In the first half of November 2016, news about a new Russian sniper rifle appeared in the Russian media. First, Dmitry Semizorov, General Director of the Central Scientific Research Institute of Precision Engineering (TSNIITOCHMASH), told reporters that the tests of the new rifle had been successful, and it was ready to be adopted by the FSO. Directly the serial order will be at the end of 2017. A day later, the head of the Russian military-industrial committee Dmitry Rogozin "recommended to everyone" a new domestic sniper complex, which could soon be supplied for export due to its tactical and technical characteristics, which are not inferior to Western counterparts.
In both cases, it was about one rifle - ORSIS T-5000. This sniper rifle was developed in 2011 by a private company GK Promtekhnologii (Orsis). For 5 years, the company has been trying to promote its new product, trying to get a state defense order from the Russian Ministry of Defense. However, the process "stalled", despite the active support of Dmitry Rogozin himself and even the patronage of Steven Seagal, who even became the face of the ORSIS arms company. At the same time, the Russian military admitted that they needed a "long-range" sniper rifle with increased accuracy of fire. It is especially necessary for army special forces.
The new Russian sniper complex was created in the Klimovsk TSNIITOCHMASH (the head enterprise for the development of advanced equipment for military personnel "Ratnik") as part of the development work on the "Accuracy" project. And although TsNIITOCHMASH is listed as the author of the sniper complex, it is a collective product. It is based on the well-known Orsis T-5000 M rifle; the manufacturer of Daedalus sights and the developers of cartridges - the factories of Ulyanovsk (UPZ) and Novosibirsk (refinery) - also took part in the work.
Sniper rifle created in the framework of the ROC "Accuracy", twitter.com/rogozin
The T-5000 rifle is today the hallmark of the ORSIS company. For the first time presented in 2011, the rifle was positioned as a universal precision weapon for sports, hunting and law enforcement agencies. The rifle is produced today in 5 calibers, the main ones are.308 Win (7, 62x51 mm) and.338 Lapua Magnum (8, 6x70 mm). The Orsis sniper rifle was initially announced as a competitor to leading foreign brands. In particular, it was said that the T-5000 is superior to SSG 08 from the Austrian company Steyr-Mannlicher AG, which was purchased to arm the GRU snipers.
In June 2012, a Russian team made up of fighters from the FSB Alpha group was able to win international police and army sniper competitions using T-5000 rifles. In September 2012, the rifle was also tested as part of the Ratnik kit. In general, the ergonomics, design, and accuracy of the T-5000 rifle (0.5 MOA or about 1.5 centimeters per 100 meters) fully meet the high requirements for such a weapon. In a rather powerful caliber.338 LM (originally created as a special sniper cartridge for long-range shooting), the effective firing range reaches 1.5 kilometers.
From the very beginning, representatives of the ORSIS company did not hide their desire to arm representatives of the Russian security forces with their sniper rifles, but the matter did not move. Firstly, not a rifle can be adopted, but a sniper complex, which, in addition to the rifle itself, also includes a sight and ammunition, and everything must be produced by Russian companies. Coordinating all work, as well as adjusting the tactical and technical requirements to the wishes of the security forces, correctly preparing and issuing the documentation (in fact, this is a big problem) is within the power of only state structures that have solid experience in working with the Russian defense-industrial complex. Finally, the domestic law enforcement agencies themselves so far prefer to cooperate with state-owned companies rather than with private ones.
Apparently, it was for these reasons that the order for the creation of a new sniper complex was eventually issued by JSC TSNIITOCHMASH from the city of Klimovsk (Moscow region). The start of work on the project was announced at the end of 2013. According to the publication "Lenta.ru", which refers to the press service of the enterprise from Klimovsk, in the course of work, about 200 changes were made to the basic design of the T-5000 sniper rifle of the Orsis company. As a result, within the framework of the ROC "Tochnost", two versions of the rifle were created - for the FSO and the Russian Ministry of Defense. Preliminary tests of the version intended for the Russian military should take place in 2017.
The new sniper complex involves the use of two types of ammunition:.338 Lapua Magnum and 7, 62x51 (.308 Win). Previously, these cartridges were not officially included in the supply of the Russian security forces, which in itself is an intriguing event. With a high degree of probability, we can say that the manufacturer of optics for the rifle, created in the framework of the ROC "Precision", will be the company "Daedalus". The sights of this Moscow enterprise, which closely cooperates with the Promtechnology company, being practically a “regular” supplier of day and night optics for ORSIS sniper rifles, are well known to specialists. It is known that the sniper complex will be equipped with an optical sight and a laser rangefinder for 2 kilometers.
The newest day sight of the Daedalus company is the DH 5-20 x 56 model with variable magnification, it pleasantly surprises users with a high level of quality and a set of characteristics. Especially for the security forces, the specialists of the Moscow enterprise have created a version of the sight, which is distinguished by increased strength and can withstand firing with powerful ammunition, up to a caliber of 12.7 mm. A feature of this optical sight is also a significant exit pupil distance of 100 mm, which is a very important advantage for calibers of sniper rifles with a noticeable recoil, such as the.338 Lapua Magnum. The designated sight can be additionally equipped with two attachments: night Dedal-NV and thermal imaging Dedal-TA, which allow the shooter to fire and observe targets in poor visibility conditions and at night without removing the main optical sight.
