This should be understood as weapons created for the needs of special forces, counter-terrorism forces, and intelligence services. Of course, the very fact that a model is in service with “special forces” does not make it a special-purpose weapon. There are special fire and other tasks that are either difficult or completely impossible to accomplish using conventional means.
Based on this, special-purpose weapons include:
1. Concealed weapons. Here, first of all, we can distinguish weapons with a significantly reduced shot sound level, usually called “silent” or “silent and silent weapons.” flameless shooting" Such weapons solve, in principle, standard fire tasks, but at the same time exhibit special properties (silence) that allow them to perform tasks in special conditions. “Silent” weapons are the most widespread and diverse among special-purpose weapons.
“Hidden use” also includes the so-called “indirect fire weapons”, or more precisely, weapons for shooting from behind cover, allowing the shooter to conduct aimed fire while completely in cover. We are not talking about remotely controlled weapons of tanks, armored vehicles or aircraft. We are talking here specifically about “handheld” weapons - the specificity of the task itself allows us to classify such weapons as special-purpose. Curved-barreled weapons are the most specific. It is obvious that when performing, in principle, standard fire missions, the use of such weapons will be hidden for the enemy, because the shooter is out of sight, and it is extremely difficult to detect only the muzzle of the barrel.
2. Special sniper rifles high precision shooting. Unlike army (universal) sniper rifles, they are designed to destroy the enemy at long firing ranges (up to 1500 meters) or at shorter ranges, but guaranteed with the first shot. They are distinguished by precision manufacturing (often individual), the use of specially selected ammunition and powerful optics. As a rule, such rifles require the shooter to be highly skilled and careful in handling, since the requirements for high accuracy and accuracy of fire force them to reduce the trigger force and introduce a number of “thin” additional devices.
3. Large-caliber rifled weapons. Large-caliber long-barreled rifles, which entered service in some armies in the last two decades, still cause differences in their classification. Some sources classify them as sniper weapons, others classify them as special class. It seems more correct to divide such weapons according to the range of fire tasks solved with their help. Mainly this is the destruction of fire and vehicles, military equipment(including lightly armored), infrastructure elements at medium and long firing ranges (600-1600 meters). And only secondarily - sniper tasks to destroy manpower at long ranges. Some short-barreled models of large-caliber weapons that have appeared in recent years (in some places even called “carbines”) are not at all intended for solving sniper tasks and are adapted for close combat with the same task - defeating easily protected material and manpower in personal armor.
4. Armament of combat swimmers. We do not mean here weapons designed for air combat, which are only delivered under water. It's about about weapons for underwater shooting. Due to the nature of the application environment, it requires special approaches to the development of both ammunition and the weapon itself. We have deliberately avoided the general term “underwater weapon” in order to separate special-purpose models from spearguns.
5. Concealed weapons. Otherwise, it is also called “camouflaged,” meaning a weapon that imitates other objects in its external form or is made specifically for installation in such objects. Disguise a blade, spring, firearm or pneumatic throwing device as a harmless-looking and not very remarkable object that looks quite familiar in Everyday life(part of clothing, accessories, hand luggage, instrument, etc.) means gaining the advantage of surprise. “Camouflaged” weapons also include models designed for concealed carry and sudden use, such as folding submachine guns or “machine gun cases.” This also includes some samples of “combined” weapons. The most typical example is a combat knife with a camouflaged shooting device.
6. Portable support equipment - special grenade launchers (rocket-propelled, recoilless, active) and mortars. These are especially lightweight and reduced samples, designed for use by special forces units, “silent” grenade launchers and mortars, as well as anti-sabotage weapons.
7. “Assault” portable weapons, designed to create a high density of fire and achieve high lethality in close combat. It is at the intersection of linear combat weapons and special-purpose weapons.
Next, we will consider individual samples and systems of special-purpose small arms that have found use in the Russian armed forces. Special-purpose weapons are a professional’s tool and are accordingly designed for a certain level of training of the owner. It is extremely diverse in types damaging elements, device and methods of application.
Special-purpose weapons - for example, “silent” ones - can be created on the basis of existing samples of military or civilian and sporting weapons and standard ammunition. Newly created "cartridge weapon" complexes make it possible to most fully coordinate the parameters of a weapon with its tasks. At the same time, it is true that the requirements of unification are not met and the price of weapons increases, but the relatively small volumes of production and the importance of the tasks being solved force them to sacrifice cost.
The term "special purpose" in relation to weapons has become especially popular in recent years. The specifics of a weapon, as is known, depend primarily on the tasks solved with its help. High-precision sniper rifles, silent, camouflaged, “assault” portable weapons, weapons for combat swimmers all these are tools of professionals, initially designed for a special level of user training. Such weapons can be created on the basis of conventional combat or sports weapons, or they can be designed anew. Today there is big variety types and designs of special forces weapons. Let's consider only certain areas, paying more attention to domestic models, many of which are the best in the world.
Forgotten "Brahmits"
Silent weapons the most numerous and widespread type of special-purpose weapons appeared quite a long time ago. Devices that reduce the sound of a shot for both small arms and artillery have been proposed since turn of the 19th century and XX centuries. Then they were of little interest to the military. For example, the British gunsmith Griner claimed that he did not patent the silencer, considering it completely unnecessary. But Hiram Stephens Maxim, the famous inventor of the machine gun, together with his son Hiram Percy, not only patented silencers, but also began their production in 1910. Silencers from Maxim and other designers were sold privately in different countries, including Russia, and the main consumers were... hunters. Nothing surprising. Many types of special-purpose weapons began their journey on the civilian market. Suffice it to remember that in the same period it was possible to freely buy a shooting cane, and shooting pens were included in the catalogs of “civilian” weapons back in the 1930s. The circulation of camouflaged weapons, like silencers, on the civilian market in most countries was prohibited in the middle of the century.
After the First World War, criminal structures and intelligence agencies paid attention to silent weapons; this is how they began to acquire their ominous fame, and experienced a real boom during the Second World War. Much has been written about German, American, and British models of silent weapons of those years, but they rarely remember about domestic revolvers and rifles with BRAMIT devices, used by partisan detachments and special groups of the GRU and NKVD behind Nazi lines. The name of these devices stands for “Mitin Brothers” after the name of the inventors V.G. and I.G. The Mitins, who worked on designs for silent weapons. Designers Gurevich, Korolenko, Markevich and others then worked in the same field. Silent weapons, as a rule, solve ordinary fire tasks, but at the same time their shooting is “secretive”: after all, a reconnaissance and sabotage group, as well as a single sniper, when using a weapon, should not reveal themselves - give away their location with the sound or flash of a shot.
Fighting sound
As is known, sound is the oscillatory movements of particles of the medium, propagating in the form of waves. Its loudness is measured in relative units: decibels (dB). The volume level is equal to twenty logarithms of the ratio of the sound volume to the hearing threshold. (The hearing threshold, the minimum sound pressure perceived by the human ear, is 2x10 -5 Pa). The main source of the sound of a shot is the powder gases leaving the barrel. Their rapid expansion is accompanied by the formation of a muzzle wave and a sharp, loud sound. The sound level of a rifle shot at a distance of 1 m reaches 160 dB, which corresponds to a pressure of 2x10 3 Pa, that is, it exceeds pain threshold 100 times, and the hearing threshold is 10 8 times.
Pressure and sound levels can be reduced by increasing the volume of gases and lowering their temperature before venting into the atmosphere. The easiest way to do this is with a choke tube, the internal volume of which is much greater than the volume of the barrel bore. Car and motorcycle mufflers work on the same principle. Of course, it is not possible to achieve complete sound suppression. A weapon is considered to be “silent” if the sound level of its shot is approximately the same as that of an air gun.
Many designs of expansion type mufflers have been created today. In our country they were given the name “silent and flameless shooting device,” or PBS. The efficiency of such devices is increased in the following way: the internal cavity of the muffler is divided into several chambers by partitions with a hole for the passage of a bullet, the gases are “twisted” by deflecting inserts. The set of baffles inside the muffler is commonly referred to as a separator. To reliably “close” gases, especially those that overtake a bullet, rubber washers with cuts are installed, pierced by a bullet (as in the Soviet PBS-1). True, the washers quickly fail and reduce shooting accuracy. That's why modern mufflers try to do without them. Sometimes the gases are cooled further by passing them, for example, through a roll of wire mesh.
Is it possible not to release powder gases into the atmosphere at all? For example, disperse the bullet and leave them in the barrel, or better yet, in the cartridge case. This, perhaps the oldest, idea in the field of “silencing” a shot seems simple only at first glance. To implement it, you need a special design of both the weapon itself and the cartridge. Gas cut-off was carried out in different countries, but in production samples, developers in the USSR were the first to cope with this task.
TsNIITochmash initially created non-automatic double-barreled SME pistols in combination with the SP-3 and S-4 “Groza” cartridges with PZ and PZA cartridges. Then a pistol complex developed by V.N. Levchenko, Yu.M. Krylov and V.A. Petrov, consisting of self-loading pistol PSS and SP-4 cartridge. Despite the difference in cartridge designs, the principle of operation is the same: the powder gases push the bullet through the piston, while they themselves remain in the cartridge case, locked by the same piston. It is not difficult to understand how difficult it was to implement the self-charging mode of operation. After all, the powder gases remain in the cartridge case even after the shot. This is why automatic ejection from the chamber required special constructive solutions. In J. Fleming's novel Dr. No, the gunsmith says: “I don't like silencers, sir. They are heavy and, when you are in a hurry, they catch on your clothes.” Pistols with powder gas cut-off do not have this drawback. Behind last quarter century, these unique samples have confirmed their effectiveness in a number of special operations.
The combination of two main schemes for combating the sound of a shot is represented by the “Silence” and “Canary” complexes. The first is based on the AKM assault rifle, the second is based on the AKS-74U. The corresponding expansion-type PBS are mounted on their barrels, and under the forend there is a 30-mm silent grenade launcher BS-1 with cut-off of powder gases. The grenade is inserted into the barrel of the grenade launcher from the muzzle and pushed out by a piston driven by a special throwing cartridge. A magazine for 10 such cartridges is placed in the handle of the grenade launcher. The cumulative grenade provides penetration of 15 mm thick steel armor and the necessary armor protection effect.
Silencers not only reduce the sound level of a shot, but also eliminate its flash, as well as the “dust effect” of gases. For a sniper or machine gunner, the flash of a shot, a cloud of smoke or dust is an unmasking factor. The absence of a flash also makes it easier to use a night sight; there is no “flash.” When operating in rooms, tunnels, or on narrow streets, the sounds of shots and bursts make it very difficult to control your voice and interfere with coordinating the actions of the fighters. It is not surprising that there is growing interest in “low-noise shooting devices” (LLDs): they do not reduce the sound level as much as LDS, but are more compact. Of the Russian PMS models, for example, the SVU-AS and SV-98 sniper rifles, the experimental AEK-999 “Badger” machine gun and the AEK-919K “Kashtan” submachine gun are already equipped.
Excess speed
Another source of sound, comparable to the sound of the shot itself, is the shock wave formed at supersonic flight speeds (above 330 m/s). In relation to pistols and submachine guns, the speed of bullets of which slightly exceeds the speed of sound, this problem is solved this way: without changing anything in the standard cartridge, they usually dump part of the powder gases from the barrel bore. In this case, holes are drilled along the bottom of the rifling (so as not to disrupt the movement of the bullet along the rifling), thanks to which some of the gases escape into the chamber surrounding the barrel. Such a muffler is called integrated. Usually it is combined with a separator in front of the muzzle of the barrel and has a single casing with it, for example, like the British L34A1 Sterling submachine guns and the German MP5SD. It is worth noting that submachine guns are almost unimaginable without “silent” modifications of one or another design. The design of the weapon, of course, becomes more complicated, but the effectiveness of “jamming” increases. Domestic silent pistols PB (developed by A.A. Deryagin using components of the Makarov pistol) and APB (developed by A.S. Neugodov based on the Stechkin automatic pistol), submachine gun "Bizon-203" (developed by V.M. Kalashnikov and A.E. Dragunov) have both a chamber around the barrel and a separate removable muzzle “nozzle” - essentially the same PBS. Such weapons are compact to carry and more flexible to use.
To lower the bullet speed of a machine gun or rifle cartridge below the sonic one in a machine gun, assault rifle or sniper rifle, you need to greatly reduce the powder charge. And this is unacceptable, since the gunpowder will begin to spill inside the cartridge case. To solve this problem, we have to look for new relationships between the mass of the bullet and the charge and use special cartridges like domestic ones with a weighted bullet of the US type (“reduced speed”) for firing from “silent” versions of machine guns or rifles. For example, to turn an AKM assault rifle into a “silent” one, you need to screw the PBS-1 device onto the barrel, equip the magazine with 7.62 mm cartridges with US bullets, and even replace the aiming bar, because the ballistics of a low-speed heavy bullet are very different from the usual one. A 5.45-mm cartridge with a US bullet is used with a modification of the shortened AKS-74U assault rifle with a PBS-3 or PBS-4 mounted on the barrel.
But even with such a list of “re-equipment”, silent modifications of standard machine guns do not quite meet the requirements of special forces soldiers. And not only because of bulkiness. The fact is that when weapons are used, the mechanisms themselves serve as a source of sound, especially in automatic weapons. The sound of metal parts in silence can be heard at a distance of up to 300 m. And if one of the soldiers suddenly fell nearby, and in the thickets not far away the characteristic sound of metal on metal was immediately heard, then his comrade will immediately understand where the shot came from. After all, the same AKM, for example, makes a rather loud knock. It is no coincidence that some self-loading or automatic silent models provide the ability to block the automation, as in the Chinese Type 64 and Type 67 pistols. But you can make the operation of the automation “softer” and quieter.
It was this problem that the Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering tried to solve. Through the efforts of P. Serdyukov, V. Krasnikov, N. Zabelin, L. Dvoryaninov, Y. Frolov, E. Kornilova, a unique family of weapons was created, adopted for service in 1987. The family included a unified VSS rifle (Vintorez) with a special 9-mm SP-5 sniper cartridge and an AS assault rifle (Val) with an SP-6 cartridge with increased penetration. An increase in the caliber of the machine gun cartridge allowed the developers to compensate for the decrease in speed: heavy 9-mm bullets at subsonic speeds retain sufficient momentum to confidently “hold” the trajectory and hit targets even in body armor. But subsonic speed still imposes limitations. Like most silent models, the sighting range does not exceed 400 x 420 m. The created rifle and machine gun have an integrated silencer. His rear end forms a chamber around the barrel, and the front one contains a separator in front of the muzzle of a relatively short barrel. The smooth operation of the automation contributes not only to “stealth”, but also to shooting accuracy. For transportation, both types of weapons can be easily disassembled into several large parts.
It must be said that the 9-mm machine gun cartridge, which combines low recoil with bullet stability on the trajectory, as well as a low tendency to ricochet and high penetrating effect, turned out to be convenient for a number of “noisy” small-sized machine guns. These include, for example, the 9A91 assault rifle, developed by the Tula Instrument Design Bureau. On its basis, by the way, a silent sniper rifle VSK-94 with a removable muffler.
The low-power 5.6-mm rimfire cartridge, well known from sporting weapons, with its low bullet speed and low pressure of powder gases. It is specifically designed for such different models as the American pistols for combat swimmers of the Emphibien series with integrated silencers (of course, they are supposed to be fired on land) or the Russian SV-99 sniper rifle with a removable silencer. The latter was developed in Izhevsk by V.F. Susloparov for high-precision shooting at short ranges and is intended for anti-terrorist units. Moreover, it was created on the basis of a biathlon rifle.
