The M-41 pulse rifle is the all-purpose workhorse for U.S. Army as well as Colonial Marine Expeditionary Forces deployed across the entire spectrum of battlespace. From classic low-intensity conflicts and peacekeeping deployments to military operations on a planetary scale, the M-41 does yeomen’s duty as a general-issue small arms platform.

The original M-41 was developed nearly twenty years ago by Alliant Techsystems in response to a joint services request to replace the venerable M-28 flechette gun. The M-28 had soldiered on reliably in one form or another for more than forty years but its relatively bulky tactical footprint and near-notorious lack of one shot stopping power demanded a new small arms solution for the modern light infantry soldier. The M-41 represented the right melding of technology and practical ergonomics, bringing today’s soldier or marine a lightweight, versatile, and imminently lethal weapon that was equally effective in environments ranging from steaming jungles to the vacuum of space. The key to the success of this revolutionary weapon was the perfection of its caseless ammunition technology.

Caseless ammunition had been a pipe dream for more than two centuries. The Victor-Heddon caseless rifle marketed commercially in the United States in the 1960s represented a marginally-successful rudimentary effort. This weapon was a single shot .22 caliber plinking rifle that employed then-revolutionary caseless rounds incorporating an unjacketed .22 caliber projectile attached to a pellet of carbide-based propellant. The weapon itself was little more than a heavily-modified air rifle. The gun’s air piston was charged via a long lever underneath the forearm. When the trigger was actuated the piston released a jet of high-pressure air that generated sufficient friction to ignite the propellant charge. The weapon produced ballistics comparable to a conventional .22 long cartridge and, obviously, ejected no spent cartridge cases. While technically successful, the ammunition was fragile and sensitive to moisture and rough handling. After a brief commercial run the weapon was discontinued and relegated to the status of collector’s item.

Prior to the collapse of communism in the late 1980s the then West German government embarked on an aggressive program to produce a viable caseless military arm. The resulting Heckler and Koch G-11 was a recoil-operated weapon that fired a 4.7mm bullet mounted atop a pressure-formed propellant grain of square cross section. This cartridge was treated to make it moisture resistant and incorporated a proprietary consumable primer. The G-11 fed from a top-mounted fifty-round disposable box magazine and incorporated a novel rotary operating system.

The bolt on the G-11 was a fairly large rotating cylinder that incorporated an integrated chamber design that turned through a full ninety degrees to chamber a round and align it with the barrel for firing. This mechanism, while complex, was sealed from the elements and facilitated some fairly unique performance specifications. The G-11 had a four-position selector that allowed a full-auto cyclic rate of 600 rounds per minute and a rate in three-round burst mode of 2,000 rpm. In burst mode the intent was to have all three rounds launched prior to the recoil impulse being transmitted to the firer. In this regard the design was both unique and successful.

The G-11 had great promise. The ammunition was indeed fairly robust. One of the designers for Dynamit Nobel was said to have carried a round in his pocket with his keys for more than a year and then successfully fired it with no ill effects. However, the peaceful collapse of communism and the reunification of Germany negated the mission for the G-11 and the program was cancelled.

The early part of the 21st century saw the acceptance of polymer-cased military ammunition as well as the perfection of telescoped-case technology. These technological milestones served as stepping stones to the 10mm caseless ammunition employed so successfully on the M-41.

The M-41 Pulse Rifle is so designated based upon its ingenious cartridge ignition system. Caseless rounds are fed into the chamber by the piston-driven, gas-operated recoil mechanism and then detonated via electrical pulse from a cold-load lithium ion battery. This power cell is installed at the factory and is rated for fifteen years of continuous operation. The system is effectively environmentally-sealed to allow operation in any conceivable tactical environment. The electronic circuitry on board the weapon is also hardened against the electromagnetic pulse from a nuclear detonation. The M-41 will actually function and fire reliably both underwater and in the vacuum of space. In must be noted, however, that accuracy is spotty at all but point blank range when fired underwater. Additionally, I am told by some operators who have tried it that managing recoil in a weightless vacuum can make for some exciting zero-G gyrations.

