Back in late July the US Army relaunched its Sub Compact Weapon program to find a suitable 9x19mm submachine gun for close protection details. The new deadline to submit designs was 9th August, but before then the US Army’s Contracting Command, New Jersey, posted [Read More…]
Two of France’s national police forces the Police Nationale and the Gendarmerie Nationale are set to adopt the Heckler & Koch UMP. Following an request for information in 2017 a contract, worth 3.2 million Euros, will see the police and gendarmerie replace [Read More…]
About a year ago we reported about a handgun developed in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. That was a Tokarev based handgun called OPLOT. Recently, a YouTube channel called Daily Storm has published a video telling about a submachine gun developed [Read More…]
Over the last few weeks TFB have been keeping abreast of the US Army’s Sub Compact Weapon program. The program to arm Personal Security Details with a new compact, concealable submachine gun saw contracts awarded to as many as 13 companies to supply weapons for [Read More…]
Pictured is an ultra minimal, highly compact submachine gun design which is a clear contender for the simplest ever conceived. Disassembled It consists of only nine parts including screws and springs. Almost every main component is fabricated using steel box section [Read More…]
In the first part of this series, we looked at the numerous pistol calibre AR-pattern entries and the promising B&T designs submitted to the US Army’s Sub Compact Weapon program. If you missed it you can check it out here. Attack of the Clones: The MP5s While [Read More…]
A little over six months ago we published an article about an independent Soviet firearms designer named Firs Barkanov and his firearm designs. Today we will tell about another such arms designer – Foma Yazikov. This exclusive content was published by the [Read More…]
Probably one of the most important developments in submachine gun design history was the invention of a telescoping bolt. The first production SMG utilizing such bolt layout is considered the Czech Sa 23 and probably the most recognizable SMG that uses this solution is [Read More…]
The US Army has expanded its upcoming Sub Compact Weapon evaluations adding three more weapons to the trials. Back in May PEO Soldier – Project Manager Soldier Weapons issued a Request for Information to industry for a Compact, concealable 9x19mm submachine gun. [Read More…]
The US Army is set to evaluate 10 off the shelf submachine guns to fill its recently identified Sub Compact Weapon role. Last month (May 2018) the US Army’s PEO Soldier – Project Manager Soldier Weapons issued a Request for Information (RFI) to obtain industry [Read More…]
Back in March we reported on Chinese SWAT teams operating with modded Type 79 submachine guns. The venerable Type 79 was developed in the 1970s and despite efforts to improve its modularity the guns are showing their age. They may now be supplanted by a new 9x19mm [Read More…]
The US Army’s PEO Soldier – Project Manager Soldier Weapons has issued an Request for Information (RFI) to obtain industry feedback on possible submissions to Sub Compact Weapons (SCW) evaluations. The specification details offered by the Project Manager [Read More…]
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army have all but abandoned the venerable Type 79 Submachine Gun in favour of the newer QCW-05 bullpup personal defence weapon. It seems, however, that the Type 79 remains popular with China’s SWAT teams. Photos of upgraded [Read More…]
On the 19th January, a contract award notice was published announcing that Italy’s Carabinieri have ordered 1,000 new Beretta PMX submachine guns. Beretta unveiled their new submachine gun, the successor to the iconic Modello 12 submachine gun, back in November [Read More…]
In the early ’50s, small arms of the Soviet Union have been deeply modernized. The Kalashnikov’s “avtomat” along with its new cartridge was adopted and it was replacing the submachine guns and rifles in the service. The Makarov pistol was also [Read More…]
Beretta have unveiled the new successor to their iconic Modello 12 submachine gun. The new 9x19mm PMX was unveiled at the 2017 Paris Milipol expo. The PMX uses a blowback action and fires from closed bolt. It feeds from a 30 round magazine and has a right-side folding [Read More…]
August Coenders is one of those firearms designers that we almost don’t know anything about. During the WW2, Coenders was working in a German company called Rochling’sche Eisen und Stahlwerke GmbH. Most of the information about him and his firearms became [Read More…]
In the mid-2000s, India began looking for a carbine to replace their 9mm L2A3 Sterling submachine guns which they inherited from the United Kingdom. Two weapons were developed, one by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), and another by the Armament Research and Development [Read More…]
In the mid-2000s, India began looking for a carbine to replace their 9mm L2A3 Sterling submachine guns which they inherited from the United Kingdom. Two weapons were developed, one by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), and another by the Armament Research and Development [Read More…]
My friend Scott H., the guy with a lot of machine guns, told me about this unicorn that Altra Firearms recently acquired. It is a Ruger MP9. For those not familiar with this gun, it was designed by the father of the UZI, Uziel Gal. Ruger bought the rights to the Uzi in [Read More…]
Sometimes there is virtually no way to see images of long-forgotten Soviet firearms that were not ever adopted. Even if any samples of such firearms exist, they are most likely gathering dust in some vault. Thanks to the video and description released by Kalashnikov [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Media, Kalashnikov Concern’s dedicated media website, has been ramping up its releases recently. Its latest video features a hair-raising demo by Kalashnikov’s demonstration team. The Kalashnikov Group held the demo on Armourers’ Day, a [Read More…]
In the article about the KGB Operational Briefcase I promised to dig deeper with regards to the solution from B&T. I saw this at the B&T Police Days in Thun, Switzerland, in 2015 and took some pictures that I managed to dig out from my computer. Thinking about [Read More…]
Victor Aster is a Belarusian firearms concept designer. He shared with TFB one of his CAD designs of a personal defense weapon (PDW) called Humble-Bee. The idea is to have a compact firearm for law enforcement and military needs which would be very simple, lightweight [Read More…]
While the STEN gun endures to this day, if only as the “cheapest” full-auto machine gun that US civilians can purchase, it was not the first sub machine gun from the UK in World War II. That honor goes to the Lanchester MkI, which certainly has a familiar [Read More…]
In this fourteenth installment of Personal Defense Weapon Calibers, we’ll be looking at a highly minimalist incarnation of the PDW/SMG round: The 7.65x20mm French Longue. The story of the French Longue begins with the US entry to World War I and the brilliant [Read More…]
PPSh-41 submachine gun was the main SMG of the Soviet Union during the WW2. It was cheap to make and was deployed in large numbers. It was also chambered in 7.62x25mm Tokarev, which means it shared the same ammunition as the handgun and the same caliber/bore as pretty [Read More…]
TOR (means fireball in one of the local languages) is a Venezuelan firearm designed by a gentleman named Fernan Altuve Febres. It was designed in 1995 and initially chambered in 5.6x36mm (a cartridge unknown to me). It was tested by Venezuelan paratroopers, tank and [Read More…]
What do you get when you take the venerable speedster 7.62 Tokarev, and load it with a muzzleloader-style sabot and 50gr .22 cal projectile? You get one of the most interesting pistol, submachine gun, and personal defense weapon ammunition concepts there is! Today [Read More…]
It has been a little while since we visited the subject of modern personal defense weapon calibers, so to start it off again we’ll be taking a look at a new high velocity round that is only a few years old: Armscor’s .22 TCM. This round was reportedly [Read More…]