The Firearm Blog

UPDATE: I was wrong. This is the QBZ-95B (The sailors white gloves are covering the barrel).

Earlier this month there was a huge military parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of People's Republic of China. I was astounded to see a photo from the event of what appears to be a sub-carbine version of the QBZ-95 being carried by Chinese sailors.

Photo originally from O.cn via. MP.net

To the best of my knowledge the existence of this weapon has never been reported. The barrel is definetly shorter than the 14.5" of the QBZ-95B (Carbine) that was developed for use in the Navy. I suspect the sub-carbine / PDW has a 10" or 11" barrel.

QBZ-95B Carbine. Photo from Wikipedia.

Has anyone here heard of a QBZ-95 PDW?

Thanks to Caleb for sending me the link to the Chinese parade photos.

Another new gun on display at DSEi was this H&K HK416 sub-carbine / PDW. What is very interesting about this gun is the buttstock and upper receiver design.

New H&K Sub-Carbine

It has a much shortened buffer tube and a collapsible stock in the H&K G3 / MP5 style.

A regular HK416 carbine

This firearm appears to be positioned in direct competition to the Sub-Compact Weapon (SCW) that Colt is developing. The SCW features a similarly shortened buffer tube.

Colt SCW. Photo by SMGLee.

I think the H&K design is much more elegant. The H&K stock pull straight out, while the Colt stock must be unfolded out and then down before it can be adjusted for length.

A close-up of the H&K Stock.

Now if H&K would just stop hating us and start selling this nifty upper to us civilians!

Big thank you to Lusaka for the information and photo.

UPDATE:

REMOV has kindly provided me with these photos that he took of the new H&K. The gun has a 9.3" barrel.

Many thanks REMOV!

You saw it here first! I had no idea that Sig Sauer were making AR-15 / M16 rifles but my DSEi spy spotted this prototype SIG516 ¹ PDW at the DSEi 09 expo. It features a 7" barrel, putting it firmly in the PDW class, and chambers the 5.56mm NATO.

The SIG 516

Markings indicate manufacture at the Sig Sauer plant in Exeter, NH, USA

I do not know if Sig plan on a civilian carbine version. If they did it would compete directly with their Sig 550 line of full length and short barreled rifles.

UPDATE: jcmiller points out that the lower receiver is semi-automatic. A production PDW would have to be fully automatic. Maybe Sig are thinking of civilian sales.

UPDATE:

The SIG516 Tactical Rifle line has three different models:

• SIG516 PDW : 7" barrel. A personal defense weapon (pictured above).
• SIG516 CQB : 10" barrel. A Colt M4 Commando equvelent.
• SIG516 BASELINE CARBINE : 14.5" barrel. A M4 Carbine equvelent.
• SIG516 Patrol. 16" barrel.
• SIG516 Tactical Marksman: 16" barrel A squad level sniper / designated marksmen rifle.
• SIG516 Precision Marksman: 20" barrel. Possibly a true sniper rifle, or designated marksmen rifle.

They are all piston operated and feature an adjustable gas regulator like the Ruger SR-556.

Upper receiver assemblies will be sold. Just before anyone gets their hopes up, while it is likely that Sig will sell civilians models, this has not been confirmed.

Big thank you to Lusaka for the information and photos.

The latest addition to the XCR Weapons System is a pistol variant.

The pistol is based on the XCR Personal Defense Weapon and comes in Mini (9″ barrel) and Micro (7.5″ barre, pictured abovel) versions. Calibers offered are 5.56mm, 6.8 SPC and 7.62×39mm.

The price is $1500. This is the same as the XCR PDW, but it does not require a BATFE stamp of $200 because unlike the PDW, it is not a SBR (Short Barreled Rifle).

SayUncle spotted this ad for a SIG 556 Short Barreled Rifle. What is very interesting is that the rifles being sold by Manchester Firing Line are factory manufactured, not conversions of the standard rifles.

SIG 556 Short Barreled Rifle

Although the price is steep at $3,495, Sig 556 Reviews notes that SBRs conversions are popular with the Sig crowd:

The P556 has definitely been popular with the SBR crowd so its good too see that Sig Sauer is paying attention and grabbing some of this pie by jumping into the NFA market. There have been a few post’s on the SigArms556 forum about people with P556 SBR’s that have had customer service issues (Sig basically coming back saying theiy voided they’re warranty)

Gun writer and SBR enthusiast Bob Boyd is currently building his own Sig SBR and modeling it after the Sig 552 Commando Carbine. The Commando is probably better classified as a PDW (Personal Defense Weapon), than a Short Barrel Rifle.

8.9″ barrel Swiss Army Stgw 90 kurz aka. Sig 552 Commando Carbine.

I am looking forward to seeing Bob’s rifle when it is completed.

CZ have introduced a new 9mm submachine gun called the Skorpion EVO III. Contrary to what the name suggests, it shares no heritage with the classic CZ Škorpion vz. 61 subgun.

CZ’s 2009 military weapon line up.

Since the 1993 split of Czechoslovakia into the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic, the Slovakian arms industry has gone into decline and is now only a shadow of its former self. The fact that the Czech arms industry is doing well seems to be a source of irritation to the Slovak government.