Ammunition for the M-41 comes in a variety of flavors. Standard general issue combat rounds incorporate a small point-detonating high explosive charge along with a tungsten light armor penetrator. This general-purpose combat round is effective against most man-portable body armor out to its accepted maximum effective range of five hundred fifty meters. Combat experience has shown this round to retain its lethality out much farther than that, however. There has been at least one confirmed one-shot kill at more than 1,200 meters undertaken by a Marine Designated Marksman equipped with a stock M-41 outfitted with gyrostabilized optics.

Tracer rounds and inert training variants that mimic the trajectory of the standard explosive-tipped caseless light armor-piercing rounds but lack their H.E. payload are available as well. Obviously, civilian owners of sporterized M-41 variants only have access to the training rounds. Live firing of combat ammunition requires specialized range facilities to accommodate the possibility of UXO or unexploded ordnance. Though detonation rates in excess of 99.99% have been documented against backstops ranging from earth to snow to water, the risk of dud rounds still mandates that most training be conducted with solid tipped training ammunition.

The M-41 is clearly a weapon designed with operator’s input from the very outset. The controls are intuitive and the center of balance is perfect. The integrated carrying handle and sighting rail provides a handy carrying point for long ruck marches while the sling attachment points are fully ambidextrous. The shoulder stock adjusts to accommodate various physiques as well as body armor. Fire controls and magazine releases are mirrored on both sides of the weapon and the caseless nature of the design makes it equally comfortable for both right and left handed shooters. The cyclic rate of fire in fully automatic mode is 700 rounds per minute. The nature of the caseless ammunition combined with the weapon’s novel hydro-pneumatic buffer system keeps recoil mild and burst firing controllable.

The M-41 feeds from an ingenious quad-stack disposable magazine available in both fifty and hundred round versions. Ammunition is issued pre-loaded in these robust polymer magazines and the spent mags are subsequently discarded. The use of disposable polymer magazines negates the potential for weapons malfunction due to magazine wear, a common failure point for weapons employed under hard use conditions.

The one addition to the M-41 platform that makes it most popular with troops in the field when compared to the older M-28 family of weapons is the integrated 30mm over-and-under pump-action grenade launcher. This weapon is lightweight, easy to operate tactically, and profoundly effective. The integrated grenade launcher brings each individual soldier or marine the capability to defeat light armored vehicles as well as targets behind mild cover. Additionally, the operator equipped with the M-41 also possesses the capability of engaging targets behind heavy cover via indirect fire. This weapon carries five rounds in its ready configuration and the high-low pressure system incorporated into the ammunition keeps recoil manageable.

There is a wide selection of tactical loadings available for the grenade launcher component of the M-41. Standard Mk-118 general-purpose grenades are of the High-Explosive Dual-Purpose (HEDP) variety. These rounds provide a five meter bursting radius against unprotected targets as well as the capability to defeat up to three inches of rolled homogenous steel armor. In addition, the operator may remove the gold cap from these rounds and actuate the fusing mechanism manually. In this configuration the Mk-118 incorporates an electromechanical four-second time delay and serves as the standard issue hand-thrown antipersonnel grenade.

The Mk-192 thermobaric grenade incorporates a friable explosive thermobaric warhead designed for use against buildings and similar enclosed targets. The Mk-192 is designed to punch a hole through a structure’s outer skin and then destroy it from within via overpressure from the friable explosive warhead. Many troops in combat will actually load their grenade launchers alternating Mk-118 and Mk-192 rounds and then engage each target twice as a matter of protocol. As the Marines are wont to say, in combat there really is no such thing as overkill.

Another popular loading is the Mk-151 antipersonnel canister round for Military Operations in Urban Terrain (MOUT) use as well as Close Quarters Battle (CQB). The canister loading incorporates three tungsten disks nested within a matrix of a dozen plated lead pellets. At close ranges these canister loadings turn the M-41 into the equivalent of a large-bore pump action shotgun and are absolutely devastating against lightly armored targets.

Other specialized rounds include incendiary loadings, star clusters for signal purposes, and bounding rounds that rebound off of a target surface to detonate at a fixed distance above the ground though these specific rounds are used more for specialized operations and are not commonly issued.

On the range the M-41 is clearly a rifleman’s weapon. The total weight of the system fully loaded is just shy of three kilos and the composite housing on the weapon is devoid of sharp corners that might otherwise gouge one’s anatomy on a long forced march. The top rail provides a handy interface for gyrostabilized optical sights and there are mounting points alongside both sides of the barrel shroud for white lights, laser designators, or infrared illuminators.

Though only ten inches long, each carbon fiber composite barrel is rated for more than 30,000 rounds before required gauging or replacement and is capable of excellent combat accuracy. Groups at 100 meters were consistently two inches or less from a rest. The composite material used in the barrels does a great job of dissipating heat from extended firing sessions and the combustible insulative polymer coating applied to the ammunition during manufacture makes the rounds more resistant to cookoffs than more conventional brass, steel, or polymer-cased ammo.

The issue trigger is sharp with no discernible creep and very little take-up, an intended consequence of the pulse rifle’s electronic ignition system. Head shots at 300 meters on the range were easy with the M-41 even for my old eyes. Burst firing is manageable so long as even rudimentary tactical technique is employed with all rounds from a 3-5 round burst consistently remaining on a standard tactical silhouette out to fifty meters or so. Even neophyte shooters who fired the M-41 for the first time found that they could consistently hit targets out to at least two hundred meters with minimal instruction. Small-framed female shooters also performed well with the weapon, clearly an intentional component of the design given the large percentage of female soldiers and marines serving in the combat arms these days.

The grenade launcher was both effective and fun to shoot. Recoil is more of a push than a jolt and all five rounds could be fired and cycled in less time than it takes to describe. Firing the 30mm grenade launcher really does give the shooter a feeling of near-invincibility on the range. Minimum arming distance for all explosive rounds is twenty-five meters while the effective bursting radius of Mk-118 standard HEDP combat rounds was found in practice to be in excess of the publicized five meters.

The original M-41 has gone through two major upgrades during the course of its service life. The M-41A was four ounces lighter than the original M-41 and incorporated a new electronic round counter on the right side of the magazine well that allows the operator to keep an exact tally of his or her ammunition remaining on board the weapon in any lighting conditions. The electronic round counter is powered by the same lithium ion battery that powers the weapon’s ignition system.

The M-41B is essentially the same weapon as the M-41A with a few engineering changes aimed at speeding production. The composite stock system on the weapon can be had in black, white, olive drab, coyote tan, or any one of a variety of camouflage patterns. The bolt of the grenade launcher is now hard chromed for durability and corrosion resistance.

It has been more than one hundred years since the machine gun ban of 1986 so factory fully automatic versions of the M-41 series of weapons are not available to the civilian shooting public. While there are a few post-sample conversions floating around that are available only to licensed NFA dealers and law enforcement, original factory fully automatic and burst firing variants of the M-41 are only available to the military and certified law enforcement organizations. All is not lost, however, for the civilian shooter who wants to own what is essentially the same weapon carried into battle by our Colonial Marines.

Several enterprising manufacturers have constructed their own aftermarket stock sets and conversion systems to transform the Alliant Techsystems M-41S Sporter into something more akin to the Mil-Spec variant. Advanced collectors with deep pockets can even land an operational grenade launcher though the resulting composite weapon requires two tax stamps for transfer, one as a short-barreled rifle for the host weapon and another a destructive device stamp for the grenade launcher. Sadly, civilian owners will likely never even see live high explosive rounds. As previously discussed, stringent range requirements would preclude safe firing even if the rounds were available legally.

The M-41B pulse rifle represents the state of the art in contemporary small arms technology. The result of literally countless hours and millions of dollars of research combined with operator input and a steady and focused product improvement program, the M-41 series of weapons stands poised to satisfy the small arms requirements for all five U.S. armed services for many years to come.

Many thanks to Captain Cynthia Becker, Public Affairs Officer for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, United States Colonial Marines, for her invaluable assistance in the preparation of this article. Without the generous assistance of the Corps and subsequent access to M-41 variants and high-explosive ammunition operated solely by the military services this article would not have been possible. Semper Fi.

(Editor’s note: APRIL FOOLS!)

