An underwater firearm is a firearm specially designed for use underwater by frogmen. Underwater firearms were first conceived during the Cold War during the 1960s and 1970s as a way to arm frogmen, and remain in arms inventories today.
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A common feature of all underwater firearms is that they fire steel darts instead of standard bullets, because standard bullets do not work well underwater. Their barrels are not rifled; the fired projectile is kept in line underwater by hydrodynamic effects, and is somewhat inaccurate when fired out of water.
One of the continuing design challenges of underwater firearms has been the need for a weapon useful both in the water and in air, although the ASM-DT Underwater Assault Rifle seems to have solved this problem by allowing it to fire both ordinary ammunition for above water use and steel darts for underwater use.
The underwater rifles are more powerful than the underwater pistols, but the underwater pistols can be swung more easily underwater.
A variant of the Gyrojet called the Lancejet was considered for use by the United States military, but the inaccuracy of the weapon eventually removed it from consideration.[1]