Not so long ago, lenta.ru was born with another masterpiece on small arms and weapons called "American experience and Russian machine guns." In all the articles of the Lenta on this topic, domestic weapons are assigned a second role, but the leading one in technology, in promising developments, and now experience, is given to Western weapons thought, and, first of all, American ones. In uneven breathing towards the West, many well-known personalities in the media space, from bloggers to weapons manufacturers, are noted, but when this uneven breathing is superimposed on the blatant illiteracy in the covered topic, and even with poorly disguised disregard for domestic achievements, this is already too much.
The author of the article with the subtitle makes it clear that he will not ask anyone - "why", he will explain to everyone why. Let's say the author is in the subject, but what is an "assault" machine gun? And how does it differ from manual, easel or aviation? In any case, the state standard of weapons terms 28653-90 does not recognize the term "assault" either for rifles, or for machine guns, or for pistols. Okay, weapon terms, with due indulgence, you can forgive, but how to relate to this: What, sorry, reviews? Presumably, from the word "compliment" a new adjective has been created in the Russian language. Okay, but then in what context should we consider it? For example, I can tell my object of adoration such compliments about her merits, about which she has no idea, but she will immediately become compliant. But I will not be distracted.
In Russia, two new light machine guns of 5, 45 mm caliber are being tested at once. One was developed at ZiD by order of the Russian Guard, the other was an initiative development of the Kalashnikov concern, which the military became interested in. In the early 2000s, a similar concept was being tested for the United States Marine Corps. We are talking about "special weapons for fighting in urban areas and enclosed spaces", and which should be able to quickly replace the barrel and combined power - machine gun belt and standard AK-74 / RPK-74 magazines. What is so special about urban and indoor battles that they require combined power and quick barrel changes? Increased density of fire? Indoors? The giraffe is big. The main and obvious thing is that the requirements for a new machine gun:
largely reproduce the concept of the famous FN Minimi machine gun from the Belgian company FN Herstal.
Let's start with the fact that the authorship of the concept of a machine gun with a combined power does not belong to the Belgians. Long before them, it had already been tested on the following models:
RP-46, created by A. I. Shilin, P. P. Polyakov and A. A. Dubinin on the basis of the earlier DPM Degtyarev machine gun. The ribbon feed in this machine gun was carried out through an adapter inserted into the receiver window of the receiver.
Czech machine guns CZ 52 and CZ 52/57 (Czech designations vz.52 vz.52 / 57), differing in the type of cartridge used - Czech 7.62x45 or Soviet 7.62x39 and entered into service in 1952 and 1957, respectively. Perhaps, indeed, the first machine guns with a combined power supply.
Experienced machine gun Korobov - with belt-magazine feed TKB-516M, which participated in the competition 1955-1958.
In 1971, on the instructions of the GRAU of the USSR Ministry of Defense, development work began on the Poplin theme.
Many things that seem obvious to us in the usual designs, in fact, undergo many years of study in calculations, prototypes and tests. The amount of work that goes to the dump is many times greater than the output of a ready-made solution. Often, the very formulation of the task for the developer is vague and carries a large share of uncertainty that needs to be eliminated so that it becomes clear - what do we want? The Poplin work is a classic example of this situation.
The need to create a belt-fed machine gun or with the possibility of a combined one, as an element of increasing overall efficiency, had to be verified in conjunction with the main issue - determining the tactical niche of such a model in the general weapons system
The task on the topic was posed as an increase in combat effectiveness by 1.5 times in relation to the RPK-74. I have already written here about what the coefficient 1.5 is and why it cannot be 1.4.
