9 mm
9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding .
Evolution of the Arabic digit
In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...
submachine gun originally developed from a design first conceived in 1940 by Gonçalves Cardoso, an officer of artillery in the Portuguese Army. The onset of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
halted development of the weapon, which was further modified and put into production in 1948.
History
The submachine gun was produced by the ''
Fábrica de Braço de Prata ''Fábrica de armas de Prata'' (Portuguese for "Silver Arms Factory"), (Armas de Prata Factory), originally ''Fábrica Militar de armas de Prata'' (Armas de Prata Military Factory) was a small arms, light artillery, ammunition and ordnance factory o ...
'' weapon factory at Lisbon, whose initials FBP gave the name to the weapon, adopted for service as the m/948 in 1948. It utilized the large bolt and telescoping operating spring of the German
MP40
The MP 40 (''Maschinenpistole 40'') is a submachine gun chambered for the 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge. It was developed in Nazi Germany and used extensively by the Axis powers during World War II.
Designed in 1938 by Heinrich Vollmer with in ...
submachine gun, and the collapsible wire stock of the American
M3 submachine gun
The M3 is an American .45-caliber submachine gun adopted by the U.S. Army on 12 December 1942, as the United States Submachine Gun, Cal. .45, M3.Iannamico, Frank, ''The U.S. M3-3A1 Submachine Gun'', Moose Lake Publishing, , (1999), pp. 14, 22†...
.FBP/M948 smg Portuguese. Retrieved on May 25, 2008. Unusual for submachineguns, the m/948 was fitted with a barrel sleeve with a mount to accept the standard Portuguese Mauser bayonet.
The original version of the submachine gun (the FBP m/948) only allowed for fully automatic fire. An upgraded version ( designated FBP m/963) introduced in 1961 also allowed for semi-automatic fire.
The weapon was primarily issued to officers and NCOs in the Portuguese Armed Forces and security forces, along with quantities of ex-German
MP 34
The MP34 (''Maschinenpistole 34'', literally "Machine Pistol 34") is a submachine gun (SMG) that was manufactured by '' Waffenfabrik Steyr'' as Steyr-Solothurn S1-100 and used by the Austrian Army and Austrian Gendarmerie and subsequently by un ...
submachine guns. In Portuguese service it was used in combat in
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
Portuguese Timor
Portuguese Timor ( pt, Timor Português) was a colonial possession of Portugal that existed between 1702 and 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies.
The first Europeans to arrive in the ...
. It was eventually replaced in service by the 9 mm
Uzi
The Uzi (; he, עוזי, Ūzi; officially cased as UZI) is a family of Israeli open-bolt, blowback-operated submachine guns and machine pistols first designed by Major Uziel "Uzi" Gal in the late 1940s, shortly after the establishment of the ...
and the collapsible-stock version of the standard m/961 G3 rifle.
In 1976 Fábrica Militar de Braço de Prata, led by Major Engenheiro Mário Tavares, developed a modernized version of the FBP with a barrel cooling sleeve, but it never entered production.
See also
*
Hafdasa C-4
Hispano-Argentina was an Argentina, Argentine automotive and engineering company that manufactured car, automobiles, military vehicles, engines, weaponry, and parts for public works.Halcon M-1943
* Sola Super
*
Portuguese Colonial Wars
The Portuguese Colonial War ( pt, Guerra Colonial Portuguesa), also known in Portugal as the Overseas War () or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation (), and also known as the Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence, ...