M1656 9 mm submachine-gun

The M1656 9 mm submachine-gun, a once ubiquitous small-arm in the armies of the Raspur Pact, chambered for the 9x19 mm round. Typically issued to non-commissioned officers and vehicle crews.

History

By 1656 AN the situation for the Raspur Pact was becoming increasingly dire. The war, which had begun in Floria in 1653 AN as an outgrowth of the Sxiro-Jingdaoese Confrontation, had grown into a global conflagration which pitted the members of the pact against the full strength of the USSO, a rival global alliance dominated by Jingdao and the Bassarids. With the main fronts locked into stalemate following the collapse of Florian resistance, and with the naval war hanging in the balance following the decimation of the Jing and Natopian fleets in the Battle of Carama Bay, the once vast reserves of manpower and equipment which had been built up by Shireroth were rapidly being exhausted.

As a consequence of the strains placed on the Shirerithian economy by the demands of the war, the Allied Production Matrix was established in 1655 AN as a joint Sxiro-Natopian programme intended to streamline manufacturing output and to focus effort on to a standardised range of vessels, vehicles and weapons platforms, which could then be produced in greater numbers and with more potential for interoperability amongst the allied powers.

With the Bassarid entry into the war the position of Normark, at that time a Natopian demesne, was imperilled. The first task of the production matrix was to conjure into being a small arms industry in Normark capable of providing locally raised forces the means of self-defence beyond that which could be supplied by the overstretched Boreal Air Bridge. An immediate consequence of this requirement being recognised was the establishment of the Sårensby Arsenal, financed via direct taxation on the part of the Shirerithian and Natopian government.

(blurb)

A consignment of two hundred thousand surplus of M1656 9 mm submachine-guns were supplied by ESB Susa to the Military of Alduria in 1673 AN & 1674 AN, whilst a similar quantity were made available to the Military of the Wechua Nation in 1659 AN with the Honourable Company again acting as broker. Another three million submachine-guns of the type were subsequently made via National Qullqa System of Wechua. The type would subsequently proliferate throughout Keltia as a consequence of widespread unlicensed production in the Wechua Nation.

The Military of the Suren Confederacy would receive fifty thousand of the type as part of the military aid promised by Nouvelle Alexandrie under the Fontainebleau Accords. Ten thousand pieces of the Surenid consignment would subsequently be donated to the Garrisoned Police Force of Zeed after the 1701 Armistice of Alduria City ended the Third Euran War.