By Jim Schatz

Over the past 15 years there has been a quiet but fundamental change in the weapon of choice for Close Quarters Battle (CQB) by military special operations and law enforcement tactical personnel. This trend away from pistol-caliber submachine guns for CQB has not been confined to the shores of the United States. In fact, many of the current rifle caliber CQB weapons available today are foreign designs, a few notable ones from the former Soviet Union. Why the change and what has it brought to the tactical community? Why has this change occurred now? What events and lessons learned have driven special units, tasked with armed combat at close ranges, away from their trusted and dearly loved submachine guns? This article will explore these questions and discuss current trends in CQB weaponry today.

The trench broom. The Submachine Gun

Submachine guns, for the purpose of this article, in the true American definition are defined as shoulder-fired weapons firing true pistol cartridges such as 9X19mm Luger, .45 ACP, .40 S&W and 10mm Auto as well as many other calibers of non-U.S. origin. Submachine guns in service in the United States military historically have been used primarily as short-range and defensive weapons during most of the conflicts of the 20th century. Over the past two decades the submachine gun in conventional units, mainly the WWII era M3 and M3A1 “Greasegun”, have been relegated to duty with tankers and MP’s, with a few notable exceptions.

During the 1970’s with the advent of modern terrorism and hostage taking aboard airliners, trains and other such linear targets with confined working space for assaulters, the pistol-caliber submachine offered “the shooter” a small, lightweight weapon with a large magazine capacity. These basic physical attributes made and still make the subgun perfect for counter terrorist team members moving quickly to and through these targets. The successful employment of submachine guns by Israeli Commandos in Uganda, by the then newly formed German GSG-9 Anti-Terrorist Unit in Mogadishu and the British SAS in 1980 at the Iranian Embassy in London maybe did more to propel the submachine gun into the modern CQB role than all of the tactical advantages of the weapon.

Because of their inherent handiness, subguns can quickly be brought to bear on single and multiple targets, only second in speed behind handguns. They can be presented fast on target and can swing quickly from one target to another in the highly fluent CQB environment so many special operators live and die in today. Firing pistol rounds they impart little felt recoil to the shooter and thus offer excellent controllability. Their pistol cartridges offer reduced maximum range and ricochet hazards and controlled penetration around fellow team members and innocent bystanders. Standard pistol ammunition fired from these weapons does not generally perforate protective vests of fellow team members and presents less of a hazard in the pressurized cabins of aircraft in flight.

Pistol cartridges fired from the large capacity magazines (20 to 50 rounds), normally common in modern submachine gun designs, offer a large amount of rounds “on board” available to the shooter before the need to reload. SMG’s are also easily sound suppressed with proven and highly effective accessory sound suppressors. Their limited muzzle blast is easier on fellow team members operating in confined spaces than rifle- caliber fire and is more conducive to use with night vision devices. Modern subguns are also well known for extremely long service life, including barrels and sound suppressors. Many HK MP5’s and Uzi’s have had more than 300,000 rounds fired through them without the need for a barrel exchange. Service life of the CQB weapon is an important factor for the high volume shooters within most elite units.

The Winds of Change

With so many advantages offered by pistol-caliber submachine guns, why the need for a change to something else? As is so often the case in modern warfare, whether it be military warfare on the battlefield or warfare by law enforcement officers against well- armed criminals on our city streets, developments in small arms are often brought on by actual failures and deficiencies of current hardware in actual real life operations. A good example of this is the current effort by the U.S. Army to lighten the force, making it easier to move quickly to all parts of the world. The heavy 60+ ton main battle tanks developed during the 1970’s and 80’s to fight the former Warsaw Pact tanks and APC’s on the open plains of Europe are now to be replaced with lighter vehicles that can be airlifted and airdropped into the “operations other than war” we so often find ourselves involved in today. These changes are brought on not always by foresight but by reaction to current events.

The relatively newfound popularity of the Mini Assault Rifle owes its heritage to lessons learned in CQB operations where pistol-caliber submachine guns revealed their inherent deficiencies of limited range and terminal effects, especially against targets wearing body armor.

