Like any red-blooded American, I have been watching FutureWeapons whenever I get the chance.  While showing me some of the niftiest, shiniest, and neatest things that go varying degrees of boom is definitely a good thing, the unfortunate side effect is that I can have almost none of them. 

This was especially poignant when I watched a recent episode including the KRISS Super V .45 caliber submachine gun.  The .45 caliber submachine gun is a concept that has pretty much not been touched since the days of the Thompson Gun, mainly because the gun world accepted it as a weapon with unsurpassed stopping power, but also unsurpassed kick and recoil.  .45 rounds are big, fat, slow rounds, but they make a nice little jolt when you shoot them, and when you shoot a lot of them, one right after the other, those jolts add up.  Due to that, most submachine guns these days resort to smaller calibers, such as the 9mm MP5, the 5.7mm P90, and others.  This smaller caliber allows for greater control and lesser kick, but are still smaller calibers, and thus have lesser stopping power.  And, when you get right down to it, the muzzle rise due to recoil is still rather considerable, averaging over 10 degrees for the MP5.  This is not to say that the gun industry has remained locked in place concerning controlling recoil...  All kinds of weight-and-spring combinations have been used in trying to reduce the recoil the user feels when firing guns, but these generally add weight, and definitely add length, to the weapon, effectively eliminating its use in the "submachine gun" realm, at least in useful sizes. 

Enter the KRISS.  In short, the designers (Transformational Defense Industries- ironically a company based out of Washington, D.C.) took the forces imparted by the bullet as it pushes back on the gun, and vectored it down, as opposed to back.  This not only all-but removes the recoil of the gun, but it counterbalances the muzzle climb of the firearm when it puts bullets downrange.  In short, this thing can put a crapton of .45 caliber rounds downrange, and, more importantly, on target, while still maintaining a firearm size that is quite usable in urban, enclosed environments.  Suffice it to say that the webpages provide better images and explanations than I could ever hope to. 

Sure, this does not seem like a lot on paper (especially since the weapon is still in its initial testing phases).  However, I saw the host of FutureWeapons pick up a KRISS and positively hose downrange (no "spray-and-pray" here), and the gun almost did not move.  Granted, this guy is an ex-SEAL, but still... 

As an engineer, I have to admit this design makes me all manner of excited...  It definitely falls under the category of "Why the hell did no one think of this before?"  This kind of recoil-absorbtion/counterbalancing engineering could be applied to almost any firearm, with drastic results.  One can only hope that TDI will eventually produce a non-fully-automatic version of this submachine gun...  I mean, hell, something that looks that cool belongs in any firearm collection, especially once you factor in the sheer engineering finesse involved in it ;).  Suffice it to say, this is a completely radical shift in how firearms are constructed, and how recoil is handled...  Sure, all they did was turn the recoil absorbtion system about -70 degrees on the Y-axis, but, hell, no one ever said the wheel was a particularly complicated invention either. 

The other niftiness shown off in this particular episode was the HAMMER Remotely-Operated Shotgun Turret mounting two MPS AA-12 automatic shotguns.  Yes, I said "automatic shotgun", sporting magazines of 20-32 rounds.  Using a 12-gauge barrel, it can fire a variety of shot and slug rounds, including a particularly unique "FRAG-12" round - a three-inch-long, 12-gauge-diameter, spin-stabilized grenade.  Just think of being able to carry around 32 grenade rounds, capable of reaching out to 175 meters, with automatic fire, no less?  Furthermore, think of your hummer/APC/executive transport sporting two of those, in a remotely operated turret?  Yeah... the applications are infinite. 

Unfortunately, in their current iterations and due to their automatic rates of fire, neither are available to me...  but I can hope.  Oh boy, can I hope. 

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, 123beta, Maggie's Notebook, basil's blog, Stuck On Stupid, Phastidio.net, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, LaTogaStrappata®, sissunchi, Faultline USA, Pentimento, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, stikNstein... has no mercy, The Uncooperative Blogger, The World According to Carl, LaTogaStrappata®, The Pink Flamingo, and CORSARI D'ITALIA, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe, as well as Stop The ACLU, and because this is just too cool not to share.

Recently featured at Airborne Combat Engineer, something I was not at all expecting, but also something I am not at all going to complain about!