The ARKA is essentially FN’s SCAR rifle on the inside but with more AR-style controls and handling. It was developed in response to a number of military and security service tenders which required specifically an AR-style top charging handle and AR-compatible buttstock. It is made in 11.25″ and 14.5″ barrel lengths, with long and short handguards. It will be interesting to see how this iteration of the rifle fares in international competitions.
Thanks to FN for giving me the opportunity to take a look at this new rifle!
If those fasteners that aren’t supposed to be touched by the operator are the same as the ones that are…?
Somebody has a delusional idea of how soldiers actually behave. As someone who does have a slight clue as to how barracks cleaning sessions go, I would never design a weapon like this.
At the very least, you need to have the things that you don’t want PFC Dumbass taking apart with fasteners that said PFC can’t get the tools to disassemble. Ever. From any source.
You have to have rails for the bolt group to ride in? Fine; make them so they’re either cast in and integral, or some sort of removable sub-frame affair. Do not put Torx fasteners on the receiver and expect those to stay fastened to specification.
Guarantee you that any military actually adopting this rifle for general issue will suffer a spate of unforeseen failures due to the average lowest-common-denominator soldier taking those things completely apart. That sort of individual is not the sort of individual FN has been selling the SCAR to, the SOCOM operative.
If it can be taken apart, it will be taken apart, and you can take that to the bank. Snuffy will want to go home, Sargent will demand “clean”, and out will come the tools to make both happen as swiftly as possible.
I swear to God, where the hell do they find these idiot engineers who’ve no idea at all what happens out in the field where their little toys have to live and thrive?
This is not a rifle for general issue, and won’t be until someone wises up and figures out that “fasteners will be unfastened”, so long as anyone can do it, and they imagine it’ll help get the filth out of the receiver.
That is not progress on an M4, it’s ugly and fat. Yuk.