What do you get when you cross a car wash spray nozzle with a Thompson submachine gun? No, it's not a joke. It's a new and rather unconventional .45-caliber (.45 ACP) subgun that attenuates/mitigates felt recoil and muzzle rise/climb--thus increasing controllability--on full-auto by putting the bore axis at or slightly below the centerline of the shooter's fist and forearm and combining that ergonomic aspect with a mechanical recoil attenuation/mitigation system. It's called the KRISS Super V Sub-machine gun, and it's brought to you by the good folks at Transformational Defense Industries (TDI), headquartered in Washington, D.C. That's more than a little ironic. Think about it--a select-fire (full-auto capable) small arm being developed in D.C., one of the most anti-legal-firearms-ownership/anti-Second Amendment cities in the country. Most likely, TDI's manufacturing facility is located outside the District (in an actual state, somewhere), and it would seem logical that their testing facility would be located somewhere in Virginia. We'll look into it.
TDI claims that in addition to reducing felt recoil and muzzle rise on full-auto, the KRISS's unique design...
reduces weapon weight by as much as 50%. The total number of parts (including moving parts) is supposed to also be lower, but DefRev doesn't have a parts count, yet. According to the company, the KRISS Super V subgun can be adapted to other calibers. We assume this means that 9mm (9x19mm) and .40 S&W versions are possible. The TDI website states that the KRISS prototype has already been "extensively analyzed and tested by the US Army Picatinny Arsenal" (NJ), and that the the KRISS weapons platform "has proven itself to be a major step forward that can equip the war fighters of today with the ability to deliver a large quantity of high impact rounds with the accuracy that can only come from a low-recoil, light-weight weapon."
DefenseReview will try to acquire the results of those tests, ASAP. In the meantime, we highly recommend that our readers take a look at the KRISS Super V Sub-machine gun video clip (link below). From viewing the video clip, it's DefRev's opinion that TDI needs to do a just a few things with regard to further developing the KRISS:
1) Develop a 30-round magazine, or make the KRISS compatible with Thompson 30-round box mags.
2) Redesign and elongate the magwell so it can be used as a vertical foregrip, or design an actual vertical foregrip (fixed or folding) for the weapon. If a folding vertical foregrip is designed, it must be sturdy/robust. If a separate vertical foregrip is added, the barrel will most likely have to be lengthened slightly. Without a vertical foregrip, the firing method employed by the test shooters in the TDI video clip looks just a wee-bit dangerous for the shooter, as the support hand must be placed awfully close to the muzzle during full-auto fire. It just doesn't look safe to us. A robust vertical foregrip would provide for a much more secure (and thus safer) hold. It would also allow the KRISS to be used as a less-lethal blunt impact weapon for CQB/CQC (Close Quarters Battel/Close Quarters Combat), where lethal force isn't necessarily required.
3) Reduce the weapon's cyclic rate/rate-of-fire (ROF) a bit.
Turkey