Shot from a knife
A camouflaged firearm is a seemingly “harmless” object with a firing device hidden inside. This topic is special, having little to do with military weapons. But in the arsenal of special forces there was a place for this kind of weapon. We are talking about a “shooting scout knife” (SRS). The first LDC adopted by the Soviet Army was created in Tula by R.D. Khlynin. The shooting device is mounted in the handle; a barrel with a 7.62 mm SP-3 cartridge (from the MSP pistol) is placed in its cavity. To fire, the knife is turned with the handle forward. Cutting off the powder gases in the cartridge here not only eliminates the sound of the shot, but also eliminates the danger of burning your hand. In NRS-2, developed by G.A. Savishchev, I.F. Shedlosem and V.Ya. Ovchinnikov, used the SP-4 cartridge from the PSS pistol. “Shooting knife” is a kind of last chance weapon that complements the main weapon of a special forces soldier. The SP-4 cartridge was also useful for another original Tula development - the five-shot special revolver OTs-38.
Why do special forces need a crossbow?
In action-packed films featuring special forces, you can often see a bow or crossbow in their arsenal. What is this - a director's find or an actual part of the weapon? During the Second World War, with a lack of effective silent firearms British Special Operations Executive and American Office strategic services seriously considered crossbows (with a spring arc or rubber cord instead) as weapons special units. And the German Abwehr management military intelligence and counterintelligence, preparing in 1942 for the seizure of oil fields in Maykop and Grozny, even tested crossbows, but gave preference to rifles with silencers. Nowadays, special forces are armed with weapons that solve both fire and special tasks much better than a crossbow. And the often mentioned “silence” of a crossbow is quite arbitrary - both the arc and the bowstring do not work silently when fired. Of course, any means can be useful in special operations. But it is unlikely that a group, already loaded with equipment, and also operating far from its bases and warehouses, will deliberately take with it an impressive-looking but bulky crossbow with a supply of arrows. Modern crossbow sports weapon, in as a last resort hunting, but not combat.
Special, underwater, first
In the 1965 James Bond film Ball lightning“In an underwater battle, two squads of scuba divers hit each other with harpoon guns. Let’s make a reservation right away: in reality this is not easy to do. After all, weapons for underwater hunting for small fish are of little use for hitting a person. A spring or air gun gives the harpoon a very low speed, and hence a small lethal effect and low range. Meanwhile, the question of weapons for combat swimmer was relevant back in the middle of the last century. Its creators understood that if a saboteur swimmer would most likely have to shoot after going ashore, then those who guard the water area or ships underwater We need more weapons underwater shooting. In any case, domestic gunsmiths were faced with exactly this task in the late 1960s.
From possible ways shooting, they chose a classic powder propellant charge (although the option of a “rocket bullet” was also considered). Carrying out a firearm shot under water required solving a number of problems. After all, the pressure of powder gases, as is known, is counteracted by the high resistance of water, and an ordinary rifled barrel, the cross-section of which the bullet fills almost entirely, breaks under such conditions. And an ordinary bullet, “flying” out of the barrel, will enter a medium that is significantly different from air in density and compressibility. A bubble or cavity forms around a rapidly moving body. A bullet in a cavity quickly flips over, and as a result, no aimed shooting it can not be. But if you lengthen the bullet so that its length to caliber ratio is approximately 20:1, and make a small flat cut at its tip, the cavity around the bullet will be smaller in diameter and will not cover it completely. Such a cavity, “sticking” to the bullet, will itself become both a medium of movement and a stabilizer for it. This means that it is not at all necessary to “twist” the bullet: it can go down the barrel with a gap filled with water. The stability and energy of the bullet is quite enough for shooting at visual range under water. These elongated bullets, nicknamed “nails,” were used to equip Soviet designers P.F. Sazonov and O.P. Kravchenko cartridges for a 4.5 mm underwater pistol and a 5.66 mm machine gun.
A pistol created at TsNIITochmash V.V. Simonov and designated SPP-1 (“special underwater pistol, first”), is classified as non-automatic. Its block of four barrels is equipped with a clip of four cartridges. Each time you press the trigger, the firing pin rotates to the next cartridge.
As for the machine gun, the matter turned out to be more complicated. In fact, at one time it was considered that it was almost impossible to create an underwater assault rifle. There was an anecdote that the US Department of Defense's invention department refused to accept proposals for a “perpetual motion machine, an invisible tank and an underwater machine gun.” However, a group led by the same V.V. Simonova coped with the task. It was necessary to take a number of measures for the reliable operation of conventional gas-operated automatics, the supply of cartridges of an unusual configuration, etc. The result was a unique “underwater special automatic machine” APS (not to be confused with the Stechkin automatic pistol), which entered service with combat swimmers of the Soviet Navy.
The possibility of creating an “underwater-air” assault rifle was demonstrated by the ASM (“special multipurpose assault rifle”), developed in Tula under the leadership of Yu.S. Danilov based on APS and AKS-74U units. It is adapted to fire the APS cartridge under water and the standard 5.45mm automatic cartridge in the air. Accordingly, a magazine from either an APS or an AK-74 is attached to it. By the way, AFM got rid of the large gas bubble when firing. After all, the bubble not only gave away the shooter’s location, but also interfered with aiming.
Abroad, preference was given to non-automatic multi-barreled models, where the trigger mechanisms were made mechanical, as in the American six-barreled pistol I.R. Bar, or electronic, as in the German P11 Heckler und Koch. These samples use elongated arrow-shaped “bullets” and a powder charge, but their design is different. On the P11, the barrels are sealed until the bullet leaves; loading such a weapon involves replacing the entire barrel block. In Bar's pistol, each replaceable barrel is, in fact, a cartridge with the cutoff of powder gases already familiar to us.
Nuances of large caliber
Large-caliber rifled military weapons appeared several times in different variations. In the second half of the 19th century these were serf rifles, in the First world war appeared anti-tank rifles. But the anti-tank rifles also seemed to have disappeared from the scene by the end of World War II, but were uniquely revived forty years later in the form of a new type of weapon - large-caliber sniper rifles. The question then was about increasing the sighting range and lethality of sniper weapons. And the cartridges from 12.7 mm machine guns, subject to their modification in terms of improving accuracy, seemed like a good solution. Yes, the weapon had strong recoil, it “grew” in size and weight, but the target range began to reach one and a half kilometers, and it became possible to “reach” small targets behind light armor protection. Even the term “anti-sniper rifle” has arisen in the sense that a sniper armed with it gains an advantage over an enemy sniper armed with a normal-caliber rifle. According to press reports, 12.7-mm rifles from the American company McMillan were used by “counter-sniper groups” of the so-called “ international forces maintaining peace" in the former Yugoslavia.
In addition, large-caliber rifles can hit transport and lightly armored vehicles, radio and radar stations, missile systems, surveillance equipment, helicopters and airplanes in parking lots.
In general, over the past fifteen years, many samples and types of large-caliber weapons have appeared. rifled weapons, different both in design (single-shot, magazine, self-loading), and in caliber and barrel length. Many rifles, however, turned out to be bulky and heavy. Just look at the American M82A1 "Barrett" (one of the first large caliber rifles, which found combat use in 1991 in the Persian Gulf area), P-50 "Pauca" or "Boomer Series", the French "Hecate", the Hungarian "Cheetah". Samples have been developed for the Soviet 14.5 mm cartridge, and for the Belgian 15.5 mm, and even for the German 20 mm. The latter, however, look more like a cannon than a rifle.
In Russia, a number of weapons design bureaus also took up this topic in the 1990s, especially since the powerful domestic 12.7-mm DShK cartridge promised even more here than the American .50 Browning cartridge. From a number of prototypes various systems The greatest interest was aroused by the self-loading OSV-96 of the Tula Instrument Design Bureau and the store-bought ASVK of the Kovrov plant named after Degtyarev. These rifles can hit lightly armored vehicles at ranges of up to 1,000 m, and manpower wearing personal armor up to 1,500 m. Both rifles are equipped with high-magnification sights. The weapon's capabilities are enhanced by the creation of a 12.7 mm cartridge with increased armor penetration and improved accuracy. We can talk about the emergence of a new “cartridge-gun-sights” complex.
