Terrorist attacks, unprecedented in their brutality, rocked Russia in the early 2000s. The terrorist attacks that took place in the country forced the employees of special units to reconsider the tactics of their actions. Never before has any of the world's elite counter-terrorist units had to conduct operations in such difficult conditions as Alpha and Vympel had to operate in during the hostage-taking at the Dubrovka theater complex and the school in Beslan.
The response to the increased terrorist threat was the request for the creation of new models of automatic weapons. As a result, by order of the FSB of Russia, the ShAK-12 assault automatic complex was created to arm the special units of the department. The weapon was designed by the designers of TsKIB SOO (Central Design Research Bureau for Sports and Hunting Weapons), which is a branch of the famous Tula KBP (Instrument Design Bureau named after Academician A. G. Shipunov).
This sample of small arms is an effective melee assault weapon. A distinctive feature of the ShAK-12 complex is the use of special large-caliber ammunition 12, 7x55 mm, which provide it with a guaranteed high stopping effect of a bullet while reducing the likelihood of hitting third parties due to the rapid loss of energy by the bullet with an increase in the firing distance. In close combat, the complex allows you to effectively defeat opponents who are hiding behind the walls of buildings, partitions, armor plates, as well as opponents in personal protective equipment. No bulletproof vest will save you from a SHAK-12 shot, and the stopping effect of a 12.7-mm bullet will be enough to guarantee the incapacitation of a terrorist, even under the influence of various anesthetic psychotropic substances. In this case, the weapon allows you to fire at the enemy in automatic mode. In 2018, on the occasion of the Day of the Gunsmith, the Tula KBP team of authors for "Development, testing, support and launching into production of a 12.7-mm powerful assault automatic complex SHAK-12" was awarded the Tula Region Prize in Science and Technology named after B. S. Stechkin, according to the official website of the enterprise.
Today, the Russian assault automatic complex SHAK-12 can be classified as one of the few small arms that are capable of automatic firing with such powerful ammunition of 12.7 mm caliber. The very idea of creating such an ammunition is not new; earlier in the United States, special.450 Bushmast and.50 Beowulf cartridges were already produced for modernized versions of the popular AR-15 carbines. However, even such "elephant" cartridges have a shorter sleeve length and a weight of gunpowder, the limit of their effective use is about 180 meters, while for cartridge 12.7x55 mm this is the average working distance at which the bullet retains its ballistic properties. In addition, unlike the Tula development, American models of small arms and ammunition for them are not adapted for solving service and combat tasks, they are used only as a hunting or sporting weapon.
The heart of the Russian complex is the ASh-12 assault rifle, which in recent years has begun to appear at exhibitions, for example, was demonstrated in 2017 at the Interpolitex exhibition in Moscow. This model is a large-caliber fully automatic weapon capable of firing powerful 12.7x55 mm ammunition both with single shots and fully automatically at distances of 200-400 meters. In the media, the new weapon was often called the automatic version of the VSSK "Exhaust". However, such a comparison is incorrect, although the same sleeve for 12, 7x55 mm ammunition, the same bullpup layout diagram, and some external similarity of the two models have in common with the silent large-caliber sniper rifle SHAK-12. However, the difference between them is quite significant. The VSSK is still a non-automatic sniper rifle with a sliding bolt, and the ASh-12 is a full-fledged machine gun with a different principle of action - a short barrel stroke.
The two models are united by the fact that they were developed within the framework of a single weapons complex, ordered by the Special Forces Center of the FSB of Russia. According to Nikolai Komarov, head of the TsKIB SOO department, the terms of reference for these samples of small arms appeared after the terrorist attack at school # 1 in Beslan. The soldiers of the Russian special forces wanted to get at their disposal a weapon capable of confidently hitting an enemy hiding behind various obstacles or protected by heavy armor. In addition to the high penetrating ability of the bullet, it was required to provide its powerful stopping effect.
A small digression should be made here. The standard army ammunition for the AK-74M assault rifle is cartridge 5, 45x39 mm. If you put it next to the cartridge for the ShAK-12, then the cartridge from the Kalashnikov assault rifle will resemble a pin, which only emphasizes that they were created to solve different problems. Army ammunition is the fruit of a compromise, mainly between armor-piercing, ballistics and bullet barriers. Soviet designers worked for a very long time to balance dozens of different parameters, creating this truly versatile tool. But special forces, unlike conventional infantry units, do not need compromises, so the 12, 7x55 mm cartridge can be called a kind of extreme. Such ammunition was originally created to guarantee to knock the enemy down in close combat.
It is important to understand that a severe, sometimes even fatal injury to a person may not have an immediate effect. Going into a rage, experiencing an adrenaline rush, not to mention the possible use of various psychotropic drugs or alcoholic products, a person can significantly increase the pain threshold and endurance. There are cases when the enemy continued to fight, having received several gunshot wounds, for example, intoxicated militants, who received several hits of 5, 45-mm bullets in the corps, continued to fight for another 20-30 minutes, until they died of blood loss. This is absolutely unacceptable during the assault and the release of hostages, when a terrorist must be neutralized instantly, and the time counts by seconds. The only way is to immediately knock him out or knock him down in the literal sense of the word. And here the stopping action of the bullet comes into play, which is calculated taking into account the mass, speed and caliber of the ammunition. In this regard, cartridges for the ShAK-12 are undisputed champions. In addition to the large diameter, the bullet of such a cartridge weighs from 18 to 33 grams, for comparison, the bullet of the AK-74M assault rifle weighs only 4 grams. The manufacturer guarantees that the 12.7x55 mm cartridge will neutralize the enemy even if it hits on a tangent. In addition, a bulletproof vest will not protect against such a bullet. The developers assure that even if he somehow detains the bullet, the blow will be so heavy that it will not save a person's life, the internal organs simply will not tolerate the forces of the blow.
12, 7x55 cartridges: armor-piercing, with an aluminum bullet and subsonic with a lead bullet, photo: popmech.ru
In this case, the ammunition for the ShAK-12 automatic assault system is somewhat different from the ammunition for the Exhaust rifle. For example, in the automatic complex, the cartridge case of the 12, 7x55 mm cartridge received a slightly modified filling, and automatic bullets were made shorter and have a blunt end: it is necessary for a greater stopping effect of the ammunition (of course, their effective firing range also decreased at the same time). Today, at least three different types of cartridges for the ShAK-12 are known. The first type is the armor-piercing cartridge, which has a steel core bullet. This ammunition is designed to engage targets that are hiding behind obstacles or protected by some kind of armor. According to some reports, such a bullet pierces through a steel sheet with a thickness of 16 mm or body armor of the 5th protection class. The second type of ammunition is a cartridge with a subsonic bullet (subsonic flight speed), it is used in cases where a PBS is installed on the machine gun - a silent firing device. The third type of ammunition is a cartridge with a light aluminum bullet, which has a strong expansive effect and provides maximum stopping effect. This bullet also has an anti-ricocheting effect and can be most effectively used indoors and in confined spaces. With the help of this ammunition, you can hit an enemy who is under the influence of potent psychotropic substances or drugs that significantly increase the pain threshold.
Together with the ASh-12 assault rifle, two types of plastic box magazines can be used - for 10 and 20 rounds, respectively, the second is a more assault version, suitable for a serious clash. Such a store capacity is associated with the imposed restrictions on the dimensions and weight of the product. Various muzzle devices, differing in size and functionality, can be used with the assault rifle. For example, a tactical silencer is quite compact and does not have the function of completely suppressing the sound of a shot. It can perform the function of a flame arrester and a silencer, providing a certain suppression of the sound of a shot and muzzle flash, making it difficult for the enemy to determine the location of the shooter. A full-fledged silent firing device is also available, which is significantly larger. It can be used in conjunction with subsonic cartridges. The use of such a PBS is relevant in cases where it is necessary to ensure the secrecy of the shooter's work, for example, at night. At the same time, fire from the ASh-12, if necessary, can be fired without any muzzle device.
SHAK-12, photo: popmech.ru
It is worth noting that it was the use of ammunition with various performance characteristics that dictated the relatively unusual design scheme of the ShAK-12. Today, all over the world, the most common scheme for assault rifles and assault rifles is the scheme with the removal of powder gases to the piston in the gas outlet tube. But the use of such a design did not allow to ensure the stability of the product with ammunition with different energies. For this reason, the creators of the complex turned to other technical solutions. They found that the most optimal scheme for ensuring the stability of the product would be an automatic system based on recoil energy with a short barrel stroke. The move is quite unusual, taking into account that such a scheme is typical for short-barreled models of weapons chambered for a pistol cartridge.
In order to make the weapon as light and compact as possible, the developers turned to the bullpup layout scheme, which was also used in the Exhaust large-caliber silent sniper rifle. With this scheme, the store is located behind the fire control handle, and not in front of it. The mass of the assault rifle does not exceed 5.2 kg, which is a modest indicator for a weapon of this caliber. To lighten the weight of the product, most of the machine body was made of shock-resistant plastic, the rest of the parts were made of aluminum alloy. Four Picatinny rails can be installed on the machine, the longest is located on top of the receiver. The shooter can use it to install various sighting devices or a handle for carrying weapons.
