mckay421 wrote:Drunkenmaster is spot on with IDing the weapons.
Ak404...smg's are not considered to be assault rifles. Smg's predominantly fire pistol rounds (although I can think of two that don't...Bushmaster and a H&K).
By definition, all SMGs fire pistol ammunition. If it doesn't fire pistol ammunition, it's not an SMG. Period. FN and HK have both designed weapons that are intended to be used in the SMG role that fire non-traditional cartridges (5.7x28mm and 4.6x30mm, respectively) that are more like very small rifle cartridges than pistol cartridges. These are commonly referred to as Personal Defense Weapons.
As far as I'm aware, Bushmaster has never made a submachine gun. Their forte is 5.56mm weapons, based at least in part on the AR15/M16. What you're probably thinking of is called the
Armpistol; a semi-auto bullpup that fires 5.56x45mm ammunition, making it a short rifle. (Shadowrun's Beretta Model 70 in SSC.29 looks suspciously similar to it.)
Longshot...the MP-5 is a great smg but there isn't anything wrong with the M-4.
Reasoning...my guess is that somebody finally compared ballistics and said...gee the 5.56mm certainly is more powerful than 9mm Para.
Ballistics on paper have very little to do with it, especially when t comes down to the ambiguous "power" quotient. The simple fact is that more and more criminals are showing up wearing body armor. the 9mm Para cannot defeat most forms of body armor, which makes any weapon that fires it pretty useless as a tactical weapon. The 5.56x45mm will defeat everything up to NIJ level III, which is made up of rigid plates that aren't exactly easy to come by. Therefore, tactical teams are beginning to lean toward rifles (carbines) rather than SMGs as primary weapons.
As for the LAPD going over to a H&K sniper rifle...biggest mistake that they could make...semi-autos are NOT as accurate as bolt action rifles and the mentallity of shooter having more rounds leads to sloppy shooting...end of story.
Myth. A semi-automatic rifle can be just as accurate as a bolt-action rifle, especially when you're paying upwards of $10K for HK's PSG-1. A PSG-1 doesn't leave the factory until it shoots 50 rounds inside of an inch at 100 meters. That's far better accuracy than most off-the-shelf bolt action rifles. According to the FBI, the average engagement distance for police sharpshooters in urban environments in the US is 74 meters. The HK rifle is more than accurate enough. Not only that, but having the ability to fire follow up shots very quickly can be a very handy thing, especially if there are multiple targets.
However, as far as I'm aware, LAPD/LA County snipers don't use HK rifles, at least not as a standard weapon. Most are going with custom rifles built on Remington 700 actions by a company based in LA called
Tactical Operations. Their rifles are
gauranteed to shoot a three round group inside of a quarter of an inch at 100 yards with proper ammunition. A person has to be incredibly well-trained in order to even
use that level of accuracy. In other words, the rifle is, more often than not, more accurate than the shooter.
paladin2019...if you want to stand on the otherside of a residential wall whilst somebody shoots a M855 (which is an Armor Piercing ROUND) into that wall...well you are FAR braver than I.
I agree with you wholeheartedly on that. I don't care if it's just plain old FMJ being fired. I'm not going to believe anyone who says the M855 "is not stable enough in its flight path to penetrate modern construction materials at CQB ranges." Not only is that not what the report said, it's not true at all. I've SEEN M855 puncture not only quarter inch plywood, but the 2x4 behind it holding it up and the other piece of quarter inch plywood behind that. Sure it lost a lot of energy in the process, but I'd still rather not be hit by it.
R.K. Taubert wrote:If an operator misses the intended target, the .223 will generally have less wounding potential than some pistol rounds after passing through a wall or similar structure. The close range penetration tests conducted indicated that high velocity .223 rounds were initially unstable and may, depending on their construction, disintegrate when they strike an object that offers some resistance.
"may, depending on their construction..."
As for the M855 retaining its lethality and ability to penetrate armor "at all ranges", that statement is also false. Outside of about 150 meters (where the bullet drops below 2500 fps), the M855 bullet tends to stay in one piece rather than fragment, which is what makes the 5.56mm relatively lethal at close range, greatly limiting its wounding potential. Small bullet, small hole, less tissue disruption, less bleeding, less effectiveness. Dr. Martin Fackler has compared this type of wound to that created by a .22 Magnum. Pretty unlikely to stop a person in their tracks. However, the bullet will likely retain the ability to penetrate most body armor out to 650 meters, albeit while delivering a fairly easy-to-repair wound. But that's better than no wound at all.
