#Transverse

In the early 1980s, German gunmaker Heckler & Koch began to design a new submachine gun that would improve on the existing MP5, in response to a US Navy solicitation for an advanced submachine gun as part of the Joint Services Small Arms Program (JSSAP). The SMG I, which was the product of this development, is not the focus of this article, so instead I’ll refer readers to the HKPro article on the weapon:

Since the first article received a fairly enthusiastic response, I have decided to continue the series on unusual firearms feeding mechanisms. Many of the devices I will cover are associated with equally interesting firearms, but for the sake of brevity I will be mostly talking about the magazines themselves. One of the more unique and important designs is the Hill H15 submachine gun, which used a transversely mounted magazine of a design that would reappear with the successful FN P90 PDW/SMG. Matt at the Historical Firearms blog writes: