Silent weapons of the world. Special weapons of Russia (13 photos)

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 as powerful as 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 a machine with the same functionality, mobility and at a high pace shooting.

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 gun 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 stand allows you to install a machine gun for convenient shooting anywhere. 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 special forces. 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 45-caliber revolvers. Modern models have not lost past 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 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

Weapon special purpose. 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 highlight weapons with significantly reduced level the sound of a shot, usually called “silent” or “silent and flameless firing weapons.” 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. Sniper rifles with particularly high shooting accuracy. 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 a 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. Appeared in last years some short-barreled samples large-caliber weapons(in some places they are 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 wearing personal armor.

4. Armament of combat swimmers. We do not mean here weapons designed for air combat, which are only delivered under water. We are talking 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 external form other items or made specifically for installation in such items. Disguising a blade, spring, firearm or pneumatic throwing device as a seemingly harmless and not too remarkable object that looks quite familiar in everyday life (a piece of clothing, accessories, hand luggage, a tool, 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 the types of damaging elements, design 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.

William Godfrey De Liesle was interested in weapons from the age of 16, and by the beginning of World War II he worked in the Ministry of Aviation. Youthful imagination and practical experience gave excellent results. The sound of his brainchild's shot could not be heard even in the dead of night; the firing range reached up to 250 meters. According to eyewitnesses, the loudest source of sound was the strike of the firing pin on the cartridge primer.

In order not to give away his location, the shooter had to ensure that the target was hit with the first shot. In almost all comparative characteristics, "De Liesl" was better than others: the degree of suppression of the sound of a shot, accuracy, shooting accuracy... It is not surprising that work was found for it in the jungle South-East Asia. Soon after the war, most of De Liesl was destroyed: the authorities feared that they would lose control and the weapons could fall into the hands of criminals.

9-mm silent pistol "Welrod Mk1" (Welrod Mk1), UK

The superiority of the enemy in 1940 forced Great Britain to change its tactics in fighting Germany. Direct clashes between regular units did not bode well, while at the same time, to successfully carry out sabotage operations behind enemy lines, special-purpose weapons were required.

In 1942, in a laboratory located in London, one of the most effective pistols of the Second World War was created - the 9-mm silent Velrod Mk1 pistol. An integrated silencer eliminated mechanical sounds at the time of the shot and after it. Luminous dots on the sight and front sight helped to aim at night.

The pistol was designed for shooting by an experienced shooter at a distance of up to 45 meters during the day and up to 18 meters at night; at a greater distance, shooting was considered ineffective. The weapon was used during secret operations in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam.

Self-loading pistol PSS (“Vul”), USSR

In the USSR, the creation of special-purpose weapons was carried out in complete secrecy. In practice, there was no urgent need for such weapons. Nevertheless, the work of the designers A. Levchenko and Yu. Krylov was appreciated. In 1983, a “special self-loading pistol”, also known as “Vul,” was adopted for service.

The sound level of a PSS shot is between the sound of a 4.5 mm air rifle and the clapping of palms. Considering the purpose of the weapon - silently destroying the enemy at short distances - the pistol was quite compact and easily fit in a coat pocket.

The production of PSS was entrusted to the well-known Tula Arms Plant. The cartridges were made of hard alloy, with a brass leading band in front and a small recess at the rear. A heavy bullet pierced a steel helmet from a distance of 20 meters, and a 5 mm thick steel sheet from 30 meters.

Pistol Mark 3 Model 0, USA

At the end of the 1960s, similar tasks were set in the United States to develop “silent” pistols using powerful cartridges. In 1972, a similar device was patented and soon put into service under the name MkZ Model 0.

The key goal of the project was to create a universal waterproof silencer that a combat swimmer could use not only under water, but also immediately after going ashore. If the pistol and silencer were transported separately by the swimmer, the muzzle of the barrel was sealed with a rubber cap. The silencer successfully fulfilled its purpose, but was subject to rapid wear; its service life was only 30 shots.

