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Via Wikipedia, it appears that someone in Belgium is developing a new PDW caliber. I want to like it because variety in ammunition is the spice of life, and because its casings are made from recovered .30 Carbine brass... but this really looks like an answer desperately seeking a problem in the ballistic equivalent of the Craigslist hookups section.
"The VBR-B 7.92x24 mm caliber is a new caliber which must offer an answer on the disadvantages linked to the small diameters of the current PDW calibers 4.6 and 5.7 mm and also must offer an answer on the too heavy recoil of 9x19 the calibre for PDW use." Um, dude? Someone who can't handle the recoil of 9x19mm in a PDW-sized platform isn't going to be able to pass the physical fitness standards for service in any First World military. Not to mention the fact that for almost any application I can think of, the PDW and submachine gun concepts themselves are dying in the face of reliable (okay, okay, less unreliable...) 5.56x45mm compact assault rifles running 8" to 11" barrels.
I also find it interesting that ballistic gelatin tests are posted for the civilian FMJ load but not for the "prototype" hollowpoint bullet that a civilian might actually want to use for defense. I'm hard-pressed to care about ball ammunition's terminal performance in any handgun caliber. Show me how this is an improvement over Federal Hydra-Shok (a little long in the tooth now but still a law enforcement and concealed carry standard because of decade-old FBI testing) or CCI/Speer Gold Dot or Cor-Bon DPX when fired from the 4.25" or 5" barrel of a likely service or carry pistol. Heck, show me how, when launched out of a civilian-legal PDW-type shoulder arm, it beats a pistol-caliber carbine in 9x19mm with an equivalent 16" barrel - or a seventy-year-old M1 carbine chambered for the parent brass.
Hmm... 70 grains at 1,500 fps? Congratulations! You've just invented a slight refinement to the 7.62x25mm Tokarev! Someone call Ceska Zbrojovka and tell them to put the vz.52 back into production!
"The VBR-B 7.92x24 mm caliber is a new caliber which must offer an answer on the disadvantages linked to the small diameters of the current PDW calibers 4.6 and 5.7 mm and also must offer an answer on the too heavy recoil of 9x19 the calibre for PDW use." Um, dude? Someone who can't handle the recoil of 9x19mm in a PDW-sized platform isn't going to be able to pass the physical fitness standards for service in any First World military. Not to mention the fact that for almost any application I can think of, the PDW and submachine gun concepts themselves are dying in the face of reliable (okay, okay, less unreliable...) 5.56x45mm compact assault rifles running 8" to 11" barrels.
I also find it interesting that ballistic gelatin tests are posted for the civilian FMJ load but not for the "prototype" hollowpoint bullet that a civilian might actually want to use for defense. I'm hard-pressed to care about ball ammunition's terminal performance in any handgun caliber. Show me how this is an improvement over Federal Hydra-Shok (a little long in the tooth now but still a law enforcement and concealed carry standard because of decade-old FBI testing) or CCI/Speer Gold Dot or Cor-Bon DPX when fired from the 4.25" or 5" barrel of a likely service or carry pistol. Heck, show me how, when launched out of a civilian-legal PDW-type shoulder arm, it beats a pistol-caliber carbine in 9x19mm with an equivalent 16" barrel - or a seventy-year-old M1 carbine chambered for the parent brass.
Hmm... 70 grains at 1,500 fps? Congratulations! You've just invented a slight refinement to the 7.62x25mm Tokarev! Someone call Ceska Zbrojovka and tell them to put the vz.52 back into production!