3-Gun Nation is a growing sport and it can played with real firearms, airgun and airsoft as well. For those who are not familiar with this sport, it involves, as it name says, proficiency in shooting a rifle, pistol and shotgun and being fast at it in any given course of fire.

Sounds fun right? A good number of airsoft shooters who do airsoft practical pistol or Action Air, also are into 3-Gun Nation Airsoft (3GN Airsoft), to widen their practical shooting skills and they go through classifier stages and find out how they fare on courses against competitors. So far, the real firearms portion of 3-Gun is already widely competitive and 3-Gun Airsoft is having increasing following in Hong Kong, some parts of Europe and the U.S.A.

Compared to Action Air, 3GN Airsoft is more resource intensive as it requires the shooter to bring 3 guns for any 3GN shoot. Thus, expenditures is no joke given that one has to do upgrades to 3 types of airsoft guns to be able to be a competitive shooter as compared to just a pistol in Action Air. So before one has to get into 3GN Airsoft, one will need to think hard before splashing money into it.

But you can try 3-Gun in the comfort of your home before going to the range and try the real deal. 3-Gun Nation are realizing a 3-Gun Nation VR so you can try 3-Gun using your PC and VR helmet or if you are already a 3-Gun Nation shooter, practice at home with the VR contraption.

3-Gun Nation VR was developed by 3GN in cooperation with Hong Kong-based video game studio Team Bravo.  The studio had developed a practical shooting-based game known as “Drills VR.”

In an article at the 3GN website, Pete Brown, 3GN President said that, “The guys at Team B were introduced to us by Kevin Chau, our Regional Director for Asia,” They wanted to create a 3-Gun game with us that mimics the real thing, right down to our club series classification system, classifier stages, natural terrain ‘outlaw’ stages and even the man-on-man shoot-offs.”

Kevin Chau, who is a pillar in the airsoft practical shooting community in Hong Kong is also in charge of 3GN Airsoft and building a following for the discipline Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.

Expected to be released by the 1st of March 2019 on Steam, 3-Gun Nation VR includes embedded videos and resources that can guide shooters the baseline of what real 3-Gun competition is like.

“Nothing can replace real firearm training and safety, however if we can push a fraction the game users to get real training, the technology can only help us grow and create new shooters,” adds Brown.

Using the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive platforms, 3-Gun VR will require Windows 10, a minimum of 8GB RAM, 2GB Disk Space, and an Nvidia GTX 1050 graphics card. It’s also expensive given the costs of the VR helmets are not what you call to be affordable, but at least you can also play other VR games with them.

We’re not done yet writing about Battle Royale Games as another one just got released and it’s from the developers of Titanfall, Respawn Entertainment. Whilst many were expecting for the studio to release Titanfall 3, which is the shooter game that involves mech giants called Titans, they releasedApex Legends and it aims to battle Fortnite and PUBG to be the king of Battle Royale games.

Still set in the Titanfall universe, Apex Legends takes place 20 years after Titanfall 2 and three player squads go up against squads with a total of 57 players. It does feature the usual Battle Royale features --- scouring the map for weapons and ammo, Apex Legends has some unique features as well. One is that each player can select a Legend character that has certain skills and abilities to and can be customised. Another is that players can be respawned if their team mates, within a short period of time, perform certain actions so their killed member can get back into the game.

So why did Respawn Entertainment release Apex Legends instead of a Titanfall 3? Indeed, Titanfall 3 was in the works in 2017 when it was purchased by EA (Electronic Arts). In a report at Polygon, they were already looking into a survival game along the lines of the PUBG and Fortnite and rather than having the Titans as part of the game, they developed character classes so it will be an even footing players. EA kept the game under wraps, making it a secret, until they announced surprising everyone.

Upon its release, Apex Legends already gathered 10 million players and already achieved a peak of 1 million concurrent users. That’s an impressive stat, but still a long way to matching the leaders such as Fornite which registered over 8 million concurrent users in December 2018.

Apex Legends is free to play and revenues are generated via microtransactions in which players will be able to buy in-game currency.  The currency can then be used for purchasing new Legend characters and loot boxes that are called Apex Packs.

Apex Legends is now available to download. It is playable on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

With the U.S. Army now issuing the new M17 service pistol to its soldiers, it also announced a requirement last Fall of the need for a Pistol Aiming Light (PAiL) which will replace the for the AN/PEQ-14 and will be used with the M17 which is based on the SIG Sauer P320 Pistol.

One requirement for this PAiL is that it should be selected among COTS (Commercial Off The Shelf) products and have evaluated two products. Right before the SHOT Show 2019, the Army announced that it has awarded LaserMax Defense the contract to provided its Pistol Enhancer, beating the Streamlight TLR series.

LaserMax Defense says that the Pistol Enhancer is the smallest, lightest and most efficient white light/IR Illuminator/IR laser on the market. The c ompany designed this new product to fit the US Military’s requirements for a rugged pistol enhancer capable. The Pistol Enhancer unit features ambidextrous activation either in momentary or continuous mode, and it has three-position rotary switch to select white light, IR illuminator and IR laser, or full off. Battery changes can be easily done without removing the unit from the weapon, avoiding the need to re-zero windage and elevation.

