Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'Epreuve des Armes à Feu Portatives

The Permanent International Commission for the Testing of Small Arms , or CIP for short (French: Commission internationale permanente pour l'épreuve des armes à feu portatives ), is an international standardization and testing commission for small arms and ammunition . The task of this commission is to standardize and monitor the official firearms system for hunting, firearms and defense weapons within the accession states. Details on this are regulated in the Convention on the Mutual Recognition of Proof Marks for Small Arms.

Scope, organization and delimitation

The technical scope of the CIP includes "hunting, firearms and defense weapons" with the exception of weapons intended for land, sea and air warfare. This includes specifications, testing and standardization of the member states' firing systems. In addition, the CIP operates its own test centers. The member states are free to use the standards of the commission for military applications.
The spatial scope of the CIP includes the member countries, the European Union , and acts beyond that.
The CIP was accredited by the government of the Kingdom of Belgium (see Article IX of the Convention.) One of the prerequisites is that a member state operates a state firing office.

The European Parliament relies on the CIP for decisions on the control of the acquisition and possession of weapons .

In the American region (with the exception of Chile), the standards of the SAAMI ( Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute ) predominantly apply .

structure

I. Subcommittee scope: Standardization and definition of the technical test regulations, definition of the dimensions for cartridges and barrels as well as publication of the TDCC dimension sheets for cartridges.

II. Sub-commission Responsibilities: Creation of guidelines for the regulations of the fire and cartridge testing in the fire control offices

III. Subcommittee Determination of the regulations for the bullet and cartridge testing for firing offices, on the basis of the specifications of the I. and II. Subcommissions

IV. Subcommittee on Legal Affairs, Organization of Internal Affairs of the CIP and Cooperation with Other International Organizations.

V. Sub-commission Creation of guidelines for quality control according to ISO 900 x. Organization of round robin tests

Marks and proof marks

The specific CIP symbols signal e.g. B. the buyer of ammunition that the cartridges it contains meet the specifications of the CIP. The symbol is uniform and only the additional symbols of the national fire protection offices / test centers are different for each country. In the past, different CIP symbols were used in the member states - in Germany it was shown as a cartridge, with the federal eagle on the bullet shown and the mark of the respective fire department on the case shown.

Mark of the Czech test facility and CIP mark for ammunition control (2016)
obsolete, Czech CIP mark
outdated but still valid German CIP mark (Beschussamt Suhl)
outdated Italian CIP mark

Within the framework of the gunfire system, each member state nowadays uses identical symbols for the ballistic test and its own symbols for the respective national test centers.