Uzi [German MP2]

The Uzi was designed for Israeli paratroopers in the 1950s. The great innovation of the Uzi was housing the magazine inside the pistol grip, making it easier for soldiers to fire and reload. Developed and manufactured in Israel, the Uzi Submachine Gun achieved worldwide renown due to its firepower, reliability and compact size. A national icon and the country's most famous contribution to the arms industry, the gun features a simple loading mechanism that minimizes jams and a compact design, ideal for combat in rugged terrain. The Uzi, used by elite units, police, and security services - and also by criminals, is an internationally known brand name.

The Uzi has a rectangular, boxy receiver, with front and rear 'half-circle' sights at the ends of the receiver. The magazine mounts in the pistol grip, with a circular charging handle on top of the receiver. The barrel can have several different configurations. Its construction provides for a very short overall length and makes the weapon insensitive to fouling. The Uzi is a recoil operated, select fire submachine gun that fires from the open bolt position. Operating on the sliding breech lock and spring return principle, the Uzi can be fired on either automatic or semi-automatic. It has a folding stock and can be equipped with silencers.

Uziel "Uzi" Gal, the inventor of the Uzi submachine gun, died in Philadelphia on 12 September 2002 at age 79. Gal was twice married. Gal's wife died in 1998, and he was survived by his son; a daughter predeceased him. Born as Gotthard Glass in Weimar, Germany in 1923, Gal fled with his family from the Nazis to Britain in 1933. In 1936 the family moved to British-ruled Palestine and joined Kibbutz Yagur, near Haifa, where the young Gal became known as an inveterate tinkerer. In 1943 he was arrested for illegally carrying a gun and sentenced to six years in prison. He was pardoned and released in 1946, serving less than half of his sentence. Gal began designing the Uzi submachine gun in 1948, shortly after the Israel War of Independence.

The Israeli army started testing the weapon in 1951, and the Israel Defense Forces completed the development of the Uzi in 1954, when the gun officially adopted by the Israeli Defense Forces. Major Uziel Gal had just one request, "don't name the weapon after me." His request was not heeded. Uziel Gal achieved renown by developing a submachine gun with revolutionary design features. In addition to securing his reputation as a designer of weapons and armaments, Gal's invention, popularly known as the UZI submachine gun, earned him the Tzalash HaRamatkal [the Chief of Staff's Honorable Distinction Award] in 1955, and in 1958, Gal was the first person to receive the Israel Security Award, the highest award of the State of Israel, presented to him by Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion.

In 1956 Gal married his second wife, Ahuva Frankel, and their daughter Tamar was born in 1961. Tamar who suffered from brain damage and needed special treatment and attention in order to benefit from regular schooling. Gal retired from the army in 1975 at the rank of Lt. Colonel. He cashed in his pension and moved to Philadelphia in 1976 when his daughter, Tamar, fell ill and could only receive the necessary treatment in the United States. Tamar, who was a caring, cheerful and humorous person, died in 1984, and was buried in Kibbutz Yagur, Israel.

Gal never held a financial interest in his invention, the inventor never requested compensation and never became wealthy from his invention. Indeed, apart from awards, his sole recompense for his innovative design appears to be whatever pleasure he may have derived from having made so large a contribution to the defense of Israel. After retiring from the Israeli Army, Gal moved his family to Philadelphia where he performed design and consulting services for Action Manufacturing Company and Action Arms Limited (collectively "Action"), purveyors of military hardware. Under the general terms of his arrangement with Action, he was paid on a per diem basis with the expectation of royalties on any products successfully marketed as a result of his efforts. In 1980, an application for federal trademark registration of "UZI" was filed and ultimately abandoned by Action.

Gal's relationship with Action gradually deteriorated. Eventually, he brought suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Philadelphia to recover royalties allegedly due him and to recover damages and other relief related to Action's use of the "UZI" name. In 1985 the District Court held that Gal was entitled to reasonable royalties from Action on its sales of three weapons, two of which had been designed by Gal and another which incorporated one of his patented inventions. However, the court declined to award monetary or other relief against Action for the use of the "UZI" name. According to the court, "The evidence makes unmistakably clear that whatever rights associated with the Uzi name plaintiff may have possessed were relinquished to IMI long ago. In short, there can be no doubt that IMI, rather than the plaintiff, is the owner of the right to use the Uzi name in association with automatic weapons."

Subsequently, Gal became a partner in Uzi R & D Associates, a New York firm formed to manufacture, market and sell armaments designed, inter alia, by Gal. IMI filed an application for federal trademark registration of the term "UZI." After IMI's application was allowed and published for opposition on February 26, 1985, Gal, along with Uzi R & D Associates, challenged IMI's right to register the "UZI" mark. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB or Board) granted summary judgment to Israel Military Industries of the Ministry of Defense of the State of Israel (IMI) on certain issues, and dismissed the opposition of Uziel Gal to IMI's application for registration of the mark "UZI". Opposition No. 71,459, June 10, 1986. United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit, found against Gal and for IMI on June 24, 1987.

