The optical sights purchased by the Russian Ministry of Defense for Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns, due to a number of errors, deprive the shooter of the opportunity to conduct a fire duel - aimed shooting at the main target, and also have a low probability of hitting other targets.
The revised version of the article, which was published in the "Bulletin of the Academy of Military Sciences" No. 4 for 2013.
Some shooting errors are determined by the design of the scope. Of these errors, the greatest impact on the shooting results is exerted by:
• error in determining the range;
• aiming error;
• rounding of the sight setting.
When shooting with an open mechanical sight and an eye method for determining the distance to the target, errors in determining the range and aiming dominate among the errors of shooting in height [1, p. 129]. For example, when firing from an AKM assault rifle at a distance of 500m, these errors are:
Average errors of shooting in height Meters (% of total error)
Determination of range 0, 7 ÷ 1, 11m (56, 6 ÷ 63, 5%)
Pointers 0, 5 ÷ 0, 75m (28, 9 ÷ 29, 0%)
Rounding of the sight installation 0, 17 m (3, 4 ÷ 1, 5%)
FIG. 1. Excerpt from table 6 [1, p. 130].
An error in determining the range leads to the fact that the shooter sets the wrong sight and thus shifts the middle point of impact (STP) up or down from the aiming point - the center of the target. 0.7m from the center of even a tall figure means that the STP and the center of burst dispersion are shifted to the target contour. And 1, 11m means that they are taken out of the contours of even such a high goal. The aiming error increases the dispersion of single shots and STP bursts.
Obviously, given in FIG. 1 values of shooting errors, the probability of hitting the target is small. The column "% of total error" shows that under these conditions of shooting, errors in determining the range and aiming dominate in the total error and amount to 92.5% (!) Of the total error in shooting.
If the range is determined using even the simplest rangefinder scale of an optical sight, with the help of which the weapon is aimed, then the errors in determining the range and aiming are much less and even cease to be dominant in the total firing error [1, p. 129].
That is, the optical sight multiplies the deviation of the STP and the center of dispersion of bursts from the center of the target, therefore, dramatically increases the probability of hitting. Therefore, in recent years, many armies of the world have been actively equipping not only sniper rifles with optical sights, but also automatic small arms. And there is no alternative to this process.
But optical sights have different designs, and the errors in determining the range, aiming and rounding of the sight installation for each design are different. Therefore, the equipment of Russian automatic small arms with optical sights in itself does not guarantee that the probability of hitting from our weapons will reach the level reached by a potential enemy. It is necessary that our new optical sights have no greater error rates than the world's best models.
In this article, Russian sights are compared with the most innovative of the passive optical sights - the ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) sights of the American company Trijicon, which are being used by the US Army. For an adequate assessment of our scopes, let's first evaluate the ACOG.
ACOG - Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight
"The width of the horizontal marks on the line of bullet fall in ACOG corresponds to the average width of the male shoulders (19 inches) at this range" - Operator's Manual [2, p. 19, hereinafter translated by the author]. The width of the square is equal to the width of the shoulders at a distance of 300m.
FIG. 2. Aiming scheme with ACOG, Operator's Manual [2, p.18].
That is, these sights use a new method of measuring the range to the target: the range is determined not by the angular height, but by the angular width of the target. The shooter is only required to choose that horizontal risk, the width of which is equal to the width of the target's shoulders. And measuring range and setting the aiming angle - in one step! Extremely fast, simple and intuitive, even for a non-professional.
Note the following in particular:
• By the angular width, you can accurately measure the range to the target "person" of any height - height, waist, chest, head with shoulders (target No. 5 from our Shooting Course [3]), as well as any intermediate height between them, because the vertical size of the target doesn't matter.
• Although not explicitly stated in the Operator's Manual [2], the ACOG makes it easy to measure range and aim at the head when the shoulders are not visible. After all, the width of the head is 23 cm, which is almost half the width of the shoulders 50 cm [3, targets No. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]. Therefore, you can measure the distance to the head by half of the horizontal risks. For example, at a distance of 400m, the range measurement and aiming will look like this:
FIG. 3. Measuring range and aiming with ACOG at the main target. Author's scheme.
