Military Tuesday : Next Generation Infantry Concepts from Tom Clancy’s EndWar

A collection of concept art for Ubisoft’s Xbox360 game Tom Clancy’s EndWar feature what the designers believe will be in service with the three in-game factions - US Joint Strike Force, European Federation Enforcer Corps and Russian Spetznaz Guard Brigades in a fictional world war in 2020.

All images taken from the IGN gallery found via this thread on the official EndWar forum. I’m quite surprised that game forums nowadays contain a lot of goodies and information not found on the actual “official” sites. An good example being the BurningTruth.com for Kaos Studios’ Frontlines : Fuel of War - there’s a lot more information and graphical assets in that forum than the official site. Or additional official Dawn of War Dark Crusade wallpapers at RelicForums for that matter.

Infantry from the three factions are primarily equipped with weapons from the real-life Future Soldier programmes e.g American Future Force Warrior, French FELIN and the German IdZ.


© Ubisoft

The US JSF infantry are shown with the XM8 and H&K G36 with XM320 grenade launcher although this Gamespot article states that they’ll be armed with the SCAR (albeit in an A1 variant) which looks totally different from the concepts in real life. Seems very strange :? but the radical appearance of the XM8 looks much more appropriate for a future war than the relatively conventional looks of the FN SCAR.

The weapons available to an Enforcer Corps Kommando includes several weapons from European countries such as Belgium (E3000 Carbine), France (FMS AG2 Assault Rifle), and Austria (UAR 7 Bullpup Support Weapon).


© Ubisoft

Shown in the concept art (above) for the Enforcer Corps Kommando are the UAR7 (left) which resembles a H&K MP7 with an additional suppressor and reflex sight and the FMS AG2 (a FAMAS modified for the Felin programme ) wielded by the right Kommando with the distinctive Felin aka “Star Wars Imperial Navy Trooper” helmet.


© Ubisoft

In the Enforcer Corps screenshot (above), we have a trooper with the E3000 carbine (influenced by the Belgian FN F2000) and the other is aiming his large calibre sniper rifle (could have been inspired by the South African Denel Mechem NTW-20)


© Ubisoft

Next up we have the Wolves Riflemen of the Russian Spetsnaz Guard Brigades. Interestingly, they’re still armed with the suppressed AKS-74U-UBN with an underslung suppressed grenade launcher BN-1 (More at Modern Firearms) in 2020. The rifleman on the right is using the suppressed VSS ‘Vintorez’ with what looks like a collapsible buttstock.


© Ubisoft

In the screenshots for the Wolves, the left soldier is shown with a modern AK-107/108 with the GP-30 grenade launcher whereas the female sniper on the right is shown with a sniper rifle (known as OSV-120 in-game) that looks like nothing in the current Russian inventory (although it looks like the Austrian Steyr HS.50 from certain angles. See Airborne Combat Engineer)


© Ubisoft

As a bonus, IGN provides a 3D render of a menacing Russian tank armed with a massive cannon. Looks like a T-90 with additional twin 30mm cannons taken from the Tunguska M1 for anti-air defense. Of interest are the four boxes in front of the turret which probably contain sensors and countermeasures for an passive defense system like the Shtora used in the current T-90. Also check out the mine plow, ERA bricks protecting the front hull and the generous array of smoke grenade launchers on the turret front.

Download these concept art, screenshots and renders from IGN or Eurogamer (higher resolution concepts but missing the tank render)

MORE @ THE DOWNLOAD MUNKEY:
Tom Clancy’s EndWar Trailer from Ubidays 2007
Possible Influences for Weapons in Frontlines : Fuel of War
Weapons in Ghost Recon : Advanced Warfighter 2
Official US Army Photos & Factsheets of Modern US Infantry Equipment and Weapons

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Military Tuesday : 2nd Amendment Fonts (Firearm Silhouettes) & Other Cool Dingbat Fonts

Saw this nifty 2nd Amendment font over at Steve’s The Firearm Blog last week. Created by Daniel Zadorozny of Iconian Fonts, the font set contains silhouettes of 46 (or is it 47?) different firearms.


© Iconian Fonts

All the usual suspects are in there like the AK-47 (P), Luger (N), H&K MP5N (K), FN P90 (B), Colt M16A2 (O) (above) with some rare ones like Calico M950 (G), Sako TRG41 (X), Enfield EM-2 (2) (below)


© Iconian Fonts

The 2nd Amendment font is an example of a Dingbat font which has symbols in place of the usual alphanumeric characters inside a font. More info about Dingbat fonts @ Wikipedia.

The selection of Dingbat fonts over at Iconian Fonts is pretty interesting. Here’s two sets that I like.


© Iconian Fonts

God of War - Symbols of warfare through the ages from the Greek Corinthian helmet to the infamous IMI Uzi.


© Iconian Fonts

Time Warriors - Silhouettes of warriors both past and present … mmm Samurai (second row, third from left):)

There’re also Dingbat fonts of US Army and Air Force insignia on the same page, togehter with many other non military-related fonts like Halls of Heroes and Illuminati.


© Iconian Fonts

Download the 2nd Amendment font via The Firearm Blog or view the entire collection at Iconian Fonts.

