SMITH&WESSON C.A.W.S (U.S.A)
In the 1980's the military turned to the best designers and companies to provide them the Advanced Combat Rifle and the Close Assault Weapon. There were two major competitors for the CAW project, AAI and Heckler&Koch. However a third entrant was produced, the Smith&Wesson AS (Assault Shotgun) design. Similar in design to the AR-15 series of rifles, the design used a short recoil system for left or right hand shooters. The barrel was equipped with a muzzle compensator device to help reduce recoil, to further help in that regard a rubber recoil pad was built into the stock. The weapon itself was designed for aluminum components to increase durability and decrease overall weight. The design was intended to fire the higher-pressure CAW flachette loads as well as conventional 12 gauge shells. The weapon had three modes of fire, semi-automatic as seen on the AS-1 model, semi-automatic and three round burst as on the AS-2 model, and semi-automatic, three round burst and full automatic as on the AS-3 model. The design only went as far as 3 proto-types before the model was dropped from consideration. The SMITH&WESSON CAWS fired either 12-GAUGE STANDARD or 12-GAUGE FLECHETTE ammunitions, feeding from a 10-rounds magazine. Its weight was 9.75 Pounds.
Picture and information courtesy of: PIERANGELO TENDAS
