Due to the fact that the domestic ASh-12 assault rifle will be offered on the foreign market, it will not be superfluous to look at this weapon again, evaluate its positive and negative aspects, and also clarify certain points that relate to ammunition.
The prospects and specific markets for the sale of weapons are not yet clear in view of the not very warm relations between the countries, however, Rostec has already announced its participation in the Defexpo India-2018 exhibition. Of course, there is no such thing that a product is shown, but they did not start selling it, therefore certain conclusions can be drawn.
It makes no sense to write another article about this weapon, in which all the same information as in previous materials will once again be given, however, some points that were not previously explained or were not described accurately enough are worth considering, but you need to start, first of all, with ammunition.
Cartridges for ASh-12
Very often, if not in 90% of cases, a photo of cartridges 12, 7x55 is added to the description of the ASh-12 assault rifle, yes, indeed, the weapon is powered by these very ammunition, it is with this metric designation, only the photographs are usually not ammunition for ASh- 12, and rifle cartridges "Exhaust", which have the same metric designation. This confusion leads to the fact that you can often find incorrect data on cartridges and, as a result, a misconception about the capabilities of the weapon.
If you pay attention to the image with ammunition, then only the first four from the top in the first column are directly related to the ASh-12, but in the second column, from the second to the fourth, the ammunition is already used in the VSSK "Exhaust". Despite the same metric designation and the same cartridge case, it is obvious that the ammunition is completely different and will have different parameters from each other.
Oddly enough, but in open sources there is no data on either the weight of the bullets or their initial velocities, there is only a brief description of 4 types of ammunition.
The design of the ASh-12 assault rifle
Despite the fact that there is more than enough data on the weapon itself, inaccuracies are found here as well. Apparently someone, one of the first to write an article about this weapon, called the ASh-12 an "enlarged" Thunderstorm, from which the comparison came, which is absolutely incorrect. Despite the fact that both machines have a bullpup layout, they are completely different in their design and operating principles of the automation.
Now, most self-loading rifles and machine guns use part of the powder gases discharged from the bore to recharge. Automation, built on this principle, in various versions, has already become a "classic" for certain categories of weapons, which makes the ASh-12 machine gun not the most common in design. For reloading, this weapon does not use part of the powder gases, reloading is carried out due to recoil energy with a short barrel stroke, however, the barrel bore is locked when the bolt is turned.
The main reason for the use of such a scheme for the operation of automatic weapons is not the most pleasant recoil when firing, in particular when firing a "burst". With such an automation system, the recoil impulse becomes extended in time, which is positively perceived by the shooter, which means that the weapon becomes not only more comfortable when used, but also more stable when firing. In addition, with proper workmanship, weapons of this design are easier to maintain. The disadvantage is the relatively low accuracy of firing, which in this case is not particularly important in view of the short distances of use.
Competitors of the ASh-12 assault rifle
Since the weapon enters the market, it would be nice to look at those samples that can compete with the domestic machine gun. Unfortunately, it is not possible to give an accurate assessment of the competitiveness of the ASh-12 without specific figures for its ammunition, for the same reason it is not easy to find competitors for the domestic assault rifle.
If we take, for comparison, cartridges with heavy bullets, intended primarily so that even an elephant crouches when hit, then the.50 Beowulf cartridge is remembered. In addition to a heavy bullet with a caliber of 12, 7 millimeters, this ammunition has another big plus, namely the design of the sleeve. Despite the large caliber, the bottom is smaller than the diameter of the case itself and corresponds to the dimensions of the cartridge 7, 62x39. Thus, many bolt-action rifles can use this ammunition after changing the barrel, if the receiver allows it. Self-loading weapons are unlikely to be able to painlessly switch from one cartridge to another. For the cartridge variant with a bullet mass of 19 grams, the following parameters are characteristic. With a barrel length of 610 millimeters, the muzzle velocity of the bullet is 570 meters per second, respectively, the kinetic energy of such a bullet will be 3160 Joules. In total with a semi-shell or expansive bullet, a hit with such kinetic energy on an unprotected target will only require one, you will not have to shoot a second time.
An even more "interesting" ammunition is the.50 Alaskan cartridge, which is very close in metric designation to 12.7x55, namely 12.7x53. For a cartridge with a bullet weighing 34 grams, which the powder charge launches at a speed of 516 meters per second, the kinetic energy corresponds to 4500 Joules.
In fact, this list can be continued for a very long time, since there are more than a dozen of such ammunition. Here you can add cartridges from Winchester and from Colt, but the vast majority of these ammunition have one thing in common, they are intended for hunting a large animal that is knocked down with one shot, the range of such ammunition, although wide, but it does not have armor-piercing, and especially two-bullet cartridges.
Of course, there are cartridge options that are closer to military requirements. For example.50 Hushpuppy. This ammunition, by the way, in its idea is very close to the domestic SC-130, namely the installation of a bullet from 12, 7x99 in another sleeve, our designers also did with the cartridge 12, 7x108. It is really possible to draw parallels between these cartridges, but this will already apply to VSSK "Exhaust" and its foreign counterparts.
Will there be demand for ASh-12?
First of all, you need to pay attention that such a machine gun is a very specific weapon. It is for this reason that there are no direct analogues with him, at least widely known. This uniqueness of the domestic machine is explained by a very narrow range of tasks in which it will be irreplaceable. This will already affect sales. The fact that the weapon is powered by non-standard cartridges, which will also have to be purchased, will also not benefit sales.
To be objective, the ASh-12 will obviously not be widely used, even if it is offered in combination with RSh and VSSK "Exhaust" at the lowest possible price. Most likely, weapons will be of interest to countries in which there is an internal terrorist threat, and since counter-terrorist organizations are usually few in number, it means that they will need not tens of thousands of weapons, especially highly specialized weapons.
