My conclusions; what to do ?

Much of the PDW development was aimed at a one-for-all PDW. The MP7 has already appeared in a normal and a special operations configuration and will be introduced into the Bundeswehr in these. But it can still hardly be considered as a concealable weapon. Its very small bullet is also under serious criticism for asserted lack of man-stopping power.

The P90 is obviously not cheap enough for combat service support troops, quite heavy and too large for concealment or as a secondary weapon for soldiers that do either not trust their primary weapon or their ability to change their magazine quick enough under combat stress.

Therefore, I’d like to lay out my own PDW proposals based on what I learned during the research for this page;

A modern machine pistol

A normal calibre pistol with Beretta 951R fore grip* and Beretta 93R removable folding shoulder stock. It should be loaded with high-performance cartridges that are optimized to have maximum effect behind a level II body armour (equivalent of at least 22 layers of Kevlar® 129) at 50 m with low recoil. That body armour seems to become standard basic vest protection - and anything that penetrates this armour should cause a significant trauma even if it fails to penetrate level IIIa body armour. The recent Russian approach of 9 x 21 mm calibre with armour-piercing bullets and relatively high muzzle velocity seems promising for this one. A selective-fire trigger that allows both single and (by longer pull) full automatic fire without a separate fire selector is advisable. You need to have a good argument (and quickly) when the enemy is very, very close (for example approaching through the door in front of you while your rifle is unready to fire). Full automatic fire can save the day in that situation, and the muzzle climb (reduced by a compensator) is sometimes even a gift at very short distance (because it can result in multiple hits in different areas of the body). The customizable handgrip should be able to accomodate a Crimson Trace grip laser, which adds less than approx. 200 $ (civilian price) and 50 g to the weapon. The weapon should weigh empty no more than 1,150 g (like a .45ACP Colt Government Model 1911 since its weight is tolerated - but overall weight of gun, ammo and holster is more relevant) and it should be strictly holster-compatible. Stock, fore grip, laser (and to a very low degree also the higher velocity bullets) would approximately double the effective range.

This handgun would be a secondary automatic weapon for anybody in the fighting force who has a heavy weapon like an ATGM or Sniper rifle for his primary mission. And it would as well be nice as secondary backup weapon and as senior officer and vehicle crew weapon. Just in case that the vehicle crew can grab for something when it evacuates from its vehicle, there should also be an assault rifle and its ammo for each of them in reach. Staff personnel that watches monitor screens with the machine pistol always on their body should as well have something ‘real’ like an assault rifle for the self-defense of their position. They just don’t need to carry it all the time. Finally, this machine pistol is a nice concealable weapon that soldiers on leave in not reasonably safe places and agents on covert missions can use for self-defence.

A compact carbine with a dedicated cartridge

A compact carbine, with an external appearance like the Imbel LC or the service’s standard assault rifle with a very rugged, quickly detachable sight would nice. It should be compatible to the standard assault rifle cartridge but loaded with a dedicated PDW cartridge (depending on what’s the standard AR, this means 5.45 x 39 mm, 5.56 x 45 mm or 7.62 x 39 mm). This cartridge should have a propellant charge that’s suitable for the short 254mm / 10” barrel and a bullet that’s optimized to have maximum effect behind a full AK magazine pouch and level IIIa soft body armour (equivalent of at least 30 layers Kevlar® 129) at 200 m. Standard bullets could be used for training. The HK roller-lock system might be unsuitable due to differences in gas pressures and a switch to adjust the gas-loading system to the different gas pressure might be necessary. Primary sight would be a quickly detachable Eotech. Since I don’t trust the ruggedness of optical sights for this job, I’d ask for decent iron sights as backups - and they need a good spacing to be effective out to 200 m as well as an ergonomically advantageous position. In the ‘modified Imbel LC’ example, this means a rear sight on the rear end of the grip and a folding front sight. Dedicated propellant is necessary to reduce the unnecessary muzzle flash - standard propellant is not fully combusted after only 254 mm / 10” of barrel - the dedicated propellant shall reduce external combustion and therefore muzzle flash, noise and by this shooter compromisation/distraction/dazzling/deafening. A dedicated bullet shall be used because the muzzle velocity will inevitably be lower than for a standard barrel (with bullet weight and gas pressure restrictions), even with dedicated propellant. Since penetration and range requirements are lesser than for standard assault rifles, bullet design can be optimized for soft tissue performance - early yawing and fragmenting. And since the PDW requires much less dedicated cartridges than assault rifles and machine guns consume standard cartridges, more potent but also more expensive bullet designs can be used to compensate for the short barrel. The controls and sights of the gun should match the service’s standard assault rifle as far as possible to capitalize on the ‘muscle memory’ created during training with that rifle.