A Brief Historical Prospective

Throughout the history of U.S. military small arms where there existed a full size service rifle very often a shorter lighter carbine followed closely in its footsteps. Springfield Trapdoor carbines, carbine models of the .30-40 caliber model 1896 Krag-Jorgensen rifle, the Tanker version of the M1 Garand, all more portable versions of the larger service rifle with nearly the same range and terminal lethality. The same is certainly true of the rifles chambered for the 5.56X45mm NATO cartridge known commercially as the .223 Remington. Not long after the adoption of the AR15/M16 rifle for Vietnam in 1964, “shorty” carbine and even “submachine gun” variants of the now famous Eugene Stoner designed rifle began to emerge from the manufacturing facilities. The XM177E1 and E2, the CAR-15 used during the famous Son Tay Raid in 1970 planned to free American POW’s in North Vietnam, the Air Force GAU-5 and even the contemporary U.S. M4 Carbine being issued to U.S. forces today follows the same development downsizing of earlier U.S. service rifles. Why? For ease of transport, to lighten the load of the soldier, to address unique mission specific requirements of specialized units without appreciably effecting the ability of the user to effectively engage targets within reasonable combat ranges. Today the 6 pound 5.56mm U.S. M4 Carbine with a 14.5 inch barrel, or some variant of this weapon, is issued to not only special operations forces in all branches of the U.S. military but also to conventional units as well, such as the 18,000 man 82nd Airborne Division.

The Submachine Gun versus The Assault Rifle

During the 1970’s and 1980’s the world began forming what we recognize today as the modern counter-terrorist and hostage rescue units of the world, the Delta’s, SEAL Team 6’s, GSG-9, and SAS CT Wing along with many other units like these. Like Delta and its sister unit (and predecessor) “Blue Light,” many fledgling CT units started life using existing general issue weapons, in the case of Blue Light and Delta, M3 Greaseguns and CAR-15’s. Soon, through experience and by the means of increasing special operations equipment budget, these units quickly adopted 3rd generation submachine guns for the CQB missions for which these units have become so well known.

The HK MP5 Submachine Gun has been the choice of nearly every such unit for the past 30 years. Like the men and units that carry and have carried it, the MP5 is fast and deadly, just the ticket for the “targets” of today, terrorist holding innocent hostages on passenger ships, in high profile buildings and “planes, trains and automobiles”. However unbeknownst to most readers, in the mid-1980s the exclusive use of the MP5 for CQB in military special operations units would begin to change. When the targets changed so did the tools to remove them.

With the proliferation of modern soft and “hard” body armor, brought on in part by the end of the Cold War, terrorists and conventional enemy personnel more frequently protected themselves against many pistol-caliber weapons in use by special units around the world by employing modern body armor. Even though special armor piercing ammunition was developed to deal with these ballisticly hardened targets, many teams failed to adopt these special types of enhanced cartridges. In the U.S. in fact, the adoption by the military of the FFV/Bofors armor piercing 9X19mm NATO ammunition for use in the U.S. M9 Pistol and to a lesser degree in the HK MP5 submachine gun was prohibited by the U.S. Government (Clinton administration) to “keep it out of the hands of the criminal element”. (This was done not withstanding the fact that most high velocity deer hunting cartridges loaded with conventional soft-core projectiles will defeat soft and many hard types of body armor).

Modern body armor has found its way into the hands of criminals in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and in the United States in a few highly publicized police shootouts with well-armed and equally well-protected bad guys. Pistol caliber carbines and submachine guns simply do not possess the penetration, long range performance (100 meters) and pinpoint accuracy required to defeat targets wearing modern body armor or protected by vehicle windshields and body panels.

Military and Law Enforcement requirements differ

For the military, the move to 5.56mm CQB weapons away from the 9mm MP5 in most cases was driven by a unique operational requirement that is not normally a concern of federal or local law enforcement. Law enforcement tactical personnel are most often provided a secure perimeter around the target by their own support personnel in which they operate. They can then generally move to and from the target in relative safety not having to fight their way in and out or watch their backs. Military units very often operate within “Indian country” with little or no assistance on the ground from outside friendly forces. They are generally responsible for their own security getting to and from the target as well as their actions upon arrival at the objective. Lessons learned in operations in Grenada, Panama, during Operation Desert Storm and Somalia reinforced the fact that, like taking a knife to a gunfight, you shouldn’t take a submachine gun to a rifle firefight.

