The weapon weighed less than four pounds and was only an inch wide. The new semi-automatic gun - known as the IMP-221, meaning Individual Multi-Purpose and. Air Force photoĬolt took this basic concept and ran with it. Left-artist conception of Colt’s original proposal. 17 survival rifle and a 5.56-millimeter rifle/submachine gun,” stated the technical overview. 221 cartridge was chosen for the demonstrator because it produced a weapon midway between the weapons of ultimate interest, a caliber. And the Air Force focused on a new bullet-the. “All of these except the wire skeleton exceeded either weight, volume, or dimensional restrictions.”Ī stubby M-16 wouldn’t work, so technicians continued to experiment with various pistols and modified rifles. “Folding, telescoping, detachable, and wire skeleton stocks were considered,” the report stated. As a result, the flying branch’s own weaponeers decided that getting rid of the stock was the only real solution. The company trimmed down the standard battle rifle’s barrel, stock and even the pistol grip to create the Model 608.īut to meet the Air Force’s space constraints, bomber crews would have had to break the gun in half-making it unusable. Colt photoīefore coming up with its stock-less survival weapon, Colt toyed around with a tiny M-16 for pilots. Crews needed to be able to grab the guns quickly in an emergency, too.Ĭolt’s Model 608 survival rifle. The gun couldn’t be any longer than 13 inches, or more than one inch wide.įor a highly practical reason-the weapon needed to fit inside the cramped confines of a cockpit. More than lethal, the Air Force wanted its next survival weapon to be extremely compact.
“Capable of killing a man at 100 yards,” was SAC’s first demand for the new firearm, the technical study noted. While functional, the guns were only good for killing snakes or hunting small game. 22-caliber bullets and small shotgun shells. At the time, the flying branch still used World War II-era survival rifles. Two years before, the Air Force’s Strategic Air Command had outlined a number of basic requirements for this new weapon. “The only practical solution was the man’s arm.” “Consideration was … given to what an aircrewman might have with him when he bailed out or what he might find on the ground which could serve as a stock,” stated an official Air Force report. Since the unusual-looking rifle had no butt stock, shooters would have had to brace the so-called Individual Multi-Purpose Weapon against their bicep. Air Force a unique lightweight gun, primarily for bomber crews. In 1969, engineers at Colt offered the U.S.
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