The Stone Dogs (82 page)

Tolgren Automatic Pistol, model 1890:

Caliber: 10 mm x 15 mm

Weight: 2.6 lb.

Range: 50 yards effective, 100 maximum

Rate of Fire: 60 rounds per minute, theoretical
Feed System: Detachable box in grip, 12 rounds
Operation: Gas-delayed blowback, semi-automatic.

The gas-delayed blowback system proved to give a
reliable operation, particularly after it became possible
to chrome-plate internal parts subject to gas-wash.

In 1891, a design team from the Technical Section
decided that the Tolgren action could be scaled-up to
produce a "machine pistol"—a portable, automatic
short-range weapon suitable for police and
close-quarter military use.

Machine Pistol Mk. I, model 1891:

Caliber: 10 mm x 15 mm

Weight: 7.5 lb. (with collapsible steel stock)
Range: 150 yards effective, 200 maximum

Rate of Fire: 600 rounds per minute, theoretical
Feed System: Detachable box in grip, 35 rounds
(75-round snail drum for special roles)

Operation: Gas-delayed blowback, selective fire.

This proved a great success—although somewhat
over-elaborate, as European experience in the Great
War showed that a simple blowback weapon with a
heavier bolt would do quite satisfactorily. It should be
noted that the Draka armed forces initially found little
role for the machine-pistol/ submachine-gun, since
current tactical doctrine envisaged infantry combat at
greater ranges. The Draka War Directorate issued it
fairly extensively to personnel for whom a full-sized
rifle was inconvenient: armored vehicle crews, gunners,
and the women's auxiliary branch. The Security
Directorate found it much more useful, and equipped
about one third of their Order Police with it. No
European power showed any interest until after the
outbreak of the Great War in 1914.

In 1900 it was decided to develop a full-power
semiautomatic rifle. The Tolgren action was adopted;
there was initially some doubt that a system without
positive mechanical locking of the bolt could operate
using a powerful full-bore rifle cartridge, but
experiments proved the contrary. A notable feature was
the semi-closed bolt; at rest, the bolt was set slightly
back from the closed position. When the trigger was
pulled, the firing pin struck the primer and the bolt was
simultaneously freed to complete its run forward; this
absorbed a considerable share of the recoil and made it
possible to build a very light action. The resulting
weapon, adopted for general service in 1906 and
standard issue until 1936, was the T-5.

T-5 Rifle

Caliber: 7.5 mm x 60 mm

Weight: 9.7 lb.

Range: 2000 yards effective, 2500 maximum

Rate of Fire: 25 rounds per minute, theoretical
Feed System: Detachable box, 15 rounds

Operation: Gas-delayed blowback, semi-automatic.

The T-5 was produced in enormous quantity, over
11,000,000 being turned out during its period of
general issue; no substantial modifications were made,
apart from minor alterations to simplify manufacture.

The action worked very smoothly, and the advanced
primer ignition and semi-elastic "gas cushion" effect of
the delayed blowback gave minimal recoil. The result
was a rifle that was very pleasant to fire, nearly as
accurate as its bolt-action predecessor, and had twice
the firepower. In fact, the T-5 proved to be another
classic weapon, its only drawback being the extensive
machining necessary for manufacture. In the field, it
gave the Draka infantry a density of firepower none of
their opponents could match, particularly in
combination with its companion-piece, the SAW-1.

The Technical Section team that designed the T-5 also
saw an opportunity to develop the first really portable
machine-gun. Simply modifying the trigger-mechanism
of the T-5 gave an automatic weapon, but magazine
capacity was too small, the barrel tended to
catastrophic overheating (and attendant cook-off), and
the weapon was violently unstable in full automatic
mode.

Modifications followed. A heavy barrel was fitted,
with a carrying handle and quick-change facility, the
forestock of the rifle being replaced with a slotted metal
guard and grip. A bipod was attached to the
gas-regulator, a straight-line butt and pistol grip was
fitted, and the operating mechanism was made more
robust. In addition, a pawl-and-ratchet belt-drive
device was installed, with provision for quick
conversion to magazine feed. The "Squad Automatic
Weapon, Mark I" could then take the standard
disintegrating link belt feed (usually in 75-round belts
packed in a box that clipped beneath the weapon), or 15

or 30-round box magazines inserted from the top.

Specifications were as follows:

Squad Automatic Weapon, Mark I model 1907:
Caliber: 7.5 mm x 60 mm

Weight: 19 lb.

Range: 2000 yards effective, 2500 maximum

Rate of Fire: 600 rounds per minute, theoretical
Feed System: Disintegrating-link metal belt/15- or
30-round box Operation: Gas-delayed

blowback, automatic.

With these two weapons the Domination fought the
Great War of 1914-1918 and carried the Drakon banner
from Constantinople to Xian.

The infantry squad of the Great War was equipped
with a mixture of SAW-1's, T-5's, and machine-pistols;
subsidiary weapons included rifle grenades, hand
grenades (stick and "egg" types), flamethrowers,
heavier water-cooled machine guns, and light mortars.

After the winding-down of the Pacification Wars in
1925-26, the Technical Section decided to run a detailed
tactical analysis of the actual operation of these
weapons in the field; the Draka armed forces generally
were anxious to avoid "victory disease" and
self-criticism was being encouraged.

