Those crazy Russians

[kcmarine]

I'm pretty sure most of us have seen at least one weird invention of the Izhmash or Tula factories, but this one takes the cake for me.

It's made to fire both underwater and in land engagements. It fires the 5.45x39, but it's rounds are made to be hydrodynamically sound.


What will they think of next?

 

[JonB]

Fugly is what I think. ;-)

 

[PTK]

I assume you're taking about the second one, since the first one is a cartridge-powered dartgun.

 

[flyboy1788]

Calling those fugly would be insulting to the word fugly

 

[Picard]

Both look like the same rifle so maybe the rifle can be used to accept both the dart cartridges and 5.45x39 cartridges.

 

[SDC]

Definitely based on the APS (5.66x39mm "dart"), but it's beyond me why they'd want to use that design when they've got the AK-74 and the AN-94 to work with.

APS:

 

[kcmarine]

Actually, they're the same gun. You just stick a different magazine in.

 

[Beagle-zebub]

I just wonder whether they really ever had occasion to put those things to serious use. Is there really any practical value to an underwater AK?

Answer: consider the fact that capitalist countries never pursued this technology.

 

[SDC]

They really only started working on these after it came out that H&K had the underwater P11, so they must've figured that "Hey, we need something like that too!" (and they currently issue both the APS and a 4-barrelled underwater pistol called the SPP-1M). When Bush I was meeting with Gorbachev(?) , they had teams of divers armed with these patrolling the water around the ship they were meeting on, if that counts as a "serious use".

SPP-1M:

 

[Frog48]

I read a thing once, it was something to the effect of:

If you fired a gun underwater, the muzzle blast would cause a sudden, drastic change in water pressure, likely causing internal bleeding and/or organ damage.

 

[WardenWolf]

I've seen videos of one. A person was firing it full auto underwater, sustained. He showed no signs of discomfort.

I imagine Russia might have put a few holes in Greenpeace terrorist vessels from time to time.

 

[benEzra]

Definitely based on the APS (5.66x39mm "dart"), but it's beyond me why they'd want to use that design when they've got the AK-74 and the AN-94 to work with.

I suspect the cables and such in the AN-94 probably don't take kindly to prolonged immersion in seawater.

As far as why the AK-74 design wasn't the starting point, it may have been hard to maintain receiver stiffness with a receiver long enough to feed those darts.

As to the "why", I would imagine that these were intended for use against divers, or possibly against Navy attack dolphins trained to protect ships in port from hostile divers.



No, that's not a Photoshop, and that's a camera on the dolphin's right flipper.

 

[Mike U.]

What's he packin' under that left fin?

 

[skeet king]

who are they going to be fighting underwater? I'll tempered cod?

 

[max popenker]

Ok, heres the description of the gun: ASM-DT 'Sea Lion'

 

[HorseSoldier]

Pretty innovative design, though definitely for a very small niche of users.

 

[JR47]

The world of marine combat is extremely small for personal weaponry. However, it is something that most Western operations have ignored. Other than HK, who else had developed anything on this side of the playing field?

It's niches like these that can shift a local balance of power, until the other side equips themselves equally.

 

[heron]

Shark safari!

 

[benEzra]

who are they going to be fighting underwater? I'll tempered cod?

They were probably thinking U.S. military divers, or U.S. military patrol dolphins, would be my guess. Think SEAL "red team" type raids on U.S. naval bases around the world.