ST Kinetics BMCR / BR18 assault rifle (Singapore)

BMCR assault rifle

BMCR assault rifle

 

BR18 assault rifle

BR18 assault rifle

 

BR18 assault rifle

BR18 assault rifle

 

The BMCR assault rifle (Bullpup Multirole Combat Rifle) was first unveiled in 2014 by its manufacturer, Singaporean company ST Kinetics. Over following 4 years this prototype evolved into BR18 assault rifle, which was announced in 2018 as ‘ready for mass production’. This interesting weapon is offered as a replacement for SAR21 rifle used by Army of Singapore, and is also offered for export.

BMCR assault rifle is a gas operated, selective fire weapon of bullpup configuration. It has a polymer housing and uses traditional rotary bolt locking. It is completely ambidextrous, with all controls duplicated on both sides of the gun, and with ejection set forward and to the right, well clear of the shooter’s face when firing from the left shoulder. To achieve this forward ejection rifle has a short ejection chute on the right, with opening above the pistol grip. Fired case, once extracted from the barrel by the bolt, is moved to the right by special rotating arm, located above the bolt, and then pushed forward and out of the gun via ejection chute. To make inspection, maintenance and jam clearing easier, top cover above the bolt is made sliding rearwards, and in BMCR it also doubles as a charging handle. Since this arrangement was found less than ideal in terms of ergonomics, in BR18 rifle charging handles were moved forward, and are located on both sides of the gun, roughly above the trigger guard. The top cover above the bolt and magazine still cam be slid back to expose feed and ejection mechanism, for maintenance, inspection of to clear a stoppage.

BR18 assault rifle is also lighter than BMCR rifle, and can be produced adapted for SAR21 or M16 magazines. ST Kinetics also offers BR18 rifle in there configurations – basic rifle with 37cm barrel, marksman rifle with 50cm barrel and “machine rifle / light machine gun” with heavy 45cm barrel. In all configurations sighting equipment is installed using standard Picatinny rails.

 

Specification Value
Full text name ST Kinetics BMCR / BR18 assault rifle (Singapore)
Caliber cartridge 5.56x45 NATO, .223 Remington
Action type select-fire
Trigger type sa
Overall length, mm 645
Barrel length, mm 368
Weight empty, kg 2.9
Magazine capacity, rounds 30
Cyclic rate of fire, rounds/min 650-850