With the Pistol Enhancer part of the M17 kit which will also include a holster to accommodate it and the pistol. It will also be used with the more compact M18 pistol.

The U.S. Army will be buying US$580 million worth of M17 and M18 pistols which is seen to be at least 230,000 pistols. But not all will be receiving the pistol kit that includes the Pistol Enhancer and the corresponding holster. LaserMax Defense will be providing 20,000 units for the U.S. Army.

Other branches of the U.S. Armed Forces such as the Air Force and Coast Guard are also fielding the M17 Pistol, and they may be interested in the Pistol Enhancer as well. The U.S. Marines are also acquiring the M17/M18 pistol but have not indicated if they will require a laser/light module.

It’s the moment that the finalists of the 9th Airsoft Players’ Choice Awards have been waiting for, the winner announcement. After two months of working on getting the nomination and then rallying fans, customers, and friends to vote for them, they will finally find out if they have bagged one of the biggest achievements in airsoft, a win in a category in the Airsoft Players’ Choice Awards.

The winners of the 9th Airsoft Players' Choice Awards are chosen by Popular Airsoft readers. First by giving their nods during the Nomination Period and then voting who or what deserves to win in the Voting/Finals Period The process which is tedious as we said years backs, but that’s what it takes to ensure that the winners do deserve our readers approval.

Our thanks to all the readers and airsoft players who have supported the awards by nominating and voting in the Awards. Without their participation, winners won’t be chosen.

Our thanks to all the Sponsors the awards, without their support we won’t be able to pull off the awards in the past nine years.

Here is what many have been waiting for, the complete list of the winners of the 9th Airsoft Players Choice Awards:

BEST AIRSOFT RETAILER FOR NORTH AMERICA

Evike.com

BEST AIRSOFT RETAILER FOR EUROPE

Gunfire

BEST AIRSOFT RETAILER FOR ASIA

RedWolf Airsoft

BEST GEAR RETAILER FOR NORTH AMERICA

Evike.com

BEST GEAR RETAILER FOR EUROPE

Military 1st

BEST GEAR RETAILER FOR ASIA

Laylax

BEST AIRSOFT MAGAZINE (PRINT OR DIGITAL)

Airsoft Action Magazine

BEST ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWS WEBSITE

Airsoft & Milsim News Blog

BEST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE NEWS WEBSITE

Red Army Airsoft

BEST AIRSOFT BLOG  (REGARDLESS OF LANGUAGE)

Hyperdouraku

BEST AIRSOFT COMMUNITY

Airsoft Nation

BEST AIRSOFT VIDEO POSTED ONLINE

World's 1st Smart Airsoft Grenade: Avatar - RWTV

BEST AIRSOFT EVENT OVER 500 PLAYERS

Border War 10 – The Beast Slayer

BEST AIRSOFT PODCAST OR VIDEO CHANNEL

Airsoftology

BEST AIRSOFT UPGRADES/PARTS MAKER

Laylax

BEST AIRSOFT KABOOM MAKER

Tactical Game Innovation (TAGInn)

BEST AIRSOFT HPA ENGINE

PolarStar Airsoft F2

BEST AIRSOFT PISTOL (REGARDLESS OF POWER SOURCE)

Tokyo Marui Glock 19 3rd Generation

BEST AIRSOFT GAS BLOWBACK RIFLE

Tokyo Marui MTR16 GBB Rifle

BEST AIRSOFT SHOTGUN

Tokyo Marui M870 Tactical Gas Shotgun

BEST AIRSOFT SNIPER RIFLE

Silverback Airsoft Desert Tech SRS-A1

BEST AIRSOFT ELECTRIC GUN (THREE-WAY TIE)

ASG Evo Scorpion Evo 3 A1

G&G ARP9 AEG

Tokyo Marui HK416 Delta Custom NGRS

BEST AIRSOFT MANUFACTURER

Tokyo Marui

SPECIAL AIRSOFT PLAYER AWARD (MALE)

Alexander Levchenko
Marty Airsoft

SPECIAL AIRSOFT PLAYER AWARD (FEMALE)

Aleeia Marcelo
P90 Girl

The awarding ceremonies will be held at the Airsoft Meetup during the IWA Outdoor Classics 2019 in Nuremberg, Germany on the 10th of March 2019. For the winners who are able to attend the Airsoft Meetup, please get in touch with us so we can bring your award for the Awarding Ceremony. For those who won’t be able to attend, please contact us so we can arrange the delivery of your award which we shall do after the IWA Outdoor Classics 2019.

Please do take time to click on the logos of our sponsors and visit their websites. Without them, the Awards won't be a reality and there will be no cool raffle prizes to give away:

Thank you once again for making the Airsoft Players’ Choice Awards a success again for the ninth year. See you at the 10th Airsoft Players’ Choice Awards!

The excitement about winning an award for some of the finalists of the 9th Airsoft Players’ Choice Awards, there is another important part that we need to do before we officially close the Awards process and it is the announcement of the Raffle Prize Winners.

