Designation:M-50 Owens submachine gun |
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During the summer of 2056, the Powermaster Arms corporation began research into improving the Owens particle sidearm. They held the exclusive license for producing the popular weapon; however, demand was down, as most officers of the REF had elected to carry the Gallant instead, and the REF stocks were sufficient to fulfill the current rate of requests. Engineers for Powermaster believed that while the Gallant system was an excellent rifle and pistol, limiting the available fire rate to semiautomatic presented a drawback. They believed that there was a need for an energy assault rifle or submachine gun, in order to replace the few projectile weapons still employed such as the Badger.
Based on the fact that the Owens and Gallant used the same emitter, the possibility of reusing other parts, the higher yield of the standard shot, and the availability of the production license; the decision was made to modify the Owens, rather than create an entirely new weapon. The reuse of tooling would also reduce development costs. The design team had hoped to avoid creating new hardware for the weapon; so in order to give the new version selective fire capability, the Mk. V Owens pistol was selected as the project's starting point.
The biggest changes to the Owens was the gun's casing. A new polycarbonate shell was designed, based on the current weapon shell and a detachable buttstock that the REF issued with selective fire Owens weapons. The result was no different than the Owens pistol ahead of the trigger (except for deletion of the magazine receiver at the fore of the shell); but behind the trigger, a more ergonomic thumbhole stock was featured, with a space for loading the new high-capacity capacitor magazines through a panel in the butt. By moving the magazine to a horizontal position in the stock, this eased handling while prone and made the weapon less awkward. Some complaints about the ease of reloading were heard at the outset, but eventually these ceased as troops got used to using the new weapon.
The new series capacitor magazines were significantly advanced over the pistol models; with only a 35% increase in size, the energy capacity was doubled. The field recharging capability was also retained; a magazine in the weapon could be recharged by connecting a cord included to an electrical power source and throwing a switch to activate the charging module. The main drawback was that this made it impossible to charge more than one magazine at a time, or combine the charge from two partially spent magazines into one. Powermaster solved these issues by issuing a separate charging kit capable of charging four magazines at once, or combining the charges of partially spent magazines.
Series production was just getting underway when Republican militias took control of the Powermaster plant in former South Dakota; the supply of Owens SMGs was diverted to the fledgling Republican forces on Luna. Afterwards the new Owens was adopted as the principal submachine gun of the Republican Army. Powermaster also supplied a number of M-50 Owens guns to the Protectorate of the Southern Cross, immediately preceding the Republican Robotech War; these weapons were issued to mecha pilots as an optional survival weapon.
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Content by Derek Ralph