The creation of a machine gun with a combined power supply was only one of three solutions to this problem. The other two were related to the modifications of the RPK-74 itself. This was the development of high-capacity magazines like drum magazines for RPK and disk magazines for DA, and an adapter for the type of adapter for RP-46. The design of the machine gun in the process of working on it evolved from a layout with a receiver on the left side and a magazine at the bottom (PU, PU-1) to an arrangement with an upper location of the receiver and a magazine on the left (PU-2, PU-21), together with the concept from " a magazine-fed machine gun with the ability to use a belt "to a" belt-fed machine gun, in which if necessary, you can use the store". By the way, the Belgians came to the same opinion. The operating instructions for the M249 SAW say:
« As an emergency measure in SAW can be used 20 and 30 cartridge the shops …»
At the meeting on the results of the topic "Poplin", the head of the Small Arms Department of the GRAU, Major General Smolin, said that "GRAU does not see the point in returning to large-capacity stores." Obviously, there were claims to them on the experience of operating the PKK in terms of reliability. It was not for nothing that it was equipped with two magazines for 75 and eight box magazines for 40 rounds. And the mass-dimensional characteristics were not in favor of the drums. Compare the weight of the PKK with the loaded drum magazine 6.8 kg, with the box magazine - 5.6 kg. The difference is 1.2 kg for 35 rounds. Or the weight of ammunition for 300 rounds in four drums - 6 kg and 4.2 kg for 320 rounds in eight box magazines. As for the tape, its use in a light machine gun has its drawbacks. It takes more time to change the belt than to change the magazine. The value of this resource especially increases in conditions of combat operations with increased dynamics, for which, in theory, an "assault" machine gun is being created. Replacing the tape requires more manipulation, which means more opportunity to make a mistake. In any case, not a word was said about the tape at the said meeting. Apparently, the customer saw the modernization of the PKK in the final of the work. The machine gun was tested at TsNIITochmash, which issued a conclusion on the possibility of bringing its reliability to the level of technical requirements based on the latest modifications. At the Rzhev test site, in addition to tactical and technical characteristics, it was necessary to determine a tactical niche for launchers, but not a word was said about this in the conclusion of the test site.
R&D on the topic "Poplin" ended with a negative result. But with what a wonderful negative result! I will mention one fact that the vast majority of readers will leave indifferent. One of the indicators of an automatic weapon that characterizes its reliability is the stability of the speed of the bolt carrier in the rear position. Since with a belt feed, part of the energy of the bolt carrier is spent on pulling the belt, ensuring equality of speeds for both types of feed without using a gas regulator is a task of great complexity.and only specialists who know a lot about solving engineering problems can truly appreciate its solution. In the PU-21 machine gun, the difference between the speeds of the bolt carrier for the belt and the magazine was only 0.2-0.4 m / s, which provided the same power reliability for both types. And this is how the phrase from the manual for the American machine gun sounds completely:
As an emergency measure at SAW can be used 20 and 30 cartridge magazines, but this increases the likelihood of delays in firing.
The results of experiments on optimization of automation parameters formed the basis of the candidate's dissertation, which M. E. Dragunov defended in 1984. High-capacity drum and disk magazines were developed within the framework of the topic. I think that the 96-round magazine that comes with the new Izhevsk machine gun did not arise from scratch, but I have no doubt that it will be less reliable than the standard 45-round magazine. History on the topic "Poplin" on behalf of one of the developers - M. Ye. Dragunova is described in the magazine "Master-gun", № 84, 2004 in the article "Our minimi". Gourmets of engineering romance are strongly encouraged to read.
As such, the appearance of the FN Minimi was not exclusively Western innovation. The thoughts of our and the Belgian engineers developed in the same direction. This was expressed not only in the concept of a machine gun, in which stores played an auxiliary function, but also in a similar layout. As Mikhail Evgenievich recalls, our designers even had the idea of patenting the PU-21 layout even before they knew about the existence of the same one in FN Minimi.
The further fate of the two machine guns was different. The Soviet development, despite the possibility of bringing its reliability to the required requirements, remained unclaimed by the customer. The Belgian went into the series, but its low reliability and weak functionality did not achieve the loud glory of the machine gun.
