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 Lanchester is a submachine gun (SMG) manufactured by the Sterling Armaments Company between 1941 and 1945. It is a copy of the German MP28/II and was manufactured in two versions, Mk.1 and Mk.1*; the latter was a simplified version of the original Mk.1, with no fire selector and simplified sights. It was primarily used by the Royal Navy during the Second World War, and to a lesser extent by the Royal Air Force Regiment. It was given the general designation of Lanchester after George Herbert Lanchester, who was charged with producing the weapon at the Sterling Armaments Company.
The MAC-11 is a machine pistol/submachine gun developed by American firearm designer Gordon Ingram at the Military Armament Corporation (MAC) during the 1970s in Powder Springs, Georgia, United States. The weapon is a sub-compact version of the Model 10 (MAC-10), and is chambered to fire the smaller .380 ACP round.
The Sterling submachine gun is a British submachine gun (SMG). It was tested by the British Army in 1944–1945, but did not start to replace the Sten until 1953. A successful and reliable design, it remained standard issue in the British Army until 1994, when it began to be replaced by the L85A1, a bullpup assault rifle.
A firearm is said to fire from an open bolt if, when ready to fire, the bolt and working parts are held to the rear of the receiver, with no round in the chamber. When the trigger is actuated, the bolt travels forward, feeds a cartridge from the magazine or belt into the chamber, and fires that cartridge in the same movement. Like any other self-loading design, the action is cycled by the energy released from the propellant, which sends the bolt back to the rear, compressing the mainspring in readiness for firing the next round. In an open-bolt gun firing semi-automatically, the bolt is caught and held at this point by the sear after each shot; and in automatic open-bolt fire, it's caught and held in this manner whenever the trigger is released. In contrast to this, in closed-bolt guns, the trigger and sear do not affect the movement of the bolt directly.
The 9×23mm Largo centerfire pistol cartridge was developed in 1901 for the Bergmann Mars pistol.
The Kulsprutepistol m/45, also known as the Carl Gustaf M/45 and the Swedish K SMG, is a 9×19mm Swedish submachine gun (SMG) designed by Gunnar Johansson, adopted in 1945, and manufactured at the Carl Gustafs Stads Gevärsfaktori in Eskilstuna, Sweden. The m/45 was the standard submachine gun of the Swedish Army from 1945 to 1965. It was gradually replaced in Swedish service by updated Ak 4 battle rifles and Ak 5 assault rifles. The last official user of the m/45, the Swedish Home Guard (Hemvärnet), retired it from service in April 2007.
Blowback is a system of operation for self-loading firearms that obtains energy from the motion of the cartridge case as it is pushed to the rear by expanding gas created by the ignition of the propellant charge.
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.
The Ameli is a 5.56mm light machine gun designed for the Spanish Army by the nationally owned and operated Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales (CETME) small arms research institute.
The Model L is a Spanish 5.56×45mm NATO assault rifle developed in the late 1970s at the state-owned small arms research and development establishment CETME located in Madrid. The rifle retains many of the proven design elements the institute had used previously in its CETME Model 58 battle rifles.
The FMK-3 is a selective fire blowback-operated submachine gun of Argentine origin designed by Fabricaciones Militares in 1974. Around 30,000 were produced for the Argentine military by 1991.
The CETME Model 58 is a stamped-steel, select-fire battle rifle produced by the Spanish armaments manufacturer Centro de Estudios Técnicos de Materiales Especiales (CETME). The Model 58 used a 20-round box magazine and was chambered for the 7.62×51mm NATO round. The CETME 58 would become the foundation of the widely deployed German Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifle. Semi-automatic variants were also produced for the civilian market.
The SIG MKMO is a submachine gun produced by Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft (SIG) company in Neuhausen from 1933 to 1937. The MKMO – M = Maschinen, K = Karabiner M = Militär, O = Oben – was designed for the military and to increase firepower it had a larger-capacity magazine as well as a longer barrel. Only 1,228 of these guns were produced. It saw limited adoption by Swiss police departments and the Swiss Guard at the Vatican. Finland purchased approximately 282 of the original MKMO variant, which were used by the home guard, supply units and coastal defense forces in the Continuation War.
The SR-2 "Veresk" is a Russian submachine gun designed to fire the 9×21mm Gyurza pistol cartridge.
The 7.92×33mm Kurz is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate rifle cartridge developed in Nazi Germany prior to and during World War II, specifically intended for development of the Sturmgewehr 44. The ammunition is also referred to as 7.9mm Kurz, 7.9 Kurz, 7.9mmK, or 8×33 Polte. The round was developed as a compromise between the longer 7.92×57mm full-power rifle cartridge and the 9×19mm Parabellum pistol cartridge, and is the first mass-used intermediate cartridge in the world.
The Calzada Bayo CB-57 was a Spanish battle rifle prototype design chambered in the 7.62×51mm NATO round. Three different variants were designed in different calibers for the Spanish military, but they were never adopted and very few were built.
The B&T APC is a family of firearms produced and manufactured by B&T of Switzerland. A unique design feature of the APC is that more than 50% of all parts are interchangeable between the different calibres.
