Floro MK-9

Last updated
FIC MK-9
Floro MK-9.webp
The Floro MK-9, Made in the Philippines.
Type Submachine gun
Place of origin Philippines
Service history
In service2001 – present
Used bySee Users
WarsAnti-guerrilla operations in the Philippines
Production history
DesignedEstimated in the late 1980s
Manufacturer FIC
ProducedSee Design Date
VariantsMP-9 (Formerly MK-19)
Specifications
Mass3.18 kg (Empty)
3.2 kg (With Magazine)
Length64.5 cm (Stock extended)
46 cm (Stock folded)

Cartridge 9×19mm Parabellum
Action Unlocked blowback, closed bolt
Rate of fire 800-850 rounds/min
Muzzle velocity 400  m/s (1,312  ft/s)
Effective firing range100 m (328 ft)
Feed system25 or 32-round magazine
SightsFront Sight: Fixed
Rear sight: Adjustable for windage
Picatinny railing included

The FIC Mk. 9 is a sub-machine gun designed by a private venture of Floro International Corporation (FIC) based in Tanay, Rizal Province in the Philippines. The weapon is marketed to local security forces as a low-cost alternative to imported submachine guns and is currently in limited use by the Philippines Marines and the Philippines Navy.

Contents

Development

Though several Philippine enterprises are involved in the manufacture of small arms, submachine gun production is mainly limited to copies of foreign designs such as the MAC-10 and the KG-9 assembled in clandestine workshops for sale in the black market. There are few openly marketed indigenous submachine gun designs owing to the availability and popularity of imported weapons such as the Israeli Uzi and the H&K MP5.

The FIC Mk. 9 submachine gun was developed by a private venture of FIC, an ISO 9000-certified company, providing precision manufacturing and digital/optical media services. It was offered for evaluation to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. Initial responses were favorable and some sales were made, particularly to the AFP's Anti-Crime Task Force and the Philippine Navy's Special Warfare Group. The Philippine Marine Corps had a standing requirement for submachine guns, such as the FIC MK. 9, to serve as personal defense weapons for armor crews. Limited funds and the availability of M3 Grease Guns from reserve weapon stockpiles caused the M3 to be issued instead, favored due to its use of the .45 ACP cartridge, considered better due to its wider use and greater stopping power.

Design details

The standard Mk. 9 is a blowback-operated weapon chambered for the 9x19 mm Parabellum cartridge. It fires from a closed bolt with a selector switch allowing semi-automatic or full-automatic fire. There is no bolt-locking mechanism. The upper receiver is a steel tube and the barrel is held in place by the perforated barrel jacket. The lower receiver and magazine housing consists of sheet metal. The extended magazine well has a plastic hand guard and doubles as a forward grip. It has the Uzi submachine gun-type magazine interface and uses Uzi magazines which are locally available. The folding metal butt is based on the Uzi pattern as well. The Mk. 9 uses the firing mechanism of the M16, the standard service rifle in the AFP.

The external appearance of the gun shows a striking resemblance to the Federal Engineering XC series of semi-automatic "assault rifle lookalike" carbines (marked 220, 450 and 900; in .22LR, .45 ACP and 9mm Para calibers respectively) produced in the mid-1980s in the US; approximately 20 years before the emergence of the FIC MK 9 on the market.

A comparison of the two guns suggests the makers of FIC MK-9 studied the XC 900 carbine and based their design directly on it, although with some slight differences, add-ons, and modifications that in some way improved the original design. One such improvement is the usage of the Uzi magazine style catch in FIC magwell, rather than making modified Uzi magazines with welded steel insert at the top of the magazine, serving the purpose of catch retainer surface, as in the original XC 900. This decision to bind the users of the gun in buying only the company's spare parts created logistics problems as it disabled the compatibility in using that particular magazine directly in the Uzi (which cannot be put in the magwell due to the steel insert), or buying the standard 25 or 32-round Uzi magazine on the surplus market to be used as a spare one for XC 900 carbine. Another usable add-on to the design is the Picatinny rail, allowing to easily mount scopes and other equipment, which was in the original XC troublesome. The sights are also different, as the original ones were not user-friendly when attempting to zero them.

The cocking handle is on the left side of the upper receiver and incorporated with a dust cover. The front sights are fixed and the rear sights have an adjustment knob for windage. The upper receiver has a Picatinny rail installed allowing telescopic and red dot sights to be used.

Variants

The MP-9 is a shortened version with a skeletal wire stock and no barrel jacket. Both the Mk.9 and the MP-9 are available in semi/full automatic versions.