• ACOG allows you to abandon the direct shot and shoot accurately. Indeed, with a direct shot, the STP "walks" from the lower edge of the target to the upper one, and therefore the probability of hitting at the range of a direct shot and at the distance of the top of the trajectory cannot be more than 0. 5. And shooting with an accurate aim setting gives the maximum hit probability. At the same time, ACOG allows you to shoot with a direct shot: without picking up the exact crosshair, you can always direct the crosshair of the direct shot range to the lower edge of the target; for example, crosshair 6 is always at the bottom edge of the growth target.
Thus, the ACOG sights for the shooter, even with M-16 / M-4, allow extremely quickly and with a high probability to hit any target, including the main target - the most common and most dangerous target on the battlefield. An ACOG shooter at ranges of up to 600m can conduct a fire duel even more efficiently than a sniper armed with an optical sight like our PSO-1. After all, ACOG allows you to measure the range faster.
Sights of our manufacturers
"Novosibirsk Instrument-Making Plant" (refinery, recently renamed to "Shvabe Protection and Security") - "the main supplier of day and night sights for all types of small arms of the Russian Army" target height.
Target height range measurement error
Range measurement with a 1PN93-2 AK-74 sight produced by the refinery:
FIG. 4. [5, p. 51].
As you can see, a specialized scale measures the range only to the growth target, in this scope - 1.5 m high. And to determine the range to all other targets in accordance with section 2.7 of the Guide [5, pp. 20-21]:
1. The shooter must know the height of the targets.
But this is only possible for standard targets, whose dimensions are unchanged. To standard chest and head targets, it is even possible to measure the range on the growth target scale: since the chest target is 3 times, and the head target is 5 times lower than 1.5 m, then the distance measured to them according to the height scale should be reduced by 3 and 5 times, respectively … That is, when shooting at a range, the method of measuring the range by the height of the target can still be applied.
And in battle, targets have an arbitrary height, often between the heights of standard targets, and therefore measurements by their angular height give a very large error. For example, if a target with a height of 0.4 m is counted as the head one, then the measured range will be 1/3 less than the real range. And if the same target is counted as a chest one, then the measured range will be 1/5 more than the real range.
And for a growth target, if it walks on tall grass, deep snow or behind uneven terrain, the measured range may have an error of up to 1/3 ÷ 1/4 of the real range.
2. The shooter must be aware of the following reticle dimensions:
FIG. 5. [5, p. 40].
3. The shooter must determine the angular value of the target on the sighting reticle in thousandths of the range.
4. The shooter must calculate the range to the target using the formula:
D = B * 1000 / Y, where D is the range to the target, B - target height, Y is the angular height of the target in thousandths.
5. And only now the shooter must choose the aiming mark, which must be aimed at the target.
Note especially:
• The above method for determining the range by the angular height of the target is a classic method used in almost all of our rangefinder scales for small arms.
• Obviously, the classical method is more time consuming, and therefore slower and at the same time less accurate than the method used in ACOG for determining the range by the angular width of the target.
• Yes, the classical method is universal - it allows you to measure the range not only to a person, but also to any object of a known height - a building, a tank, an infantry fighting vehicle, a telegraph pole, etc. But why is it a submachine gunner or machine gunner who does not hit buildings, tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and telegraph poles?
• The universal classical method loses to the specialized ACOG method precisely in what an assault rifle or a light machine gun was created for - in the defeat of enemy manpower.
New Russian telescopic sights do not allow to effectively hit the main target
“When firing from a machine gun at a distance of up to 400m (direct shot), fire should be fired at the upper aiming mark, aiming at the lower edge of the target or at the middle, if the target is high (running figures, etc.)” [5, article 2.8.2, page 21]:
FIG. 6. Excerpt from Figure A.13 - [5, p.49].
That is, up to 400m with such a sight at a low target, you can shoot only with a direct shot, there is no other way.
The designers of the 1PN93-2 AK-74 put in this optical sight, which has a good magnification (4x), only one (!) Method of firing at low targets - the one that was recommended for the sector (mechanical) AK-74 sight 40 years ago:
FIG. 7. Excerpt from article 155 of the Manual on AK-74 [6, article 155].
