iraqi version of the AKM, with cheap-(looking) European Birch furniture, the Tabuk-shaped stock, different from that of a standard AK.  (Not generally known is that the Tabuk is based on the Yugoslavian M70B1 and M70AB2 versions of the AKM, rather than standard Russian AKMs.) The handguards are flat-sided and have three cooling slots, and the pistol grip is polymer with the distinctive rake angle and ribbed surface.  Two Rivers’ interpretation is faithful enough that most shooters will not have to further modify their Tabuks to make them look like Iraqi Tabuks.  Markings are generally in the Iraqi dialect of Arabic, except where required by US law.  The rifles even have markings representing Iraqi arms rooms’ stock numbers.  They have bayonet lugs, which will fit the Bulgarian Type II bayonet, the standard for Iraqi forces.  The selector lever has three markings for settings (Arabic for safe, auto, and semi), though of course the Two Rivers Tabuk can only be set on Safe and semiautomatic. 

     A difference between the original and it’s Two Rivers version is that the barrel bore is chromed, though upon request Two Rivers will substitute a former Yugoslavian-made barrel that is not chromed.  (Most “real” AKs do not have chromed bores.)  The barrel itself is 16.2 inches, and tipped with an AKM-type muzzle device. Their finish is “hot blued” – a sort of baked-on bluing, true to the original.  The rifle even comes with reproductions of the TB and manual issued to the troops with their actual Tabuks.  (And they are in the Iraqi dialect of Arabic, too.)

     The Iraqis grew their Tabuk assault rifle into a sort of “sniper rifle lite,” and this is reproduced in the Two Rivers Tabuk Sniper.  Tabuk Snipers were never meant to be actual sniper rifles; they were more Designated Marksman’s Rifles, and one of the most common uses was to team them with RPK teams to take out enemy machinegunners and other stubborn targets. They were meant to take out targets beyond the range of the Tabuk assault rifle.  The receiver is based on the RPK, with an Al Quds RPK’s sights, and are often seen using 5, 10, and 20-round magazines, though they can also use standard AK/RPK magazines.  The Two Rivers Tabuk Sniper has a side-mounted optics rail, and is available with the Iraqi standard Zrak Contract Scope, the 4x ON-M99, or the Romanian or Russian versions of the 4x PSO.  Like the standard Tabuk Sniper, finish is hot-blued.  Furniture is European Beech; there are no folding stock Tabuk Snipers.  The stock has a lightening hole in the stock, making it almost skeletonized.  The stocks have a raised, padded cheekpiece.  The barrel is an elongated 23.6 inches, tipped with a long flash suppressor.  Unlike the Two Rivers Tabuk, the Tabuk Sniper is for game purposes a sniper rifle, and are equipped with better barrels and a telkescopic sight as standard, though they do not have a bipod.

Ultimate Arms M4-AR Black Widow

     Notes: Though also made of Ultimate Arms’ proprietary lightweight alloy, the alloy used on the Black Widow is…less intense than the ZK Magna used on the Warmonger.  The metal alloy used on the Black Widow is called Magna T5, and it is a primarily stainless steel and magnesium alloy with a few other metals known only to Ultimate Arms.  The result is a rifle that looks like many other M4-based carbines with a 16-inch barrel, but you pick it up and…it’s really light. The sliding stock looks like a Magpul construction and has six positions.  It’s also uniformly flat black in color, hence the name.  (All it needs is a spider under its barrel!)  The top has a Picatinny Rail extending from the rear of the receiver to the end of the handguard, and there are three other rails on the other sides of the handguard. 

     The 16-inch barrel has a medium profile, but like other Ultimate Arms barrels, is made from ZK Magna and is match-quality and has a treatment equivalent to being cold-forged.  At the tip is a slightly longer version of the A2 flash suppressor.

     On the top of the handguard, the Black Widow comes with adjustable front and rear sights which can be removed to move them to the optimal position for the shooter or to mount another optic.  Two magazines are included which are the same color as the rifle (though they are polymer). Also included in the package is a foregrip, which may be attached to the lower rail.

     Some agencies in the US Government and Military as well as police departments are reputedly looking at this weapon, so I have included automatic fire figures s below, just in case.

Universal Model 1256 Ferret 

     Notes: This is an M-1 Carbine modified to fire the .256 Winchester Magnum round, in an attempt to increase the stopping power of the M-1 Carbine.  Introduced in the late 1970s, it was popular for only a few years before being phased out in the mid-1980s, and few were actually sold.

Vector Arms V53

     Notes: This is basically an HK93 rifle with a chopped barrel – essentially an HK93 dropped down to MP5 size.  The barrel has been cut down to 8.3 inches, and equipped with a flash suppressor.  Though it is primarily sold as a semiautomatic short-barreled rifle, Vector Arms will also supply it in a full-automatic version to law-enforcement, military, and Class III dealers.  Like most Vector Arms weapons, the fit and finish are excellent, and unlike many such clones, it is not a “slapped together” conglomeration of odd parts.  As might be suspected from such a short-barreled weapon, the muzzle blast and noise are great, but the recoil and muzzle climb are not what is normally expected from such a short-barreled rifle.  The V53 can be had with a fixed or sliding stock, and with the barrel /flash suppressor combination or a faux silencer to bring the barrel length to 16 inches for legal purposes (although designed before the sunset of the Brady Gun Bans, it was not sold until afterwards).

     Twilight 2000 Notes: This weapon does not exist.

Vltor TS-3

     Notes: This carbine was featured on the 13 Sep 11 episode of Top Shot, where it was complimented by the shooters as the best combination of features and components they had seen in an AR platform.  The TS-3 is intended to be an evolutionary development of the M4, designed partly by asking M4 users what improvements they would like to see on their M4s.  The improvements Vltor made included the TS-3 Lower Receiver, which has a beveled magazine well, an oversized magazine release button, and a three-position quick detach single-point sling mount.  The VIS-2A-AK upper receiver is called by Vltor “polylithic,” which combines the advantages of a monolithic receiver/MIL-STD-1913 rail and free floating barrel attachment point.  The trigger pack is by Geissele and is a National Match DMR trigger and hammer.  The stock is a Vltor EMod (Enhanced Modstock) with a recoil pad, multiple sling attachment points, and storage for up to eight AA batteries of three 9-volt batteries; the stock has seven extension points instead of the usual six.  The Noveske cold-hammer-forged 15-inch barrel (the Vltor VC-A1 flash suppressor brings the rifle to the required 16.25 legal inches) has a mid-length gas system; the flash suppressor is permanently mounted.  The charging handle is a Bravo Gunfighter Charging Handle, with oversized ears and latch. From TangoDown comes SCAR-type MIL-STD-1913 rails and covering panels; the rails are four-point for the handguard, and the top rail interlocks with the receiver rail.  BUIS sights which attach to the upper rails are by Diamondhead.  As some countries’ police and military forces have shown some interest, I have included auto fire stats; not however that Vltor has not announced such a selector group.