According to Aventura’s website, which as of November 12 is still up and running, the company claimed to be a “true single-source manufacturer providing end-to-end hardware and software solutions.”

Some of these hardware solutions included ground-based radar, turnstiles, and closed-circuit television systems, all of which the company claimed were manufactured in America. Between 2007 and 2018, Aventura reportedly supplied various branches of the U.S. military with over $20 million dollars of said equipment.

From November 2010 to the present day, it’s estimated that Aventura pulled in over $88 million in sales to both the government and the private sector.

The sting that eventually brought down Aventura was a few years in the making, including an anonymous tip in 2017, and the discovery of Chinese lettering on a body camera by Air Force personnel the following year.

It was soon determined that the majority of the hardware sold by Aventura to the government was likely produced in China and illegally imported, with most of the equipment they sold was scrubbed clean of any markings that would have identified their national origin, or were falsely labeled with “Made in the USA” stickers.

This immediately presented a critical cybersecurity and data-incursion issue, as electronic hardware placed on military installations could be remotely tampered with or hacked into by Chinese intelligence-gathering assets.

Before being caught, the company’s managing director, Jack Cabasso, reportedly complained about competitors doing what he would later be charged with — procuring and selling foreign gear to the government from vendors that were known to be affiliated with the Chinese government — while quietly doing the same thing.

Cabasso, his wife Frances, who was listed as Aventura’s primary owner and operator allegedly to help secure contracts earmarked only for women-owned businesses, and five other employees were charged with a slew of crimes including laundering the millions they received in contracts from the government, unlawful importation, and conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud.

Aventura’s main facility and a 70-foot luxury yacht, allegedly purchased with the money the Cabassos gained from their activities, were seized by the government, in addition to freezing over $3 million spread between 12 financial accounts.

Interestingly enough, this isn’t Jack Cabasso’s first trip to court, with court records indicating multiple convictions for corruption, fraud, and larceny dating back to 1982, resulting in years of jail time for some of his crimes.

The extent of the impact on operational security regarding Aventura’s illicit sales to the military is yet to be determined.

The key ingredient of Sensight’s promise is its 1.2 lb SSR400 — the almost unseemly marriage of a magnified optic with a highly user-friendly interface, which can be attached to virtually any rifle with a Picatinny or Weaver rail.

Sensight boasts that the SSR400, which will be officially launched and delivered to customers towards the end of this month after the NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in Indiana, is the first “fully connected firearm sight” in history.

And by that, they mean that their new scope is capable of linking to various devices using Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity to update, download and share data to not only improve the functionality of the scope but also help the end user save and catalog data about their shots, or even livestream hunting excursions, if they’re so inclined.

At a first glance, the SSR400 looks like something out of a video game — an unwieldy box-like object which looks completed out of place when perched above an AR or a bolt gun. When you step behind the rifle and flip the device on, that’s where its “magic” comes to life.

The sight features a touchscreen display similar to what you’d find a traditional iOS or Android smartphone, connected to a pair of high-definition cameras. The first camera has the ability to magnify from 1.3 to 20x, and is used for daylight shooting, while the second magnifies from 1 to 6x for low-light and nighttime shooting.

The images generated from the cameras streams directly to a widescreen at the rear of the SSR400, which the company calls Eye-Relief-Free, meaning that it allows end users to keep both eyes open while they track targets at long range, minimizing the physiological strain on their eyes.

What the ERF shows the user is essentially a simplified version of his or her shot before it’s taken, after the device’s integral ballistic calculator already tabulates the data the SSR400′s sensors have picked up, and re-zeros the sight to give the user the most optimal shot, every single time. The user simply has to enter a few basic variables and other pertinent pieces of information into the touchscreen display in order to calibrate the scope, then move the gun around to get their sights on target.

There’s no need to adjust for windage or elevation — the SSR400 does that automatically. In addition to the ballistic calculator, the device also has a built-in range finder, GPS, a gyroscope, and basic IR illumination capability for nighttime shooting.

Currently, the SSR400 is only available for a select few calibers, namely .308, .300 Win. Mag., and .338 Magnum, though that list might potentially increase within the coming year. The sight’s power comes from an internal battery which gives it enough juice to function for 8 hours between charges, but the company also markets an external battery which can add another 12 hours of life.

