Although it’s been around for going on 15 years, the MP7, with its proprietary cartridge and styling that would make it home in a Luc Besson movie, is one of the cooler room brooms out there.
Why is it a thing?
CIA intelligence coming out of Afghanistan in the 1980s found that increasing numbers of Soviet troops were wearing flak vest-style body armor thought capable of stopping or at least retarding the NATO standard 9x19mm parabellum round used in the West’s handguns (German P1, Browning Hi Power, Beretta 92, etc.) and submachine guns (Beretta M12, HK MP5, British Sterling, UZI, etc.). And to say the least, it scared them.
Therefore, NATO issued a requirement for a “Personal Defense Weapon” to replace both subguns and pistols with a compact firearm capable of penetrating a steel helmet or Warsaw Pact body armor at under 100-yard ranges for use by support types and officers. The Belgians came up with the FN90 and 5.7 Pistol while Heckler and Koch coughed up the MP7.
And its sweet enough to get some serious love from the Navy and Marines.
U.S. Marines from Alpha Fleet Anti-terrorism Security Team Company Europe (FASTEUR), Naval Station Rota, shoot MP-7 machine guns at the Romanian intelligence service shooting range in Bucharest, Romania, Feb. 26, 2015. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Esdras Ruano/Released)
Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk
