Uzi

Uzi
Uzi
	The Uzi SMG
Type	Submachine gun
Place of origin	Israel
Service history
Used by	Israel, other nations including Belgium (Under license), Iran, Colombia, Chile, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Netherlands, Philippines, Portugal, Sri Lanka, South Africa, USA and many other police/military organisations.
Wars	Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, Sri Lankan Civil War, Portuguese Colonial War, South African Border War, Rhodesian Bush War, anti-guerrilla operations in Colombia and the Philippines
Production history
Designer	Uziel Gal
Designed	1948
Manufacturer	Israel Military Industries, FN Herstal, Norinco, Lyttleton Engineering Works (Under Vektor Arms), RH-ALAN, Ka Pa Sa State Factories
Specifications
Mass	3.5 kg (7.7 lb)
Length	470 mm (18.5 in), 650 mm (25.6 in) with stock extended
Barrel length	260 mm (10.24 in.)
Cartridge	9x19mm Parabellum, .22 LR, .45 ACP, .41 AE
Action	open-bolt, blowback
Rate of fire	600 round/min
Muzzle velocity	~400 m/s (~1,310 ft/s)
Feed system	10 (.22 and .41 AE), 16 (.45 ACP) 20, 32, 40 and 50 round magazines
Sights	iron sight

The Uzi (Hebrew: עוזי) is a family of guns that started with a compact, boxy, and lightweight submachine gun. Smaller and newer variants are considered machine pistols. The first Uzi submachine gun was designed by Uziel Gal in the late 1940s. It was manufactured by Israel Military Industries, FN Herstal, and others.

Design

Overview

The Uzi uses an open-bolt, blowback-operated design. It and the Czechoslovakian series 23 to 26 were the first weapons to use a "telescoping" ("overhung") bolt design, in which the bolt wraps around the breech end of the barrel (Hogg 1979:157-158). This allows the barrel to be moved far back into the receiver and the magazine to be housed in the pistol grip, allowing for a heavier, slower-firing bolt in a shorter, better-balanced weapon.

It is made mostly of stamped sheet metal and has relatively few parts, making it easy to strip for maintenance and making it less expensive per unit to manufacture than an equivalent design machined from forgings. The magazine being housed within the pistol grip allows for intuitive and easy reloading in dark or difficult conditions, as the operator simply brings his hands together; but the high grip also makes the gun awkward to fire when prone.

It has a grip safety, making it difficult to fire accidentally.

When the gun is decocked, the ejector port closes, preventing entry of dust and dirt. Though the Uzi's receiver is equipped with pressed reinforcing ridges to accept accumulated dirt and sand, the weapon may jam with heavy accumulations of sand in desert combat conditions when not cleaned regularly.

The Uzi is generally a highly effective weapon, and has been found especially useful for mechanized troops needing a compact weapon, and for infantry units clearing bunkers and other confined spaces.

Drawbacks

The Uzi has been criticized for its open-bolt design. When a round is fired the slide remains to the rear, until the trigger is pulled again, leaving the working parts open to dust. This increases the risk of a stoppage. This drawback is common to nearly all open bolt firearms.

A rival weapon, the Heckler & Koch MP5, solves this by using a roller system. This means that only the firing pin moves as the weapon is firing, reducing the amount of contamination. [1]

Cartridge and magazine options

The most common variant fires the 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge, though some fire .22 LR, .41 AE, or .45 ACP. Caliber conversions exist in .40 S&W and 10 mm auto [2].

Available magazines include 20-, 25-, 32-, 40-, and 50-round magazines (9x19mm Parabellum), 10-round magazines (.41 and .22 LR), and 16-round magazines (.45 ACP). All of the above are manufactured by IMI. Other high-capacity magazines exist (e.g. 50-round magazines and 100-round drums in 9 mm) which are manufactured by companies such as Vector Arms.

The grip-mounted magazine gives the Uzi a highly distinctive, instantly-recognizable profile, and it is often seen in TV shows, movies, and video games. In such portrayals, it is often fired one-handed (especially the Mini- and Micro-Uzis) and in some cases as two guns, one in each hand.

History

The weapon was designed by Major (Captain at the time) Uziel Gal of the Israel Defense Forces following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The Uzi submachine gun was submitted to the Israeli army for evaluation and won out over more conventional designs due to its simplicity and economy of manufacture. Gal did not want the weapon to be named after him, but his request was ignored.

The initial model was accepted in 1951 and was first used in battle in 1956 and gained huge success. It was soon developed into a number of better engineered variants.

The Uzi submachine gun was used as a personal defense weapon by rear-echelon troops, officers, artillery troops and tankers, as well as a frontline weapon by elite light infantry assault forces. The Uzi's compact size and firepower proved instrumental in clearing Syrian bunkers and Jordanian defensive positions during the 1967 Six-Day War. Advanced and smaller Uzi variations were used by the Israeli special forces until recently, when in December 2003, the Israeli military announced that it was completely phasing the Uzi out of use by its forces but would continue to manufacture the weapon for both domestic use and export.