As a way of thanking our readers for their participation in the awards by nominating and voting for the finalists, since we cannot give everyone something in return for their enthusiastic support, they get to chance to win any of the awesome prizes that were contributed by the Sponsors for the raffle draw.

The lucky raffle prize winners of the 9th Airsoft Players Choice Awards (their names with asterisks to avoid their names and email addresses harvested by web spiders used by spammers and for our privacy reasons) are the following:

TOKYO MARUI MTR16 GAS BLOWBACK RIFLE

michel***********@orange.fr (France)

TOKYO MARUI JGSDF TYPE 89 GAS BLOWBACK RIFLE

hans********@yahoo.de (Germany)

TOKYO MARUI M&P9L PC PORTED GAS BLOWBACK PISTOL

juan_*******@*cloud.com (Spain)

SET 1

SA-V26 Assault Rifle Replica Specna Arms - RED EDITION
Buff Armored Claw
Patch Specna Arms RED GUN
Patch Gunfire

caroline********@hotmail.com (Sweden)

SET 2:

Carabine Replika Specna Arms SA-C09 CORE - HALF-TAN
Buff Armored Claw
Patch Specna Arms RED GUN
Patch Gunfire

renzo********@live.nl (Netherlands)

SET 3:

Blast Plate Carrier Tactical Vest Primal Gear
Buff Armored Claw
Patch Specna Arms Carbine - tan
Patch Gunfire

kwiec*******@wp.pl (Poland)

HELIKON RATEL MK2 BACKPACK SHADOW GREY (From Military 1st)

ric.*********@gmail.com (Portugal)

PENTAGON KYLER BACKPACK WOLF GREY (From Military 1st)

watamaru****@***.biglobe.ne.jp (Japan)

We would like to thank all the sponsors for supporting the Awards to what it is right now, the biggest airsoft event online. Please do take time to visit their websites by clicking on their logos:

And on that bombshell, we officially close the 9th Airsoft Players Awards. See you at the 10th!

The biggest news in the Terminator movie franchise last year was the return of Linda Hamilton who will be playing the role of Sarah Connor again. But whilst it was exciting news to have one of the badass female action stars “back into action”, so to speak, many wondered what title this latest Terminator movie will be.

Thank god, it does not go with a title similar to “Gensys” and James Cameron also has regained the rights to the series and thus, may put the fortunes of the flagging series up.

With the disappointment in Gensys and Salvation, will Cameron be rebooting the series with a new trilogy. In 2017, he was questioning if Terminator is still relevant given that what were just supposed to be science fiction in the 1980s when the first and hugely successful Terminator film was released, such as drones and artificial intelligence, are already in the real world. So whatever Cameron is thinking for this new film, it may just go beyond to what we already have been used to in the series.

The working title will be “Terminator: Dark Fate” and James Cameron says in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment that it is a direct sequel to the “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” which was also a big hit. Connecting “Dark Fate” to “Judgement Day” means that Cameron is disregarding the three Terminator films (“Rise of the Machines, “Salvation, and “Gensys”).

Arnold Schwarzenegger will be playing a T-800 model again, though it is said that it is going to be a different T-800 as we know it.  Will he be playing the hunter T-800 or the T-800 protector for “Dark Fate”? But what we are more curious to know is how Sarah Connor, played by Hamilton, has evolved since “Judgement Day”. Has age softened her or perhaps she has grown hardened over time?

Shooting for “Dark Fate” is taking place in UK, Mexico, Spain and Hungary with a behind the scenes of the Hungary filming shown here. If all goes well, the film will premiere on October 31 in the UK and November 1, 2019 in the U.S.

The hits just keep coming for SIG Sauer as they are bagging large contracts in the military sector. The most prominent win was the MHS program of the U.S. Army leading to the supply of M17 and M18 pistols and the other branches in the U.S. Army following suit in adopting these pistols. Now, another win for the company as it gets a contract from another country which has the second the largest standing army in the world, the Indian Army.

The contract will partially replace the 1B1 INSAS, the standard rifle of the Indian Army which is said to be problematic, with the SIG716 rifle. This also marks a shift from the 5.56mm NATO for the 1B1 INSAS to the 7.62mm NATO round. There is a trend in militaries at moving to a larger round in order to defeat the body armour of potential enemies which is said that the 5.56mm may lack the penetration power.

“This is the first large firearms procurement of the Indian Government in decades, and the explicit mission for this tender was to modernize the infantry troopers of the Indian Army with the best rifle available,” began Ron Cohen, President and CEO, SIG SAUER, Inc. said in a press release. “We competed in an open tender with small arms manufacturers from around the world. The SIG716 rifle underwent a comprehensive and exhaustive testing and evaluation process where it outperformed the competition, and was ultimately chosen, and met all the criteria, as the best rifle to modernize the Indian Army.”

The Indian Army is spending serious money for a new rifle and has allocated US$503 million to supply its troops with a new service rifle.

