Personal Defence Weapons

Personal Defence Weapons: "sabot"

PDWs or Personal Defence Weapons have become very trendy in military circles. What is worrying is that they are mainly being brought for roles for which they are totally inappropriate. The "stopping power" of the rounds used in these weapons is in many cases being grossly exaggerated and they have often been marketed as superior for close combat.

The term "PDW" seems to have come into vogue around the mid-80s with the marketing of Heckler & Koch's MP5K-PDW, a version of the MP5K with a side-folding stock. The MP5K-PDW (or possibly the stockless MP5K) was worn by some helicopter crews in Grenada. With a 15 round magazine the weapon fitted a thigh holster and a pouch on the other leg could take five 30 round magazines or four 30 round mags and a suppressor.

Around 1996 the meaning of PDW changed. Within NATO there was perceived a need for a compact defensive weapon to arm personnel who didn't or couldn't carry a full-size rifle but needed something more powerful than 9x19mm. It was felt Artillery, Signals, Transport and many other troops that did not perform assault missions needed self protection when performing normal tasks without burden of heavy weapon.

Part of the specification that was to emerge in NATO Document AC/255-D/1177 (2nd Revise) was that it should be able to defeat CRISAT body armour at ranges of up to 200m. CRISAT was defined as a 1.6mm titanium plate backed by 20 layers of Kevlar. Light weight, low recoil and controllability were desirable. Since it was to be a "weapon of desperation" it was deemed acceptable for the PDW to use rounds other than NATO standard 9x19mm and 5.56x45mm.
I refer to this new batch of weapons as "new-breed PDWs", although Sven Ortman more descriptively calls them "Small Calibre High Velocity" or SCHV-PDW.