History of the P90
The P90 has seen way more action in movies, TV, and video games than it has on actual battlefields. Its prevalence in pop culture in the late nineties and modern video games has made it a generational favorite. It holds a close place in my heart—a staple in the show Stargate. As a futuristic-looking gun, it was the perfect weapon for fighting aliens.
The P90 Design
Produced by the Belgian company FN Herstal in 1990, this compact bullpup was developed in response to a request from NATO to replace their standard 9mm cartridge and guns. The popular German submachine MP5—developed in the 1960s—was becoming obsolete because of innovations in Kevlar body armor. FN created the P90—considered to be both a submachine gun and personal defense weapon—as its replacement.
They produced a gun with several features that the industry hadn’t seen before. But the P90’s new design wasn’t just for looks. It was based on functionality and ergonomic research. It took four years of development by FN and Stephane Ferrand to complete the design, and what resulted was unconventional and unprecedented.
The P90 is fully ambidextrous and has rounded edges to prevent snags on clothing and equipment. Spent cartridges eject down through the bottom of the gun, and the bullpup design—with the action and magazine behind the trigger—maximizes the use of the stock. Two of the most unusual features are the thumbhole in the frame and the oversized trigger guard. These function as a pistol grip and a foregrip, respectively.
Another innovative feature of the P90 is its patent protected spiral fed magazine design invented by Rene Predazzer. It is top loaded and sits flush to the frame. This concept alone is new but the magazine design itself is genius. The rounds sit in the magazine perpendicular to the gun, and as they are dispensed into the chamber, they rotate parallel and into position. This allows for optimal capacity, enabling the operator to carry fifty rounds in each magazine.
Alongside the P90, FN developed the 5.7x28mm caliber and the Five-SeveN pistol. Because NATO’s request included a light and compact shoulder-fire, accompanying pistol, and a cartridge that could penetrate body armor with better accuracy and range, FN developed these three products in tandem.
Both the P90 and the 5.7 cartridge are lightweight—a P90 with a fully loaded 50-round magazine weighs just over six and a half pounds. The 5.7 caliber produces around thirty percent less recoil and travels at a faster rate than a 9x19 round. The cartridge is also half the weight of 9mm. Thus, these lightweight, slim rounds combined with the innovative magazine design allow the user to carry more ammo in a smaller package.
But, in 2002, after testing and evaluation, FN was unable to win the NATO contract despite producing two excellent weapons and being the top performer in ballistics. The Germans, salty their new MP7 couldn’t compete with FN’s technology, vetoed the adoption of the P90 as the new standard NATO personal defense weapon. In the end, NATO failed to standardize both a cartridge and PDW.
FN and NATO envisioned this cartridge and these weapons to be used by “rear-echelon troops” who didn’t require a standard rifle yet still needed a personal defense weapon. But only the Belgian military implemented the P90 for its originally intended purpose. Several police agencies and special operations units, however, began using the P90 for both defensive and “offensive” uses. Most notably, it is used by the United States Secret Service because the compact design allows for concealment of a shoulder-fire rifle under a jacket.
Ten years after the P90, FN created the F2000—a gas-operated bullpup rifle based on the P90 design and chambered in 5.56. Heir to the P90’s title of most futuristic, the FN 2000 has become my new dream gun. And still, in 2020, these two FN rifles are some of the most innovative designs on the market. Their unconventional yet functional designs are derived from FN’s long history of firearm innovation. The P90 was developed less than 100 years after FN’s historic partnership with the most renown gunmaker of all time.
FN History
FN Herstal was founded in 1889 to fulfill the Belgian government’s order of Mauser Model 89 rifles. Right before the turn of the century, a FN sales manager traveled to the United States to learn about bicycle technology—at the time they also produced cars and motorcycles—where he met John Moses Browning. He returned to Belgium not with bicycle technology but with an incredibly important business relationship. Due to royalty disputes with Winchester, Browning decided to form a partnership with FN instead and contracted with the Belgian company. Browning designed guns and sent them to FN to be manufactured. Together, they produced some of the most notable and influential guns in modern firearm history: the Browning A5—the first mass produced semi-auto shotgun—the Browning Automatic Rifle, and the Browning Hi-Power Pistol.
With Browning on their team FN Herstal became known for their superior small arms technology and design. They continued to carry on the tradition even after Browning’s death. In fact, since World War II, most Western militaries have used FN products.
Their partnership with Browning created a company culture of innovation and design excellence without which the P90 probably wouldn’t have been produced. The culture at FN Herstal isn’t just to manufacture firearms but also to invent and push industry boundaries. For them, research and development is key as FN allocates more than five percent of their budget to R&D.
For a company with ties to John Moses Browning—the most prolific gun designer ever—the development of such an innovative and unconventional firearm is unsurprising and even expected. Guns like the P90 and the F2000 can only come from those who are willing, like Browning, to step outside the box. His legacy continues to live on in these futuristic FNs.
Sources
https://fnamerica.com/why-buy-fn/
https://www.fnherstal.com/en/tradition-and-innovation
https://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/158794097209/fn-p90-prototypes-sources-1-2-3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejkHVAgzQ7U
https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/the-untold-fn-story/248546
https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/12/23/fn-the-first-125-years/
https://peashooter85.tumblr.com/post/164730164152/the-fn-p90-introduced-by-the-belgian-company-fn
https://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=84
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_P90
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Herstal
