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Remington Defense is the military focused branch of Remington firearms which produces products that may never be seen on the civilian market. They make firearms like the Remington ACR, the XM2010 sniper rifle, and now the R5 RGP (Remington Gas Piston).

All we have to go on is a page on Remington’s website which appeared a few days ago and what’s in their 2012 catalog, but it seems to be a monolithic upper (or full carbine) in 5.56 NATO with a gas piston operation based at least in part on the ACR. Also included is an ambidextrous charging handle and AAC blackout flash hider for attaching AAC silencers. The website only lists NFA length barrels (10.5 and 14.5 inches), but of all the products on Remington Defense’s website this seems the most likely to be available to civilians.

Built to address perceived shortfalls of currently fielded NATO systems, the R5™ is an upgrade solution to extend the lifecycle of the M-16 family for decades to come. Currently chambered in 5.56mm NATO with a hammer-forged, Melonite-converted barrel for extended life, the R5™ is a monolithic upper receiver capable of dropping in on M-4/M-16 series lower receivers without modification. Built around a supremely reliable gas piston operating system, the user can fire suppressed and unsuppressed without a regulator and realize significant durability, reliability and maintainability advantages over gas impingement offerings. The handguard offers patent-pending features common to the Remington Defense family of firearms, including cable routing guides, removable rail pieces and 45-degree offsets. The entire package is topped off by an AAC Blackout™ flash hider to virtually eliminate visual signature, day or night.

They also claim the barrel can be swapped out in less than 5 minutes.

I’ve never been a big fan of gas piston AR-15 rifles, but that’s only because I haven’t seen anyone do a really good job on the concept yet. Reports of broken locking lugs and stuck springs make me a little nervous about the models currently available to civilians but considering the design team available at Remington I’m quietly optimistic that they can bring a better product to market.

Will it be available to the average Joe? Will it be officially unveiled at SHOT? Stay tuned.

Caliber 5.56mm NATO
Barrel Cold Hammer Forged, 1:7 Twist, 6 Groove, Ferritic Nitrocarburized (FNC)
Barrel Length 10.5″ & 14.5″
Weight 10,5″:6.56lbs (No Magazine), 14.5″:6.95lbs (No Magazine)
Length w/10.5″ Barrel 27.10″ collapsed, 30.25″ extended
Length w/14.5″ Barrel 30.6″ collapsed, 34.0″ extended
Trigger Drop in upper receiver
Controls Ambidextrous charging handle

Credit where credit is due, Gunmart tipped me off.

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25 COMMENTS

  1. Wondering about its quality and price… considering the other reviews posted here about their turnbolts on here were less then impressive.

  3. I’ve never been a big fan of gas piston AR-15 rifles, but that’s only because I haven’t seen anyone do a really good job on the concept yet. Reports of broken locking lugs and stuck springs make me a little nervous about the models currently available to civilians but considering the design team available at Remington I’m quietly optimistic that they can bring a better product to market.

    The HK416/MR556 can cut it for SEAL Team 6, but not Mr Leghorn’s high reliability standards?

    • “that’s only because I haven’t seen ”

      I’ve seen maybe one of HK’s normal-people gas piston ARs, and the guy wanted well north of 2K for it. At those prices, it’s unsurprising that nobody has personal experience with it.

    • There is a difference between an AR-15 turned into a gas piston gun and one designed from the ground up as a gas piston gun. H&K didn’t just shove a new gas system and bolt on an off-the-shelf AR-15.

      For the most part, an AR-15 with a gas piston on it adds enough recoil to make my follow up shots slightly slower, requires slightly less cleaning, and has a few to a lot of proprietary parts that can range from as easy as an AR-15 to get to impossible in 10 years depending on who made those parts. It’s not that they are bad guns–some gas piston AR-15s are quite good. But I’ll take a DI AR-15 all day over one with a damn piston shoved on it so it could get a seat on the bandwagon. And no, I don’t think HK makes anything to jump on any wagon as often they’re the ones protecting it.

  4. SHOT might want to replace the “O” with an “I” if things stay this boring. Has anything not in the budget and/or tacti-yawn categories been unveiled yet?

  5. Unreliable piston guns?! Ever shot a CMMG M4 LEP II, LWRC,
    POF Armory, or LMT piston gun?

    My Ruger SR-556 has zero malfunctions out of nearly 3,000 rounds.

