The Atchisson Assault Shotgun, also known as, Auto Assault-12 (AA-12) was a firearm first developed in 1972 by Maxwell Atchisson. It served as the basis of several later weapons, including the USAS-12 combat shotgun. The weapon could fire in semi automatic or fully automatic modes.
|
Table of Contents
|
MPS version
In 1987, Max Atchisson sold the rights of AA-12 to Jerry Baber of Military Police Systems, Inc. The company in turn developed the successor simply known as Auto Assault-12, which was redesigned over a period of 18 years with 188 changes and improvements to the original blueprint. MPS also teamed up with Action Manufacturing Company, and Special Cartridge Company to combine the gun with FRAG-12 High-Explosive ammunition into a weapon system. In 2004, 10 firing models of the AA-12 were produced and demonstrated to the United States Marine Corps.
Changes
The weapon was shortened to 966mm but retained same barrel length as the original, and lightened to 4.76kg. The CQB model has 13-inch barrel length, and is half a pound lighter than the regular model. It uses 8-round box, 20-round drum, or 32-round drum magazines, as opposed to the original 5-round box magazine. It is designed to fire three different types of 3" 12 gauge shells: Buckshot, slug, or Frag-12 rounds. MPS has claimed that the weapon requires zero cleaning or lubrication.
Media Coverage
The MPS version was featured on the March 19, 2007 episode of ''[[Future Weapons]]''.
See also
External links
- Future Weapons video
- Modern Firearms Atchisson AA-12 page
- Defense Review MPS AA-12 review
- THE AUTO ASSAULT-12: A Killer Shotgun for the War on Terror
- Action Manufacturing Company press release
Pages with the same tags
| Page | Tags |
|---|---|
| Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon | artillery weapons |
| General purpose machine gun | weapons |
| M110 Semi-Automatic Sniper System | weapons |
| XM307 Advanced Crew Served Weapon | weapons |
| TDI Vector | weapons |
| Barrett REC7 | weapons |
| Advanced Tactical Laser | weapons |
| Torpedo | weapons |
| Longbow | weapons |
| Crossbow | weapons |
