I am a specialized journalist in the field of small arms and defence systems from Italy, but I collaborate also with German and US gun/defense magazine such ash Small Arms Defense Journal. (btw, the signature in the news is from my press agency…)
I’ll be glad if I can contribute and enrich this forum in any way can be reputed useful, if there is any rule for press rapresentative here, I’ll abid to them, just tell.
In the specific, I’ll be glad to answer to any question you might feel is relevant for you.
I was going to post that it’s not-available-in-anything at the moment!
I’m glad that they made a 7.62x39mm variant… now they just need to get some in the US.
Assuming it performs, if this rifle hits the market at a decent price it’s going to completely eat up the market space currently held by Masada/ACR, SCAR-L, and XCR.
The modularity, ejection switch, egos, are all amazing…
I asked the question directly to Beretta in 2009, when the new assault rifle has been officially adopted by Italian Armed Forces and I was testing it for publishing purposes.
The question was if they foresee the chance to produce a civilian version, not one specific for the USA.
The answer from Beretta was that the effort, in this moment, is aimed to produce rifles for the Italian Armed Forces (distribution started after the field test in Afghanistan) to replace the AR70/90.
This is the only reliable answer I got from the company.
Gentlemen, I hope that in this forum there is people interested in real military technology, that’s why I posted about an assault rifle that it has interesting points even if it is NOT available to civilian market.
It’s called “gun culture”.
If you are interested to the civilian version, sorry: Beretta AT THE MOMENT it is not interested.
Policy and marketing can change: US civilian market is big and interesting.
If you are interested in technical question, please do: I am at your disposal.
Maybe I’m the exception to the rule, but I certainly am interested in learning about new rifles, even if they are not available on the US civilian market.
As far as the ARX160, does it use a cold hammer forged barrel? Is it chrome lined? What type of barrel steel? What is the barrel twist rate?
Switchable bolt op handle, folding buttstock, quick change barrel, twin ejectors and extractors, and looks like short stroke piston operation. Looks great but I bet if a civilian versi
Another technical observation: the Beretta ARX160 operating system is a good mix between short stroke and long stroke gas piston system.
Long Stroke: because the telescopic piston extends by the gas action almost all the lenght of the 5.56 NATO case.
Short Stroke: there is NO MECHANICAL linking between op-rod and telescopic gas piston (that’s why you can remove the barrel in seconds with no problems and mount another one). The piston gives only the IMPULSE to the BCG mass to allow it to cycle.
