PDW

PDW is the anglophone acronym of Personal Defense Weapon meaning “arms with personal defense”.

This name dates from the Années 1990, but indicates a concept dating from the Second world war. It is about a weapon intended for the defense of the military personnel whose function first is not the combat of infantry but nevertheless likely to be attacked: sappers, transmitters, officers, artillerists, drivers of vehicles, etc, less cumbersome than the weapon of standard equipment (at the time, it was mainly about a rifle large gauge with manual repetition or semi-automatic), but more powerful than a Handgun.

The first arms specifically conceived for role and deployed with large scales was the Carabine M1 (7,62x33mm gauges) within the US Army, as from July 1942. However, its relative lack of power made that it was not replaced once not arrived at the end of the lifetime. This function of defense was filled by Pistolet S which are very insufficient because of their reduced range and the difficulty of controlling them. Weapons were imagined to increase the power of the handguns, initially the Czech Skorpion VZ61 then others weapons such as the Ingram MAC American or the HK VP70 provided with a stick of shoulder or later the Austrian Steyr TMP. These gun machine gunners hardly more cumbersome than the conventional guns, if they present an increased firepower and a better precision than a simple gun, does not remain about it less than one very limited range (approximately 25 meters) and were not adopted by armies.

In the absence of weapons specifically designed for this use, certain armies have during a time equipped some with their personnel, in particular the crews of armoured tanks or combat aircraft of machine pistols of conventional size. Those were generally inherited the second world war and remained heavy but presented especially an insufficient power and a range because of the ammunition of handgun which they confine. rifles of attack to shortened gun were produced for this use. Using a standard ammunition, they have the advantage of simplifying logistics and their range corresponds to a practical use. Their dimensions remain however important, their retreat is significant and because the reduced length of the gun, they are characterized by an important flame and detonation with the mouth of the weapon what makes it difficult to use, especially for personnel which does not have, by vocation, an important practice of the firearms.

It was necessary to await the Années 1990 and the American program of Advanced Personal Defense Weapon, to see appearing new weapons of this kind. The concepet of APDW specified light weapons, of a practical range of 200 meters to which they must be able to perforate individual protections such as the jackets avoid-glare and the helmets. Conceived around especially developed gauges, Belgian FN P90 (gauge 5,7 X 28 mm) and its competitor, German H&K MP7 (4,6x30mm gauges) have the ambition to answer these constraints.

FN P90 is a weapon having the weight and dimensions of a modern machine pistol. It is about a weapon of compact shoulder with great capacity. Heckler&Koch on the other hand made the choice of more than versatility with H&K MP7. Lighter and drawing from the ammunition of smaller gauge, it is presented as a large gun which can be drawn with a semi-automatic hand in , to two hands with the frontal handle unfolded or shouldered with the deployed stick.

Many military troops of elite adopted them as some regular troops for which they are initially intended. The adoption with large scales in the Western armies of one or the other of these weapons will be made only after NATO sliced and founded one of their gauge like standard.

These innovations which the program of APDW made it possible to make emerge, with given again a certain interest with the concept of PDW and one counts some design modern, such as the MP5K-PDW which is an adaptation of MP5K allowing more versatility, or SR-2 Russian Veresk.

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