At the MSPO 2008 Fair in Kielce, the Weapon Factory ŁUCZNIK has presented as a product innovation a new version of military gun - RAD 08. It came into existence in response to technical and tactical brief foredesign connected with an introduction of a new military gun supplied with ammunition rounds of 9x19 mm Para. The design has a body made of aluminium, Picatinny universal assembly rail (Mil-Std 1913), and magazine for 15 rounds (optionally for 18 rounds). This new weapon has to constitute a supplementary range of products manufactured by the Weapon Factory ŁUCZNIK, which currently offers on the market, among others, the Walter P-99 gun often being purchased by Polish Police and the Border Guards.
The gun`s body modified to satisfy the needs of military users features new ways of external surface finishing. This finishing prevents the gun from gliding in sweaty hand over the gripping surface thanks to adequately selected texture. This makes it easier to reload the gun, especially when using it with gloves.
The gun`s hilt has been shaped so that the fingers of hand can freely enter into shaped grooving made in the frontal part of the hilt. However in the rear part, to improve the ergonomics, a replaceable linings were used. These can have one of tree sizes: small, medium and large. These linings are made of vibration absorbing material thanks to this the gun kick is considerably less perceptible by the shooter. The linings are mounted with the use of expanding stud positioned in the bottom part of the gun hilt. This stud is also used do fasten the strap which prevents from losing the gun.
New shaping of trigger guard facilitates operating the trigger with gloves and allows much better gripping the weapon while firing with both hands. In the frontal part of the body the universal assembly rail has been located. This rail has dimensions which conform to the Mil-Std 1913 standard (i.e. Picatinny rail). This rail allows to use of wide range of aiming and optoelectronic devices, tactical lighting, etc.
The body design is accommodated to comfortable gun operation by both right hand and left hand shooters.
New, extended magazine latch integrated in trigger guard allows to operate trigger with the index finger. As a result, the time needed to replace the magazine has been favourably shorten and additional advantage of this solution is that the replacement of magazine does not require to move the gun from the aligned aiming line.
The magazine latch comfortably integrated into the trigger guard thanks to its shape and location is secured against unintentional pressing (there is no accidental grip) and because of that it is practically impossible to lost the magazine due to unintentional unfastening.
The lever stopping the gun breech mechanism after the last shot has been lengthened and placed symmetrically on both sides of the gun what significantly speed up the process of gun introduction into fight after magazine replacement by both right hand and left hand persons.
On the gun breech an aiming devices made of steel alloy have been mounted. These devices are equipped with tritium light sources having diverse or uniform colours (e.g. sight in orange colour and muzzle sight in green colour), what allows shooting at night and in limited visibility.
15 rounds magazine is covered with coating having a low friction coefficient what speeds up its replacement.
The gun has the following safety locks and indicators:
- trigger lock,
- automatic lock,
- inertial lock,
- striker tension indicator, and
- "round in barrel" indicator.
The weapon may be equipped with different practical variants of trigger mechanisms, i.e. single action mechanism, double action mechanism or combination of them. Irrespective of the trigger mechanism applied the gun can be safely carried with the round placed in the cartridge chamber, because the internal safety lock system makes it impossible to release striker tight without intentional pressing on the trigger.
