During WWII, the US manufactured a million FP-45 “Liberator” pistols, at a cost of slightly more than $2 each (about $35 today by official inflation calculations, likely twice that by real inflation), to be air-dropped into occupied territory in Europe in order to arm the resistance unit. The goal wasn’t that it was a great weapon; the purpose was to be just good enough to kill an enemy soldier at point blank range and take HIS gun.
If the US (or anyone else) were to do something like that today, with slightly higher aspirations and the following specs for the RFP, what cartridge, materials, and basic design layout do you think would work best, and what would the unit price be if bought in bulk?
- No regard for any particulars of firearms laws in any country; it’s a rebellion weapon.
- Designed around a subsonic round, with integral suppressor.
- Iron signs, but with simple rail or attachment points for optic
- Simple construction, maintenance, operation
- 5MOA accuracy or better at 100m
Thoughts?
Edit to Add: 2.A) Either integral suppressor or threaded for a suppressor. Obvious trade-offs on size, concealability, size with/without suppression. production costs. An integral sup will make a smaller package than a threaded barrel with the suppressor attached.
2.B) It may be designed to use a sub-sonic loading of a normally supersonic round, with a box of sub-sonic ammo to be shipped / dropped with it for initial engagements, but able to use local resupply. For example, 300 Blackout is “normally” available in subsonic, as is 10mm or 45 ACP, but 7.62x39mm Russian is not (normally ~124 gr at 2300-2450 fps), though 220 gr subsonic can be found. Obviously a “common” ammo type has tradeoffs over a “rare” ammo type.