In most cases hostage rescue teams operating independently behind enemy lines fight with only what they can carry. Whereas an MP5 makes a great gun for CQB use inside the target building or ship, it is woefully outmatched across open terrain against enemy personnel armed with AK47’s, G3’s and captured M16 rifles. It is probably this lesson more than any other single factor that propelled the military special operations units in the U.S. towards rifle-caliber weapons for most of their missions, including those previously handled with the submachine gun.

For some time during the 70’s, 80’s and into the 90’s, military assault teams and hostage rescue units often brought along a separate security element armed with assault rifles to escort and protect the subgun-equipped assaulters to and from the target. In a few cases some units actually carried assault rifles to get to and from the target and MP5’s for the actual assault of the target. Things got so ridiculous that some military Special Reaction Teams actually carried two U.S. M9 Pistols on CQB missions because 9mm submachine guns were unavailable and 5.56mm M16’s were simply to large and unwieldy within the close confines of the classic CQB target.

Finding the right tool for the job

In recent times beginning in the mid-1980’s, the more elite U.S. special operations teams began to search for solutions to the deficiencies of their current small arms for assault and CQB use. Teams evaluated smaller, more compact long guns in rifle calibers 5.56mm and 7.62mm as potential replacement of 9mm submachine guns. In the end the 5.56mm select-fire carbine, like the Colt CAR-15 and M16 Commando and the HK33K and HK53, was found to be the nearly ideal compromise between being small and handy and yet powerful enough to give the user a fighting chance against aggressors armed with assault rifles themselves.

Rangers Lead the Way

As has been so often the case in the last half of the 20th century, where military special operations go with new small arms developments, the law enforcement community is soon to follow. As military special ops and federal law enforcement tactical teams often operate and train together, both with their foreign and domestic counterparts, the federal agencies are often a few years behind the military special units in adopting the newly emerging military equipment trends. As the feds begin using new weapons, state and local agencies are exposed to them and they also soon find a home in the local law enforcement tactical team. This has been the classic case with the HK MP5 submachine gun. First used successfully in Europe by military and paramilitary special units, the weapon spread across “the pond” to special U.S. military units and then down through federal and ultimately into local law enforcement organizations. After more than 30 years in the U.S., the MP5 still sells very well to local law enforcement tactical teams for Close Quarter’s Battle. However, in the world of the U.S. military special operations, and to a lesser degree, in federal law enforcement, the submachine gun for all but special missions (VIP protection, special assaults on board ships, personal protection or sound suppressed use) has been replaced or is being replaced by a host of 5.56mm Carbines and even more compact 5.56mm weapons.

You can’t fool Sir Isaac Newton

The laws of physics apply, even to special operations units. In the 1980’s 5.56mm carbines were about as small as that caliber and category of shortened rifle would allow. While there were a few obscure short-barreled 5.56mm weapons even smaller than CAR15’s and HK33K’s, such as the HK53, Ruger ACC556, and LaFrance M16-K, few were well known and even fewer had a proven reputation for reliability. In the past if you wanted more performance from your CQB weapon by going to a rifle cartridge you got a larger, often heavier less user-friendly weapon. It was a trade off — performance for portability.

Very recently this trend has changed with the development of an entirely new and separate category of small arms that this writer will describe herein as a Mini Assault Rifle. To define such a beast one must first consider the definition of an assault rifle. By its classic definition, the modern assault rifle today has all of the characteristics of the world’s first true assault rifles developed by the Germans during the final years of WWII. The Mkb42(H), the MP44 and STG45B where “Sturmgewehrs” in the classic sense. Firing an intermediate cartridge smaller than the full power service rifle cartridge but vastly more capable than any pistol round, the assault rifle fired in both semi and full auto modes. Assault rifles are generally always shoulder fired and feed from box magazines or drums (normally detachable) and are smaller and lighter in weight when compared to full size service rifles.

The service rifles of the U.S. Armed Forces today, the M16A1 and M16A2, are full size assault rifles. The U.S. M4 and special operations peculiar M4A1Carbine, by definition, is a shorter, lighter version of the full size assault rifle with a shorter collapsing buttstock and more importantly a shorter 14.5 inch barrel versus the 20 inch barrel of the M16A1 and A2 versions. For the purpose of this discussion, the Mini Assault Rifle would have all of these features as listed above. It would operate like the full size assault rifle and carbine yet would fit more in the class of a submachine gun by way of barrel length (10 to 12 inches or less), overall length (under 30 inches) and weight (under 7 pounds).