The Skorpion EVO appears to be a cosmetic update to the Laugo LG 205 submachine gun that was designed by a Slovakian firm sometime in the last decade. They must have been unsuccessful in generating interest in the product and appear to have sold the design to CZ.

From the excellent site Small Arms Illustrated.

I know very little about the gun other than it is chambered in 9mm Luger / Parabellum, made of lightweight polymer and has all the picatinny rails you could want.

CZ are marketing it as a PDW (Personal Defense Weapon), although I cannot see any feature that distinguish it from any other 9mm submachine gun. You can see in the top image that they have given it the same stock and pistol grip as the new CZ S 805 rifle, which their marketing department are using as a selling point.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of this gun. At one point the designer (I have no idea who designed it, despite an hour and half of research) had it on display with a thumbhole stock and carbine length barrel. Personally I think it would have a great 9mm civilian carbine.

[ This article was written by Sven Ortmann of Personal Defence Weapons Central, an excellent small arms resource. ]

by Sven Ortmann, lastdingo@gmx.de, 2008-01-05

Caliber: 9×19 mm and .45ACP (= 11.43×23mm)

This is the standard NATO caliber for pistols and a popular caliber for submachineguns. The only ones who seem to have a strong dislike for this caliber seem to be those U.S. Americans who continue to compare it with .45ACP.

The U.S. American problems with the 9×19mm caliber seem to include a mix of emotions (a Colt M1911 in .45ACP feels much more powerful) and poor quality of the U.S. standard issue 9mm pistols. The latter is as far as I know more a magazine production quality problem than a pistol design problem. The origin of .45ACP is said to lie in combat experience around 1900 in the Philippines where determined Philippinos weren’t stopped reliably by smaller revolver calibers. Tests on live animals in 1904 showed better effects for heavier bullets, but little improvement with velocity. Bullet design has improved a lot since then, and hollowpoint bullets that flatten their nose in soft tissue to increase their diameter are much more effective than simple soft lead bullets. A good 9mm bullet enjoys a similar advantage over a .45ACP soft lead bullet than the latter over a 9mm soft lead bullet. There’s a fundamental problem, though: There’s not much difference in effect on the target if you hit the wrong places and the permanent cavities of pistol bullets are all relatively small. Many body parts are simply not essential enough – their destruction doesn’t stop a determined opponent immediately; no matter whether you hit with .45ACP or 9×19mm.
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I blogged about the new AR57 earlier this year. The AR Five Seven is a one piece 5.7×28mm upper that attaches to a AR-15 lower and uses the 50 round FN P90 magazines. 57 Center posted a few photos of their new SBR suppressed submachine gun/PDW:

How cool is that!

UPDATE: After writing a three paragraphs about integrally suppressed firearms it turns out this is not integrally suppressed! The suppressor fits inside the handguard. I got this via. email from the 57 Center:

This particular AR57 PDW Upper in Full-Auto with 6″ Barrel, with 6.5″ Gemtech Suppressor, is currently being produced for a couple LE Agencies.

We currently have our 11″ Pistol/SBR Upper available as well as our standard 16.125″

So they are now directly competing with the full-auto FN P90. Personally, if I had a choice between this and the P90 I would go with the AR platform.

I think the pistol configuration could be a lot of fun.

UPDATE: I asked if the 6″ barrel gave adequate performance. From 57 Center:

We have excellent results with both 6″ and 11″ Pistol/SBR Barrels, this would be peoples choice, LE prefers 6″ with the 6.5″ Suppressor, this unit also works in Sub Sonic,

It is very impressive that the action can cycle subsonic rounds (a light 30-50 grain 5.7mm bullet traveling below the speed of round is comparable to a 40 grain .22 LR Standard subsonic round).

Earlier this year at the Singapore Airshow, Singapore Technologies Kinetics, otherwise known as ST Kinetics or STK, the Singaporean firm who make the Ultimax 100 machine gun, announced their a new PDW (Personal Defense Weapon) type sub machine gun called the CPW (Compact Personal Weapon).

I think that is a kids hand. Photo from textfiend.net.

According to the STK brochure and the pieces of info I picked up on the internet:

• Can be holstered
• Lighweight
• 7″ Barrel
• Multi-caliber. Currently available in 9mm (30 round magazines)
• Translucent pistol grip to check rounds in the magazine
• Comes standard with reflex sight. Iron sights are an optional extra.
• Retractable stock
• Low recoil
• Low cost

Specs:

Length: 350mm
Barrel Length: 180mm (7″)
Mounting system: 2 sets of picatinny rails
Weight without accessories: 1.5kg (3.3 lbs).
Firing modes: semi and auto (selector can be seen on above photo)
Method of operation: delayed blow back
Rate of fire: 900 to 1100 rpm.

Click to expand.

I would assume they will also offer a typical PDW round such as the MP7’s 4.6×30mm or the P90’s 5.7×28mm.

The gun looks very similar to the MP7 and I think would be in direct competition with it. It weights less (MP7 weights 4.19 lbs/1.9kg), is slightly shorter in length and has a similar rate of fire. I think the CPW’s main selling point is cost.

A couple more photos:

This looks like a prototype. It has a slightly
different trigger to the one above.

More info at STK