MP-5SD submachine gun, Germany

The Heckler und Koch company created the 9-mm MP5 submachine gun, which gained fame and commercial success. Within model range“silent” models with the SD index were developed, equipped with an integrated silencer.

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 us consider only certain areas, paying more attention domestic samples, 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 on silent weapon criminal structures and intelligence agencies paid attention; this is how it began to acquire its 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 about domestic revolvers and rifles with “BRAMIT” devices used partisan detachments and special groups of the GRU and NKVD behind Nazi lines are rarely remembered. 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 you know, sound is oscillatory movements 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 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 he appeared 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. 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 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 an automatic or rifle cartridge below the sonic one in an assault rifle, assault rifle or sniper rifle, you need to greatly reduce 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 using weapons, 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, Yu. Frolov, E. Kornilova, it was created unique family weapons 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 samples, sighting range does not exceed 400 x 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 automatic 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

Masked firearms is a “harmless”-looking object, inside of which a shooting device is hidden. 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 put into service 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, the British Special Operations Executive and the American Office of Strategic Services seriously considered crossbows (with a spring bow 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, in special operations Any tool can be useful. 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 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 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 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.

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 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. 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 invention department of the US Department of Defense refused to accept proposals for consideration " 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, 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 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 effective 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 to find 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 generated 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

Silent weapons have been the dream of hunters and military personnel since the advent of firearms. From the point of view of hunting, everything is clear - if you shoot and miss, the animal will run away, frightened by the sound of the shot. Track him down again later. It is clear that you can use the same hunting crossbow, but firearms provided a disproportionately greater guarantee of successful hunting of the animal, due to the shot range and destructive power. However, hunting enthusiasts did not have the resources to create some kind of silent weapon.

From a military point of view, everything is somewhat different. With the advent of firearms in Europe in the 14th century and its subsequent development, the strategy of battles changed dramatically several times, starting from those times when soldiers of two warring armies stood opposite and hit each other with volleys from smoothbore guns, and ending with modern military operations. In the tactics of combined arms combat, many techniques have appeared that use the power, accuracy and range of shots from rifled weapons. However, even here silent firearms would seem to be out of place. Machine guns and rifles are thundering around, why hide the sound of a shot against this background?

However, in military affairs there has always been separate direction- targeted painful strikes on the enemy’s vulnerable spots. For example, capture an enemy commander or “tongue”, destroy a couple of important officers, blow up a fuel depot, and so on. Yes, all this was and is called special operations. And in this case, one of the requirements is secrecy, which is why silent weapons were required.

The first methods of muffling the sound of a shot appeared and even received a patent in late XIX century, but they took the matter seriously only before the Second World War. It was then that the military and intelligence services (where would we be without them) paid attention to existing inventions and, based on them, began their own and successful developments.

It became clear quite quickly that there are only two main ways to make a shot more or less silent, and both of them involve suppression shock wave(also called a muzzle wave) of spent powder gases that fly out of the barrel after the bullet. The first method is to reduce the pressure and temperature of the powder gases. The second method is to cut off the powder gases in the barrel. In fact, active work was carried out in these two areas.

It is worth noting that in addition to damping the shock wave, there were also secondary issues that nevertheless affected the noiselessness of the shot. This is the ballistic pop when a bullet leaves the barrel, and the clanging and noise made by the moving elements of the weapon. The pop was removed by reducing the speed of the bullet, the clanging was removed by improving the mechanics of the weapon. Modern silent weapons use subsonic cartridges for firing and have special dampers and more advanced trigger kinematics in order to achieve sufficient noiselessness for the assigned tasks.

But let’s return to the methods of extinguishing the shock wave, which is formed when hot powder gases escape from the barrel.

Method of dispersing powder gases

You take a metal chamber, inside of which there are many partitions - they can be metal, plastic or rubber. Powder gases enter these cells, are partially dispersed, and partially cooled. In any case, they slow down so much that they cannot outrun the bullet. Therefore, the shot is noticeably quieter and is heard a little later than its real time. This is exactly how the weapon silencer we are used to works, or more precisely, a silent flameless firing device (SPBS) or simply a silent firing device (SDS).

