[Webstral]

I can't remember if I posted this anywhere else, so at the risk of repeating myself I gave the manufacture of small arms within SAMAD (Thunder Empire) some thought. There is a great deal of 5.56mm brass and filled ammo around, plus reloading equipment, courtesy of the Pentagon's Division of Contingency Planning. There is also some 9mm Parabellum and a comparatively large quantity of 7.62x51mm ammo and equipment. Unexpectedly, gangs of Phoenix discovered a train load of .357 Magnum which was abandoned in Phoenix some time in late 1997 or early 1998. No one knows the story behind why such a large shipment of what is essentially civilian handgun ammunition was moving through Phoenix, but one does not look a gift horse in the mouth.

(SAMAD traded the gangs for the ammunition, which opens a whole other can of worms about ethics. During 1999, Huachuca had a bare-bones idea of what was going on in Phoenix, even if the gruesome details were a bit out of focus. There were no illusions that by trading food and other finished goods for the trainload of .357 ammunition and a host of scavenged materials that Huachuca, in effect, was providing material support for Phoenix's armies of the night, Mayors, and Dukes. But I digress...)

The gunsmiths and workshops of SAMAD design a handful of weapons to use the available mix of ammunition. The following notes reflect the status as of early 2001.

The so-called "SKH" is essentially an SKS chambered for 5.56 NATO. The manufacturers use as many stamped parts as possible, given their circumstances. Like the SKS, the SKH is a semi-auto rifle with an integral ten-round magazine and no autofire capability. The stock and all wooden parts are of mesquite. The barrel is somewhat longer than the barrel of the SKS, which compensates somewhat for the limited quality of barrel manufacture SAMAD can manage. Effective range is about 250 meters.

The Huachuca SMG is a copy of the PPsH-41 SMG manufactured by the Soviets during the Great Patriotic War. The Huachuca version is chambered for .357 Magnum, since there is a good deal of it available from 1999 onwards. Some modifications have been made, such as the addition of a forward grip. [Author's note: I have to do some more research on how the .357 brass is going to interact with the bolt face.] The finished product superficially resembles a Thompson SMG.

SAMAD also manufactures a pump-action shotgun based on the Mossberg 500. Stock and forward pistol grip are of mesquite.

A battle rifle based on the Springfield 1903 is also in very limited production. The Huachuca version has some modifications to simplify manufacture. Effective range is reduced somewhat as a consequence of the manufacturing trade-offs. The rifle fires the same 7.62x51mm round as the M60 MG. All wooden parts are of mesquite.

SAMAD also produces a six-shot .357 Magnum revolver as its standard side arm and for the civilian market. (Despite the authoritarian nature of the SAMAD government by 2001, the right of the citizenry to self-defense is recognized. Few can afford one of these revolvers, so carrying one becomes something of a status symbol.)

The long-term goal of manufacturing small arms is the creation of a strong export capacity, in addition to the provision of arms for the forces of SAMAD. Huachuca wants to (re-)equip militias throughout Arizona. Ideally, Huachuca will have something to offer MilGov during the inevitable reconciliation talks. Perhaps even more significantly, around the time that an American Special Operations team is recovering a downed weather satellite in southern Baja California, Constitutionalist forces in California initiate operations to secure the entirety of the Baja. The Second Mexican Civil War offers the Americans the opportunity to pit Mexican factions against each other and possibly replace the existing Mexican government with one that will be much friendlier to the US. Unfortunately, Colorado Springs is not in a position to take advantage of this opportunity. Fort Huachuca is. The provision of small arms and ammunition on any scale will be welcome and (hopefully) remembered by the Constitutionalist government of Mexico.

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