War and Military Atlas

How Battles Were Fought
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Weapons Systems

Heckler & Koch VP70

Contemporary

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

The Heckler and Koch VP70 is a 9x19mm, eighteen-round, double-action-only polymer-framed pistol designed by Alex Seidel and introduced in 1970. Its name stands for Volkspistole, or people's pistol, reflecting its original purpose of mass-producing sidearms for civilian resistance in the event of a Soviet invasion of West Germany. It was the first handgun with a polymer frame, predating the Glock 17 by twelve years, and its military version could accept a detachable shoulder stock that doubled as a holster and enabled three-round-burst fire. Production ran from 1970 to 1989.

Sources
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.