Semyon Fedoseev | Illustrations by Yuri Yurov
· Bisons vs Sterlings
The term "special purpose" in relation to weapons has become especially popular in recent years. The specifics of a weapon, as is known, depend primarily on the tasks solved with its help. High-precision sniper rifles, silent, camouflaged, “assault” portable weapons, weapons for combat swimmers - all these are tools of professionals, initially designed for a special level of user training. Such weapons can be created on the basis of conventional combat or sports weapons, or they can be designed anew. Today there is a wide variety of types and designs of special forces weapons. Let's consider only certain areas, paying more attention to domestic models, many of which are the best in the world.
Forgotten "Brahmits"
Silent weapons - the most numerous and widespread type of special-purpose weapons appeared quite a long time ago. Devices that reduce the sound of a shot for both small arms and artillery were proposed at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Then they were of little interest to the military. For example, the British gunsmith Griner claimed that he did not patent the silencer, considering it completely unnecessary. But Hiram Stephens Maxim, the famous inventor of the machine gun, together with his son Hiram Percy, not only patented silencers, but also began their production in 1910. Silencers from Maxim and other designers were sold privately in different countries, including Russia, and the main consumers were... hunters. Nothing surprising. Many types of special-purpose weapons began their journey on the civilian market. Suffice it to remember that in the same period it was possible to freely buy a shooting cane, and shooting pens were included in the catalogs of “civilian” weapons back in the 1930s. The circulation of camouflaged weapons, like silencers, on the civilian market in most countries was prohibited in the middle of the century.
After the First World War, criminal structures and intelligence agencies paid attention to silent weapons - this is how they began to acquire their ominous fame, and experienced a real boom during the Second World War. Much has been written about German, American, and British models of silent weapons of those years, but they rarely remember about domestic revolvers and rifles with BRAMIT devices, used by partisan detachments and special groups of the GRU and NKVD behind Nazi lines. The name of these devices stands for “Mitin Brothers” - after the name of the inventors V.G. and I.G. The Mitins, who worked on designs for silent weapons. Designers Gurevich, Korolenko, Markevich and others then worked in the same field. Silent weapons, as a rule, solve ordinary fire tasks, but at the same time their shooting is “secretive”: after all, a reconnaissance and sabotage group, as well as a single sniper, when using a weapon, should not reveal themselves - give away their location with the sound or flash of a shot.
Fighting sound
As is known, sound is the oscillatory movements of particles of the medium, propagating in the form of waves. Its loudness is measured in relative units - decibels (dB). The volume level is equal to twenty logarithms of the ratio of the sound volume to the hearing threshold. (The hearing threshold, the minimum sound pressure perceived by the human ear, is 2x10 -5 Pa). The main source of the sound of a shot is the powder gases leaving the barrel. Their rapid expansion is accompanied by the formation of a muzzle wave and a sharp, loud sound. The sound level of a rifle shot at a distance of 1 m reaches 160 dB, which corresponds to a pressure of 2x10 3 Pa, that is, it exceeds the pain threshold by 100 times, and the hearing threshold by 10 8 times.
Pressure and sound levels can be reduced by increasing the volume of gases and lowering their temperature before venting into the atmosphere. The easiest way to do this is with a choke tube, the internal volume of which is much greater than the volume of the barrel bore. Car and motorcycle mufflers work on the same principle. Of course, it is not possible to achieve complete sound suppression. A weapon is considered to be “silent” if the sound level of its shot is approximately the same as that of an air gun.
Many designs of expansion type mufflers have been created today. In our country they were given the name “silent and flameless shooting device,” or PBS. The efficiency of such devices is increased in the following way: the internal cavity of the muffler is divided into several chambers by partitions with a hole for the passage of a bullet, the gases are “twisted” by deflecting inserts. The set of baffles inside the muffler is commonly referred to as a separator. To reliably “close” gases, especially those that overtake a bullet, rubber washers with cuts are installed, pierced by a bullet (as in the Soviet PBS-1). True, the washers quickly fail and reduce shooting accuracy. That's why modern mufflers try to do without them. Sometimes the gases are cooled further by passing them, for example, through a roll of wire mesh.
Is it possible not to release powder gases into the atmosphere at all? For example, disperse the bullet and leave them in the barrel, or better yet, in the case. This, perhaps the oldest, idea in the field of “silencing” a shot seems simple only at first glance. To implement it, you need a special design of both the weapon itself and the cartridge. Gas cut-off was carried out in different countries, but in production samples, developers in the USSR were the first to cope with this task.
TsNIITochmash initially created non-automatic double-barreled SME pistols in combination with the SP-3 and S-4 “Groza” cartridges with PZ and PZA cartridges. Then a pistol complex developed by V.N. Levchenko, Yu.M. Krylov and V.A. Petrov, consisting of a PSS self-loading pistol and an SP-4 cartridge. Despite the difference in cartridge designs, the principle of operation is the same: the powder gases push the bullet through the piston, while they themselves remain in the cartridge case, locked by the same piston. It is not difficult to understand how difficult it was to implement the self-charging mode of operation. After all, the powder gases remain in the cartridge case even after the shot. That is why automatic ejection from the chamber required special design solutions. In J. Fleming's novel Dr. No, the gunsmith says: “I don't like silencers, sir. They are heavy and, when you are in a hurry, they catch on your clothes.” Pistols with powder gas cut-off do not have this drawback. Over the past quarter century, these unique designs have proven their effectiveness in a number of special operations.
The combination of two main schemes for combating the sound of a shot is represented by the “Silence” and “Canary” complexes. The first is based on the AKM assault rifle, the second is based on the AKS-74U. The corresponding expansion-type PBS are mounted on their barrels, and a 30-mm silent BS-1 grenade launcher with a cut-off of powder gases is mounted under the forend. The grenade is inserted into the barrel of the grenade launcher from the muzzle and pushed out by a piston driven by a special throwing cartridge. A magazine for 10 such cartridges is placed in the handle of the grenade launcher. The cumulative grenade provides penetration of 15 mm thick steel armor and the necessary armor protection effect.
Silencers not only reduce the sound level of a shot, but also eliminate its flash, as well as the “dust effect” of gases. For a sniper or machine gunner, the flash of a shot, a cloud of smoke or dust is a revealing factor. The absence of a flash also makes it easier to use the night sight - there is no flare. When operating in rooms, tunnels, or on narrow streets, the sounds of shots and bursts make it very difficult to control your voice and interfere with coordinating the actions of the fighters. It is not surprising that there is growing interest in “low-noise shooting devices” (LLDs): they do not reduce the sound level as much as LDS, but are more compact. Of the Russian PMS models, for example, the SVU-AS and SV-98 sniper rifles, the experimental AEK-999 “Badger” machine gun and the AEK-919K “Kashtan” submachine gun are already equipped.
Excess speed
Another source of sound, comparable to the sound of the shot itself, is the shock wave formed at supersonic flight speeds (above 330 m/s). In relation to pistols and submachine guns, the speed of bullets of which slightly exceeds the speed of sound, this problem is solved this way: without changing anything in the standard cartridge, they usually dump part of the powder gases from the barrel bore. In this case, holes are drilled along the bottom of the rifling (so as not to disrupt the movement of the bullet along the rifling), thanks to which some of the gases escape into the chamber surrounding the barrel. Such a muffler is called integrated. Usually it is combined with a separator in front of the muzzle of the barrel and has a single casing with it, for example, like the British L34A1 Sterling submachine guns and the German MP5SD. It is worth noting that submachine guns are almost unimaginable without “silent” modifications of one or another design. The design of the weapon, of course, becomes more complicated, but the effectiveness of “jamming” increases. Domestic silent pistols PB (developed by A.A. Deryagin using components of the Makarov pistol) and APB (developed by A.S. Neugodov based on the Stechkin automatic pistol), submachine gun "Bizon-203" (developed by V.M. Kalashnikov and A.E. Dragunov) have both a chamber around the barrel and a separate removable muzzle “nozzle” - essentially the same PBS. Such weapons are compact to carry and more flexible to use.
