Opinion
“When you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting!” ~ Dave Young
PDW (Personal Defensive Weapon)
The term “PDW” has been conferred upon an ill-defined class of individual firearms that armies, including ours, have historically looked to for issue to “rear-echelon” troops.
Back in the Cold War Era, commanders imagined rear-area personnel having to confront Soviet paratroopers, who would be wearing some kind of personal body armor. To address this eventuality, the FN P90, firing its proprietary round, the 5.7×28, was introduced.
The 5.7×28 did indeed penetrate some kinds of body armor but was (and is) expensive and hard to find, and its performance in all other aspects of terminal ballistics is nothing special.
The P90 itself is a short, compact, light rifle, but still too big to carry in a holster, much less carry concealed. It’s small, but not small enough.
I’ve had students bring P90s to DTI Urban Rifle Courses, and in all fairness, they run fine. Nonetheless, the P90 never “caught on,” neither in the private sector nor in the police community, nor has DOD ever displayed any more than casual interest!
Other weapons, from pistols with shoulder stocks to “miniaturized” SMGs, have also been tasked to fill the role of “PDW” with varying degrees of failure and dispassion!
During WWII, the M1 Carbine was designed as a “PDW!”
The English term “carbine” is derived from a French word for cavalry or horse-mounted soldiers (who were expected actually to fight from horseback). It refers to a short rifle suitable for carrying by horse cavalry and that can be fired one-handed from horseback. By the 1940s, horses, of course, no longer occupied an important position in land warfare, but the term stuck.
The M1 Garand (chambered for “30-06,” or 7.62×63) was (and is) a superb infantry rifle for average-to-large-sized, young males in good physical shape, but it was never well suited for carrying inside vehicles, nor for use by the small-statured, nor for rear-area personnel (from secretaries to truck-drivers, to mechanics) who were not trained to expertly operate it, beyond a brief afternoon of perfunctory “familiarization firing.”
The M1 Carbine, firing what is little more than a pistol round, proved enormously popular in all theaters of WWII, including among front-line troops, but it still did not fit into a holster.
In our Modern Era, troopers are now herded into cramped armored vehicles and helicopters, all of which have demanded short, light, compact rifles, “carbines,” if you will.
Also, in our age of sophisticated optical sights, “sight radius,” the distance between rear and front, iron sights (the longer, the more inherently accurate the rifle), has become irrelevant.
Thus, modern military rifles have barrels between sixteen and twenty inches, just long enough to maximize bullet velocity (within the context described above).
So, do modern armies still need a separate “PDW” for rear-area personnel?
The argument rages, but while votes are still being counted, what about pistols, like our current SIG P320 (M17), or the old Beretta 92F (M9), or for that matter the even older 1911?
Isn’t the sidearm supposed to fill the role of “PDW?”
Modern pistols can be safely carried all day, fully loaded, in holsters, openly or concealed.
Recoil and noise are relatively mild (compared with rifles), and pistols can be brought into action quickly.
Modern pistol ammunition is as terminally effective at short range as pistol ammunition has ever been, and while most pistol ammunition is not “armor-piercing,” we are concerned today far more with rag-tag Islamic jihadis than we are with Soviet paratroopers.
A modern pistol, routinely carried in a high state of readiness, loaded with high-performance ammunition, in the hands of a seasoned Operator, is extremely fast, adroit, and lethal. Perfect for close-range, personal defense.
That’s why Operators in the civilian world carry them concealed, everywhere.
So, why haven’t we long since forgotten the entire “PDW” legerdemain and just started training troopers who need them how to carry and use their issue pistols effectively?
Why do we see, even in this “Age of Terrorism,” those few troopers (even officers and staff NCOs) who are allowed to touch pistols carry them with an empty magazine well, even in “combat zones?” Heaven forbid anyone would have a round chambered.
The answer is, of course, systemic “risk-aversion,” which invariably leads to fear-driven decisions, a pernicious, chronic disease that plagues all bureaucracies.
Civilian police officers, as well as CCW permit-holders, routinely carry fully loaded pistols, openly and concealed, every day, all day.
We don’t “turn them in” at the end of the day, either.
They’re in our homes and our cars. We keep and carry them, always in a high state of readiness, continuously.
Yes, there are UDs [unintentional discharges]. We note the procedural lesson and move on! We don’t take all the guns away in a panic because we’re frightened to death that we’ll have another.