The first working model of a silencer in history was created in 1910 by Hiram Percy Maxim, the son of the inventor of the famous machine gun. However, its silencer was intended for those same hunters that we talked about at the very beginning, and was not even considered for the army, special services, and especially for mass production.

But the first serial weapon silencer based on the principle of dispersing powder gases was the Bramit silencer, compatible with a revolver and a Mosin rifle. It was developed in the late forties by the Mitin brothers, showed its effectiveness and was adopted for service. However, it was necessary to combine the Bramit with special cartridges of reduced power - this was some difficulty.

Vintorez is a silent sniper rifle for special forces, with an integrated silencer.

In parallel with this, British intelligence officers were actively working on weapons with silencers. They developed a fun design called Welrod. Essentially a pistol with a silencer integrated into the barrel. But the partitions between the chambers were natural rubber - the bullet pierced them, lost speed and flew on, and the sound of the shot was successfully dissipated. It is clear that only the first few shots were really quiet. It was believed that the system could withstand up to 15. However, “disposable silent pistols” turned out to be very effective - even the resistance forces used them.

Nowadays, there are a great many options for PBS and, one might say, for every taste - both as choke tubes (attached to the barrel), and integrated (they are one with the barrel), for hunting, for the army, for special forces (there are so-called tactical silencers are small in size, for ease of work in confined spaces, “smearing” the sound of a shot).

Method of cutting off powder gases

To cut off powder gases, a special “silent cartridge” is required. The solution in this case was quite simple - they took a reduced caliber bullet, a wad-piston that accelerates this bullet and then locks it in the sleeve (cutting off powder gases in the cartridge) or in the barrel (cutting off powder gases in the barrel), and a reduced charge of gunpowder so that there is less gas. The result is excellent, but we still need to come up with a system for extracting the wad. But if you use manual reloading after each shot or the drum principle, then there are no problems.

One of the first weapons working exactly according to this principle was created in the USSR by the same Mitin brothers. Only 10 years earlier. A superstructure was mounted at the end of a conventional revolver, which blocked the ejected wad-piston, but let the bullet through. The wad, it turns out, went completely through the barrel and got stuck. But cunning designers built a drum into the attachment, which rotated synchronously with the main one. Having shot the ammunition, it was necessary to manually push the wads out of this drum. It was difficult, slow, and special bullets were needed.

Experimental "Nagan" of the Mitin brothers

Gurevich's silent revolver worked on a similar principle. Only there the cartridge was much more complicated - water, paraffin, a steel wad, in short - a too bulky and unreliable design, which they quickly decided to abandon.

However, Soviet designers were not intimidated by complex ammunition. They, for example, created the “Mouthpiece” ejection cartridge, which worked in conjunction with the “Woodpecker” single-shot pistol and the “Storm” carbine, almost according to the same principle that the Mitina brothers used - that is, with a barrel attachment.

And then, somewhere in the late seventies, a special cartridge was developed - SP-4. Here the whole secret was in the bullet itself - a strong sleeve, a durable piston, an additionally reinforced constriction. The gunpowder ignited, the piston flew forward, pushed the bullet, and became blocked in the constriction. There is almost no sound, but it was better not to touch the cartridges for another 30 minutes, since gas under pressure is an unpredictable thing.

The silent QSPR revolver used by US soldiers during the Vietnam War also worked on a similar principle. The fighters really needed something that would not jam them in narrow tunnels. And this was one of the earliest uses of closed-circuit cartridges in the United States.

Each method of muffling the sound of a shot has its drawbacks. A weapon silencer, for example, does not completely eliminate the sound - the pop is still audible, except that its source is difficult to determine. Special silent cartridges are expensive and difficult to produce, and they cannot be used on automatic weapons. There are even artillery silencers.

However, silent weapons based on both operating principles continue to be tested, including in combat conditions. PBS, for example, are almost always used by special forces when working indoors, since the sounds of shots at least do not deafen their own.