User:JackalUnderscore

Personal Defence Weapons

The idea behind this piece here came from this video here. Please note that the categorisation of PDWs I use here is not an official or commonly-accepted means of categorisation, I just think it's kinda neat and I also wanted to try and figure out what a PDW is and what weapons can be considered PDWs, so I also did a bunch of additional research for this section of the my user page.

Personal Defence Weapons (PDWs) are a vaguely defined class of compact, selective fire, magazine-fed weapons, intended for use in a variety of roles. These roles include tankers, truck drivers, pilots, ship crews, rear-echelon troops, special forces or police CQB situations, close protection details like the US Secret Service, military engineers, bomb disposal teams, combat medics, artillery crews, signallers and many more roles where the subject cannot use their hands to use a weapon and engage in combat, as they are currently engaged in another activity like defusing a bomb, driving a vehicle or fixing up a wounded friendly (with the obvious exception being special forces or police CQB situations, where they are intended to engage in combat with the enemy).

Note that Personal Defence Weapons are not the same as Self-Defence Weapons, as in home defence, although one of the main reasons for developing a PDW is to give your troops a weapon that can be used in self defence. Obviously almost any weapon can be whipped out quickly and can be used in self defence (apart from big heavy machine guns, snipers and launchers) but these weapons are not PDWs.

The PDW (in effect) has existed since the First World War, but the name and formal designation was only given to the fairly informal category in the 1990s by NATO, when they were searching for a compact, armour-piercing weapon for rear echelon troops and truck drivers under potential threat from an airborne Soviet invasion of Western Europe, who would be wearing Kevlar armour. This program led to the development of the FN P90 and Heckler & Koch MP7 in the early 2000s, which have since been adopted by many countries for police, special forces and close protection detail work.

There are four types of PDW which I will use here to sort the assortment of SMGs, machine pistols and carbines into (for PDWs can also be classed as other types of weapons, hence why I said they were "loosely-defined" earlier). These four types do not fully define the weapon, as the PDWs can also be classed as machine pistols or carbines as well as being a PDW. What makes them PDWs specifically is the intent behind their use in one or more of the roles listed above. Each type has different advantages and drawbacks over the other, meaning there is no one best type of PDW, it depends on the specific role they are intended to be used in, making them a very specialised and very varied class of firearms.

• Type 1: Purpose-built weapons (usually) using either proprietary or specialised ammunition. An example would be the P90 from earlier, which fires the 5.7x28mm round. Advantages involve armour-piercing, small size while maintaining good control over the weapon and generally good accuracy. Disadvantages include unusual ergonomics, rare calibers (as no PDW was adopted by NATO and, subsequently, there is no official NATO PDW cartridge), rarity and price.
• Type 2: Stocked machine pistols, which are easily concealable but still controllable. An example would be the Mauser M712 Schnellfeuer machine pistol from WWII. Advantages include very small size and easy concealability, while maintaining use of common pistol calibers. Disadvantages include potentially high recoil force and uncomfortable usage, alongside poor performance at range and
• Type 3: Compact sub-machine guns such as the Heckler & Koch MP5K. Advantages include ease of use, as training with the full-size SMG can easily be transferred over, usage of common pistol calibers, ability to use most modifications options developed for the SMG. Disadvantages include a larger size compared to the first two types, as well as the lack of armour-penetration and ranged accuracy.
• Type 4: Miniature, short-barrelled rifles/carbines such as the AKS-74U. Advantages include good stopping power, due to most using intermediate rifle rounds, good accuracy and ergonomics, along with the ability to use most modification options developed for the full-size rifle the PDW is based on. Disadvantages include high muzzle flash from the short barrel, high recoil if using a larger round and the largest size out of all other PDW types, due to being compact rifles.

Type 1 PDWs

• 

  FN P90 + variants (P90 TR, PS90). A specifically designed weapon for the NATO PDW trials, firing the proprietary 5.7x28mm, which can pierce body armour at significant range. As Germany veoted the adoption of the P90, the weapon and its rounds were not adopted by NATO. The P90 is commonly used in special forces and police roles.