Sensight doesn’t plan to market the SSR400 to the military for the time being, as the device is primarily geared towards hunters, hobbyists and amateur shooters, and isn’t necessarily hardened for the rigors and adversity of a combat environment. It will retail for an MSRP of $1,299.

With the rise of commercial quadcopter “drones” over the past 10 years, people have increasingly sought novel and unique ways to utilize these miniature flying craft, adding cameras, sensors and even flamethrowers to them.

Now, Almaz-Antey has decided to take things a step further by adding a semiautomatic shotgun to a drone. As with most other Russian military products, the drone itself is quite simply designed, reducing manufacturing and fielding costs, and granting future operators a very shallow learning curve.

The drone uses a wireless link to relay live footage from a forward-facing wide-angle camera to the operator wearing a virtual reality headset. An electric battery provides a maximum of 40 minutes of flight time, though that could be reduced significantly with harder maneuvering and climbing.

For its bite, the drone uses a Vepr-12 shotgun in either its semiautomatic VPO 205-00 or fully-automatic VPO 205-03 variants.

The Vepr-12 is patterned off the classic AK-47 platform, and uses the receiver from the RPK light machine gun. It can feed from a box or a drum magazine, though its ammunition capacity is limited to a 10-round mag to save on the drone’s overall weight.

An onboard stabilizing mechanism dampens the effect of the motion of the drone on the gun when it fires, enhancing accuracy. Given that the layout and platform of the Vepr-12 is highly similar to that of other AK-type guns, it would be easy for the end user to outfit the drone with a rifle instead of the shotgun for more precise shots.

Almaz-Antey originally designed this newfangled flying death machine as a counter to other “unfriendly” drones, using the shotgun to blast them out of the sky.

However, given the amount of creativity you’d expect to find in modern combat zones, it’s all too possible that an over-zealous end user might wind up using this drone to chase around human targets too.

Just how effective this drone might be is really anyone’s guess.

Created as part of the Ratnik (Russian for “warrior) system program, the suit isn’t designed for special operations forces, but rather, general infantry use. That’s right — the average Russian infantryman will step outside the wire wearing game changing battle rattle, likely by 2025.

While similar to the American Land Warrior and Future Combat Systems projects, Ratnik has actually succeeded where the other multi-billion dollar programs have stalled. Up-armoring soldiers and increasing the ergonomic qualities of their gear is only a part of what Ratnik aims to do, however.

At the core of the system is creating a highly integrated network that boosts the infantryman’s situational awareness, and allows vital information and intelligence to be fed between soldiers in a unit, and other external assets supporting that unit. To accomplish this, Ratnik includes the “Musketeer” communications system that allows for voice and video transmissions, as well as GLONASS (the Russian alternative to GPS) receivers for navigation.

According to TsNIITochMash, the Russian state-sponsored design bureau responsible for the Ratnik program, the suit itself, known as Ratnik-2, can protect up to 90% of a soldier’s body, using armor that weighs between 16 to 35 lbs. The main vest, worn around the soldier’s torso and back, is resistant to 7.62×39 mm and 7.62×54 mmR rounds, and can supposedly maintain its resistance at closer range, even when hit multiple times with larger calibers.

Additionally, the system comes with a heater, a water filter, a gas mask, medical kit, and other necessary “life support elements.” The entire Ratnik-2 suit is covered with infrared-defeating materials, allowing soldiers to operate nearly undetected by infrared scanners.

Though the overall weight of the Ratnik suit comes up to around 45-50 lbs, the weight is offset and dealt with using a passive exoskeleton, designed to alleviate the heavy physical burden while protecting the wearer’s spine and joints from wear and tear. Because it does not require power or electricity to function, the carbon-fiber exoskeleton is durable and easy to field.

The upcoming Ratnik-3 suit will have an active exoskeleton, however, meaning that it will be built with servos, sensors and other electrical devices supporting its operation. This will give Russian infantrymen the ability to move faster on foot, generate more data from the environment that surrounds them, and carry heavier combat loads.