Yet, our magnificent troopers, even today, apparently can’t be trusted with pistols, nor with legitimate, modern defensive pistol training.
So, we continue to spend millions in an unnecessary search for the magic “PDW” when a perfectly good one is right in front of us and has been since 1911.
“The ‘sunk-cost fallacy’ says that it is bad to lose something we have invested time, money, energy, and emotion into, regardless of whether or not that something is actually doing anything for us.
Humans are naturally risk-averse, so we stubbornly choose not to lose something, over potentially gaining something else, when we don’t even like what we would lose!” ~ Liz Powell
At the poker table, it’s called “… good money after bad!”
/John
About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or in-actions.
It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr. Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com
I’m old school, and grey of both hair and beard! I was raised on Wheel guns, and contrary to the popular ‘modern’ thought of never carrying the hammer on a live round in the chamber, we were taught just the opposite: 6 is better than 5, and 5 is better than 4! ( 5 round snubby models). We were taught how to carefully lower the hammer down on a live chamber, without lighting off the round in the chamber. In all my years I have never inadvertently lit a round off in a chamber by lowering the hammer! Modern ‘gun… Read more »
Note To AmmoLand Staff:
What is going on with the comment editing process???? For a week or two now, if I go in to edit a comment, I make the edit the click on “Save” or like option, and get a little banner telling me that I am posting too quickly. This can be minutes after the original post. I can wait a few minutes before hitting “Save” (or whichever) again and still get the banner telling me I am posting too quickly. The edit never goes through.
Can you please fix this. Thank You!
“Why do we see, even in this “Age of Terrorism,” those few troopers (even officers and staff NCOs) who are allowed to touch pistols carry them with an empty magazine well, even in “combat zones?” Heaven forbid anyone would have a round chambered. The answer is, of course, systemic “risk-aversion,” which invariably leads to fear-driven decisions, a pernicious, chronic disease that plagues all bureaucracies.” Could part of this “risk-aversion” be tied to the culture of “Risk Management” and Risk Managers? That subset of government and corporate worlds seems to have single-handedly created quantum levels of chickensh-t that not only destroy… Read more »
Excellent article. While on 2 1/2 years of private security contracts in Iraq we couldn’t carry a rifle (AK or M4) at all times, everywhere we went, so we always carried a pistol. I was issued everything from Browning High Powers to Glock 17s to Kimber 1911s, but one thing was always the same. I carried it with a round in the chamber and ready to deploy. But . . . I interacted a lot with Coalition troops, and the American troops who were not actually out on patrol or on the road never hcarried a loaded gun of any… Read more »
Quote: “Why do we see, even in this “Age of Terrorism,” those few troopers (even officers and staff NCOs) who are allowed to touch pistols, carry them with an empty magazine well, even in “combat zones?” Heaven forbid anyone would have a round chambered.” This is something that always perplexed me as well. Even on field exercises when we trained to fight, the officers, NCO’s, and squad leaders who carried an M9 never, ever were allowed to unholster the weapon. Because of this, some even put it in a plastic bag then holstered it so they wouldn’t have to spend… Read more »
PDWs are the fastest selling guns I see, and are most relevant to me. My wife sports her p-90 with deadly accuracy past four hundred yards. I just built a ar15 pistol in 300 BLK and fell in love with the platform all over again! Admittedly it’s pricey to plink with, so I just got my 9mm upper and binary trigger for true PDW firepower cheap. The 1911 was my first pistol, I love them, however a Kriss in 45 with a double tap trigger is a magnitude of lethality greater. My 300blk spitting supersonic loads is accurate past 400…good… Read more »
PDW’s are still entirely relevent, both in a military environment as well as in a civilian environment. Pistols are not PDW’s, and PDW’s don’t need a holster. What PDW’s need is available proper, modern armor piercing ammunition and at least a 3-round burst capability.
I have a personal definition of a PDW, but I don’t think Mr. Farnam will care for it. It goes like this: “a firearm that is shorter and handier than a typical carbine, but has greater combat capabilities than a pistol.” OFC, this leaves the 1911 out of the picture. Not bc it isn’t one of my favorite handguns(it is), but bc it doesn’t fit the definition. I could also define it as: “a carbine short enough to not continually be in the way when carried on a single point sling.” The problem with that definition is that many won’t… Read more »
I’m no longer going to use the term “Assault Rifle” from now on all my firearms are PDW’s
I hope more of you will join me with this way of thinking.
For sure