• 

  H&K MP7 + variants (MP7A1, MP7A2). A specifically designed weapon for the NATO PDW trials, firing the proprietary 4.6x30mm round, which, like the 5.7x28mm of the P90, can pierce body armour at significant range. As Germany veoted the adoption of the P90, neither weapon had their rounds adopted by NATO. The MP7 is commonly used in special forces and police roles.

• 

  M1 Carbine + variants (M1A1 Carbine, M2 Carbine). While not what one would usually consider a PDW, it was used by a variety of troops not on the frontlines, was developed specifically for those roles and it used a proprietary cartridge, meaning it is a Type 1 PDW. Note the M3 Carbine is absent, as it was intended to be used as a low-light marksman/sniper rifle, not a PDW.

• 

  M1903 Springfield w/ Pederson Device. While the Pederson Device never saw combat, it was intended to be used in the same sort of role as the M1 Carbine in WW1, and it was a purpose-built conversion of the weapon to turn it into something new (complete with a different Army designation compared to the .30-06 Springfield), therefore it is considered a Type 1 PDW.

• 

  PP-2000. Developed as a Russian PDW akin to the P90 and MP7, with specially-designed overpressure versions of the 9x19mm Parabellum round (7N21 and 7N31) in order to defeat Kevlar body armour.

• 

  MSMC. Developed in India as a compact carbine, it was shortened and adopted as the Modern Sub Machine Carbine, firing a proprietary 5.56x30mm MINSAS round, which can pierce body armour at decent ranges. It is intended to be used by special forces, as well as vehicle and tanker crews.

• 

  CBJ-MS. A Swedish PDW/LSW, with a proprietary 6.5x25mm APDS (armour piercing discarding sabot) round, which fires a 4mm tungsten penetrator and is apparently effective against almost all body armour and even APCs (however, this info is from the company that made it and the APC in question was a 1960s Soviet MT-LB, which was only designed to protect against small arms and shrapnel). A 100 round helical magazine and bipod are available, to turn it into what the company considers an "LSW".

• 

  VBR-Belgium PDW. Despite looking like a machine pistol, the VBR PDW is a prototype 7.92x24mm PDW designed to use Glock magazines (with the company also having produced 7.92x24mm Glock conversion kits). The weapon has a very small retractable stock to aid with control in long bursts. Details on the weapon are scant, most likely due to it never passing into the testing or mass-production stage.

• COLT MARS-1.jpg

  Colt MARS. The Mini Assault Rifle System is a prototype PDW rifle firing the 5.56x30mm MARS cartridge, which was developed in the 1990s. It can be considered a Type 1 or Type 4 PDW, as it is a scaled-down M16. There were two types, one which resembled an M16A1 with a triangular handguard and fixed stock, and a later version resembling an M4, with a collapsible stock and a similar barrel to the M4.

• 

  Intredynamic MKR. Another prototype rifle PDW, this Swedish bullpup rifle used the proprietary 4.5x26mm MKR rimless cartridge, which was claimed to have the same ballistic effectiveness at 300 metres as 5.56x45mm NATO, but with more armour-piercing capabilities. The rounds were solid brass, which produced a flat trajectory to 300m. It never passed beyond the prototype stage.

• 

  KAC PDW. Another short rifle, which incorporates M16 parts into the design, such as the lower receiver, but uses a 6x35mm round in a small rifle package to produce slightly higher bullet velocity and muzzle energy than 5.56x45mm NATO, in order to produce an armour piercing effect. It can also use .300 Blackout.

• 

  Honey Badger (AAC and Q versions, AAC pictured). An AR-15 derived PDW designed with the aim of replaing the MP5 in US service, firing the proprietary .300 Blackout round, which is subsonic and has similar ballistics to 7.62x39mm, able to penetrate more effectively than 5.56x45mm NATO. It was developed to take advantage of the fact that the .300 round could fit into a 5.56mm magazine, and to provide an AR-15 rifle which was effective in the heavier caliber while still using STANAG magazines.

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