But aiming at the bottom edge of the target with scope 4 is a direct shot at the chest target. And on the main target, such a shot at ranges from 150m to 300m gives a hit probability up to 4 times worse than choosing an exact crosshair in ACOG. This is shown in the article "The submachine gunner must and can hit the head piece." "Military Review" in Fig. 6.
At the head target, direct fire should be fired not from scope 4 or P, but from scope 3 (300m). And the sector (mechanical) AK sight allowed the submachine gunner to shoot not from sight 4, but to set sight 3 and conduct a fire duel on equal terms with the mechanical sight M-16 / M-4. But the 1PN93-2 AK-74 sight completely deprives our submachine gunner of this opportunity!
When discussing on the Voennoye Obozreniye portal the aforementioned article "A submachine gunner must and can hit the head figure", some commentators blamed me for raising this issue in vain, they say, in battle, the requirement of Article 155 of the AK-74 Manual can be ignored and not with scopes "4" or "P", and with scope "3". But the new sights of the refinery, as we can see, simply do not have the "3" mark.
In this state of affairs, the enemy squad with all its M-16s with ACOG in the very first seconds of the fire duel destroys the sniper of our squad. And the rest of our squad turns into targets in the shooting range.
Our submachine gunners and machine gunners must also hit the head targets! And for this, in 1PN93-2 AK-74 it was enough to provide at least one more mark - 350m (approximate range of a direct shot at the head target) or at least 300m, as on a sector "mechanical" sight.
From the Shooting Course [3, shooting exercises] it is obvious that the optics on a sniper rifle can effectively hit the head target. This means that optics will allow this on both the Kalashnikov assault rifle and the Kalashnikov machine gun. Why optical sights are made for them, which make it impossible to conduct effective fire at the head target - it is impossible to explain.
And these 1PN93-2 AK-74s, our Ministry of Defense buys 3,500 pieces (!) - [interview with Deputy Director General of the refinery Yuri Abramov on the sidelines of a meeting of the Scientific and Technical Council of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Government of Russia, December 2011].
A year and a half ago, the Ministry of Defense seemed to admit the error of these scopes:
FIG. eight.
But until now, this feature is indicated on the site of the Novosibirsk Instrument-Making Plant for 1PN93-2 AK-74 and for several other optical sights for Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns - the aiming range and range measurement range start from 400m. These are day sights 1P77, 1P78-1, 1P78-2, 1P78-3. For sights of the 100 series, information about the aiming range is simply not indicated on the refinery website, perhaps they are the same - suitable only for chest targets ("chest" sights).
A year and a half has passed, and you can forget the instructions? Bullets began to fly differently, or what ?!
Sights without aiming marks less than 400m do not allow firing a duel even when the target range is known. And if the range needs to be measured, then in a fire duel ACOG simply leaves no chance for our shooter with these scopes.
For effective firing at the head target, the "chest" sights of the refinery should not be brought into a normal battle. It is more expedient to bring the mark "4" of these sights to a range of 350 m - the range of a direct shot at the head target. For the AK-74, this means that at a distance of 100m at the "4" mark, the STP excess over the aiming point should be 19 centimeters. Then, with the mark "4" up to a range of 350m, you can hit any low target, including the head one, with one or two bursts of 3 rounds with a direct shot.
Let me emphasize that this method of correcting the "chest" optical sight is good because it does not require retraining of machine gunners. All the skills developed by the submachine gunners in accordance with Art. 155 of the AK-74 manual, remain: aim a low target at the bottom edge, and a running target at the middle (Fig. 7).
Of course, when the mark "4" is brought to a range of 350 m, the rest of the aiming marks will also not correspond to their ranges. But it is better to hit any target up to a range of 350m, and into a running target up to 450m-500m, than at ranges from 150m to 300m not to hit the main target, which fires at you.
But even better, of course, is to stop releasing "chest" sights.
Doubled the rounding error of the sight setting
In addition to the already mentioned drawbacks in 1PN93-2 AK-74, the step of the range scale is twice as large as usual - 200m instead of the usual 100m. This means that the rounding error of the sight setting is also doubled.
