Today we are taking a look at the Springfield Hellion, the semiautomatic US version of HS Produkt's VHS-2 bullpup rifle. The VHS-2 development goes back almost 20 years, with a first VHS rifle and then the revised second model entering production in 2014. These were trialed by the French, and came in second place overall to the H&K 416 - but not for any deficiency in the design.

The Hellion / VHS is an extremely simple to work with design, including completely ambidextrous controls, adjustable length of pull, and provision for any sort of modern optics. A two-position gas regulator allows easy suppressed use, and the ejection can be set to either left or right - although it can be fired from either shoulder regardless of the ejection side.