Springfield Armory has recently unveiled their newest product the Hellion rifle. The Hellion is an imported semi automatic version of the HS Produkt VHS-2 bullpup. Most closely modeled after the VHS-K2 the Hellion is chambered in 5.56 Nato with a 16 inch barrel and a 1:7 inch twist rate. The barrel is melonited to help protect the bore against corrosion. Along with a BCM Gunfighter Mod 3 pistol grip the Hellion has an adjustable gas block for shooting suppressed and unsuppressed. The rifle has a weight of 8 pounds and is shorter than the Springfield Armory Saint even with the adjustable stock fully extended. The rifle has an MSRP of $1,9999.99. More information can be found at the Springfield Armory website.

It is interesting that Springfield Armory chose to import a rifle that would compete against their current Saint product line. However the domestic US consumer interest in the VHS-2 system must have made the decision to import the weapon system worthwhile. HS Produkt first unveiled the VHS-2 at the ASDA convention in 2013 and it later became the service rifle for the Croation military. The VHS-2 has seen extensive use in Iraq with the Iraqi Ministry of Defence and various Iraqi security forces during their campaign against IS. It will be interesting to see if the importation of the Hellion will lead to its use by US police agencies. The staff at Tzintzuntzan Tactical are interested to see how the rifle performs compared to rifles such as the MK18 and MK16CQC.