Published by David Crane in Featured, Personal Defense Weapons, Special Operations, Submachine Guns on December 11th, 2011

By Jeff Gurwitch

December 11, 2011

As the title of this articles implies, I’m going to attempt to answer the question "Are submachine guns still a viable tool for CQB?" The quick answer, I would say, is certainly yes! I will also say that it depends on the expected threats you are going to face. 

A Quick History Lesson   Before I get into the pro’s and con's of choosing a submachine gun for close quarters battle work, let me provide a quick overview of their past use in CQB and the military. When you put submachine guns and CQB together in the same sentence, the two things that come to most shooters minds are: the H&K MP5 submachine gun (SMG) and the British SAS (Special Air Service).   Both were made famous back in 1980 with the SAS' successful hostage rescue in the Iranian Embassy in London. The SAS were able to kill 5 out of the 6 hostage takers using burst fire (i.e., controlled full-auto fire) from their MP5 submachine guns. Because the assault was televised  (from outside) even today you can still find a H&K poster of one of the SAS assaulters on the balcony of the embassy (MP5 in hand) in a lot of gun stores . The success of that mission led to the HK MP5 dominating the field when it came to military and police selecting a primary weapon for hostage rescue and CQB up into the 1990’s. Even with my own experience, the first time I did CQB live fire training in [U.S. Army] Special Forces in the late 90’s, our team chose the MP5.     When you look back in time, the MP5 SMG had two attributes that made it the logical choice for hostage rescue CQB work; the first and most important attribute is that it is controllable on full-auto at room distance. During the assault on the Iranian embassy, the SAS shot in full-auto bursts at their targets. This is where the submachine gun shines, and is exactly how I feel it should be employed. Second, because it is a pistol caliber, over penetration of the target is minimized. This is crucial for hostage rescue work. The last thing you want to do is engage a threat and have it go thru and hit the person you are trying to save.    

Limitations  

Unfortunately, the same asset that made it the primary choice for CQB work (being a pistol caliber weapon that's easy to control, and less likely to over-penetrate the target) has also come to be its biggest limitation with regard to being the weapon of choice today. On the law enforcement side of the house, with the 1997 North Hollywood bank shootout, the police found themselves out-gunned with their pistol caliber weapons while dealing with two rifle-wielding body armored-up assailants. Because it took so many rounds to finally put the robbers down, it was decided that not just SRT-type teams needed rifles, but also normal patrolmen who might find themselves as first responders to an incident.     The second and a major issue that has dropped the submachine gun down on the list as a primary tool for CQB is its range limitations. Since the global war on terror [GWOT] began, the military has had to deal with one crucial factor that most police departments and stateside HRT teams generally don't have to deal with when it comes to CQB. In addition to having to shoot targets at room distance in the target building, military operators also have to deal with a 360-degree threat of targets out to medium distance as you approach and depart the target area.   In Iraq and Afghanistan (both urban and rural environments),  if it is a “hot target”, you can expect to have to engage defenders/enemy targets out past 100 meters as you approach the target, before you conduct your CQB mission. This includes all the way thru the mission on target and even when departing the area on exfil. The last thing most soldiers want to have to try and do is suppress AK-47 wielding assailants at 200-300 meters with an MP5 submachine gun–which is generally only good for consistent hits out to 100 meters–on both approach and exfil.      

  Lack of Proper Training   

Because the assault rifle/carbine/SBR (Short Barreled Rifle)/sub-carbine has become the weapon of choice now for CQB, it has also created a training scar for assaulters who still employ the submachine gun today. At least on the military side of the house, because the carbine is our primary weapon and the primary method of engagement is semi-auto fire, it has crossed over to the primary method of engagement for submachine guns also. Shooting on semi-auto is fine for a rifle, but if you are armed with a 9mm submachine gun, I think you are limiting your ability to incapacitate your target in the time necessary for CQB work. To make matters worse, in most military shoot houses today, full-auto fire is not allowed, so being able to train properly with submachine guns is getting hard to do. In my opinion, not employing the submachine gun in the full-auto mode (at room distance) totally defeats the purpose of carrying a submachine gun in the first place.   

Source: DefenseReview.com (http://s.tt/14NNA)

Click here for full article...