The AAI CAWS (Close Assault Weapon System) is a prototype
automatic shotgun
An automatic shotgun is an automatic firearm that fires shotgun shells (thereby making it a shotgun) and uses some of the energy of each shot to automatically cycle the action and load a new round. It will fire repeatedly until the trigger is rel ...
—designed as a
combat shotgun— produced by the
AAI Corporation during the 1980s. It was AAI's entry into the U.S military's
Close Assault Weapon System program.
It is a 12-round,
12-gauge shotgun with two firing modes: semi-auto and full-auto.
Development
In 1982, the United States was seeking entrants for their Close Assault Weapon System program. Grown out of previous combat shotgun programs, this program had inherited the specification from the RHINO program that had preceded it. These specifications required a magazine capacity of 10 rounds, a requirement for the new ammunition to be incompatible with commercial 12ga shotguns, that felt recoil be no greater than a
Remington 870P firing M162 or M257 buckshot cartridges and that the system provide penetration and incapacitation capability significantly better than M162 and M257.
In response to this, AAI developed their entrant, the AAI CAWS - a
select fire
Select or SELECT may refer to:
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* Select (album), ''Select'' (album), a 1982 album by Kim Wilde
* Select (magazine), ''Select'' (magazine), a 1990–2001 British music magazine
* ''MTV Select'', a 1996–2001 interac ...
, recoil operated, magazine fed shotgun. Using the standard M-16 stock and pistol grip, recoil operation and with an inline design, felt recoil was supposedly less than an M16. A shorter version, without stock, was also developed for
Airborne forces
Airborne forces are ground combat units carried by aircraft and airdropped into battle zones, typically by parachute drop. Parachute-qualified infantry and support personnel serving in airborne units are also known as paratroopers.
The main ...
. A day/night
Reflex sight
A reflector sight or reflex sight is an optical sight that allows the user to look through a partially reflecting glass element and see an aiming point or some image (helping to aim the device, to which the sight is attached, on the target) sup ...
was offered as standard.
[Hogg, Ian V. Jane's Infantry Weapons 1993-1994. Jane's Information Group. 1993]
To meet the requirements to both provide ammunition that could not be fired by commercial shotguns, but also for the weapon to fire commercial ammunition, AAI developed a special cartridge larger than 12-ga and then provided a chamber adapter for the weapon to fire regular 12ga. The standard antipersonnel cartridge developed by AAI was loaded with eight drag stabilized
flechette
A flechette or flèchette ( ) is a pointed, fin-stabilized steel projectile. The name comes from French (from \''wikt:flèche, flèche''), meaning "little arrow" or "Dart (missile), dart", and sometimes retains the grave accent in English: flè ...
s. All eight flechettes were able to hit a circle at . The flechettes at that range had a velocity of and were capable of penetrating of pine or of mild steel.
Although tested by the
U.S. military, the CAWS was canceled, and production, both military and civilian, has halted.
See also
*
SCMITR
SCMITR was part of an experimental military shotgun ammunition created in the 1970s by AAI Corporation. It was a variation on flechette ammunition, but instead of containing a bundle of tiny needle-like steel darts, the cartridge contained a sta ...
- another product of the CAWS program from AAI
*
HK CAWS - another product of the CAWS program from Heckler & Koch
*
List of shotguns
Shotguns have traditionally fired iron, Rock (geology), stone or lead shot stored in large shells that are normally loaded.
See also
*Semi-automatic shotgun, Assault shotgun
*Automatic shotgun
*Combat shotgun
*List of bullpup firearms
*List ...
*
List of individual weapons of the U.S. Armed Forces
References
Flechette firearms
Automatic shotguns
Shotguns of the United States
Trial and research firearms of the United States
{{Shotgun-stub