The SIG716 is an AR-style rifle that still features of the SIG516 but chambered in 7.62 x 51mm. It uses a short stroke piston-driven operating system with an M1913 Mil-Std rail, free-floating barrel, aluminum forend, M-Lok handguard and 6-position telescoping stock. There are two versions, the SIG716G2 Patrol and the SIG716G2 DMR though we expect the SIG716 rifle for the Indian Army to be customised to meet its requirements.

“The global importance of this contract for SIG SAUER is far reaching based on the size, location, and economic strength of India in the global market. We are very proud, and honored that the SIG716 was chosen for use by the fighting forces of the Indian Army, and we are looking forward to developing a strong partnership with India’s Ministry of Defense,” added Cohen.

There is also another winner with Caracal International of the UAE getting the nod to supply the CAR816 another AR-style rifle that is chambered in the NATO 5.56mm round and is also a short stroke pushrod gas piston design. It will be mainly used for CQB situations and replaces the rather vintage 9mm Sterling a famous World War II SMG. The contract is about 94,000 of this rifle.

If you have read about the best-selling book by Robert  O'Neill, who revealed he was the SEAL who killed Osama Bin Laden in the Abbottabad Raid, then there is a chance that you might see it on the silvers screen as Universal & Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video have purchased the movie rights to the book “The Operator: Firing the Shots That Killed Osama Bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior”.

The books is an autobiography of O’Neill and it is in it that he made the revelation of firing the shot that killed the leader of Al Qaeda and the most wanted terrorist in the world. According to Deadline Hollywood, Michaels is producing, O’Neill as executive producer with Kristin Lowe and Mika Pryce overseeing for Universal. Michael Russell Gunn, who is the supervising producer of Billions at Showtime, will be writing the script.

Robert J. O'Neill (Wikipedia)

For those who have not read the book, it is about the account of O’Neill  starting as a young boy in Montana, who learned how to shoot then decided to join the Marines only to  be directed to join the Navy SEALS. He graduated from Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL (BUD/S) Training class and  served with SEAL Team Two from 1997 to 2001 and SEAL Team Four from 2001 to 2004. He then joined the elite Naval Special Warfare Development Group afterwards

Throughout his time in the U.S. Navy SEALs,  he has been involved in some of the most harrowing missions two of which were turned into movies such as the rescue of Marcus Luttrell in “Lone Survivor” (Operation Red Wings) and the rescue of Captain Richard Phillips in “Captain Phillips (Maersk Alabama hijacking). But of course, the most significant mission in his career was in Operation Neptune Spear in 2011 where he revealed in the book that he killed Osama Bin Laden.

There is no definite information on the production of the movie will take place it is still very much in its early stages.

After FLIR got awarded by the French Armed Forces a contract worth US$89 Million of the Black Hornet nano-unmanned aerial vehicle last January 19, the U.S. Army also did the same by awarding the company the contract to supply the Black Hornet worth US$39.6 last January 24 as part of its Sensor Borne Program (SBS).

The Black Hornet  is not exactly new in terms of use by militaries. The British Ministry of Defense was one of the first to procure the pocket-sized drones in the form of the Black Hornet PD-100 and the U.S. Special Forces began evaluating the same model in 2015. Thus, the capabilities of this drone has been thoroughly tested to it is considered for use by army regular units. The Black Hornet 3 is an upgraded version of the Black Hornet PD-100.

“We are proud to be selected by the U.S. Army for the SBS Program of Record. This contract represents a significant milestone with the operational large-scale deployment of nano-UAVs into the world’s most powerful Army,” said Jim Cannon, President and CEO of FLIR Systems in a press release. “This contract is a major win for the newly established Unmanned Systems & Integrated Solutions business division at FLIR and demonstrates the strong and urgent demand for nano-UAV technology offered by FLIR. Protecting U.S. warfighters with our unmanned solutions is a key objective for FLIR.”

According to FLIR, the Black Hornet PRS equips the non-specialist dismounted soldier with immediate covert situational awareness (SA). Its EO and IR technology bridges the gap between aerial and ground-based sensors, with the same SA as a larger UAV and threat location capabilities of UGVs. It has a flight time of 25 minutes, a maximum range of 1.25 miles and can provide live video feed and HD quality videos back to its controller.

The Black Hornet 3 is about 7-inches long and weighs less than a tenth of a pound. It comes with a docking station that can hold two drones and a handheld device with a touch screen. With its thermal imaging system it can help identify objects and persons in the dark.

The U.S.  Army is expecting the initial batch of the FLIR Black Hornet 3 in June.

With the trend of building AR-style SBRs or AR-pistols that use the 9mm magazine in the real steel and airsoft industries, Tippmann Armory just went crazy in building their own 9mm gun. How crazy? Well, it is a Tippmann Armory 9mm Gatling Gun!

When we hear about Tippmann, we always associate the name of Paintball, and in recent years Airsoft as well. But under the Tippmann Armory brand, they are in the airgun business with their Rolling Block series which are rifles that modern versions of the Remington rolling block Model 1 variation.