The first and the leading Sub Machine Gun, the Uzi is the most famous and popular for over 50 years since the introduction of the first model. Over 2 million units have been sold worldwide. The most reliable and combat-proven SMG to date, since its first development, the UZI has been repeatedly optimized and currently it constitutes one of the highest available technological standards. The Mini & Micro UZI versions are very popularweapons developed for special units and special policeentities as well as VIP bodyguards. The Uzi wood stock submachine gun is surprisingly heavy for its size, but is really fun to shoot. It is not a weapon designed for hunting or self-defense. This is a weapon of war. It can spray fire rapidly and with some accuracy and is used for raids, firefights, and, to put it simply, the killing of enemy soldiers in close combat.

The Uzi submachine gun is manufactured by Israel Military Industries [IMI] and has been adopted by more than 90 countries for their police and military. The Uzi is in widespread use with security professionals and armed forces units in Israel and throughout the world. The West German Army's MR-2/MP-2 submachinegun (Israeli model UZI) is used as a weapon for the crews of the armored troops, and for artillery crews and other crews, as well as an auxiliary weapon. Special operations and security units to include the US Secret Service and the Israeli Sayeret (Special Forces) use the compact variants. It is considered one of the most popular SMGs in the world, with more than 10 million manufactured around the world.

The submachine gun [SMG] provided firepower in a smaller package as a companion arm to the World War II and post-war battle rifles. However, with the miniaturization leading to the assault rifle, the role of the SMG supposedly declined. Yet the SMG shoots on. Its major disadvantage is lack of range, because of only firing pistol ammunition. This seeming disadvantage has many benefits which are: low recoil, muzzle blast, climb, penetration, size, weight, cost and training time. The Europeans, Israelis, and Chinese have been more appreciative of the SMG and machine pistol than the Americans. The SMG is more versatile than the handgun and the shotgunin in most tactical situations.

Self-loading or auto-loading firearms fall into three distinct categories when it comes to their modes of operation. All have the similar characteristics of using the energy generated by the firing of a cartridge to actuate the action and effect the extraction and ejection of the spent cartridge case and then proceed to load a fresh round from the ammunition source. They differ inhow they make use of this energy and on what type of energy they rely upon. Recoil operated firearms are generally closed breech or closed bolt weapons that use a mechanical lock to keep the gun in-battery at themoment of firing. Gas operated firearms use the immense pressure generated by the burning powder or propellant to actuate a piston which reciprocates to do the cycling of ammunition. The M-16 rifle is a gas operated firearm.

Blowback operated weapons are simple and often times open-bolt firearms. This means that there is no mechanical locking of the bolt and it isonly the inertia of the bolt, the weight of the slide, and the spring tension which keeps it in place at the moment of firing. The cartridge literally blows back on the bolt to actuate the action. The advantages are high cyclic rates without the risk ofa cook-off and mechanical and manufacturing simplicity. The major drawbacks are a lowered standard of consistency and accuracy. Popular open-bolt guns arethe Uzi and Ingram Mac 10 which are meant for close-in combat where the cyclic rate of fire is needed more than bulls-eye accuracy.

The Uzi utilized the overall design and many features of the Czech M23/25 submachine gun, but the Uzi had a completely different receiver, made of rectangular stamped steel rather than round in cross-section, and other changes. For some firearms, the receiver or frame is stamped from sheet metal. It can be a flat sheet formed into a box as seen in the UZI submachine gun or two mirror-image pieces that fit together like a clamshell. In either case, some provision must be made for support of internal parts. Some support rails can be built into the stamping die so the rail becomes integral with the stamping; others require an index mark for adding a separate part later.

Semiautomatic versions of submachine guns (such as the Uzi) are classed as pistols for legal reasons. A 25-buiiet magazine is standard for the Uzi, and other sizes are available. Submachine guns often have the ability to hold 20 to 30 rounds, but are otherwise identical to conventional handguns in similar caliber. The expense of such weapons precludes their use by most criminals, but they may be used by persons involved in organized crime, drug-dealing, and gangs.

On November 14, 1997, the President and the Secretary of the Treasury ordered a review of the importation of modified versions of semiautomatic assault rifles into the United States. Consequently, it was decided on April 6, 1998, that modified versions of various semiautomatic assault rifles, including Uzi variants, could no longer be imported under the sporting purposes test. Provisions of the GCA were repealed when the semiautomatic assault weapon and large capacity ammunition feeding device bans sunset on September 13, 2004. By late 2003 Israel's military was phasing out the legendary Uzi, calling it antiquated, and replacing it with more sophisticated, electronics-outfitted weaponry. Israel's military took the weapon out of front line units in the 1980ss, but continued to issue it to some elite units and soldiers carrying heavy gear who needed a light weapon for self-defense. The Uzi would still be produced and exported, to the presumable delight of drug dealers and Hollywood action stars alike.

Weight (kg): 4.0 loaded
Length (mm): 470/650
Cyclic Rate of fire (rd/min): 600
Operation: Blowback, firing from open bolt position
Fire Mode: Semi-automatic, Full automatic
SIGHTS
Front - Post; Rear - Aperture "L" Flip.
Tactical flashlights and laser aiming modules are available.
VARIANTS
Mini Uzi
Micro Uzi
AMMUNITION
Name: 9 mm Parabellum
Caliber/length: 9 x 19mm
Effective Range (m): 200
Muzzle Velocity (m/s): 40
Typical Combat Load Magazine Capacity: 20, 25, 32