GIAT 5.7 mm PDW
Jane’s Infantry Weapons 1989-90 Giat developed a family of small arms based on a 5.7 x 25 mm cartridge in the late 80’s before this project was cancelled in favor of the FN P90 (which was in a later development stage). The project “Armes de Défense Rapprochée” (ADR) was to connsist of a semi-automatic pistol, a self-defense weapon (this one) and a small assault rifle. GIAT claimed four times the effective range and one third of the recoil impulse in comparison to 9 x 19 mm for their 5.7 x 25 mm cartidge. The prototype shown is apparently only one of several concepts even for the PDW variant. Weight was less than 2 kg, overall dimension smaller than 300 x 120 x 30 mm. The magazine was in the rear grip. Most interesting was the possibility to use it in a shoulder stance with the fore grip and trigger and as a classic submachinegun in confined spaces with the use of the rear trigger and the fore grip only as a grip. Seems as if it had a grip safety at the rear grip and probably a magazine release catch, too. It can also be guesssed that it used closed bolt operation because otherwise the emphasized range potential of the cartridge could hardly be exploited for lack of accuracy. At the bottom of the photo is a 5.7 x 25 mm cartridge (left) next to a classic 9 x 19 mm cartridge.
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