The T-5 had been very popular with the actual users,
and was widely imitated in the postwar period; the
American Springfield-7 (1927), the British Lee-Shallon
(1921, almost a direct copy), the French MAS, the
Russian Tokarev… In fact, by 1939 the only major power
not to convert to the full-power semiautomatic format
was Germany, where investigators were advocating a
subcaliber compromise weapon.

Much to their own surprise, the Small Arms Study
Project run by Sven Holbars of the Alexandria
Technological Institute determined that the T-5 was far
from perfect. The average range of infantry combat had
decreased, even in open desert country, and all major
combatants had adopted the Draka/ German system of
dispersed infiltration infantry tactics. The full-power
cartridge was superfluous at ranges within 800 meters,
and 90% of all infantry engagements were at that or
less. Beyond that range, crew-served weapons were
more effective. Furthermore, the venerable 7.5 x 60 mm
made a true selective-fire rifle impossible; a weapon
light enough to be useful was uncontrollable in
full-automatic mode, and the barrel overheated
disastrously.

The Project therefore decided to "reinvent the
wheel" and design a new weapon from the ground up.

Since the rifle was merely a delivery system for the true
weapon—the bullet— ammunition was the first priority.

The design parameters emphasized the smallest and
lightest possible round which would have good
wounding characteristics within the 800-meter
envelope and would still punch through the average
steel helmet at that range. A small-caliber, high-velocity
round was found to give the best effective combination
of characteristics (a caseless round would have been
even better, but this proved extremely difficult). The
caliber settled on was 5 mm (about .2 inch), with a
bottle-necked 45 mm cartridge case of aluminum alloy.

The gas-delayed blowback action of the T-5 and
SAW-1 was used for the new rifle. The design was
actually based more on the SAW-1 than on the rifle, as
automatic fire and an integral bipod were part of the
specifications. The feed device was a matter of
controversy; with the 600 rpm cyclic rate envisaged, a
box clip was of doubtful use—it tended to become
unmanageably bulky and unreliable with capacities
over 34-40 rounds. A 75-round disintegrating-link belt,
prepacked in a conical drum, was settled on, using
aluminum for the belt and the feed lips of the drum,
and the new glass-fiber resin for the box itself; the rear
face was made semitransparent, so that the soldier
could see at a glance how many rounds were left.

Performance was as follows:

Holbans T-6 Assault Rifle, Model 1936

Caliber: 5 mm x 45 mm

Weight: 9.7 lb.

Range: 800 yards effective, 1000 maximum

Rate of Fire: 600 rounds per minute, theoretical Feed
System: Disintegrating-link metal belt,

75 round drum

Operation: Gas-delayed blowback, automatic; optional
3-round burst.

Careful engineering and extensive use of

high-strength alloys reduced the loaded weight to less
than 10 lbs.; combined with the low recoil force and soft
action, this made the Holbars fully controllable even
when fired from the hip on full automatic. A bipod was
attached below the gas port, and when not in use folded
into a slot on the bottom of the laminated wooden
foregrip. The stock was a metal frame, with a robust
folding hinge; when collapsed, it lay along the left side
of the weapon. There were post-and-aperture sights,
but the main system was an optical x4 sight; this was
optimized for quick use, and encased in a

rubber-padded "shroud." Most troops carried their
optical sights permanently clipped to the weapon,
although they could be removed with the standard
maintenance tools. Folded, the weapon was only 30

inches long, an important point given the increased use
of armored personnel carriers. The Holbars was usually
carried across the chest on an assault sling.

A companion SAW-2 was developed concurrently;
this was very similar, but used a 150-round drum and
had a heavier quick-change barrel attached to a
carrying handle. This two-weapon combination was
used throughout the Eurasian war, and remained
standard issue for the Domination's forces until the
early 1970s.

With the Holbars, the metallic cartridge selective-fire
rifle had reached the endpoint of its development;
detail improvements in materials and performance
were possible, but a fundamental improvement
required a complete redesign. The basic breakthrough
was a successful caseless cartridge—in essence, a
high-tech version of the old T-1. Research began as early
as the 1920s, and continued for forty years in a
desultory fashion. Apart from gas sealage (no longer a
problem with modern machining) the primary difficulty
had to do with ignition and heat-disposal. The metallic
cartridge served not only to seal the breech of the
weapon but to carry off much of the heat of the
combustion. The final answer to the problem was to
abandon the dual-base propellants that had been in use
since the introduction of smokeless powder, and go
over to an actual explosive—previous propellants had
really been very fast burners rather than explosives
proper. To keep chamber pressures within acceptable
limits, the explosive was diluted with a combustible
synthetic, which also acted as a matrix to provide
mechanical strength for the round. The projectile, the
bullet proper, was almost completely enclosed in a
rectangular block of propellant, greatly easing the
design of magazines and eliminating waste space.

Ignition was electrical, and the chemical mix was
designed to be very resistant to heat and shock-wave
detonation,

At the same time, the traditional

stock-action-magazine-barrel design was abandoned,
and the pistol grip was placed forward of the action.

The buttplate was immediately behind the action (next
to the user's face when the weapon was shouldered),
which posed few problems since there was now no need
to eject spent cartridges.

The resulting T-7 entered field trials in the
mid-1960s.

Holbars T-7 Assault Rifle, Model 1971

Caliber: 4.5 mm x 40 mm, prefragmented, other
options

Weight: 10 lb.

Range: 800 yards effective, 1000 maximum

Rate of Fire: 2000/600 rounds per minute, theoretical
Feed System: 100-round spiral cassette

Operation: Recoil; optional 3-round burst.