posted on Feb, 11 2007 @ 12:15 AM
Retseh,
Though I don't like guns without better foregrip ergonomics than this one displays, the basic concept is not all that bad, you just have to apply a
little imaginative interpretation and assume that the milky-grey lower unit is the builtin laser/FLIR optics mechanism of the XM-25 and the upper
tribarrels are based on Metal Storm technology with a long central barrel firing 50-60 APERS rounds. The one on the right being dedicated to a
20-25mm grenade launcher (also ala OICW) with 5-10 rounds. And the one on the left being the equivalent 'utility/LTL' system so that you can take
someone prisoner, fire across a crowd or loft a flare, TV camera, or doorkicker round.
Obviously, this is not quite as the Russians actually intended things (given the bullpup configuration and banana clip) but the potential is there,
provided you were willing to carry the weight of magazines as three separate barrel systems around.
Of course you would probably want a new cheekplate, collapsing stock and trigger grip configuration (supposing you load the tubes from the back) plus
some kind of rear mounted sight rail for combat optics instead of the stalky peepers shown. But if you look at it as being fired like a Thompson SMG
rather than an M16, this is not altogether too hard to envision (very short weapon compensates for a lot of forward weight, an optional bipod being
available for prone use).
Indeed, given SPIW was a 1960s program effort undertaken solely to keep the US Army Ordnance old fellers empowered after McNamara stole their Command
from them, it stands to reason that the Russian gun would look comparably primitive.
KPl.