Jane Says there is such a beast, and lots of them

Mini Assault Rifles are not really new, it’s just their popularity is a recent thing. A quick look through the rifle section of Jane’s Infantry Weapons will revel more than 20 such animals, one or more variants available from most parts of the globe. In fact, this writer was able to identify 27 rifle-caliber weapons that would meet the definition of a Mini Assault Rifle. The combined listing is in the 1998-99 edition of Jane’s Infantry Weapons and Charlie Cutshaw’s authoritative work on Soviet Small Arms entitled The New World of Russian Small Arms and Ammunition (1998 Paladin Press). This number compares to only two such entries in the same Jane’s reference work from1988-89. Many of the earliest and more advanced Minis are those originally created for the Soviet Special Forces, MVD and SPETsNaz units, during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Perhaps this is another reason that the Miniature Assault Rifle has been so strongly embraced in Western special units in the past 15 years.

It is clear in some cases that even the manufacturers of these micro-sized assault rifles did not know where to categorize them and what to call them. HK Germany has called the HK53 with it’s 8.3 inch barrel a “submachine gun” for many years because of its diminutive size even though the classic definition of a submachine gun cannot include weapons chambered for rifle-caliber cartridges. The Russian 5.45mm AKS-74U, arguably the most widely available Mini, is a sexy little assault rifle often seen in the hands of special military and police units, especially those providing personal protection for high profile dignitaries and VIP’s. The Krinkov as it is often mistakenly called (not used by the Russians to describe the weapon) has often times been labeled as a “submachine gun version of the AKS-74 rifle “ by the world’s small arms experts.

The sharp increase in the worldwide availability of the Mini Assault Rifle certainly speaks to the demand that has developed around the globe for a small weapon with maximum performance. Today one can find such small wonders in calibers 5.45X39mm Russian, 5.56X45mm NATO, 7.62X39mm Russian and even 7.62X51mm NATO as well as the relatively new high performance 9X39mm cartridge developed by the former Soviet Union for such compact guns.

What vacant role does the Mini Assault Rifle Fill?

The answer to this question is actually fairly simple and straightforward. For those users that want most (80%) of the exterior and terminal ballistics of a 5.56mm carbine or full size assault rifle in a small, easily portable and maybe concealable package, the Mini Assault Rifle is the answer. No existing pistol-caliber submachine gun can provide the ballistic performance of the rifle-caliber Mini Assault Rifle. This includes muzzle velocity and energy, maximum effective range, ability to defeat soft and some hard body armor types with conventional ammunition and a host of other rifle caliber specific attributes. Many of the modern Mini Assault Rifles on the market today are as small or smaller than the pistol caliber submachine guns like the HK MP5A3, and a whole lot more lethal, and at greater ranges. It is almost a perfect combination. Or is it?

Advantages and Disadvantages

There are many advantages to using rifle-caliber entry weapons. But like my favorite law of physics, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. With advantages come disadvantages. Again, there is another trade off to consider. While the terminal performance and range superiority of a rifle-caliber CQB weapon exceeds that of all pistol-caliber weapons, it does not come without a price. Rifle-caliber weapons generally exhibit increased felt recoil and thus can be harder to control, especially when using fully automatic fire. With the high velocity cartridge comes excessive and an often brutal muzzle flash and blast, especially in confined spaces. The essential communication between team members becomes almost impossible. Adding sound suppressors to the weapons will address this problem. However, very often these muzzle devices cost as much or more than the host weapons and have a limited service life before needing replacement. They also add to the overall length and weight of the complete system reducing the all-important quick handling attributes of this tactical tool. Sound suppressors also foul the interior working parts of the weapon much faster. They can adversely effect the reliable operation due to increased backpressure within the weapon system and most often accelerate the wear and tear and parts breakage compared to running the gun unsuppressed. It is also more difficult to fully suppress rifle-caliber weapons, especially for select-fire operation, as reliable subsonic ammunition is just now beginning to be perfected for CQB use and presently, in most cases, is very expensive.

