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“Similar” weapons - that are neither SCHV PDWs nor 7.62x33 mm carbines
Except the World War 2 personal defence carbines and the PDWs in the meaning of the NATO, there are further categories of weapons that can give soldiers a self-defence capability at less weight and size than an automatic carbine or submachinegun. And then there are weapons called “PDW” although they are ordinary submachineguns without special penetration capabilities or extended range. These categories of weapons will be investigated with examples in these pages;
The very first machine pistol appeared in 1916 not long before the first submachinegun and this category lives on till today. The greatest problem of machine pistols is their (lack of) controllability during fire bursts, their greatest advantage being typically their pistol-like appearance, weight and size.
compact carbines / subcarbines
Assault rifles of the second, small calibre generation were shortened to make them more handy - I list examples of carbines that are indeed “too short” for their calibre because their barrel length is smaller than 300mm and this means that the standard-issue small calibre cartridges have much less barrel length for acceleration than their designers envisaged. This leads to smaller muzzle velocity, smaller velocity on impact, less energy on impact and finally less effect after impact. Many 5.56x45 m bullet do for example not fragment anymore in soft tissue when fired by such short barrels and have therefore much reduced stopping power. The greatest problems of these carbines that are sometimes also called “compact assault rifles”or “subcarbines” are therefore not only their weight and size (comparable to or greater than normal submachineguns) in relation to sidearms but also their lack of man stopping power in comparison to an assault rifle. Their greatest advantages are training and ammunition commonality with assault rifles and the potentials of the cartridge and barrel in comparison to lighter and smaller weapons.
Standard pistol cartridges produce a strong recoil impulse and a low muzzle velocity. It’s possible to combine less recoil impulse and high muzzle velocity in new cartridges that contain lighter, usually small calibre bullets. Another method is to use an AP bullet in standard-sized or slightly enlarged 9mm cartridges. Many of these high penetration handguns achieve penetration comparable to the SCHV-PDW category, but nevertheless I present these examples as “high penetration handguns” because their effective range is too limited for all-round defense.
Some submachineguns are called “PDW” or simply are used as a PDW should be used. Since this description applies to dozens of different SMG types, I’ve selected only very few examples - but these are very interesting.
www.personaldefenceweapons.com
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