Users

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Machine pistol</span> Fully automatic handgun

A machine pistol is an autoloading pistol capable of fully automatic fire, including stockless handgun-style submachine guns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Submachine gun</span> Type of automatic firearm

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Uzi</span> Family of Israeli submachine 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M50 Reising</span> Submachine gun

The .45 Reising submachine gun was manufactured by Harrington & Richardson (H&R) Arms Company in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, and was designed and patented by Eugene Reising in 1940. The three versions of the weapon were the Model 50, the folding stock Model 55, and the semiautomatic Model 60 rifle. Over 100,000 Reisings were ordered during World War II, and were initially used by the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and the United States Coast Guard, though some were shipped to Canadian, Soviet, and other allied forces to fight the Axis powers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MAC-10</span> American machine pistol

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 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.

The La France M16K is an M16 rifle modified by the company La France Specialties, which among with other firearm-related activities, convert common military weapons into more compact configurations typically for law enforcement and special forces use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heckler & Koch UMP</span> Submachine gun

The Heckler & Koch UMP is a submachine gun developed and manufactured by Heckler & Koch. Heckler & Koch developed the UMP as a lighter and cheaper successor to the MP5, though both remain in production. The UMP has been adopted for use by various countries including Brazil, Canada, and the United States. A small number of UMPs chambered in .45 ACP were officially purchased by the 5th Special Forces Group of the United States Army Special Forces, with some of the weapons seeing limited service in the early years of the Iraqi insurgency, making them one of the more popular submachine guns being deployed by the U.S. military personnel in recent conflicts around the world.

The PP-19 Bizon is a 9×18mm Makarov submachine gun developed in 1993 by the Russian company Izhmash. The Bizon was designed by a team of engineers headed by Victor Kalashnikov and including Alexei Dragunov.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CAR-15</span> Carbine of the United States

The Colt Automatic Rifle-15 or CAR-15 is a family of M16 rifle–based firearms marketed by Colt in the 1960s and early 1970s. However, the term "CAR-15" is most commonly associated with the Colt Commando ; these select-fire carbines have ultrashort 10.5-inch (270 mm) and 11.5-inch (290 mm) barrels with over-sized flash suppressors.

The Ruger 10/22 is a series of semi-automatic rifles produced by American firearm manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co., chambered for the .22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge. It uses a patented 10-round rotary magazine, though higher capacity box magazines are also available. The standard carbine version of the Ruger 10/22 has been in production continuously since 1964, making it one of the most successful rimfire rifle designs in history, with numerous third party manufacturers making parts and accessories for upgrading and customization. The 10/22's aftermarket is so prolific that a complete 10/22 can be built without using any Ruger-made components.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beretta Cx4 Storm</span> Submachine gun

The Beretta Cx4 Storm is a pistol-calibre semi-automatic carbine aimed at the sporting, personal defense and law enforcement markets. It was designed to accept magazines from different Beretta pistol platforms using adapters. The CX4 is available in 9×19mm Parabellum, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, and 9×21mm models. The .45 model can only use 8000 "Cougar" magazines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milkor BXP</span> Submachine gun

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine Scout Sniper Rifle</span> Designated marksman rifle

The Marine Scout Sniper Rifle (MSSR) is a Philippine semi-automatic designated marksman rifle developed by the Philippine Marine Corps for their Marine Scout Snipers. Designed in the mid-1990s to replace severely-outdated battle rifles then used as marksman rifles, the MSSR is essentially an M16A1 that has been heavily modified and accurized to serve as a marksman rifle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">KRISS Vector</span> Submachine gun

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FMK-3 submachine gun</span> Submachine gun

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M3 submachine gun</span> American submachine gun

The M3 is an American .45-caliber submachine gun adopted by the U.S. Army on 12 December 1942, as the United States Submachine Gun, Cal. .45, M3. The M3 was chambered for the same .45 ACP round fired by the Thompson submachine gun, but was cheaper to mass produce and lighter, at the expense of accuracy. The M3 was commonly referred to as the "Grease Gun" or simply "the Greaser," owing to its visual similarity to the mechanic's tool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PP-19-01 Vityaz</span> Submachine gun

The PP-19 Vityaz is a 9×19mm Parabellum submachine gun developed in 2004 by Russian small arms manufacturer Izhmash. It is based on the AK-74 and offers a high degree of parts commonality with the AK-74. The gun is directly developed from the PP-19 Bizon. "Vityaz" (витязь) is Russian for "brave warrior" or "knight".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brügger & Thomet APC</span> Submachine gun

The B&T APC is a submachine gun produced and manufactured by B&T of Switzerland. Announced in 2011, the standard series uses standard 9×19mm (APC9), .40 S&W (APC40), 10mm Auto (APC10), and .45 ACP (APC45) ammunition.

References