General barrel life on rifle-caliber weapons ranges from 10,000 to 20,000 rounds compared to that of over 250,000 to 500,000 documented rounds for the pistol caliber submachine guns like the MP5. Thus, generally, the overall initial system purchase price and lifetime maintenance cost of the rifle-caliber CQB weapon will be higher than the comparable pistol-caliber weapons. Rifle-caliber weapons also tend to destroy training apparatus and shooting houses far faster than pistol-caliber weapons, thus there will be additional costs to building and maintaining these facilities. Though catching up with the submachine gun, rifle-caliber weapons are just now being offered with the desired features of a CQB weapon as well as the critically important accessories such as tactical lights, rail mounting systems, modern reflex sights and durable sound suppressors. Special purpose ammunition for the-rifle caliber CQB gun is now available in many specialized flavors beyond the 55 and 62-grain military rounds used for the past two decades. This includes frangible, subsonic, specialized CQB and match grade ammunition.

The muzzle velocity versus penetration argument

Overpenetration is seldom a concern of the military special operations teams as long as the lethality of the round is not compromised. This is not the case with law enforcement personnel who most often must account and answer for every single round fired. In recent years numerous experts within the field of small arms ammunition and forensic science, to include many law enforcement agencies across the U.S., have pooled their resources to conduct studies to determine the wounding and lethal efficiencies of rifle versus pistol-caliber ammunition for CQB applications.

Few would question the statement that in almost all cases and for many reasons, the projectiles launched from rifle cartridges are generally more lethal than those from pistol cartridges. While it takes more than the muzzle velocity and energy of a projectile to wound and kill through the disruption and utter destruction of tissue, few, if any, pistol rounds even come close to matching the specs of rifle cartridges, especially at extended ranges (> 75 meters). However, one of the more surprising findings coming from these studies reveals that in many cases projectiles fired from pistol-caliber weapons actually penetrate further through soft tissue and building materials than do high velocity rifle projectiles, in particular 5.56X45mm NATO. The reason can simply be explained that high velocity rifle projectiles are inherently unstable at normal short-range CQB distances (< 50 meters). They tend to yaw, or tumble, rather than drive straight through close targets and building materials as one would think. Experts have thus recommended a minimum of 2,800 feet per second muzzle velocity for 5.56mm CQB weapons, performance normally acquired from barrels in the 14 to 16 inch length. Pistol cartridges, especially full metal jacketed ball projectiles and even hollow-points bullets plugged with bits of clothing, have a propensity to overpenetrate tissue and building materials. Because of their comparably slow velocity, pistol bullets often do not fragment and cause multiple wound channels, as is often the case with certain rifle bullets.

The ever-increasing worldwide popularity of the Mini Assault Rifle with barrel lengths of less than 10-12 inches indicates that not every user group agrees that a minimum of 2,800 feet per second muzzle velocity is required for CQB use. The development of new projectiles and cartridges that provide higher velocities from shorter barrels are developments with the Mini Assault Rifle in mind. However, a smaller more portable rifle-caliber CQB weapon is often preferred and many teams believe the threat of overpenetration by some parties has been exaggerated. Not all testing provides the same results. In fact, a great deal of effort and money has been expended to develop a subsonic 5.56X45mm round for effective use with sound suppressed assault rifles. With a muzzle velocity of less than 1,080 feet per second this round is lethal and yet considered perfectly “safe” in respect to overpenetration. In general terms, less muzzle velocity with the same projectile weight also means less felt recoil to the shooter and thus better control. Better control can mean fewer misses, and misses are certainly as great a consideration as overpenetration in the close confines of the CQB environment where friendlies are near the intended target.

Conclusion

Thus, in the end, rifle-caliber CQB weapons can actually be more lethal and yet pose less risk for those agencies concerned with overpenetration and the endangerment of innocent bystanders. If the other disadvantages of the rifle-caliber CQB weapon, such as higher sustainment costs and increased muzzle blast and flash, are acceptable to the tactical commander, then any one of the modern, proven Mini Assault Rifles available today might prove to be the perfect CQB weapon for the 21st century.

About the Author:

Jim Schatz has been a full time employee of Heckler & Koch since 1986. He is a contributing writer for this magazine who, as part of his profession, helps to develop and provide advanced small arms to many of the most elite military and federal law enforcement organizations in the United States.