TP-68 Pistol
| Tjenestepistol 1968 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Semi-automatic pistol |
| Place of origin |  Lyngaard |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1968-Present |
| Used by | Lyngaard |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Mejner Saxe af Plønborg |
| Designed | 1956-1965 |
| Manufacturer | Bechsgaard & Olufsen Industri Syndikat .IKmbA |
| Produced | 1965-Present |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 1.12 kg |
| Length | 216 mm |
| Barrel length | 122 mm |
| Cartridge | 9x19mm MagSec |
| Action | Short Recoil |
| Feed system | 13-round detachable box magazine |
| Sights | Ghost ring iron sights |
The TP-68 is a Semi-Automatic Handgun designed by hr Mejner Saxe af Plønborg and manufactured by Bechsgaard & Olufsen Industri Syndikat .IKmbA (BOIS IKmbA) in Rådyrborg, Lyngaard.
It is an all-steel frame pistol chambered in 9x19mm MagSec. Designed between 1956 and 1965, it entered into Lyngaardian service after competing in the Future Service Pistol Program (Fremtidige Tjenestepistolprogram) between 1965 and 1967. The pistol has served on foreign deployments global with the Lyngardian Royal Armed Forces. Specifically in Operation Håb og Ret, part of the wider Peace Kepping Inititives during the Third Asemese Civil War.
History
The Pistol was the creation of hr Mejner Saxe af Plønborg, a Banker who took part in hunting and sport shooting compitions. In 1956 he was competing in a target shooting match hosted by Hertug Jullius af Breddal where he would borrow a Akker LS Revolver. The Akker was unique because it obtained better accuracy by lowing the the bore axis (hight of barrel over hand) by firing from the lowermost chamber in the cylinder. Inspired by this he would attempt to bring this same concept to automatic handguns, taking inspiration from Langston Horn's Model 10 Pistol and his earlier Model 7 Pistol.
Plønborg would make several mock ups in his spare time, eventually partnering with Bechsgaard & Olufsen Industri Syndikat in 1962 after meeting with the companies CFO Markus Molzen at a dinner party. The company would establish a design team to build upon Plønborg's initial prototypes. In 1964 the Royal Army announced its intentions to hold the Future Service Pistol Probram in order to replace the aging Tjenesterevolver. BOIS would complete their first limited run of pistols using Plønborg's pattened Spring Chamber mechanism. Plønborg himself was offered the possition of Corporate Reprasentative by BOIS in 1965 and headed the team that would present the pistol to the program directors on the Royal Board of Military Affiars.
The Board was headed by Greve Cristoffer Mikel Andreas who was part of the same graduating class as Plønborg at the Sankt Ulfa School. The prototypical model, the EkKP-2 would be selected for the final rounds of testing, after a year on incramental updating during tsting the pistol was formally adopted as the Tjenestepistol TP-68, with the army filing an initial 2,500 unit order for that fiscal year.