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300px-HKUMP45

The Heckler & Koch UMP45 with a vertical foregrip.

The UMP is a submachine gun developed by Heckler & Koch.  The UMP has been adopted by various agencies such as the US Customs and Border Protection.  HK developed the UMP as a successor to the MP5, though both remain in production.


Design details[]

Seal

A Royal Thai Navy SEAL with the UMP9 during a boarding execise.

The UMP is a blowback operated, magazine-fed submachine gun firing from a closed bolt.  As originally designed, the UMP is chambered for larger cartridges than other submachine guns like the MP5, to provide more stopping power against unarmored targets than the 9x19mm MP5 provides.  A larger cartridge produces more recoil and makes control more difficult in fully automatic firing.  To mitigate this, the cyclic rate of fire was reduced to 650 rpm (600 rpm for the UMP45), which makes it one of the slower firing submachine guns on the market.

The UMP9 (the 9x19mm version of the UMP) is almost 0.2 kg lighter than its MP5 counterpart.  Its predominately polymer construction reduces both its weight and the number of parts susceptible to corrosion.

The UMP is available in four trigger group configuration, featuring different combinations of semi-automatic, 2-round burst, fully automatic, and safe settings.  It features a side-folding buttstock to reduce its length during transport.  When the last round of the UMP is fired, the bolt locks open, and can be released via a catch on the left side.  The standard viewing sights are composed of an aperture rear sight and a front ring with vertical post.  It can mount four Picatinny rail for attachment of accessoriesa such as optical sights, flashlights, or laser sights.  Vertical fore-grips can be attached to the bottom rail for increased control during burst and automatic firing.

Variants[]

There are three versions of the UMP: the UMP45, firing a .45 ACP cartridge; the UMP40, firing a .40 S&W cartridge; and the UMP9, firing a 9x19mm Parabellum cartridge.  Apart from the different chambering, all versions feature the same basic design, the most noticeable difference being the curved magazine used on the UMP9 (whereas the UMP40 and UMP45 use a straight magazine).  All three versions of the weapon can be converted to carry any of the available chamberings via replacement of the bolt, barrel, and magazine.

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