Urban Assault Weapons - Submachine Gun MP-5

Heckler & Koch MP5 (Deutsche for Maschinenpistole 5, which means Sub-Machinegun 5) is a weapon pistil-machinegun caliber 9mm of a Deutsche project, developed in 1960's to a engeneering team of small weapons projects factored by the Heckler & Koch GmbH company (H&K) from Oberndorf am Neckar. There are more than 100 variety of MP5, including the semi-auto version.

MP5 shoots in three forms of regime. The automatic, shooting blast of fire, the semi-automatic, one shoot each time that the trigger is pressed, and bursts, with small blasts of two or three shoots each time the trigger is pressed. These modules make the MP5 a versatile weapon to every kind of situation. The weight of the machinegun is of a light weapon. The stopping power is 90%.

In 1980, the weapon conquered the iconic as a result of its appearance in a live TV show, used by the SAS Command, in Operation Nimrod, when they invaded the Iranian embasy in London, for the rescue or hostages and killing five terrorists.

The gun became a pillar in SWAT unities and agencies in law application and progressive use of force in USA, since the 80's. By the way, in the end of the 90's, as a result of a shooting conflic in North Hollywood, the response of the SpecialForces of Police supplanted some of the MP5 by the AR-15, based in assault rifles, instead of submachineguns.

One of the attractives of the MP5 is the sistem of "rolling lockers" or sliding lock, used already with success in other weapons of the Heckler & Koch company, with the self-feeding system classified as "Delayed blowbacks", a devide of create a lock from the bold till the preassures in the chamber reach a secure level, moving back with a medium intensity.

This characteristic gives several advantages, among them being greater security with ammunition of greater power, less recoil and greater precision, greater rate of fire. Its aiming system is also not conventional, the aiming handle is made up of a rotating and movable ring, which slides back and forth and rotates in 4 positions, holes, each corresponding to a distance, by default 25, 50, 75 and 100 meters.

Conclusion: The Submachinegun is well operated by professional groups of special forces, specialized in close quarter combat, with assault operations as SAS, GSG9 or SWAT Units in USA, as Brazilian Special Forces, like the Russian Kalashnikov similar pistol machinegun used by OMON, with this speciality. Among the users, the assault user in PMCs that need rapid response in high risk scenarios. This kind of weapons has no good utilization by criminal activities anymore, like machineguns in the 1920's and 30's by gangsters, the urban scenarios is nowadays more complex and requires more complex weapons. This kind of wapons are better to use in small places for rapid operations.