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Thompson Encore .45 Single Shot Pistol
M4 Carbine Accessories
Rogue Status Firearms Wallpaper
Hornady’s Ammo Poster
Dark Horse Comic’s 300 Wallpapers

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Military Tuesday : Thompson Encore .45 Single Shot Pistol

Another of those interesting-looking weapons that I discovered from games. See, games do teach you stuff :D

The single-shot Encore pistol was one of the more exotic firearms available in the expanded virtual armory of the JA 1.13 mod for the tactical mercenary game Jagged Alliance 2 (more about JA 1.13 here - Part I, II, III). Images of the Encore from the JA 1.13 mod.


Although the in-game mercenaries aren’t limited to standardized firearms as in regular army forces, using exotic weapons like the Encore wasn’t a very good idea in game. Apart from it being a single shot hunting weapon (albeit for big game) in real life, the scarcity of the ammo - in-game: .454 Casull, real-life: .45 Colt, as well as the logistical nightmare of managing multiple characters with weapons requiring different imcompatitible ammo types make cool weapons like the Encore practically useless from a military standpoint.

The Encore pistol is currently being manufactured by the American company Thomson/Center Arms Co. Pictures below are taken from page 15 of their PDF catalog.


© Thomson/Center Arms Co.

An account in the catalog states that it’s accurate to 300 yards which is several times the effective range of an semi-automatic pistol like the Beretta M9. Then again, it’s single-shot and intended for hunting big game which don’t shoot back :)

The Encore also reminds me of a similar single-shot pistol used by the villain in the Stephen Chow’s superspy spoof From Beijing With Love.

Download the 2007 catalog (55 MB) or read more at the official site. Airborne Combat Engineer has a post on Gary Reeder’s Custom Mini-Beast Encore which comes chambered for even bigger calibres.

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De Lisle Commando Carbine
M4 Carbine Accessories
Zacca 1/6 Guns Collection & World Weapon Collection

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Military Tuesday : De Lisle Commando Carbine

Read about the De Lisle Commando Carbine while poring through one of my old magazines, Computer Gaming World #207 (Oct 2001) (see cover), in which a preview article for Hidden & Dangerous 2 included a section on the weapons used by WWII special forces in that game.

The De Lisle Commando Carbine and MP44/43 were the featured weapons for the Allies & Axis powers respectively.


© Valkyrie Arms LLC

In Computer Gaming World, the De Lisle was specified as a suppressed carbine with a magazine of 13 rounds firing the .45 ACP with a muzzle velocity of 900ft/s. Wikipedia states correctly that its magazine capacity was 7 rounds (optionally 11 rounds) but lists a much lower muzzle velocity of ~600 ft/s. It was only produced in limited quantities during World War 2 for use by special units like the British Special Operations Executive. (the forerunner of the SAS)

An American company, Valkyrie Arms LLC, created two versions of the De Lisle, the DeLisle 2000 (top) and the DeLisle Sporter Carbine (bottom) on top of offering replicas of the original De Lisle Commando Carbine.


© Valkyrie Arms LLC

Valkyrie Arms also has a scan of an interesting 1984 “Gung Ho” Magazine article by Robert T. Rome on the De Lisle Commando Carbine which can download from the De Lisle replica page here (7 pages). A brochure of Valkyrie Arms’ firearms is also available.

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IMI Uzi Brochures @ Uzitalk.com
Brügger & Thomet MP9
High Resolution Photos of FN Herstal’s Firearms
M4 Carbine Accessories

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Military Tuesday : Modern US Infantry Equipment and Weapons - Official US Army Photos & Factsheets

An invaluable resource for scale modellers, game modders or 1/6th scale collectors who require high resolution photo references for that extra touch of authenticity in their modern/near future US soldier and weapon models.

The Program Executive Office Soldier (PEOS) multimedia page (WARNING: .mil domain!) has a good collection of unclassified public domain photos and videos of current US individual equipment and weapons as well as prototype stuff from the Air Warrior, Land Warrior and Mounted Warrior programs.


In Service: M110 SASS - Photo Courtesy of PEO Soldier


In Service: Advanced Bomb Suit - Photo Courtesy of PEO Soldier


Prototype: XM25 25mm Airburst Weapon (originally part of the OICW program) - Photo Courtesy of PEO Soldier

Photos of most individual and crew-served infantry weapons used by the US today are featured on the multimedia page. This page used to contain photos of the prototype XM307 25mm Advanced Crew Served Machinegun, the XM312 Lightweight .50 Caliber Machinegun and the XM25 25mm Airburst Weapon a few weeks back but it has since been revamped and the XM307 & XM312 photos taken out. They’re in the Soldier Portfolio PDF though. (see below)

Factsheets in PDF format for each of the equipment and weapons featured on the Multimedia page can be downloaded from the Programs page at the Program Executive Office Soldier site.

The highlight of the PEOS site must be the 280 page PEO Soldier Portfolio filled with information and photos on most current and future soldier equipment & weapons.

The PEOS Soldier Portfolio can be downloaded as a 14.8 MB PDF by clicking on the link at the bottom of the left sidebar of the Programs page. (look for a button with the cover image (above) of the Soldier Portfolio PDF). It’s slickly designed and is definitely an interesting read for military hardware enthusiasts like me :)

View or download the images and PDFs from PEOS Multimedia and Programs pages.

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M4 Carbine Accessories
Armada International - Complete Guides
OPFOR Worldwide Equipment Guide
Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare E3 Trailer
Dick Kramer - Military Artist

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