PDWs...and other small arms.

[stanc]

A PDW needs to be so compact, it can be worn on the belt and forgotten about...

Concur.

Any straight-walled pistol cartridge simply doesn't have the speed/projectile weight to do the job. Any legacy 20th Century pistol cartridge should be excluded on that basis alone...

Disagree. About 20 years ago I had some MagSafe 9x19 ammo that had 52gr and 60gr FMJ bullets w/muzzle velocities of ~2000 fps from a 4" barrel.

...in addition to the fact that they all have terrible effective ranges due to low mv and poor projectile shaping.

9x19 OAL is sufficient to permit a significant improvement in projectile shape:

When you look at things like the 7.62x25 and other small, bottle-necked cartridges, things start to shift towards rifle performance. 9x25 Dillon is another example of a pistol cartridge that can spit a decent weight projectile at 2000fps or more.

7.62x25 is interesting for its performance potential, and has OAL that would permit use of a spitzer projectile, but it is such a long cartridge that a double-stack magazine might be problematical for soldiers with smaller hands.





9x25 Dillon is also undesirably long. More importantly, it is significantly fatter than 9x19 and 7.62x25, which would adversely affect magazine capacity. Additionally, the cartridge OAL only allows use of very unstreamlined, stubby bullets.

Support MOS soldiers need a little box-shaped weapon that is unobtrusive, goes on their belt, and is out of the way throughout the day, but there if something goes horribly wrong (green on blue, Major Hassan type events, vehicle disabled outside the wire, etc.). We're talking something very small, but with a telescoping stock and flush magazine with a spare built into the frame. Something like the Magpul Folding Pocket Gun would be about perfect, in a bottle-necked higher velocity PDW cartridge.

I think the MagPul FPG is an intriguing concept, worth investigating for employment as a military PDW, although I do wonder if the design can be made "G.I.-proof."

[video=youtube;enzlTEysYVU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enzlTEysYVU[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enzlTEysYVU

We don't need pistols for most of the duty positions that carry pistols, because pistols are about worthless for pretty much everyone in the military except investigators and a few units in the SOF community, and the modern handgun/sidearm needs to be brought into the 21st Century as well, not stuck in the rut of the 20th Century.

I fully agree.