This compact carbine would be the automatic weapon for junior officers in command, non-combat specialists in combat battalions, special forces operators (with add-ons), probably sniper observers and some military policemen. They need something “real” to fight, not just defend themselves in a hide and they should be able to tolerate the size and weight of this weapon and its ammunition (20 rds magazine loaded**, four 30 rds magazines in reserve). A short carbine with 250 mm barrel has no disadvantages concerning penetration and man-stopping power potential in comparison to SCHV-PDWs; if it would lack stopping power, the SCHV-PDWs would do so even more... Anyway, only the P90 can be considered as having a comparable potential, and it is of comparable weight and size but uses non-standard ammunition, does not exploit the ‘muscle memory’ from assault rifle training and overall has only a high magazine capacity and one-hand firing as significant conceptual advantages.

Have a look at my user characterizations for the compact carbine; they’re not typical rear-area troops***. Those should use a combination of the machine pistol (and carry it always) and assault rifle (nearby, preferred in combat). But the sights of the rear troops might be misaligned, at least early in the conflict before they wake up and realize that they’re endangered. There’s nothing better when you have misaligned sights than dark ignition (30-300m) tracer bullets - they enable the user to correct his aim and add deterrence effect to the activity of the bullets as well. This should be included in equipment standards unless a force is justifiedly confident that its ‘rear’ troops care a lot about their rifle sight’s alignment and good marksmanship.

Alternative to the compact carbine:

A desirable alternative to the compact carbine is a weapon with high commonality to the service’s standard assault rifle but in calibre of .30 (7.62 mm) to .38 (9 mm). This weapon could also have different ammunitions; an AP cartridge with a velocity of around 500-600 m/s, a saboted AP cartridge with a muzzle velocity of around 700-800m/s and a subsonic cartridge for use with a silencer that would be used to keep the elements of concealment and even surprise longer. The different muzzle velocities would necessitate a twist compromise (barrel rifling), likely in favor of the faster bullet. Weapon sights for longer distances might need to be different, too. This weapon could be used by combat troops in urban environments as well as at night to good effect. It can even be considered as a promising secondary sniper team observer’s weapon or for very short range silenced sniping. Overall, the Russian approach with 9 x 39 mm and 9 x 30 mm cartridges and the American Colt MARS experiment in 9 x 30 mm seem promising. Colt’s MARS experiment with 9 x 30 mm calibre even fits the description that I gave in the first sentence. Most intriguing is the AN-11 TISS in 9x39 because it looks almost the same as a standard AK - that means that it does not compromise specialists and leaders as such.

**: The magazine that’s probably loaded for months should not increase the overall height of the weapon beyond the level that’s already dictated by primary grip and sight arrangement. This is due to ergonomic considerations. You could as well say that it should be carried unloaded, a measure that’s likely to reduce accidents as well as worsen reaction time in an ambush. Note that magazine springs can be degraded when a magazine is filled for long periods. A dedicated short magazine could have extra-strong magazine springs to avoid reliability problems.

***: The logical conclusion of this is that only the machine pistol would be a true PDW (by purpose) in my system. The combat troops would have a compact carbine in their inventory to save weight for non-riflemen and probably some of the HP machine pistols as backups. The non-combat troops would have a small, short-range PDW (HP machine pistol) plus full-size infantry weapons.

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