#SubmachineGun

Although the 9x19mm MA-13 MK II design was first seen online in 2012, there is still relatively not much known about it outside of the Myanmar Police Special Task Force that has been seen utilizing it as standard issue, albeit sparingly. Staying within the previous designation of the Burmese Defense Industries license produced copy of the Israeli IMI 9x19mm Uzi submachine gun as the MA-13 (MA for Myanmar Army), the Tatmadaw appears to have added a “MK II” suffix to the nomenclature to designate a variation.

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 testing. You can check out my two-part breakdown of the weapons submitted by the 13 to the program here & here.

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 tube, including the one-piece thumb operated trigger.

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.

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 feedback on possible submissions for submachine guns.

Japan was perhaps the least prepared of all the powers during the Second World War to have an issued submachine gun in use by combat troops. Indeed the Japanese Type 100 only saw a production run of at maximum 30,000 weapons. A small fraction of the total amount of the Japanese Imperial Forces throughout the entire war.

If you’re one of those people who think the Thompson submachine gun never should have gone away, then Kahr Arms (Auto Ordnance) has the gun for you. Displayed at their booth at the 2018 SHOT Show is a Thompson different than any of the other semiauto Thompson recreations in their catalog. Decked out in black tactical furniture, and featuring a unique railed receiver, this weapon is a Thompson updated for the 21st Century.

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 just adopted and they have switched to the new 9x18mm Makarov cartridge.

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.

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 known when about 20 years ago a gentleman named Heinz-Kurt Schmidt, who was Coenders’ assistant, revealed some biography details and photos. In this article, we’ll take a look at three firearms designed by August Coenders.

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 Establishment (ARDE), a subdivision of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The Ordnance Factory Board produced the AMOGH carbine, while the DRDO produced the Modern Sub Machine Carbine (MSMC, also known as the Joint Venture Protective Carbine, or JVPC). These weapons reportedly competed against each other, and by the early 2010s, the MSMC had been selected as the Sterling replacement.

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 Establishment (ARDE), a subdivision of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The Ordnance Factory Board produced the AMOGH carbine, while the DRDO produced the MSMC. These weapons reportedly competed against each other, and by the early 2010s, the MSMC had been selected as the Sterling replacement. However, the AMOGH is still being marketed to customers by the OFB, and has reportedly been purchased by the Indian Coast Guard.

The excellent firearms reference website Modern Firearms is undergoing a major move to a new location, with a much improved interface and look. Although the new site is still in beta, it already appears to include most if not all of the pages from the original, in an attractive new updated format.

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 inventors John D. Pedersen and John Moses Browning. Faced with the stalemate of trench warfare, these designers were tasked with finding a solution in the form of handheld autoloading weapons. Both came up with semiautomatic rifles firing small, low recoil .30 caliber rounds. Pedersen’s “Device” converted a standard M1903 rifle into a rapid fire semiautomatic, but it was Browning’s autoloading rifle and its .30-18 round (very similar to the .30 Pedersen used with the “Device”) which caught the eye of the French Ordnance officials. The .30-18 Browning, as it is called, was evidently cloned to become the 7.65x20mm Longue used with the interwar French Mle. 1935 pistols and MAS-38 submachine gun.

On display at the recent Russian Army 2017 expo was Kalashnikov’s new AM-17 and AMB-17 compact assault rifles. The AM-17 is a 5.45x39mm caliber improved version of the MA assault rifle introduced last year, designed to fill the same role as the AKS-74U compact assault rifle/personal defense weapon. The AMB-17 is an integrally suppressed variant of the same, firing the 9x39mm dedicated subsonic round first introduced with the AS Val and VSS Vintorez in the 1980s. Pictures of the new rifles have been posted on various social media outlets, such as TFB contributor and small arms expert Max Popenker’s blog.