The 9mm design that was on display at the SHOT Show 2019 is a scaled down version of the 1865 Gatling Gun, a multi-barrel rotary cannon. Just like the original Gatling gun, it is a hand-cranked rotary gun rather than than a true automatic rotary cannon which we see in the form of the Vulcan minigun these days.

To feed this mini 9mm Gatling Gun, one can load 9mm Glock magazines. While it operates like the 1865 Gatling Gun, it does not totally look like as its wheels look more contemporary unlike that the original which of course uses the wheel designs seen in vehicles of the 19th Century. When fired the casings from the 9mm rounds fall to the bottom of the gun.

Now, the price you say? According to the company representatives at the SHOT Show 2019, the dealer price if US$3,000 which means the retail price will be higher ones retailers put in their markup. That’s a bit steep for something that you would put on display rather than bring it to the range for some handcranking action. But there will always be people with money to burn that will be interested in a novelty gun.

Will one be made for airsoft? It is doable given than there are already mini-guns in airsoft. I’m pretty sure that the power source will be HPA to make it work.

Here is a video from the Armory Blog for a quick walkthrough of the gun:

Photo source: Tippmann Armory on Facebook.

When going out in groups whether playing airsoft or out in the outdoors, you want a way to communicate with your mates. That’s where mobile phones and radios come in as they allow you to talk to them. But then mobile phones cannot allow group talk and radios require push-to-talk to start transmitting a message.

What if there’s another way of talking to them hands free? I for one would prefer one as I have only two hands. In airsoft I would prefer my hands to be on my gun, one to hold it, the other to squeeze the trigger. Now, if I can do both whilst talking to my teammates without worrying about pushing a button just to talk, then, I am always at the ready during a game.

That’s where the BONX Grip Group Talk System comes in.

The BONX Grip is an earpiece that is connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth using the BONX app. It works by detecting your voice so there is no need to touch a button and it has a dual-microphone with digital noise-canceling technology that according to its makers, gives a clear sound in even the most extreme conditions. But if you still want to talk walkie-talkie style, there is still a button for a push-to-talk mode which is one of the buttons with the other being the toggle button. The PTT button also allows you to mute the microphones in case you want private chat with someone proximate to you.

The BONX Grip allows up to 10 people for a group chat, and for an airsoft team, that’s already a big group that can coordinate an attack or defence during gameplay. The distance is even wider as compared to PMR radios since it uses the smartphone’s data connectivity via mobile internet or Wifi. So just make sure you still have enough left on your monthly data plan so you can talk to your team for the duration of an airsoft event.

As it uses cellular connectivity, it will work anywhere where the is a signal from your carrier, which usually means the nearest cell site. In case you lose signal, it will immediate reconnect you once connection is restored.

The battery life is of the BONX Grip is around 7 hours of use with the BONX app and has an estimated standby of 400 hours. It can be charged with a powerbank if there is no mains charger nearby. It has an IPX5 waterproof rating.

Available in four colours, the BONX Grip comes with S, M, and L grips that go around your ear. There are S and M ear tips for the speaker side. They are a bit expensive, costing £89 quid on Amazon and with that amount, you can already buy four BaoFeng UV-5R Dual Band Two-Way radios, the preferred radios amongst airsoft players. But if you want to convenience of an earpiece and hands free communications, then you might want to consider getting one and badger your team mates to get their own.

Is Modern Warfare 4 the definite title for this year’s Call of Duty? If indeed it is true, what is even better for those who miss the Modern Warfare series is that it is also confirmed that the Story Mode or Campaign Mode will also return after it was left off in Black Ops 4 which was more focused on the Battle Royale Mode.

In an investors’ call at Activision, President Rob Kostich said that, "It’s going to feature an entirely new campaign, a huge and expansive multiplayer world, and of course some fun co-op gameplay."

"I will say that the team that’s building this game for us in Activision is building what they believe the best Call of Duty we’ve ever built," Activision CFO Dennis Durkin also added during the earnings call.

If it is going to be Modern Warfare 4, it is really imperative that the story mode should return given the disappointment shown by some players in Black Ops 4. But it is really important for the Story Mode to be with Modern Warfare 4, given that the story of the Modern Warfare series is the most followed in the Call of Duty series and perhaps one of the most followed in gaming history.

For those who have played the Modern Warfare series, such us here at Popular Airsoft, we want continuity in the story on how the world moved on post Soap and if Captain Price will remain with Task Force 141 or if a whole new set of Modern Warfare characters will emerge after Modern Warfare 3.

Perhaps, we are getting ahead of ourselves assuming that it will be Modern Warfare 4. But if it is going to be the best  Call of Duty game, then it should be able to beat the sales of Modern Warfare 3, which is the best selling game in the franchise.

In a posting on Reddit’s /r/MW4 who claimed to worked at Treyarch as a Q&A tester, made of a list of what he heard from those other Q&A testers, which seems to confirm that it is going to be Modern Warfare 4 and that there will remastered versions of Modern Warefare 2 and 3 to be bundled with it. But he cautions that readers should take it with a grain of salt.