    I’m glad Remington is entering the AR-15 Piston fray, but the AR
    craze is a bit long in the tooth. Remington, however, is clearly doing
    some market analysis and stands to make some well-deserved profit
    on this if it proves to be a good design.

    The Remington 700 and 870 certainly were (are) solid, industry – leading designs.

  6. I love how every time a new AR platform comes out, it’s billed as an improvement on the current AR platform designed with our military in mind, even though the US Army won’t give a crap about it. Another thing, where’s the bayonet lug?

  7. Geee…if it is like the usual stuff Remington is putting out with Minimum Bob at the helm. we should just issue these to the Taliban or Iranians.

    • lulz. That is a great idea. Too bad we already issued the taliban our Afghan allies the only thing made in China that isn’t a total POS.

  8. Sort of amazing how everyone is trying to re-invent the wheel.
    I have heard that the M-14 is making a comeback with the military.

  9. Oh boy……another gas piston AR that was probably scraped out quickly to get on the piston bandwagon.
    I think DI guns are just fine. I can see some advantages from pistons but for most people including most soldiers I doubt a piston would be that beneficial. In all reality the only thing a piston does better is keep heat/fouling off of your BCG……..while in most cases (Not all, some companies got it right) creating the problem of carrier tilt. At the same time you’re getting stuck with all those proprietary parts. Don’t get me wrong; gas piston guns can and do have some advantages, and I’m not denying that. The real issue for me is that the only time I think the less fouling issue comes into play is when one has fired hundreds upon hundreds of rounds with no cleaning……when your average soldier doesn’t carry nearly enough ammo for this to really come in to play. I do like that they tend to run cooler in the bolt though and I can see that being a real advantage.
    Rant off……P.S Remington, you should concentrate and upping you QC before you do anything else.

  10. “I haven’t seen anyone do a really good job on the concept yet”….

    Nick – Ever hear of LWRCi, HK416, or SIG556? I have yet to find any (real) issues with any of them…

  12. The first and best piston AR-15 was/is the Daewoo. I have never heard a bad word about it. Why doesn’t somebody make it in the USA?

  13. It’s kinda funny how people are so affraid of change. Without change Stoner would never have developed the AR-15/M-16 platform in the first place. We evolve to our surroundings and environment so naturally the tools that we use reflect what we need for certain jobs. A piston driven or D.I. AR is just that, a tool. So a Piston driven AR makes perfect sense in wet, dirty, muddy & sandy environments. Especially for spec ops in water operations as the piston system allows it to fire immediately after coming up out of the water as opposed to D.I. systems that need drained first so as not to cause a catastrophic failure in the gas tube. A DI rifle makes perfect sense for target practice and home defense in more controlled environments while piston driven systems are best suited for harsh environments and heavy sustained firefights where you don’t want to have to worry about carbon and hot gases building up in your carrier group. As far as perceived recoil, from what I’ve read and witnessed with my own eyes some piston systems actually reduce recoil especially systems like PWS’ that use a long-stroke system that has the op-rod attached to the bolt-carrier. PWS also decreases the cyclic rate a little to help control recoil and increase reliability & accuracy. Most reviews have stated that PWS’ MK series rifles in 5.56NATO/.223 & 7.62NATO/.308 both are some the softest shooting AR’s on the market.
    I’m not sure what piston system this Remington uses but companies wanting to produce high quality & reliable piston AR platforms with less perceived recoil should really look into the long-stroke piston system. But this AR design is probably just like the majority of Piston designs which are short-stroke. So it has the op-rod physically striking the bolt carrier which can cause carrier tilt more perceived recoil and even start to form stress fractures on the bolt key that the op-rod strikes. But, then again these are problems the average shooter will not encounter just for the simple fact that they don’t put as many rounds under high pressure situations through their rifles that professional shooters do. (I.E. law enforcement/military) So really it just boils down to doing your research and choosing a rifle manufacturer accordingly so as not to waste those precious dollars!!!

  14. Remington’s design is just a replay of a Colt gas piston system of the late 60’s to early 70’s , which the military turned down because what they had was good enough. It is imho that this gas system, Remington is hawking, is no better than any other short stroke system on the market today. Once again imho an AK type system, more inline with the Primary Weapon System ,would be a better choice for a military rifle or assault weapon, most would agree the AK system works. Granted, the military is not going to buy a whole new rifle system with all those M-16 parts sitting there on the shelf. Remington has got the right ideal to just change out the upper so that all the parts from the M-16 can be used except the cheapest, the gas tube. That is my two cents worth, I look forward to reading others.

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