Kulikowski SPARC

The SPARC machine carbine was designed by Lt. Wikter A. Kulikowski, one of the many Polish engineers who lent their talents to RSAF Enfield during World War II. Lt. Kulikowski in particular was responsible for the design of the Sten Mk.IIS silencer which was used by the SOE. In 1942 he proposed a new weapon to the Ordnance Board which he called the SPARC. The gun was reportedly a suppressed weapon using components from the Mk.II and Mk.IIS Sten guns, and likely used the same silencer. It also apparently employed a "forward barrel recoil system", which may possibly have been some kind of countermeasure to the rearward travel of the bolt, although the details are unspecified. One prototype was made but it was never actually submitted for testing on account of the last-minute discovery of several design flaws. Maj. Frank Hobart speculated that the SPARC may have been further developed during the MCEM programme of 1944 - 1946, although the records are now lost.