To lower the bullet velocity of an automatic or rifle cartridge below the sonic speed - in an assault rifle, assault rifle or sniper rifle - you need to greatly reduce the powder charge. And this is unacceptable, since the gunpowder will begin to spill inside the cartridge case. To solve this problem, we have to look for new relationships between the mass of the bullet and the charge and use special cartridges, like domestic ones, with a weighted bullet of the US type (“reduced speed”) for firing from “silent” versions of machine guns or rifles. For example, to turn an AKM assault rifle into a “silent” one, you need to screw the PBS-1 device onto the barrel, equip the magazine with 7.62 mm cartridges with US bullets, and even replace the aiming bar, because the ballistics of a low-speed heavy bullet are very different from the usual one. A 5.45-mm cartridge with a US bullet is used with a modification of the shortened AKS-74U assault rifle with a PBS-3 or PBS-4 mounted on the barrel.
But even with such a list of “re-equipment”, silent modifications of standard machine guns do not quite meet the requirements of special forces soldiers. And not only because of bulkiness. The fact is that when weapons are used, the mechanisms themselves serve as a source of sound—especially in automatic weapons. The sound of metal parts in silence can be heard at a distance of up to 300 m. And if one of the soldiers suddenly fell nearby, and in the thickets not far away the characteristic sound of metal on metal was immediately heard, then his comrade will immediately understand where the shot came from. After all, the same AKM, for example, makes a rather loud knock. It is no coincidence that some self-loading or automatic silent models provide the ability to block the automation, as in the Chinese Type 64 and Type 67 pistols. But you can make the operation of the automation “softer” and quieter.
It was this problem that the Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering tried to solve. Through the efforts of P. Serdyukov, V. Krasnikov, N. Zabelin, L. Dvoryaninov, Y. Frolov, E. Kornilova, a unique family of weapons was created, adopted for service in 1987. The family included a unified VSS rifle (Vintorez) with a special 9-mm SP-5 sniper cartridge and an AS assault rifle (Val) with an SP-6 cartridge with increased penetration. An increase in the caliber of the machine gun cartridge allowed the developers to compensate for the decrease in speed: heavy 9-mm bullets at subsonic speeds retain sufficient momentum to confidently “hold” the trajectory and hit targets even in body armor. But subsonic speed still imposes limitations. Like most silent models, the sighting range does not exceed 400-420 m. The created rifle and machine gun have an integrated silencer. Its rear part forms a chamber around the barrel, and the front part contains a separator in front of the muzzle of a relatively short barrel. The smooth operation of the automation contributes not only to “stealth”, but also to shooting accuracy. For transportation, both types of weapons can be easily disassembled into several large parts.
It must be said that the 9-mm machine gun cartridge, which combines low recoil with bullet stability on the trajectory, as well as a low tendency to ricochet and high penetrating effect, turned out to be convenient for a number of “noisy” small-sized machine guns. These include, for example, the 9A91 assault rifle, developed by the Tula Instrument Design Bureau. On its basis, by the way, a silent sniper rifle VSK-94 with a removable silencer was created.
The low-power 5.6-mm rimfire cartridge, well known from sporting weapons, with its low bullet speed and low pressure of powder gases, also turned out to be convenient for silent weapons. It is specifically designed for such different models as the American pistols for combat swimmers of the Emphibien series with integrated silencers (of course, they are supposed to be fired on land) or the Russian SV-99 sniper rifle with a removable silencer. The latter was developed in Izhevsk by V.F. Susloparov for high-precision shooting at short ranges and is intended for anti-terrorist units. Moreover, it was created on the basis of a biathlon rifle.
Shot from a knife
A camouflaged firearm is a seemingly “harmless” object with a firing device hidden inside. This topic is a special one, having little to do with military weapons. But in the arsenal of special forces there was a place for this kind of weapon. We are talking about a “shooting scout knife” (SRS). The first LDC adopted by the Soviet Army was created in Tula by R.D. Khlynin. The shooting device is mounted in the handle; a barrel with a 7.62 mm SP-3 cartridge (from the MSP pistol) is placed in its cavity. To fire, the knife is turned with the handle forward. Cutting off the powder gases in the cartridge here not only eliminates the sound of the shot, but also eliminates the danger of burning your hand. In NRS-2, developed by G.A. Savishchev, I.F. Shedlosem and V.Ya. Ovchinnikov, used the SP-4 cartridge from the PSS pistol. The “Shooting Knife” is a kind of last-chance weapon that complements the main weapon of a special forces soldier. The SP-4 cartridge was also useful for another original Tula development - the five-shot special revolver OTs-38.
Why do special forces need a crossbow?
In action-packed films featuring special forces, you can often see a bow or crossbow in their arsenal. What is this - a director's find or an actual part of the weapon? During the Second World War, with a lack of effective silent firearms, the British Special Operations Executive and the American Office of Strategic Services seriously considered crossbows (with a spring arc or rubber cord instead) as weapons for special forces. And the German Abwehr - the department of military intelligence and counterintelligence, preparing in 1942 for the seizure of oil fields in Maykop and Grozny, even tested crossbows, but gave preference to rifles with silencers. Nowadays, special forces are armed with weapons that solve both fire and special tasks much better than a crossbow. And the often mentioned “silence” of a crossbow is quite arbitrary - both the arc and the bowstring do not work silently when fired. Of course, any means can be useful in special operations. But it is unlikely that a group, already loaded with equipment, and also operating far from its bases and warehouses, will deliberately take with it an impressive-looking but bulky crossbow with a supply of arrows. A modern crossbow is a sporting weapon, at least a hunting weapon, but not a combat weapon.
Special, underwater, first
In the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, two teams of scuba divers use harpoon guns to kill each other in an underwater battle. Let’s make a reservation right away: in reality this is not easy to do. After all, weapons for underwater hunting for small fish are of little use for hitting a person. A spring or air gun gives the harpoon a very low speed, and hence a small destructive effect and low range. Meanwhile, the question of weapons for combat swimmers was relevant back in the middle of the last century. Its creators understood that while a saboteur swimmer would most likely have to shoot after going ashore, those who guard water areas or ships underwater needed underwater weapons. In any case, domestic gunsmiths were faced with exactly this task in the late 1960s.
Of the possible shooting methods, we chose the classic powder propellant charge (although the option of a “rocket bullet” was also considered). Carrying out a firearm shot under water required solving a number of problems. After all, the pressure of powder gases, as is known, is counteracted by the high resistance of water, and an ordinary rifled barrel, the cross-section of which the bullet fills almost entirely, breaks under such conditions. And an ordinary bullet, “flying” out of the barrel, will enter a medium that is significantly different from air in density and compressibility. A bubble—a cavern—forms around a rapidly moving body. A bullet in a cavity quickly flips over, and as a result, there can be no aimed shooting. But if you lengthen the bullet so that its length to caliber ratio is approximately 20:1, and make a small flat cut at its tip, the cavity around the bullet will be smaller in diameter and will not cover it completely. Such a cavity, “sticking” to the bullet, will itself become both a medium of movement and a stabilizer for it. This means that it is not at all necessary to “twist” the bullet: it can go down the barrel with a gap filled with water. The stability and energy of the bullet is quite enough for shooting at visual range under water. Soviet designers P.F. equipped these elongated bullets, nicknamed “nails.” Sazonov and O.P. Kravchenko cartridges for a 4.5 mm underwater pistol and a 5.66 mm machine gun.