Total sales of the weapon to date (end 2001) has netted IMI over $2 billion (US), with over ninety countries using the weapons either for their soldiers or in law enforcement.

The German Bundeswehr used the Uzi since 1959 under the name MP2 (especially for tank crews) and is now changing to the MP7.

The Irish Gardaí Emergency Response Unit (ERU) are replacing the Uzi with the HK MP7.

The Uzi was produced under license in Rhodesia in the late 1970s, from Israeli-supplied and later, domestically manufactured components. Commonly called the "Rhuzi" (although the title was also applied to some indigenous submachine gun designs).

Sri Lanka ordered a few thousand Mini Uzi and Uzi Carbines in 1990s. Currently those are deployed with Sri Lanka Army special forces regiment and Sri Lanka Police Special Task Force as their primary weapon when providing security for VIPs.

The United States Secret Service, the agency that guards the President of the United States, used the Uzi to provide covering fire while agents evacuated the President out of the area. When President Ronald Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981 outside of the Washington Hilton Hotel by John Hinckley Jr., a Secret Service Special Agent pulled an Uzi out of a briefcase and covered the rear of the presidential limousine as it sped to safety with the wounded president inside.^{[citation needed]}

Variants

There are several smaller variants of the Uzi SMG:

Mini Uzi, Basically a scaled-down version of the Uzi, first introduced in 1980. The Mini Uzi is 600 mm (23.62 inches) long or just 360 mm (14.17 inches) long with the stock folded. Its barrel length is 197 mm and its muzzle velocity is 375 m/sec. The Mini Uzi is blowback operated and can be fired from a closed bolt or an open bolt. Its rate of fire is 950 rounds per minute (~16 rounds per second). The weapon fires the 9 mm Parabellum round in either semi or fully automatic firing modes. It weighs 2.65 kg without a magazine and 3.15 kg with a fully loaded 25-round magazine.
Micro Uzi, At only 250 mm (9.84 inches) in length, it is slightly larger than a standard pistol and is about as small as the original Uzi design could be made. It fires from a closed bolt position and has a side-folding stock similar to the one on the Mini Uzi. The forward handgrip is completely eliminated. First introduced in 1986, the Micro Uzi weighs 2.2 kilograms less than the Uzi when unloaded and fires at a rate of 1250 rpm, which can unload the 20 round magazine in 0.96 seconds.
Para Micro Uzi, designed especially for counter terror units. It was recently developed by the IMI and is in use by the Shabak and the Israeli counter-terror units such as the YAMAM. It has a side-mounted charging handle, a provision which makes room for top and bottom-mounted Picatinny rails. It has an angled pistol-grip to accommodate a 33-round Glock 18 magazine.
Uzi Pistol, a semi-automatic version of the Micro Uzi developed for sale in countries where the civilian ownership of automatic weapons is restricted, such as in the U.S. Externally, it is distinguished by not having a stock or a recoil compensator, as well as a different trigger guard and a slightly different grip design.
Uzi Carbine, a semi-automatic version of the full sized Uzi SMG, with a longer 400 mm (16 inch) barrel. Was also generally available for sale to civilians in the United States prior to both semi-auto models being banned from import in 1994. New Uzi Carbines are still available from several American manufacturers as of March, 2006.
Uzi Mini Carbine, a semi-automatic version of the compact Mini-Uzi SMG, with a longer 450mm (18 inch) barrel to meet minimum legal rifle overall length requirements for civilian sales in the United States when the stock is folded.

Those variants are still in use by many special forces and law enforcement agencies in the world - including in Israel, United States and Sri Lanka [3].

Users

Bangladesh - Used by RAB

Belgium - Under license by Fabrique Nationale

Bulgaria

Colombia

Chile - Used by Carabineros de Chile (Chilean Police Forces)

El Salvador - Was used by military police during the El Salvador Civil War.

Estonia

France

Germany - Being phased out to adopt Heckler & Koch MP7

Greece - Police, Navy

Guatemala

Haiti

India

Indonesia - Used by Kopassus and Tontaipur

Ireland - Used by the Garda Síochána ERU and Special Branch. To be replaced by the Heckler & Koch MP7.

Israel - Production ceased; still produces parts

Mexico- Used by police in protection against drug dealers and drug transporters

Myanmar - Under license by Ka Pa Sa factories as the BA-94

Paraguay

Portugal - Portuguese Army, formely used by Polícia de Segurança Pública during Portuguese Colonial War

Philippines

Rhodesia

Rwanda

Somalia

South Africa - Being phased out from regular Army, except for special forces

Sri Lanka

Sudan

Taiwan - With ROCMC Special Service Company units

Thailand

Togo

Turkey - Special Forces, Police

Uganda

United States

Uruguay

Venezuela

Please note, this list is not complete.

References

Hogg, Ian V. (1979). Guns and How They Work. New York: Everest House. pp. pp. 157-158. ISBN 0-89696-023-4. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

External links