  the ares defense shrike 5.56 is an air-cooled, dual-feed weapon that fires the 5.56x45mm nato cartridge. the shrike 5.56 can be supplied as a complete weapon, or as an upper receiver âperformance upgrade kitâ to existing m16-type service rifles and carbines. ==overview== the shrike 5.56 has gas-piston operation, a quick-change barrel with fixed headspace and mil-std-1913 rail interface for the mounting of accessories. it can fire from standard 30-round m16 magazines, 100-round beta c-mag drum magazines, and m27-linked saw ammunition from 100-round or 200-round âsoft-pouchesâ and 200-round hard plastic saw ammunition containers. at 7.5&nbsp;lbs complete weapon weight, the shrike 5.56 is lighter than other squad automatic weapons, such as the m249 light machine gun and heckler & koch mg4.modern firearms: ares "shrike" ==variants== the shrike production model has recently emerged from development. there exist some notable differences between the current model and the older prototypes. exp-1: the initial proof-of-concept prototype. it features a modified m249 handguard, a unique firing mechanism and a quick-detach barrel latch derived from the stoner 63. exp-2: this improved prototype featured a new picatinny rail handguard, an improved firing mechanism using some m16 components, and a new barrel latch similar to that of the m60&nbsp;machine&nbsp;gun. 03a: the production model. it has a compact side-mounted gas system different from the previous prototypes, and its firing mechanism is also significantly modified. early production runs had a circular handguard. more recent production shrikes have a picatinny rail handguard. the barrel latch and some other components are similar to the exp-1. ares-16spw receiver: this receiver was designed by ares specifically for the shrike system. it is identical to the mil-spec m16 receiver, except its magazine well is cut away to save space. shrikes mounted on this receiver can only use m249 box magazines with linked ammo, but they have a smaller ve
5.56_mm_firearms 5.56_mm_machine_guns Assault_rifles Light_machine_guns