So I was doing laundry and daydreaming to pass the time when I wondered- If you could go back to pre WWII what designs would you bring with you to arm our military?
The ground rules, you are limited to materials, metallurgy and manufacturing methods from the 1930s. Reason being that if you show up in 1941 you won't have anytime at all to get anything into production.
For an infantry rifle my thinking went:
Definitely an "assault rifle" type. Both the STG44 and AK47 could be produced with 30s tech. But wouldn't we rather have an American design? I am dubious if an AR15, with its 7075 T6 aluminum forgings could be done, economically at least, in that era.
What was the standard manufacturing technique of the day? Machined steel forgings.
However, what else could we do? Stampings, we could do a very good job with stampings.
Germany was the master of this but we also had a robust and high quality industrial infrastructure to produce high quality stamped parts. And stampings are cheap, once the tooling is setup. And with our tremendous industrial capacity I think we could have done a better job getting that tooling up and running and faster than the Germans too.
So I'm thinking....... What was a modern, American, stamped assault rifle design?......
THE AR18! I would totally bring the AR18 plans back to the 30s, I'm quite certain that rilfe could be done well with the tech of the day. But what about the cartridge? I don't think the 5.56x45 could be done, well at least, with the powers of the day. But it wouldn't really do to upsize an AR18 for 30-06 either.
What was a reduced caliber that would work well in a selective fire rifle? I thought of something Ian of Forgotten weapons once said of the .276 Pederson..... that ballistically it's pretty close to 6.5 Grendel. .276 was a cartridge born of 30s tech and while maybe not ideal I think it could do passably well in a selective fire rifle. So an upscale AR18 in .276 Pederson is what I'd bring back to arm our troops with.
What other designs would you bring back, in accordance with the ground rules?
The ground rules, you are limited to materials, metallurgy and manufacturing methods from the 1930s. Reason being that if you show up in 1941 you won't have anytime at all to get anything into production.
For an infantry rifle my thinking went:
Definitely an "assault rifle" type. Both the STG44 and AK47 could be produced with 30s tech. But wouldn't we rather have an American design? I am dubious if an AR15, with its 7075 T6 aluminum forgings could be done, economically at least, in that era.
What was the standard manufacturing technique of the day? Machined steel forgings.
However, what else could we do? Stampings, we could do a very good job with stampings.
Germany was the master of this but we also had a robust and high quality industrial infrastructure to produce high quality stamped parts. And stampings are cheap, once the tooling is setup. And with our tremendous industrial capacity I think we could have done a better job getting that tooling up and running and faster than the Germans too.
So I'm thinking....... What was a modern, American, stamped assault rifle design?......
THE AR18! I would totally bring the AR18 plans back to the 30s, I'm quite certain that rilfe could be done well with the tech of the day. But what about the cartridge? I don't think the 5.56x45 could be done, well at least, with the powers of the day. But it wouldn't really do to upsize an AR18 for 30-06 either.
What was a reduced caliber that would work well in a selective fire rifle? I thought of something Ian of Forgotten weapons once said of the .276 Pederson..... that ballistically it's pretty close to 6.5 Grendel. .276 was a cartridge born of 30s tech and while maybe not ideal I think it could do passably well in a selective fire rifle. So an upscale AR18 in .276 Pederson is what I'd bring back to arm our troops with.
What other designs would you bring back, in accordance with the ground rules?
