Is there a section of the armed forces that engineers new firearms (or an entirely seperate branch of the government)? Or are all guns created and maufactured by private businesses? Either way, what kind of engineering is involved? Mechanical?
Traditionally, the US Government has utilized the resources of development laboratories located at several Department of Defense installations such as Picatinny Arsenal in New York, Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois and Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center in Indiana to specify or develop new firearms and accessories. Modern firearms development has trended towards acquisition of firearms from privately owned companies under competitive contracts, such as the OICW and Joint Combat Pistol.
A degree in Mechanical Engineering is a good start towards a firearms engineering career. A good understanding of materials, robust mechanism design and manufacturing processes are areas to focus in, as well. Reverse engineering of existing firearms, to the point of understanding functionality and timing, as well as the modes of failure is also a good place to start.
Hi, over here we tend to wait until someone else has spent all the money developing a good peice of kit and the try to justifie a Trials and development team and an Implementation team (Jobs for the boys) and then go out and by the cheapest version that is impossible to support in the field and dosn't really do what it was intended for in the first place. It's not by accident that most "Special Forces" have something completly differnt from the rest!!!!
