Rofsten
- Category
- Submachine Gun
- Barrel
- Not recorded
- Weight, empty
- Not recorded
- Introduced
- 1944
About
What it is, and why it matters
The Rofsten was a British prototype submachine gun developed in 1944 at the Royal Ordnance Factory Fazakerley in Liverpool. A refined derivative of the Sten, it was a 9x19mm blowback, open-bolt weapon feeding from the standard 32-round Sten magazine, but built from well-finished machined steel rather than crude stampings. Its bolt rode on twin guide rods and was cocked by a retracting ring at the rear end cap, and a three-position selector on the left of the lower receiver offered safe, semi-automatic and full-automatic fire. Only a single prototype was made before the project was cancelled.
Built at ROF Fazakerley in 1944 as a post-war replacement for the wartime Sten, the Rofsten was everything the Sten was not: precisely machined and ergonomically refined. Ironically, its polished engineering pushed the cyclic rate to around 900 rounds per minute, causing reliability issues, and the single prototype was shelved before it ever reached service.
The name is a contraction of 'ROF' (Royal Ordnance Factory) and 'Sten'. Despite its superior manufacturing quality, the prototype reportedly suffered reliability problems attributed to its very high cyclic rate. Most dimensional specifications (weight, overall length, barrel length) are undocumented for the surviving one-off prototype.
Specification
Everything measured
IdentityWhat it is, who built it and when.
- Manufacturer
- Royal Ordnance Factory Fazakerley
- Category
- Submachine Gun
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Status
- Prototype
- Produced
- 1944 to 1944
ActionHow it cycles, what trips it, and what feeds it.
- Action
- Blowback
- Firing mechanism
- Open bolt
- Trigger
- Single stage
- Capacity
- 32
- Magazine
- Detachable box
MaterialsEach swatch is the material itself, not a colour chosen to stand for it.
- Frame
- Steel
- Barrel
- Steel
- Finish
- Blued
BallisticsFrom the service cartridge, not a handload.
- Rate of fire
- 900 rpm
Trajectory
What the round does downrange
Solved from the muzzle figures and the bullet. The dashed rule is the effective range on the record, and the crosses are the steps the solver returned.
No load solved for this record yetThe flight path is computed from a cartridge and a bullet. This record has no ammunition filed against its chambering, so there is nothing to solve.
Features
What it has
What the record lists as fitted, drawn from the catalogue.
Machined steel receiver
Twin guide rod bolt
Retracting ring cocking
Three position fire selector
Ergonomic pistol grip
Conical flash hider
No5 bayonet catch
Standard sten magazine
Standing
How it compares
This record has too few measurements to compare with others yet.
Answers
Questions about the Rofsten
What caliber is the Rofsten?
The Rofsten is chambered in 9x19mm Parabellum.
How many rounds does the Rofsten hold?
The Rofsten holds 32 rounds, fed from a detachable box magazine.
Who makes the Rofsten?
The Rofsten is made by Royal Ordnance Factory Fazakerley (United Kingdom).
When was the Rofsten introduced?
The Rofsten was introduced in 1944 and discontinued in 1944.
How does the Rofsten operate?
The Rofsten uses a blowback action, and its firing mechanism is open bolt.
Compatibility
Which parts fit this firearm
Studio
Every part that mounts on this, resolved
Not a list the maker typed out: the answer comes from the mounts this firearm exposes and the interface each part needs, so it stays right when either one changes.
- Every part that mounts on any firearm in the catalogue
- Interface standards, platforms and fit overrides
- The same answers through the API and the MCP server
Requires a signed-in GunSpec account on the Studio plan. The answer is computed per part, so it is not part of the public record.
Provenance
What the record holds
Every figure above was taken from one of these pages. The confidence reflects how much of the record came from a page a claim can be checked against.
Provenance
Confidence in this record
62%
Stockists
Where to buy
Offers link straight to the shop. GunSpec never takes the order.
No shop has listed this firearm yet
Stock and prices come from the shops themselves. If you sell this firearm, you can list it and it appears here.
List a firearmMCP
Ask an assistant about it
The same record, reached the way a person asks for it rather than the way a program does.
Ask GunSpec
Works with
Point an MCP client at GunSpec and it answers from the catalogue rather than from memory. A free key covers the read tools.
API
The call that returns this record
The same fields, in the same units, from the same endpoint the page reads.
curl --request GET \ --url 'https://api.gunspec.io/v1/firearms/rofsten' \ --header 'X-API-Key: your_key'{ "id": "rofsten", "name": "Rofsten", "manufacturer": { "id": "rof-fazakerley", "name": "Royal Ordnance Factory Fazakerley", "countryCode": "GB", "foundedYear": 1940, "website": null, "logoUrl": null, "description": null, "status": null, "defunctYear": null, "stateOwned": null, "makesFirearms": null, "parentId": null, "predecessorId": null, "createdAt": "2026-09-07 00:54:24", "updatedAt": "2026-09-07 00:54:24", "version": "30c7d6539773799136788fc3a3f83b07d38dfb665c983ea0e2fd9dd4af31aab2" }, "category": { "id": "submachine-gun", "name": "Submachine Gun", "description": "Automatic firearms chambered in pistol calibers" }, "country_of_origin": "GB", "year_introduced": 1944, "barrel_length_mm": null, "weight_empty_g": null, "action_type": "blowback"}