The Heckler & Koch MP5 is a submachine gun that fires 9x19mm Parabellum cartridges, developed in the 1960s by Heckler & Koch. There are over 100 variants and clones of the MP5, including some semi-automatic versions. The MP5 is one of the most widely used submachine guns in the world, having been adopted by over forty nations and numerous military, law enforcement, intelligence, and security organizations.
A machine pistol is an autoloading pistol capable of fully automatic fire. The term can also be used to describe a stockless handgun-style submachine gun. The term is a calque of Maschinenpistole, the German word for submachine guns. Machine pistols were developed during World War I and originally issued to German artillery crews who needed a self-defense weapon that is lighter than a rifle but more powerful than a standard semi-automatic pistol. This concept would eventually lead to the development of the personal defense weapon or PDW. Today, machine pistols are considered special-purpose weapons with limited utility, with their original niche being filled with either the PDW, carbines, or simply more modern semi-automatic sidearms. Contributing to their already-fringe use, without a shoulder stock and training, machine pistols can be difficult to control for all but the best shooters.
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 Uzi is a family of Israeli open-bolt, blowback-operated submachine guns and machine pistols first designed by Major Uziel "Uzi" Gal in the late 1940s, shortly after the establishment of the State of Israel. It is one of the first weapons to incorporate a telescoping bolt design, which allows the magazine to be housed in the pistol grip for a shorter weapon.
The Military Armament Corporation Model 10, officially abbreviated as "M10" or "M-10", and more commonly known as the MAC-10, is a compact, blowback operated machine pistol/submachine gun that was developed by Gordon B. Ingram in 1964. It is chambered in either .45 ACP or 9mm. A two-stage suppressor by Sionics was designed for the MAC-10, which not only abates the noise created but makes it easier to control on full automatic.
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.
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 Škorpion vz. 61 is a Czechoslovak machine pistol developed in 1959 by Miroslav Rybář (1924–1970) and produced under the official designation Samopal vzor 61 by the Česká zbrojovka arms factory in Uherský Brod from 1963 to 1979. The standard version uses .32 ACP ammunition.
The PM-63 RAK is a Polish 9×18mm submachine gun, designed by Piotr Wilniewczyc in cooperation with Tadeusz Bednarski, Grzegorz Czubak and Marian Wakalski. The RAK combines the characteristics of a self-loading pistol and a fully automatic submachine gun.
The CZ Model 23/25 was perhaps the best known of a series of Czechoslovak designed submachine guns introduced in 1948. There were four generally very similar submachine guns in this series: the Sa 23, Sa 24, Sa 25, and Sa 26. The primary designer was Jaroslav Holeček, chief engineer of the Česká zbrojovka Uherský Brod arms factory.
The Spectre M4 is an Italian submachine gun that was produced by the SITES factory in Turin. It was designed by Roberto Teppa and Claudio Gritti in the mid-1980s. Production in Italy ceased in the year 1997, with the closure of SITES, but proceeded in very small numbers in Switzerland through Greco Sport S.A., a company founded by Gritti, until 2001. The Spectre is a compact and light weapon, designed for instant firepower in close combat at short ranges. The four models have top-folding buttstocks, and were available with or without a forward handgrip ahead of the magazine housing. The largely steel Spectre has a polymer overmolded grip, magazine release and safety/selector levers.
The BXP is a 9×19mm submachine gun developed by Andries Piek, with the fully automatic version finalised in 1978, and the semi-automatic version for civilians coming later in 1984. Due to an international arms embargo against South Africa, South Africans designed and manufactured some weapons as a small firearms industry developed locally. The BXP was one of these locally designed and developed firearms, and is considered the final stage of development of the line of hand machine carbines that started with the LDP in Rhodesia and the Kommando in South Africa. Produced originally by the South African company Milkor (Pty) Ltd, its name 'BXP' stands for 'Blowback eXperimental Parabellum', hinting both at its operating mechanism as well as its caliber. The original automatic version of the BXP was intended for use by South African law enforcement, including the South African Police, the Correctional Services, and the specialised airport security unit based at the then Jan Smuts International Airport, Johannesburg.
The Steyr MPi 69 is a 9×19mm submachine gun of the late 20th century made by the Austrian firm Steyr.
The Ruger MP9 is a 9×19mm submachine gun/machine pistol introduced by Sturm, Ruger & Co. in 1995. The MP9 was designed by Uziel Gal, designer of the Uzi.
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.
A telescoping bolt is a firearm bolt which telescopes over, that is, wraps around and past, the breech end of the barrel. This feature reduces the required length of a weapon such as a submachine gun significantly, and it allows rifle designs to be balanced around the pistol grip in a way that gives "pointability" similar to a pistol's.
The Socimi Type 821-SMG was a submachine gun manufactured in the 1980s by the firm of SOCIMI, Società Costruzioni Industriali Milano, SpA located in Milan, Italy.
The MCEM-2 was a prototype submachine gun, which never saw widespread production, but was one of the first submachine guns to combine a wrap-around bolt and magazine in pistol grip, features later copied in the Czechoslovak Sa vz. 23, Israeli Uzi, among others. The MCEM-2 was the second prototype in a line of experimental submachine guns designed in Britain in 1944. It was envisaged as a possible replacement for the STEN submachine gun then in service. Jerzy Podsedkowski, a Polish constructor who worked on the Vis and Mors and who fled from occupied Poland to Britain, developed the MCEM-2. It is believed that prototypes of MCEM-2 were made before the end of WW2, and its derivatives MCEM-4 and MCEM-6 were tested soon after the war. The latter modifications differed mostly in adoption of the rate-reducing mechanism, incorporated into the trigger unit; the rate of fire therefore was decreased from 1000 to 600 rounds per minute. Nevertheless, neither prototype was found suitable for adoption, and several years later the British army adopted a more conventional submachine gun, the Sterling-Patchett.
The FMK-3 is a selective fire blowback-operated submachine gun of Argentinian origin designed by Fabricaciones Militares in 1974. Around 30,000 were produced for the Argentinian military by 1991.
The name Borz is an umbrella term applied to all improvised submachine guns produced during the years of independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. It was produced in small numbers from 1992 to 1999. The initial model was based on the Armenian K6-92, which in turn was based on the PPS submachine gun.
Polish People's Republic 