A pistol created at TsNIITochmash V.V. Simonov and designated SPP-1 (“special underwater pistol, first”), is classified as non-automatic. Its block of four barrels is equipped with a clip of four cartridges. Each time you press the trigger, the firing pin rotates to the next cartridge.
As for the machine gun, the matter turned out to be more complicated. In fact, at one time it was considered that it was almost impossible to create an underwater assault rifle. There was an anecdote that the US Department of Defense's invention department refused to accept proposals for a “perpetual motion machine, an invisible tank and an underwater machine gun.” However, a group led by the same V.V. Simonova coped with the task. It was necessary to take a number of measures for the reliable operation of conventional gas-operated automatics, the supply of cartridges of an unusual configuration, etc. The result was a unique “underwater special automatic machine” APS (not to be confused with the Stechkin automatic pistol), which entered service with combat swimmers of the Soviet Navy.
The possibility of creating an “underwater-air” assault rifle was demonstrated by the ASM (“special multipurpose assault rifle”), developed in Tula under the leadership of Yu.S. Danilov based on APS and AKS-74U units. It is adapted to fire the APS cartridge under water and the standard 5.45mm automatic cartridge in the air. Accordingly, a magazine from either an APS or an AK-74 is attached to it. By the way, AFM got rid of the large gas bubble when firing. After all, the bubble not only gave away the shooter’s location, but also interfered with aiming.
Abroad, preference was given to non-automatic multi-barreled models, where the trigger mechanisms were made mechanical, as in the American six-barreled pistol I.R. Bar, or electronic, as in the German P11 Heckler und Koch. These samples use elongated arrow-shaped “bullets” and a powder charge, but their design is different. On the P11, the barrels are sealed until the bullet leaves; loading such a weapon involves replacing the entire barrel block. In Bar's pistol, each replaceable barrel is, in fact, a cartridge with the cutoff of powder gases already familiar to us.
Nuances of large caliber
Large-caliber rifled military weapons in various variations appeared several times. In the second half of the 19th century, these were serf rifles; in the First World War, anti-tank rifles appeared. But the anti-tank rifles also seemed to have disappeared from the scene by the end of World War II, but they were uniquely revived forty years later in the form of a new type of weapon - large-caliber sniper rifles. The question then was about increasing the sighting range and lethality of sniper weapons. And the cartridges from 12.7 mm machine guns - subject to their modification in terms of improving accuracy - seemed like a good solution. Yes, the weapon had strong recoil, it “grew” in size and weight, but the target range began to reach one and a half kilometers, and it became possible to “reach” small targets behind light armor protection. Even the term “anti-sniper rifle” arose in the sense that a sniper armed with it gains an advantage over an enemy sniper armed with a normal-caliber rifle. According to press reports, 12.7-mm rifles from the American company McMillan were used by “counter-sniper teams” of the so-called “international peacekeeping forces” in the former Yugoslavia.
In addition, large-caliber rifles can hit transport and lightly armored vehicles, radio and radar stations, missile systems, surveillance equipment, helicopters and parked aircraft.
In general, in the last fifteen years, many samples and types of large-caliber rifled weapons have appeared, varying both in design (single-shot, magazine, self-loading) and in caliber and barrel length. Many rifles, however, turned out to be bulky and heavy. Just look at the American M82A1 "Barrett" (one of the first large-caliber rifles that found combat use in 1991 in the Persian Gulf), the P-50 "Pauza" or "Boomer Series", the French "Hecate", the Hungarian "Cheetah". Samples have been developed for the Soviet 14.5 mm cartridge, and for the Belgian 15.5 mm, and even for the German 20 mm. The latter, however, look more like a cannon than a rifle.
In Russia, a number of weapons design bureaus also took up this topic in the 1990s, especially since the powerful domestic 12.7-mm DShK cartridge promised even more here than the American .50 Browning cartridge. Of the number of prototypes of various systems, the self-loading OSV-96 of the Tula Instrument Design Bureau and the store-bought ASVK of the Kovrov plant named after Degtyarev aroused the greatest interest. These rifles can hit lightly armored vehicles at ranges of up to 1,000 m, and manpower wearing personal armor – up to 1,500 m. Both rifles are equipped with high magnification sights. The weapon's capabilities are enhanced by the creation of a 12.7 mm cartridge with increased armor penetration and improved accuracy. We can talk about the emergence of a new “cartridge-gun-sights” complex.
The discharge of a firearm is invariably accompanied by a loud sound and, as a rule, flame. Unless, of course, we are talking about silent special weapons. Weapons for special forces are special kind small arms. Its use in real combat conditions is, as a rule, not disclosed. This is a weapon for special tasks. That's why it's called special. Special weapons must strike silently and with certainty. How did you make firearms silent? When the gunpowder burns, it is almost instantly released a large number of energy. Powder gases push the bullet out of the barrel. Its speed at this moment is higher than the speed of sound, that is, more than 330 meters per second. The bullet, creating a shock wave, literally tears the air apart. Following the bullet, powder gases escape from the barrel. They create a so-called muzzle wave. It is the shock waves of the muzzle that are the main sources of loud sound when fired. Added to this is the clanging of the moving parts of the weapon's automation. In silence, in open areas, it can be heard from 50 meters away. We perceive all this together as the sound of a gunshot. Having understood the essence of the phenomenon, it is already possible to somehow fight it.
For the time being, fighting the roar of a shot did not interest the military at all. The louder the gunfire, the better. Let the enemy tremble. However, a device for muffling the sound of a shot appeared at the end of the nineteenth century.
One of the first to make a workable silencer was none other than Maxim, the inventor of the world's first machine gun. Moreover, Maxim quite successfully sold his mufflers in different countries, including to Russia. His goods were in greatest demand among hunters. They appreciated the idea of a muffler. The sound of the shot did not scare away the game. If you miss, you can shoot again.
In the twenties, the military also became interested in the silencer. The Red Army realized how effective the actions were military intelligence behind enemy lines. This was confirmed by the first experience of the First World War and civil war. The scouts needed to act silently. Remove the sentry, the sentinel, that is, deprive the enemy, as they say, of his eyes and ears.
In the Soviet Union, devices for silent and flameless shooting began to be developed in the early thirties. But they were created only before the war.
The first model for silent shooting in the Red Army was a three-line rifle. For this purpose, at the end of the forties, the Bramit device was developed (designed by the Mitin brothers). For rifle shooting, special rifle cartridges were used with reduced bullet velocity, which had a subsonic speed. This eliminated one of the reasons for the loud sound of the shot. Shock wave, which occurs at supersonic bullet speeds, did not exist. The source of the sound was the powder gases flying out after the bullet and creating a muzzle wave. But it was eliminated by the Bramit muffler itself.
Muffler device "Bramith"
Bramit is a cylinder, inside of which there are two chambers with partitions made of soft rubber. When fired, the bullet passes through the partitions and flies out of the silencer. The hole in the soft rubber instantly tightens and prevents the penetration of gas. In the first chamber, the powder gases expand. At the same time, their pressure and temperature decrease. Some of the powder gases that erupted along with the bullet expand in the second chamber. This prevents the formation of a muzzle wave. As a result, the sound of the shot is extinguished.
The reconnaissance and sabotage units of the Red Army and partisan detachments were equipped. Later, similar devices were developed for both the Nagan revolver and the ’38 carbine. However, they did not receive distribution.
So, one of the ways to reduce the sound of a shot is to use a bullet with subsonic speed and a silencer in which the powder gases escaping from the barrel are extinguished. However, there is another way. In the forties it was first used in the Gurevich revolver. The most interesting thing about this weapon is the cartridge for it.
Gurevich cartridge device
Powder charge in the sleeve it is closed with a special wad. Along the entire cartridge case there is a sleeve into which the bullet is inserted. The space between the wad and the bushing is filled with water. When fired, the powder gases push the wad, and the wad displaces water. Since the diameter of the barrel is smaller than the diameter of the cartridge case, the speed of the water increases and the bullet receives additional acceleration. It flies out of the barrel, and the wad remains in the sleeve. The powder gases are locked, there is no noise, although there is quite a bit of splashing.
