The 27th ASEAN Armies Rifle Meet (AARM17) has concluded with Indonesia emerging as overall winners for the second year in a row.

Indonesia have form when it comes to the ASEAN Rifle Meet having won the competition an impressive 12 times over the Meet’s 27 year history. Established back in 1991, the Rifle Meet brings together teams from the armies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Meet has five main categories including rifle, carbine, men and women’s pistol, and machine gun – each with individual and team events.

Members of the Indonesian Army PINDAD SS-2s (AARM17)

The very first AARM was held in Malaysia and the event was established to foster professional goodwill, cooperation and friendly competition. This year’s Meet, held in Singapore, involved 550 participants from all ten of the ASEAN member nations.

Running from the 14th to the 20th November, Indonesia won nine of the 15 trophies up for grabs (including numerous individual categories as well as overall men’s pistol, overall rifle, overall carbine and overall machine gun) with Thailand winning three (including overall women’s pistol and men’s falling plate pistol and individual rifle), while Myanmar (women’s falling plate pistol), Vietnam (machine gun falling plate) and the Philippines (individual carbine) each won a trophy. Full results here.

Speaking at the event’s closing ceremony Major-General Melvyn Ong, Singapore’s Chief of Army, concluded the event saying:

everybody in the ASEAN Army world comes together and we must continue to do that because it helps to keep us connected and helps to keep ASEAN strong. The tournament may have come to a close, but we are one and our camaraderie, our friendships will surely prevail.

The competition was also a good opportunity to see some of the small arms used by the ASEAN countries, below are some photographs from the event:

Vietnamese troops with FN FNCs (AARM17)

Soldiers of the Royal Thai Army with M16A2s (AARM17)

A shot of the firing line during a machine gun match, note the various FN MAGs and the Myanmarian MA-2 LMG (Singapore Ministry of Defence)

Soldiers of the Royal Thai Army with M4s (Singapore Ministry of Defence)

Troops of the People’s Army of Vietnam competing in the women’s pistol match with K14-VN (updated TT-33) pistols (Singapore Ministry of Defence)

A soldier from Myanmar with an MA-1 assault rifle (indigenous Galil clone) (AARM17)