The build-up may still be early so official sources are keeping mum on the details of the next Call of Duty title. We’ll just have to wait until the official reveal and then we can be really excited about it, if it is going to be Modern Warfare 4, that is.

With the cancellation of over 1,000 flights at Gatwick Airport due to drone sightings last December 2018 and other reports of drones affecting other airports, the UK government has finally decided to extend the drone no-fly zone around airports from 1 kilometre to 5 kilometres. This will take effect on the 13th of March 2019.

The information was published at Drone Safe UK:

On 13 March 2019 the drone flight restriction zone around airports and airfields changes. The government has introduced a new rule stating that the 1km restriction from the airfield boundary is replaced by a restriction using the airfield’s existing aerodrome traffic zone, which has a radius of either two or two and a half nautical miles and then five kilometres by one kilometre zones starting from the point known as the ‘threshold’ at the end of each of the airfield’s runways. Both zones extend upwards to a height of 2,000 feet above the airfield. It is illegal to fly any drone at any time within these restricted zones unless you have permission from air traffic control at the airport or, if air traffic control is not operational, from the airport itself.

The UK government also intends via new legislation to extend police powers with the police being able to stop and search people who are suspected of breaching the no-fly zone areas. Part of such proposed legislation will allow the police as long as they get a warrant to access electronic data stored in a drone.

For drone owners, there are already maps available that they can consult to see the restrictions at some of the major airports in the UK that can be found at the Drone Safe UK website.

Existing drone regulations already restrict drones from flying above 400 feet and violating rules can result into a prison sentence up to 5 years. Those who use drones for commercial activities such as surveying will need to ask permission if they will conduct it in a no-fly zone.

Some airsoft events use drones for various purposes such as for aerial videos of the game below or for reconnaissance. Events organisers should consult their maps if the game sites are within the restricted areas of airports and other installations that are considered to be off limits by the government.

The Halo live action TV Series surely is having a hard time getting off the ground. The TV series has been planned 6 years ago, but sometimes plans do not go accordingly. Whilst Microsoft gave the green light for production last year with Showtime behind this and that it will be shown as a paid series on cable, the pieces of the puzzle still need to fall into place.

The last year’s press release was that Rupert Wyatt (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) will be directing the 10-episode series. However, Wyatt then left the project a few months after the announcement due to conflict in schedules.

Otto Bathurst will be directing the popular video game franchise on the Xbox game console according to Deadline and Kyle Killen will be part of the show as writer, executive producer and showrunner. Otto Bathurst is known for the first directing the first episode of the “Black Mirror” in 2011 and the 2018 "Robin Hood" that got nominated for Worst Picture at the Razzies.

Furthermore, from the original 10 episodes, it will be a 9-episode season with 343 Industries, the game studio behind the Halo series and Amblin Entertainment of Steven Spielberg involved in the project. Bathurst will direct multiple episodes for the series. The series adaptation will take place in the universe that first came to be in 2001 and it will be dramatizing an epic 26th-century war by humanity against an alien threat known as the Covenant.

Will a live action Halo project be a success just like the video game franchise which is massively successful? The live action digital series “Halo: Nightfall” was considered to be not good and the planned Halo movie never happened. The production of the TV series is expected to start early this year.

CBS International will be in charge of international distribution.

The news that eHobby Asia may be closing down for good caught the airsoft world off guard. The company is facing high rents as Hong Kong is famously known for some the most expensive real estate in the world, and such a situation makes it hard to do business if it is dragging revenues down.

eHobby Asia went on a big sale promo last month and as of the first of February, the physical store was closed. Our news post speculating if the company has finally threw in the towel went viral, with airsoft players around the world lamenting the closure of the store where they got their first airsoft gun, their first airsoft gear by ordering online, or remembering the time they were able to drop by the store to gawk at the products on display.

There was a lot of outpouring of support from airsoft players upon hearing the news that the eHobby Asia may be gone for good, hoping that the company will soldier on to provide the usual business of supplying airsoft players worldwide with the airsoft guns and gear they need.

So we have good news, eHobby Asia will continue doing business!

According to a reliable source, eHobby Asia be will giving up its walk-in store on the ground floor as the rent is expensive. They will be focusing on the online business and will be still be holding office on the upper floors at their present location in San Po Kong and are more affordable (or perhaps a new place where they get a warehouse at better rates). The area does not have much foot traffic in terms of shoppers as compared to Dundas and Yim Po Fong Streets in Mong Kok which are also known as the “airsoft alley” and there are more shoppers there but also a very expensive area to rent for business.

The company will be revamping their online store so they can focus on pure online business play. There is no official announcement but there is still a lot to do for them as inventory is virtually non-existent as you cannot find almost anything at their online store, there are no airsoft guns on sale, and just some bits being sold there. They will have to replenish their stocks first before they can finally say they’re back in business.

So just patience before all will be normal again at eHobby Asia, and that will be good news to many airsoft players worldwide who connect to them for their airsoft needs mainly online.

Photo Source:eHobby Asia Facebook Page

It’s less than two weeks left before the trade event in which you can see a large presence of the global airsoft industry, the IWA Outdoor Classics 2019, takes place. We will be covering the event and our schedule for four days in Nuremberg, Germany is getting filled up quick. But one thing for sure, it’s going to be a four fun-filled days.