An experimental batch of Gurevich revolvers was produced in the second half of the forties. As practice has shown, the design of the cartridge turned out to be too complicated. The Gurevich revolver and the Bramit silencer use different principles for muffling the sound of a shot. These principles subsequently determined two paths for the development of silent technology in the Soviet Union.
Silent small arms
A new round of development of silent weapons began in the early sixties. The global confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States was in full swing. Suspicion and mistrust, perhaps, is how one can characterize the relations between the two superpowers at that time. On May 1, 1960, near Sverdlovsk, an American reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Harry Powers was shot down. This loud scandal only added fuel to the fire of already tense relations between the USSR and the USA. The Kremlin actively used this incident for propaganda purposes. On May 12, 1960, a special exhibition opened in the central Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure. Soviet citizens were shown the wreckage of a downed plane and the personal belongings of pilot Harry Powers, including a silent pistol with a large number of cartridges. It is unlikely that ordinary visitors to this exhibition knew anything about such weapons of the Soviet Union.
They prepared very seriously for a possible military conflict with America. A variety of war scenarios were considered probable enemy. A special role was assigned to units. They had to operate secretly behind enemy lines. For these tasks, small-sized and silent small arms were created.
In 1962, a device for silent and flameless shooting, PBS1, was adopted. It was used with AK assault rifles and their modifications. To fire from this weapon, special cartridges with a reduced muzzle velocity were used. The bullet of such a cartridge had a subsonic initial speed. This is one of the conditions for reducing the volume of the shot. In order for the bullet to retain the necessary destructive effect, its mass was increased by about a third.
When firing a cartridge with a reduced bullet speed, the gas pressure in the barrel is significantly less than when firing a conventional cartridge. The gas pressure, however, is not sufficient for operation. For this purpose, a rubber seal was used in the PBS muffler. The bullet pierces it, and the powder gases remain in the barrel and do the work of reloading the weapon. After breaking through the rubber plug, the bullet flies into the separator, and the powder gases that have broken through are decelerated on its walls. This ensures noiseless and flameless shooting.
A Kalashnikov assault rifle with this silencer fires almost silently. At that time, it was the most powerful automatic silent weapon complex. But Soviet special forces also required compact weapons, such as a pistol. The Americans already had such weapons.
Silent pistol PB
In 1967, the PB silent pistol was adopted for service with special forces. There is a strong opinion that this weapon was created on the basis of . However, it is not. Indeed, when designing the pistol, it was ordered to use the standard trigger mechanism and magazine from the PM pistol. And everything else is just external resemblance. Muffling the sound of a shot is ensured by a silencer consisting of two parts: an expansion chamber and a removable muzzle nozzle. For shooting, a standard pistol cartridge from a Makarov pistol is used. The pistol ensures silent engagement of targets at a distance of up to fifty meters. However, the PB pistol cannot be called completely silent. The arrow produces a shutter clang when fired. In silence this sound is clearly audible.
Silent automatic pistol APB
Stechkin automatic pistol. Magazine for twenty rounds. Ability to shoot in bursts. This pistol became an excellent basis for the creation of the silent automatic pistol APB, which was intended primarily for arming special-purpose reconnaissance units. Silent shooting was ensured by a muzzle silencer and an expansion chamber located under the bolt casing. This is still in service today.
For firing from the APB, standard nine-millimeter Makarov pistol cartridges are used. APB inherited everything positive traits Stechkin pistol. This weapon was used by special forces Soviet troops in Afghanistan.
One of the tasks of the special forces units was to capture or destroy caravans with weapons from Pakistan. An armed patrol necessarily moved ahead of such a caravan. It needed to be eliminated first. This is where silent weapons were used. And the special forces fought with the main forces of the caravan using conventional, combined arms weapons.
The sound source of the APB pistol was still the same, automatic parts hitting each other at the moment of firing. The PB pistol had the same drawback.
Silent pistol "thunderstorm" C4
Let's go back to the sixties. It was then that the Soviet Union began to work on silent weapons, which used a different principle of eliminating sounds when fired - misfire of powder gases in the cartridge case. The C4 pistol chambered for the “snake” cartridge entered service with special units of the KGB troops. This pistol, with the clanging of moving automatic parts when fired, did not give itself away. There was simply no reloading mechanism in the C4.
We have already talked about Gurevich's pistol. In them, the bullet was pushed out by water, and the powder gases remained locked in the cartridge case. The “snake” cartridge was created using the same principle, but it is much more advanced. The powder charge is separated from the bullet by a piston. When the gunpowder ignites, the powder gases act on the piston, and it pushes the bullet out. It flies out of the barrel, and the piston remains in the sleeve, sealing it hermetically. The gases are cut off, which is why this principle is called the cutoff of powder gases in the cartridge case. The pistol itself is double-barreled. To load the pistol, it was necessary to fold back the block of barrels, insert cartridges into the clip and lower the block of barrels back. The pistol could fire two silent shots. It is almost impossible to detect a shooter by the sound of a shot. Identifying the weapon from which the shot was fired was also not easy. The “snake” cartridge uses a regular 7.62 caliber bullet from an assault rifle cartridge.
Silent pistol SME
In the early seventies, a new silent pistol, the MSP, was developed. It had significantly smaller dimensions than its predecessor, the “thunderstorm” complex. The pistol was double-barreled. SP3 cartridges with cut-off of powder gases in the cartridge case were used from it. To load the pistol, it was necessary to lift the barrel block, load two cartridges, and close the barrel block.
By the end of the seventies, into service with the special services Soviet Union, there were four samples silent pistols, which we described above. It was necessary to combine all their advantages and eliminate their disadvantages.
Silent pistol PSS
In 1983, the PSS pistol (special self-loading pistol) was adopted. Its features include: the absence of a muffler, the cutoff of powder gases in the cartridge case ensures complete silent shooting. PSS decided to create it without a silencer because it significantly increases the size of the pistol. And the compactness of such a weapon is very important. A special pistol was supposed to provide the ability to be carried concealed. New 7.62 caliber cartridges were developed for the PSS pistol. The designation of this cartridge is SP4.
The cartridge bullet is not pointed, but cylindrical. There is a brass belt on its front part. When fired, it enters the rifling of the barrel, and the bullet begins to rotate. This shape of the bullet, with its subsonic initial speed and maximum target firing range of 50 meters, does not have a serious effect on the accuracy of fire. At a distance of twenty-five meters, a bullet can penetrate a fragmentation vest or a steel helmet.
The PSS pistol became a weapon of personal defense and hidden attack. Silent shooting and no flash when fired make this pistol an almost ideal weapon for special operations. There are still no analogues to this pistol.
LDC Scout Shooting Knife
In addition to firearms, scouts often . They could silently remove the sentry, but at the same time they had to get close to him. They decided to make the scout knife shoot. An example of such a silent weapon was the special scout knife (SRS). It was a combined weapon with a firing device in the handle. For firing from this device, SP3 cartridges with cut-off of powder gases in the cartridge case were used. ensures its multi-purpose use. They can cut and plane wood, saw through steel rods up to one centimeter thick. For this purpose, a file is provided on the butt. The muzzle of the knife barrel is covered with a rubber curtain. It is designed to protect the barrel from water and dirt. It doesn't interfere with shooting. To do this, you had to take out the barrel, insert a cartridge, put the barrel in place, cock the hammer, remove the knife from the safety, and fire.
The absence of an automatic system and cut-off of powder gases in the cartridge case makes the shot from the gun almost silent. After the shot, the cartridge case swelled greatly, and it sat tightly in the barrel. To extract it, a special device located in the guard of the knife was used. The knife itself is a universal weapon, especially in in capable hands, and a shooting knife, in some cases, can replace a pistol.
