The BR18 is a

bullpup A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the Chamber (firearms), breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, ...

assault rifle made by

ST Kinetics ST Engineering Land Systems Ltd (STELS), doing business as ST Kinetics, is a strategic business area of ST Engineering and handles land systems and specialty vehicles. In 2000, ST Engineering acquired the Chartered Industries of Singapore (CIS ...

of Singapore. The rifle was officially unveiled at the

Singapore Airshow The Singapore Airshow is a biennial aerospace event held in Singapore, debuted in 2008. It hosts high-level government and military delegations, as well as senior corporate executives around the world, while serving as a global event for leadin ...

2014 as the ''Bullpup Multirole Combat Rifle''. The rifle is designed to fire both 5.56×45mm NATO and ST Kinetics Extended Range 5.56mm ammunition and comes as standard with MIL-STD-1913 Picatinny rails at the three, six, nine and 12 o’clock positions. Its production will enable the Singaporean military to phase out the

SAR 21 The SAR 21 ("Singapore Assault Rifle - 21st Century") is a bullpup assault rifle designed and manufactured in Singapore, chambered for the 5.56x45mm cartridge. First revealed and subsequently adopted by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) as its ...

from service. It is also offered for sale on the international market.

History

The BR18 first made an appearance at the 2012 Singapore Airshow, where it was known as the ''Next-Gen Concept Bullpup Rifle''. In 2014, the BR18 was first unveiled in the Eurosatory exhibition, called the BMCR. The rifle was to be available to both military and law enforcement markets by early 2015. After user trials were conducted in 2017, ST Kinetics demonstrated the production version of the rifle, which was given the name of BR18 at the 2018 Singapore Airshow exhibition.

Design

The BR18's barrel is coated with a proprietary

dry lubricant Dry lubricants or solid lubricants are materials that, despite being in the solid phase, are able to reduce friction between two surfaces sliding against each other without the need for a liquid oil medium. The two main dry lubricants are graphit ...

which repels sand, dust, and gunpowder soot for easier maintenance. The rifle is also designed to be over the beach (OTB) capable, enabling the operator to safely fire after submerging the rifle in water. The weapon is constructed of reinforced, blast-proof polymer and is equipped with MIL-STD-1913 "Picatinny" rails to mount scopes and other tactical accessories. While the design was influenced by the SAR-21, the BR18 allows it to be used by both left or right handed users with empty casing ejections set forward and to the right, away from the person's face if the weapon is fired from the left shoulder. This negates the necessity of a deflector to ensure the person's face is not hit by ejected hot brass. ST Kinetics has said that the BR18 has an effective range of 460 m and 800 m when fired with M193 and SS109 ammunition respectively, with a muzzle velocity of 860 m/s when employing SS109 rounds out of the "Assault" variant, equipped with a 14.5" barrel. The charging handle is placed above the trigger guard. Initial designs showed the charging handle positioned above the cheek rest, which meant that the person would have been forced to move away from the rifle in order to pull the bolt. Pre-production models improved on this by designing the charging handle to be foldable with one hand and pulled back by using two fingers, using the force of the handle moving to be stowed. The trigger guard can be flipped outwards so that the shooter can handle the weapon if using gloves. While a 5.56 version is already scheduled for production, a 7.62x51mm NATO version is currently being developed. The BR18 can use a STK-made 40 GL attached underneath the barrel via picatinny rails.

Gallery

File:BR18-RightSide.jpg, BR18 rifle, right side File:BR18eject.jpg, Ejection port, fire selector and magazine release lever on the BR18 rifle File:BR18strip.jpg, The BR18 rifle, field-stripped File:BR18gasvalve.jpg, The adjustable and removable gas valve on the BR18 rifle File:BR18-Chamber.jpg, The carbon fiber cheekpiece of the BR18 rifle slides open to provide access to the chamber for troubleshooting

Variants

The BR18 is available in the following configurations: * Assault rifle: Has an overall length of 645mm with a barrel. * Light machine gun: Has a barrel. * Marksman rifle.

References

External links