A 100m distance step led to the STP going beyond the contours of the growth target starting from 650m. This was acceptable, since further than 600m - the range of a direct shot at a growth target - we practically do not shoot from a machine gun. As we have seen, the Americans in ACOG for the M-16 had a 100m range step, and the aiming range remained 600m [Fig. 2].
Fig. 9.
A 200m distance step leads to the STP going beyond the contours of the growth target already starting from 500m. After all, the excess of the sight 6 at a distance of 500m is more than 0.75m - half the height of the full-length figure - [6, table "Excess trajectories over the aiming line"]. That is, the zones with a negligible probability of hitting even the highest target in 1PN93-2 AK-74 start already from 500m. A “simple” decrease in the hit probability occurs even closer to 500m, because the rounding error is doubled at all ranges.
Therefore, shooting with a 1PN93-2 AK-74 sight, even at a growth target, is advisable only up to 400m. Shooting further than 400m is useless and dangerous: you are unlikely to hit, but you will find yourself and be exposed to return fire. And this applies to all scopes where the distance step is 200m.
Summing up the assessment of 1PN93-2 AK-74, we can say that its developers made all possible mistakes that could be made in order to reduce the likelihood of hitting from this sight, even in comparison with the "old man" PSO-1.
The negligence of our scope manufacturers in the documentation
Note that the figure from the Operation Manual for the 1PN93-2 sight [Fig. 5], the distances between the reticle 4, 6, 8 and 10 are the same. This is mistake! In the explanatory captions in Figure A.4, these distances are indicated correctly, based on the ballistics of the AK-74: from “4” to “6” - 2, 8 thousand, to “8” - 7, 6 thousand, to “10” - 14, 6 thousand. But the drawing itself does not correspond to these explanations! The distances between adjacent marks must be different:
from "4" to "6" - 2, 8 thousand;
from "6" to "8" - 4, 8 thousand. (7, 6 thousand - 2, 8 thousand);
from "8" to "10" - 7 thousand. (14, 6 thousand - 7, 6 thousand).
That is, the rangefinder scale "inserted" into the telescopic sight should "stretch" with increasing range. As seen in FIG. 2 from the ACOG documentation.
Our Ministry of Defense assured me that in the "live" sights 1PN93-2 AK-74 the rangefinder scale is "stretched", as it should be. But the shooter, while still studying the sight manual, must get used to the reticle that he will see in the scope. And having received a real sight, the shooter should not suspect that he was slipped into a marriage.
Weapons must be distinguished by the accuracy of formulations and schemes in the documentation, and such "mistakes" of our manufacturers reduce the credibility of our weapons.
Final conclusions
Russian rifle optical sights for Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns, including those that have received the GRAU index, have passed state tests and are purchased by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, have a number of disadvantages that increase firing errors.
Due to design errors, Russian scopes have a significantly lower probability of hitting the target and a more complex and time-consuming aiming process than their direct competitors, the ACOG scopes.
But copying ACOG is not advisable: in Russia a passive sight was invented and patented, one step ahead of ACOG. Development work on this new sight needs to begin.
Bibliography
[1] "The effectiveness of firing from automatic weapons", Shereshevsky M. S., Gontarev A. N., Minaev Yu. V., Moscow, Central Research Institute of Information, 1979
[2] "Operator's Manual: Trijicon ACOG (Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight) Model: 3x30 ▼ TA33-8, ▼ TA33R-8, ▼ TA33-9, ▼ TA33R-9", www.trijicon.com.
[3] "The course of firing from small arms, combat vehicles and tanks of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (KS SO, BM and T RF Armed Forces - 2003)", put into effect by order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Ground Forces - Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation dated July 01, 2003. No. 108.
[4] www.npzopt.ru - official site of OAO PO NPZ.
[5] "Product 1PN93-2. Operation manual ", 44 7345 41, approved by ALZ.812.222 RE-LU.
[6] "Manual for the 5, 45-mm Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK74, AKS74, AK74N, AKS74N) and the 5, 45-mm Kalashnikov light machine gun (RPK74, RPKS74, RPK74N, RPKS74N)", Main Directorate of Combat Training of the Ground Forces, Uch.-ed., 1982
