FNA (Fabbrica Nazionale d’Armi) Brescia was a factory in the Val Trompia in northern Italy, the same valley that is home to Beretta and many other, smaller Italian arms shops. During World War Two the factory mad a lot of small arms for the Italian military, including some interested designs like the FNA-B 43. After the war times were hard for the company, though, and the X4 and X5 are pretty much their last project, from the 1950s. This was a very simple, inexpensive stamped submachine gun / machine pistol system. There was nothing particularly wrong or bad about the guns, but also nothing particular exceptional about them. Shopping some samples around the market led to no contracts, and they never went into full production.
Thanks to Beretta for giving me access to this example from there reference museum to show to film for you!
Full video on the FNA-B 43:
The reason for the “oversized” magazine housings on both and the extended trigger guard on the X5 are actually fairly obvious.
With the slender barrel cooling jackets, the barrels could not be used as a foregrip without a heavy glove. As such, the magazine housing was the only place for the shooter’s off hand.
Most SMGs with vertical magazines used as foregrips are prone to jams when the shooter’s off hand pulls the magazine backward inadvertently. The Argentine Halcon SMGs solved this problem by extending the magazine housing downward to form a rigid foregrip. (On some of them it looked like a 1911 grip in fact.
These weapons have enlarged magazine housings that form a sturdy grip and keep the off hand entirely off the magazine itself.in addition, on the X-5 the shooter can hook the thumb of the off hand through the long trigger guard to prevent the hand slipping downward.
In short, these guns were designed to be controllable in full-automatic fire. Something a lot of second-generation SMGs aren’t well designed for.
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