This will culminate in the large gathering of the airsoft industry, media, and community --- the Airsoft Meetup 2019. Now on its 8th year, it is one of the must attend events for airsoft at the IWA Outdoor Classics. If will be attending the meetup, you will get to rub elbows with the who’s who in airsoft and meet some of the names you read online in one room.

If you have not gotten your free tickets to the event, better go to the Airsoft Meetup website right now and get yours. Seats are reserved to a maximum of 100 attendees and last year, it was fully packed that others had to stand up.

With a revised schedule of 1400-1700H, companies presenting are RedWolf Airsoft, Gunfire, Airsoft Innovations, and Titan Power. The Panel Discussion, which was well received last year, is back and it has two components: Community Discussion for anything that affects the airsoft community; and the Industry Discussion in which company representatives talk about the state of the airsoft industry.

As always, to conclude the Meetup is the awarding ceremonies of the 9th Airsoft Players Choice Awards and winners who are present at the Airsoft Meetup get to receive their shiny salvers to proudly bring home.

Slickaxe of NLAirsoft.com and Master Chief of Popular Airsoft will again be the masters of ceremonies for this year.

Before, we publish the proceedings of the Airsoft Meetup a week after the IWA Outdoor Classics in which you get to watch all the video presentations. For this year, we will be livestreaming the event on Facebook and YouTube so if you won’t be attending the Airsoft Meetup this year, you and other airsoft players around the world can watch the livestream of the Airsoft Meetup in real-time. We’ll still post the different presentations as standalone videos a week after the event.

It’s still best if we get to see you at the Hong Kong Room, Level 1, Nuremberg Messe OST (East). Block off 1400 – 1700H on the 10th of March 2019 and we get to watch and listen to the movers and shakers in airsoft. See you there!

Famous German firearms manufacturer Heckler & Koch, whose airsoft versions of its guns are big favorites amongst airsoft, just got received a hefty fine leveled against by the Stuttgart Court District four days ago. After a 10-month trial involving employees of the company, the company got fined US$4.2 million in sales to Mexico that violated the War Weapons Control Act.

According to DW.com, former CEO Peter B. was acquitted while two employees, Marianne B. and Ingo S., who do mainly administrative duties, were found guilty. The fine is the approximate value of the G36 rifles that were sold to Mexico at the time of their sale, which will result into an actual loss for the company if it pays the fine.

The two employees found guilty were given 17 and 22 months of suspended prison sentences. A total of five employees were charged with prosecutors pushing for jail sentences to three of them.

Germany has strict arms export laws, not allowing for weapons sales to strife-torn regions. In this case Heckler & Koch violated the War Weapons Control Act by selling more than 4,000 G36 assault rifles and ammo to a government buyer in Mexico. These rifle were sold in 16 batches from 2006 to 2009 with the the guns finding their way into Mexican states that are rife with murders and kidnappings and are in the list of restricted locations such as Chiapas, Chihuahua and Guerrero.

The guns are believed to have been used in the 2014 kidnapping and most likely murder of 43 students from a teachers college in Iguala, Guerrero. The criminal incident drew widespread condemnation internationally.

The case was pressed by Juergen Grasslin, a veteran activist connected to the Global Net — Stop The Arms Trade NGO who brought the suit against H&K in 2010 and also blamed the German government’s failure in the oversight of weapons sales. He was actually surprised at the fine, thinking that it will only be based on the profits from the sale.

Here is the initial reaction of H&K as posted at their website:

We will examine today’s verdict carefully. We can however not understand the Court’s decision that we should not only forfeit the profit generated on the Mexico business but instead forfeit the entire sales price, despite the fact that none of the directors committed an offence. This should have been taken into account. In addition, the Court could have taken account in its verdict of the fact that from the beginning, Heckler & Koch has supported the proceedings and the active investigation and fully cooperated with the public prosecutor. This included the company initiating a comprehensive special investigation and providing the prosecutor with the detailed, over 100 pages long, report of this.

It is believed that the fine will have an impact on the finances of the company which has been experiencing financial difficulties. The company has over 700 employees located in Germany, France, the UK and the USA.

If you have no plans going out with your mates for a night out or an airsoft game this weekend? You might want to watch the finals of Battle Arena, the world’s growing force-on-force international airsoft tournament. For two days, the top Battle Arena teams from countries in Europe, North America, and Asia will be battling it out to determine which team will take home the honour of being the Season 5 winner.

If you think Battle Arena is like a live-action version of eSports such as Rainbow Six: Siege or Counterstrike, you cannot be far off the mark. Originated in Russia, more airsoft teams have gone through various country qualifications, from the U.S.A. to China just to make it to the world finals in Finland this weekend, and it will be hosted by ASA Airsoft located in Helsinki.

