During 1943 the Finnish authorities began showing a passing interest in an assault rifle/SMG concept like the 7.92 Kurz. They however did not have neither the time or the inclination to start the development of a whole new assault rifle/cartridge concept smack bang in the middle of a world war when they already had limited resources and were trying to keep up with the war demand. Finnish arms designed Amio Lahti saw the potential of a lightweight SMG concept and started his own development based on shortened 6.5×55 SE cases. This private venture, while in the employ of the VKT (Valtion Kivääritehdas = State Rifle Factory), lead to some serious personality clashes with management and he was accused of using company time and resources to further his own agenda. Ultimately his concept rifle, the light machinegun m/AL-43 was not adopted by the military, being rejected by Weapons-HQ of the Finnish Army HQ Commander Major General V. Svanström. Lahti was not however going to give up on his dream, and he started looking for outside funding of his project. The initial AL-43 was developed for the 9×35 Lahti cartridge, but in 1944 Lahti developed the 7.62 x 35 cartridge and some of the existing AL-43’s were converted to the 7.62mm design. The Allied Control Commission and the end of the war effectively ended this project.
Lahti M/AL43(7.62*35mm Lahti)（Should be BR5 Assault rifle）
I think Germany’s BR4 needs a machine gun positioned between the RD44 and the Johnson M1941 LMG.The Lahti AL-43 perfectly fits this role. Since the 9×35mm and 7×25mm rounds are not full-powered, the 56-round drum magazine can also adapt well to the BR4’s environment, Compared to the MG45 and MG42E, it trades damage and RPM for mobility and stability.
This is already a full-fledged intermediate cartridge comparable to the 7.92×33 Kurz or 7.62×39 mm for the AS-44, and in fact this thing will be an assault rifle with 56 rounds, there is already a contender for the ZK-423 machine gun. ZK-423 8mm Kurtz machinegun for Germany
surprisingly, there was a very weak reaction to this proposal, it seemed to me that everyone on the ENG forum wanted the Germans to have an OP weapon like the RD-44 Soviets, but it turned out that complaining about the RD-44 is much more interesting than approving a direct competitor in the assault rifle branch
it has a ribbon ammunition supply, the only reason not to give it a ribbon for 100 rounds is aesthetic, this machine gun without a cartridge box looks like 3 out of 10
I hope both versions will be available.Version that uses 9x35MM bullets to be LMG in BR4（Like a 56 round drums RD44 but only have 85% Sprint factor. Another version uses 7.62x35MM bullets to be Assault rifle in BR5（but still only have 85% Sprint factor）
