It looks like the most popular plan by far is the creation of a machinegun, with three supporting votes.
You set to work on the drawing board right away. This will be a large undertaking, requiring the entirely new design of a belt-fed, gas-operated loading system. After a several weeks, the first prototype is manufactured and ready for testing.
AS-1910 Machine Gun: Arstotzka's first belt-fed machinegun, firing the same 7.62mm rifle rounds already produced for the Nosin-Magant. The belt-feed mechanism is robust, making it heavy but very reliable. Each round has good stopping power. The machinegun is operated with two handles due to its recoil, making it incapable of aim as precise as a rifle, but when the barrel is cool, bullets generally fly straight. It is air-cooled, and the barrel tends to overheat somewhat quickly. Your engineers have compensated for this by giving each crew two detachable barrels- when one overheats, it can be removed and thrown in the snow. It is heavy- it must be in place on a tripod or other mount to fire, and requires three men to move. It also requires three men to operate continuously. Due to the complexity of the feed mechanism, it is Expensive.
I made a couple d6 die rolls: You got a 6 for the mechanism, and a 4 for cooling and ease of use of the gun.
You have gained the following technologies: Belt-fed loading [Expensive], Changeable Barrels
Overall this is a great achievement for your engineers, and stands to change the face of battle as we know it. Because it is expensive, each officer must choose between a Nosin-Magant rifle and an AS-1910 MG crew in his squad. The majority of your troops are still using the lousy AS-1891.
It is now the Revision Phase. You may choose one improvement to make to an existing design.