A carbine is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges.
A machine pistol is an autoloading pistol capable of fully automatic fire, including stockless handgun-style submachine guns.
A submachine gun (SMG) is a magazine-fed automatic carbine designed to fire handgun cartridges. The term "submachine gun" was coined by John T. Thompson, the inventor of the Thompson submachine gun, to describe its design concept as an automatic firearm with notably less firepower than a machine gun. As a machine gun must fire rifle cartridges to be classified as such, submachine guns are not considered machine guns.
The 9×19mm Parabellum is a rimless, tapered firearms cartridge.
Personal defense weapons (PDWs) are a class of compact, magazine-fed, submachine gun-like automatic firearms designed to fire rifle-like cartridges. Most PDWs fire a small-caliber, high-velocity centerfire bottleneck cartridge resembling a scaled-down intermediate cartridge, essentially making them an "in-between" hybrid between a submachine gun and a carbine.
The Beretta M1951 is a 9×19mm semi-automatic pistol developed during the late 1940s and early 1950s by Pietro Beretta S.p.A. of Italy. The pistol was produced strictly for military use and was introduced into service with the Italian Armed Forces and other Italian security forces as the Modello 1951 (M1951), replacing the Modello 1934 pistol chambered for the 9×17mm Short cartridge.
The Moschetto Automatico Revelli-Beretta Mod. 1915 was a self-loading carbine that entered service in 1918 with the Italian armed forces. Designed as a semi-automatic carbine, the weapon came with an overhead inserted magazine, an unconventional design based on the simplicity of allowing a spent round to be replaced using assistance from gravity. The gun was made from half of a Villar-Perosa aircraft submachine gun.
The Beretta M12 is a 9×19mm Parabellum caliber submachine gun designed by Beretta. Production started in 1959, the first users were the Italian Carabinieri, Italian State Police and the Guardia di Finanza, though in limited numbers; it was only widely issued beginning in 1978, replacing the old Beretta MAB. In 1962 the Italian Army bought a limited number of Franchi LF-57 submachine guns, judged better than the M12 but never issued to the troops, and only in 1992 the M12S2 variant was introduced, in very limited numbers. The Italian Air Force bought instead many M12S and M12S2 for the airport security units. However, the weapon had a higher initial success in the Arab countries and South America.
The MAB 38, Modello 38, or Model 38 and its variants were a series of official submachine guns of the Royal Italian Army introduced in 1938 and used during World War II. The Beretta Modello 38 was first issued to Italian police units stationed in Africa. The Italian army were impressed and decided to adopt a version to be used by elite troops and military police, but requested a modified variant which had no bayonet and a different recoil compensator. The MAB 38 was widely used and saw service on all fronts. The guns were also used by the German, Romanian, and Argentine armies of the time.
The Shipka is a 9mm Bulgarian submachine gun produced in 1996 by the Bulgarian company Arsenal. The name is a reference to the famous Shipka Pass, near Arsenal's Kazanlak headquarters, in the Balkans where Bulgarian volunteers and Russian troops defeated the Ottoman Empire during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, thereby liberating Bulgaria. The Shipka was developed for the Bulgarian police and military.
The Star Z-84 was a Spanish selective-fire submachine gun originally manufactured by the now defunct Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. The Z-84 is a sturdy, well-designed weapon that never saw high production due to politics. Originally manufactured for use by Combat Swimmers, the Z-84 could be used right out of the water without any need to drain the working parts or magazine, known as over-the-beach or OTB capability.
Star Bonifacio Echeverria, S.A. was a manufacturer of small arms in the Basque region of Spain from about 1905 until 1997.
Zastava Arms is a Serbian manufacturer of firearms and artillery, based in Kragujevac, Serbia. In 1853, it was founded, and cast its first cannon. It is the leading producer of firearms in Serbia and is a large contributor to the local defense industry. Zastava Arms produces and exports a wide variety of products to over forty countries, including the Zastava M70, a Kalashnikov rifle.
The KRISS Vector is a series of weapons based upon the parent submachine gun design developed by the American company KRISS USA, formerly Transformational Defense Industries (TDI).
The Beretta AR70/90 is a gas operated assault rifle chambered for the 5.56×45 mm NATO cartridge, and is the standard issue service rifle of the Italian Armed Forces. The weapon is also designed to be fitted with a rifle grenade, and has grenade sights. The AR series comes in many variants such as the AR90, with a wire folding stock, for use by paratroopers.
