Frag Out! Magazine

appears that the rifle is particular- ly easy to scale up or down and to change the caliber. This allows for more variants and calibers. The outcome was two new ri- fles unveiled during the MSPO 2017 trade show and since that time multiple modifications were implemented in the rifles. Another change was a new name - SKW was dropped and now rifles are known as Modular Weapon System - the 7.62 variant became MWS-25 and the .338LM is now known as the MWS-38. New member of the fam- ily was unveiled officially in 2021, during the MSPO 2021. The MWS-15, currently cham- bered in 5.56x45 NATO and .300 Blackout (and probably other cali- bers soon) is essentially a scaled- down MWS-25. The designers first- ly developed a full-size battle rifle (as a potential replacement of the Soviet-design SVD sniper rifles in Polish Armed Forces) in both pow- erful rifle rounds variants and after successful tests ultimately decid- ed to scale it down for intermedi- ate rounds. According to officially available data, 74% of parts are interchangeable between MWS-15 and MWS-25. The other parts are similar in the shapes but obvious- ly smaller hence proprietary to as- sault rifle. TECHNICAL DETAILS Newest ZMT MWS-15 is a mod- ular select-fire assault rifle (the semi-automatic version will be available for the commercial mar- ket soon-ish) with internal design based on the ArmaLite AR-18 gas system. MWS-15 is a gas-operat- ed, short-stroke piston driven rifle which utilizes a locked breech with rotating breech block. An interest- ing and kind of unique feature is a bolt carrier with additional elastic bumpers supporting the standard bumper on the rear of the recoil spring which are reducing the recoil forces – usually, a single bumper is used. The MWS-15 rifle might be easily converted with sim- ple change of the barrel. Different calibers and lengths are available and some are planned. The barrels are not quick-detachable and some field stripping is required with just basic tools before changing. This means that the rifle might be con- figured quickly before the mission, depending on situation, assets, etc. The nitrided barrels of MWS-15 rifles are sourced from an exter- nal supplier. For military/law en- forcement users the chrome-lined barrels will be ultimately manufac- tured in-house. All barrels come with 4-stage gas regulators with following settings: 1 – standard, 2 – more gas S – suppressed use 0 – single-shot only Currently MWS-15 might be supplied with 6.5", 8", 10.5", 11.5", 14.5", 16", 18" and 20" barrels of choice, depending on the custom- ers requirements. Currently, the 5.56 x 45 NATO and .300 Blackout variants are available and the 7.62 x 39 is in the works, with the UTM sim rounds conversion kit coming soon too. To change the caliber from 5.56 to .300 BLK only the bar- rel must be changed, the 7.62 x 39 conversion will additionally require change of the bolt. Due to the mod- ular approach to the rifle design, other conversions are possible in the future. Both lower and upper receiver and detachable handguard are 707- T6 aircraft grade aluminum. The upper receiver features monolithic top Picatinny rail for electro optics and sights. Three sizes of the up- pers are going to be available: short (for use with 6.5-14,5" barrels), mid (standard, for use with 16" barrel) and extended (for 18" and 20" bar- rels). The extended upper receiver will be assembled with a propri- etary, longer handguard. Of course, longer barrels will be 100% compat- ible with short and standard upper receivers but the use of short bar- rel with extended upper receiver would make warranty void (the gas pressure could damage the parts or even hurt the shooter). With the use of suppressor or gas diffuser, inside the handguard, safe shoot- ing should be possible in such con- figuration. Handguards are available in both M-LOK and KeyMod but the ZMT is able to provide other options if required (like quad Picatinny rails). What makes the handguard unique is the skeletonized design with tri- angle vent holes patterned after the ZMT logo (BTW, latest FN EVOL- YS, unveiled in early 2021 machine gun features similar design, but the MWS had this feature in 2019 already). Lower receivers of select-fire and semi-automatic versions will be slightly different internally to make the illegal conversion to fully-au- tomatic impossible. There will be one more bar inside and the shape of the inside will be altered. Most probably, the bolt carriers will be slightly different too. MWS-15 are fed from standard STANAG mag- azines and are compatible with most popular ones such as Mag- puls, Lancers, steel and aluminum mags. All MWS rifles, including MWS- 15, are fully ambidextrous and will be comfortable and easy to use by both left- and right-handed shoot- ers. Magazine release lever, bolt catch lever and safety switches are doubled. The charging lever is es- sentially on one side of the gun but might be quickly moved to the other (even in field). 20 www.fragoutmag.com

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