 At an Auto-Ordnance board meeting in 1919 to discuss the marketing of the "Annihilator", with the war now over, the weapon was officially renamed the "Thompson Submachine Gun".While other weapons had been developed shortly prior with similar objectives in mind, the Thompson was the first weapon to be labeled and marketed as a "submachine gun".Thompson intended for the weapon to provide a high volume of automatic, man-portable fire for usage in trench warfare, a role for which the Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) had been proven ill-suited.