Silent special sniper rifle VSS and special machine gun “val”
Special forces also required powerful automatic weapon. Such a weapon must meet two contradictory requirements. On the one hand, the bullet’s increased penetration ability, and this directly depends on its initial speed. How more speed, the greater the penetration effect. On the other hand, for silent shooting, the bullet speed should not exceed the speed of sound. A solution was found in the use of special cartridges with a heavy bullet. It is the increased bullet mass and durable steel core, provided her with good penetrating action.
The first model of a weapon chambered for such a cartridge was the special sniper rifle VSS, or, as it is also called, a screw cutter. It is designed for special operations that require silent shooting. Its sound level is reduced by a muffler integrated with the barrel.
Based on the VSS rifle, an AS assault rifle (special assault rifle) was created. It differed from a rifle in the presence of a folding stock, a pistol grip and a twenty-round magazine. For shooting from a machine gun, special SP6 cartridges are used. Among the troops, this weapon received the unofficial name “shaft”. When firing the SP6 cartridge, the “Val” assault rifle is capable of penetrating body armor at a range of up to 400 meters.
Automatic SR3 "VORTEX"
Later, on the basis of this machine gun, a small-sized machine gun CP3 “VORTEX” was created. The butt folds forward upward and, if necessary, allows shooting in the folded position. The side charging handle has been removed. Firstly, to eliminate the possibility of it getting caught on clothing, and secondly, to reduce the width of the weapon. The VORTEX assault rifle is reloaded using a special slide in the upper part of the forearm. There were no silent firing requirements for this weapon. The main thing is compactness and powerful lethality.
Further development of the “VORTEX”, its modernized version SR3M. It has become universal. The SR3M assault rifle can be used as a small-sized assault rifle, or as an assault rifle with a reduced shot sound level.
Rifle sniper complex VSK94
Another example of a silent weapon was the VSK94 rifle sniper complex. In the traveling position, it is carried in a special bag in disassembled form. To assemble the weapon, it was necessary to attach a stock, a silencer, insert a magazine, and attach a . For rifle shooting, SP5 sniper cartridges or SP6 armor-piercing bullets were used. The aimed shooting range of the rifle is 400 meters. The rifle entered service with special units of law enforcement forces and the army. The VSK94 rifle sniper system is used to covertly engage targets, including those wearing body armor, at a range of up to 400 meters.
Special universal complex "THUNDERSTORM"
In the mid-nineties, a special universal complex “GROZA” was adopted for service. “THUNDERSTORM” is placed in a special case. The complex is modular. Depending on the tasks, the basic machine can be supplemented with special devices, acquiring properties various types weapons. This complex combines the capabilities of: automatic, silent, sniper fire, and firing from a grenade launcher. Despite his pretty unusual look, the “GROZA” complex was created on the basis of the well-recognized AKS74U assault rifle. About 70% of their parts are interchangeable. But the GRAZA complex is designed according to the Bullpup scheme. The magazine is located behind the firing mechanism. Therefore, outwardly, “GROZA” and AKS74U are not similar to each other. Today, the GRAZA grenade launcher and rifle complex is in service with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Weapons that fire underwater
Weapons that fire underwater were created only in the Soviet Union. No other country in the world had such weapons. For a long time, the great difficulty was the development of ammunition for . The fact is that an ordinary bullet is unstable when moving in water and immediately after the shot begins to tumble. Only domestic scientists managed to successfully solve this problem. To ensure stable movement of a bullet in water, the well-known physical phenomenon- cavitation. The idea is the following. The bullet was made longer. When it moves in water, a space is formed in the head part that is not filled with water. The bullet comes into contact with water only at the head. The body of the bullet itself is located in an air sac. The walls of this bag do not allow the bullet to deflect and its movement is stable.
Underwater pistol SPP
In the Soviet Union, two models of such weapons were created. The first of them is the SPP pistol. The pistol is non-automatic. Shooting is carried out alternately from four barrels. You can also shoot from an underwater pistol in the air. The swimmer's carryable ammunition is sixteen rounds. Three clips are on the swimmer's belt, and the fourth is loaded into the pistol.
Underwater special assault rifle APS
In his hands, the scuba diver holds an APS underwater assault rifle, which was developed after the pistol. The specifics of the use of underwater weapons determined the specifics of its design. The machine's magazine had to be made wide due to long length cartridge - fifteen centimeters. The large trigger guard allows you to use the weapon with thick gloves.
Special-purpose weapons are often inferior to general-arms weapons in many of their characteristics. Shorter aimed shooting range and worse bullet penetration. But there are special tasks that are either difficult or completely impossible to accomplish using conventional means. And as long as these tasks exist, special-purpose weapons will also exist.
Excerpt from documentary film"Silent special weapon"
Unfortunately, humanity is constantly trying to improve its weapons, to make them more modern and powerful. We offer an overview of the most dangerous weapons in the world, which have been tested and proven destructive force on practice. Pistols and machine guns are toys for big boys. True, they are not fun, since by pressing the trigger once, you can take someone's life.
The 9mm Uzi submachine gun is on par with larger submachine guns, but is easy to use in combat thanks to its small size. You can easily pack this weapon into a suitcase and transport it across the border; it fits perfectly on a tray with a lid. Despite its compact size, it is very powerful weapon. It is difficult to find an assault rifle with the same functionality, mobility and high rate of fire.
The M1911 pistol very often took part in dismantling mafia structures and was considered the most dangerous and popular weapon among bandits. For more than 50 years it has been a tool of terrorism and crime. The pistol is equipped with accessories such as a flashlight and a small optical sight. Often a 45-caliber pistol is used to carry out assassin orders. It shoots almost silently.
45mm light machine gun MG4 is one of the most dangerous weapons, ever produced by man, is on a par with the Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle. It is characterized by a high rate of fire and functionality. A special footrest allows you to install a machine gun for comfortable shooting everywhere. It can be installed on armored personnel carriers and fired from any vehicle. The damage this machine gun causes can be compared to that left after using a bazooka. The machine gun fires 770 bullets per minute.
Throughout history, this machine gun has claimed the lives of more than several hundred thousand people around the world. The AK-47 is a very powerful weapon, has a recognizable shape, its mere presence causes tension. The machine gun fires 600 bullets per minute.
It is in service with the army and detachments special purposes. Due to its light weight and ergonomic characteristics, the pistol has gained wide popularity among specialists. Despite its compact size, it is reliable, accurate, powerful and functional.
The new HK416 A5 machine gun does not repeat the mistakes of its “parents”. Among the new products is a winter-type trigger, which allows you to shoot with gloves, and the rate of fire does not decrease, and fingerprints do not remain on the weapon. It is equipped with a night vision scope and fires with high accuracy.
This is one of the most dangerous pistols in the world, its bullets can tear everything into thousands of pieces. Every time a shot is fired, the victim has no chance to escape. This is a powerful and dangerous pistol, capable of causing damage incompatible with life in close combat.
If you remember all the films about cowboys, it becomes clear that the most popular during showdowns in the Wild West would be Colt revolvers 45 caliber. Modern models have not lost their former glory. This is a high quality and very powerful weapon used by the police, as well as for hunting and sport shooting.
This rifle is a phantom assassin's dream, as it can be easily camouflaged and hits with precision and power. It can be considered as a weapon of the future. The rifle can be used both for routine combat missions and for missions of special importance and secrecy. The power of the shot is such that it is compared to the explosion of a grenade.
The Tracking Point rifle is considered the most dangerous small arms of those existing on the planet. The technologies used in its creation made it a rifle of the future in the truest sense of the word. The cost is $22,000, so a common person will not be able to purchase it. It is equipped with a laser sight and a computer that automatically monitors the victim and decides when to fire a successful shot. The computer calculates the shot time, range, and effectiveness based on various parameters, taking into account the wind force. The computer operates on WI-FI, records video, and records all information. It is not surprising that you can make calls from a rifle.
When designers come up with their “brainchildren”, they cannot even imagine that their
Loading...