So how will the Battle Arena Season 5 Finals unfold this weekend? From 2 to 3 March 2019, 16 teams divided into four groups will go through the various scenarios. It is explained by the organizes in this Facebook post:

Better bookmark those video channels on Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and VKontakte whatever is your preferred social media or video sharing platform.  The livestream will be available in English or Russian languages, so select which language you prefer. We don’t know if there will be live auto-caption on YouTube, but it’s best to just watch and see the leaderboards.

Will watching the Battle Arena Season 5 finals inspire airsoft teams from around the world to work on be being Battle Arena teams? The organisers surely hope so and interested airsoft game site owners can contact them on how to organise their own Batte Arena events so they can hold their own qualifier and send a team to represent their country. Game sites that have been certified by the Battle Arena organisers can hold qualifiers for the tournament.

Take note that the event will take place from 0900H on the 2nd March up to 1800H 3rd of March (UTC+2). In case you will miss recorded live sessions will be posted on social media sites that Battle Arena has a presence.

To the teams going to Finland, good luck!

The Russian Army is to start testing the RPK-16 LMG. First unveiled in 2016 by Kalashnikov Concern and revealed public in ARMY-2017, a contract for an undetermined number of RPK-16s was signed by the Ministry of Defense last year. In a press release by the Ministry of Defense, specialists of the Moscow Higher All-Arms Command School began experimental-military operation of the new LMG.

The RPK-16 derives some of its design features from the AK-12 program and it is intended to replace the RPK-74 LMG/Squad Automatic Weapon that is in use in the Russian military. In May 2016, the Russian Interior Ministry announced a tender for a contract for a new Light Machine Gun of the same caliber as the RPK-74 with interchangeable barrels, can be versatile to use in urban operations, and fires at 800 rounds per minute.

The RPK-16 is chambered in the 5.45×39mm cartridge and uses the traditional Kalashnikov gas-operated long-stroke piston system. It is also equipped with Picatinny rails to mount weapons accessories such as aiming devices, polymer handguard and a detachable suppressor. There is no integrated bipod and if needed, a bipod can be attached to it.

It has an interchangeable barrel system with a 550m long barrel for the light machine gun role and a 370mm shorter barrel if for use as an assault rifle. Barrel change can be done quickly without the need for tools and if used as an assault rifle with its stock folded, it can be used for close quarters.  The four-position telescopic stock also contains a cleaning kit.

A high capacity drum magazine containing 96 rounds can be used with it was developed and it can use existing AK magazines depending on the calibre of its configuration.

The soldiers from the Moscow Higher All-Arms Command School will assess the technical and accuracy characteristics, as well as the ease of operation and maintenance of these weapons. They will then give feedback for Kalashnikov Concern to make the necessary adjustments. Tests are expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2019 according to the company.

Next week is the IWA Outdoor Classics 2019 in Nuremberg, Germany wherein we shall see the airsoft industry in full force. But two days before is the ENFORCE TAC 2019 a more security-focused trade fair and we see more activity of the firearms industry as they present their products to potential defense and security buyers.

At this event, FN Herstal will put on display for the first time the .300 BLK version of their SCAR-SC, the subcompact carbine that is the smallest member of the FN SCAR family. The FN SCAR-SC was first unveiled at the Milipol France in 2017 and it was initially chambered in the 5.56x45mm. FN Herstal also mentioned that the .300 BLK was also in the works.

The FN SCAR-SC .300 version has a KeyMod receiver as compared to the 5.56mm which just has the usually Picatinny rails. It still sports the adjustable buttstock and is marketed towards law enforcement organizations.

Press release from FN Herstal below:

FN SCAR®-SC NOW AVAILABLE IN .300 BLK CALIBER: ONE OF THE NEWEST DEVELOPMENTS ON DISPLAY ON FN HERSTAL BOOTH AT ENFORCE TAC

Come new features from FN Herstal, the world’s leading designer and manufacturer of small arms, are to be discovered shortly.

At the end of 2017, FN Herstal launched its new FN SCAR®-SC Subcompact Carbine in 5.56x45mm (.223), especially designed for Law Enforcement personnel. A variant of the weapon will be introduced officially to the market at ENFORCE TAC on March 6-7 in Nuremberg, Germany. The FN SCAR®-SC is now also available in 7.62x35mm (.300 BLK) caliber. It features a standard telescopic buttstock and is available with a wide choice of buttstock types and accessories to accommodate the specific needs of the users. Additional developments will include all FN SCAR® carbines and rifles being now available with a receiver with Picatinny type side rails or KeyMod receiver.

Also showcased on FN Herstal booth, will be the FN SCAR®-L rifle recently selected by Bavarian Police as their next rifle (Mitteldistanzwaffe). The semi-auto weapon features a 13” barrel, KeyMod receiver, and RFID tag integrated into the receiver. The RFID tag is an in-house-designed electronic system developed by FN Herstal that allows digital identification of the weapon, hence enabling optimized inventory and in-and-out management of the weapon fleet. The RFID tag can be integrated in any FN SCAR® weapon, including precision rifles.

The entire FN SCAR® range and many more FN products dedicated to Law Enforcement and Security can be viewed at FN Herstal, hall 12, booth no. 0.538 at ENFORCE TAC 2019.