An online Italian firearms news website Gunsweek.com has published an article on a digital design concept put out by Italian firm Tecnostudio Engineering that consists of an interesting “Bullpup” submachine gun/PDW. The design incorporates a 15 (appears to be single stacked) or 25 round (appears to be double stacked) magazine that clips to the top of the design very similar to an FN Herstal P90 (known respectively as SMG-15, SMG-25), with rounds facing at a horizontal in relation to the muzzle direction. It also has an electronic round counter within the pistol grip. Some versions have a folding stock that appears to fold underneath the design, while others don’t. The charging handle is located at the rear of the receiver, similar to an MP7. The SMG-15 is intended for civilian purchase, without the stock, and is semi-automatic. The SMG-25 is intended for LE evaluation, with select fire features, and a wire stock. The purpose of this design looks to be in some sort of CCW/PDW capacity for LE agencies or civilian security companies.

It looks to be lacking a Picatinny rail at the 12 o’clock position, something that many submachine gun designs are seeing more and more of today due to the requirement for optical or magnified optics by numerous LE/Military/Private Security entities.

This is from the description from the company as shared within the article-

This is a 9×19 (use law enforcement) single shot or burst gun, and 9×21 single shot hit (civilian use). The weapon in question has the dimensions of a traditional Full Size gun, so very small. The Charger contains 25 shots 9×19 in the military version and 15 shots 9×21 in the civil configuration and is placed in line with the gun axis. Really innovative for the application in a gun, the barrel, is 7.5 inches long and the closure is suppressing gas for a reduced recoil. Having moved the charger from the canonical position, inside the handle is contained the electronics to control the remaining shots (not the ones shot) after the various firing actions in the charger whose data can be read on two side displays . In essence, this is the first Bullpup gun in the world.

We reported on this companies concept designs earlier, one without a trigger of all design plans. Although both are potential, I believe it is time for this Italian company to move past the AutoCAD stage and into actual metal and polymer for us to take any more of these designs seriously. After, anyone can come up with a potential design on paper or digitally, but if it can actually function outside of a theory is where the rubber meets the road.