The Arwen 37 served a special crowd control need for British law officers in Northern Ireland. By Staff Writer
The ARWEN 37 anti-riot weapon was designed in the late 1970's, ultimately reaching production in the early 1980's. The system came about as a specialized need to replace the ineffective anti-riot weapons currently in service with British law enforcement. As tensions in Northern Ireland mounted, the need was evermore important to develop a weapon with respectable range and the capability to fire various types of crowd control munitions.
The resulting ARWEN 37 was just that weapon, appearing in a variety of specialized forms. The base ARWEN 37 came with a 5-shot circular cylinder, weighed in at under ten pounds and was around 30 inches in length. Where in the older anti-riot weapons available to British officers, where only a single-shot could be fired before the user had to break the weapon open to remove and replace the spent munitions casing, the ARWEN offered up a sustained rate of fire making for a more effective crowd control weapon. Additionally, the newly designed baton and smoke grenades were greatly improved.
The ARWEN went on to appear in other forms including a specialized short-range version with a shorter barrel and no stock in the ARWEN Multi-S, a specialized vehicle Arwen which came with a ball-mounting in the ARWEN 37 Multi-V and a lightweight single-shot alternative in the ARWEN ACE. Besides police use, the ARWEN has also enjoyed some time in the inventories of special operations forces thanks to its reliability, efficiency and capabilities.
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Image Courtesy of Dan Alex
1981
Designation:Royal Ordnance ARWEN 37 Classification Type:Multi-Shot Anti-Riot Weapon Manufacturer:Royal Small Arms Factory - UK Country of Origin: United Kingdom
Operators: United Kingdom
Variants
ARWEN 37 - Base Series Designation
ARWEN ACE - Fires specialized smoke and baton rounds; breech loading; light-weight alternative; single shot.
ARWEN Multi-S - Short-Range Variant; sans stock; shortened barrel.
ARWEN 37 Multi-V - Vehicle-mounted Arwen
ARWEN Mark III
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