Russian special operations forces, often referred to collectively as SSO, were recently seen sporting an Italian Beretta ARX160 assault rifle, Dylan Malyasov reports on Defence Blog.
Military experts identified the Italian ARX160 carbine in use by Russian Commandos at a photo released on social media. Previously, there was no information in open sources about the purchase of the newest Italian-made assault rifles do the Russian Armed Forces.
The Beretta ARX160 is an Italian modular assault rifle manufactured by Beretta. Developed for the Italian Armed Forces as part of the Soldato Futuro (“Future Soldier”) program, the ARX160 was launched in 2008 as a commercial weapon system independent from the Soldato Futuro ensemble, complete with a companion single-shot 40×46mm NATO low-velocity grenade launcher, called the GLX160, which can be mounted underneath the rifle or used with an ad hoc stock system as a stand-alone weapon. In late 2015, Beretta introduced the Beretta ARX200 chambered in 7.62×51mm NATO cartridge.
In January 2019, the Romanian Armed Forces chose the ARX160 A3 to replace the old PM Md.1963 (7,62×39 mm) and PM Md.1986 (5,45×39 mm) of the Romanian Land Forces. Production should start in Autumn 2019 at Uzina Plopeni of ROMARM.