Information about the work within the Accuracy project that has appeared in the Russian media has already generated an absentee dispute between the famous arms blogger Andrei Soyustov, on the one hand, and Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government, Dmitry Rogozin, on the other. In response to the expert's statement that the sniper complex was not ready for mass production due to the presence of foreign components in it, Dmitry Rogozin objected that the blogger was simply behind the times and that there were no foreign components in the new sniper rifle, and that the production of two types was established for it. cartridges.
Representatives of the weapons portal www.all4shooters.com intervened in this discussion in absentia. According to the journalists of this publication, the production in Russia of.338 Lapua Magnum and 7, 62x51 (.308 Win) ammunition for the ORSIS T-5000 sniper rifle was mastered by the Ulyanovsk Cartridge Plant at the beginning of 2014. According to the head of the Ulyanovsk enterprise, Alexander Votyakov, for the production of these cartridges, the plant bought modern equipment from the Italian company VASINI S.r.l. The new equipment provides high-precision assembly of all chuck components, as well as automatic control of its main design parameters. In addition, in June 2015, the Novosibirsk Cartridge Plant (NPZ) launched the production of.338 Lapua Magnum hunting cartridges with a shell bullet (FMJ, weight 16.2 grams, tombak jacket) and a brass sleeve. Despite the fact that the purpose of the produced ammunition is declared as "hunting", the Russian power structures have already shown interest in the cartridge. Moreover, snipers of one of the FSB units even carried out test firing with these cartridges.
If we talk about the cartridge 7, 62x51 (.308 Win), then the release of its analogs was successfully established back in the Soviet Union in 1975, after the Secretary General L. I. Brezhnev received a.308 Win caliber rifled carbine as a gift from American President Nixon. The ammunition, which in the USSR received the designation 7, 62x51A, was produced by cartridge factories in Barnaul, Novosibirsk and Tula. In the 1990s, the cartridge was replaced by a hunting cartridge 7, 62x51M, interchangeable with the western one, in addition, the country established production of 7, 62x51 mm NATO live ammunition intended for export to other countries - with tracer and armor-piercing bullets, as well as bullets with a heat-strengthened core. Thus, with regard to the ammunition for the sniper complex created within the framework of the ROC "Accuracy", Dmitry Rogozin is generally right. True, with a caveat - the Russian industry produces these high-precision cartridges using imported production equipment. Today, separate books can be written about the problems of the Russian machine tool industry and the share of Russian and foreign machine tools at domestic enterprises.
If we talk about the optoelectronic part of the sniper complex, then the main headache for domestic manufacturers is the dependence on foreign suppliers of bolometric matrices, which are necessary for thermal imaging sights, and, as a result, their overpriced. Most of them, including the Daedalus company, have until recently been using dies produced by the French company ULIS. True, in August 2016, representatives of the Ruselectronics holding announced the start of preparations for the production of their own matrices, so that in the future, Russian thermal imaging equipment should receive only domestic “stuffing”. In this regard, the industry representatives themselves today have a healthy skepticism, especially when it comes to numbers at the level of 10 thousand bolometric matrices produced, while the Russian military orders thermal imaging sights almost by the piece. At the same time, the development of this segment will definitely take time. Most likely, import substitution here will primarily concern not sights for small arms, but more priority areas, which are modern sighting systems installed on various armored vehicles.
Technology and design Orsis T-5000 M
Unfortunately, the information about exactly what changes were made to the design of the Orsis T-5000 M sniper rifle by specialists from Klimovsk is currently not available to mere mortals. But what exactly the developer put into this rifle, we can tell, thanks to the official website of the Orsis company. The high-precision rifle Orsis T-5000 M was created in close cooperation with professional shooters, the weapon has the consumer properties necessary for the domestic market. It is a manual reloading high-precision rifle with a sliding bolt action and two lugs. Initially, the rifle was created for universal use. The characteristics of the weapon allow trained shooters to ensure high firing accuracy at long distances (up to one and a half kilometers). In addition, the rifle provides a high level of comfort for the shooter both in the preparation for firing a shot, and in the process of the shot itself and the recoil from it. It also provides a quick return to the aiming line, good ergonomics and high reliability.
Orsis T-5000 M, orsis.com
At ORSIS, a rifle is geometry. Therefore, the accuracy of all components of the T-5000 rifle and the quality of its final assembly guarantee high accuracy and controllability of the weapon already in the process of firing. ORSIS rifle barrels are obtained by trellis planing on CNC machines - today this is the most accurate method of obtaining barrels, in which the value of the tolerances in the depth of the grooves is less than 0.0025 mm, and in the pitch of the rifling - 0.004 mm per 1 m. the bolt group of the T-5000 rifle is obtained from maraging stainless steel, and the central hole is obtained on a CNC electroerosive machine. Many elements of high-precision weapons are processed in a final hardened condition in order to ensure maximum geometric accuracy. All steel parts are made from stainless steel only. The choice of quality materials and special care in manufacturing allow us to speak of an increased operational resource of ORSIS rifles compared to models of other manufacturers of the same calibers.
The stock of the T-5000 M rifle is made of D16T aluminum alloy, the folding unit is made of hardened stainless steel, it is specially designed so as not to "break" during operation, even in the most rigid in terms of recoil calibers. The plastic parts of the rifle are obtained from the most high-strength modern polymers, all connections are made only "steel to steel", for this purpose, steel parts were specially installed in the stock of a high-precision rifle.
The butt of the rifle received an adjustable cheek and butt pad. The sniper rifle stock can also be equipped with a monopod, tactical forend. The butt pad is made of special wear-resistant rubber and has height adjustment. In the folded position, the rifle butt is securely held by a mechanical lock that closes the weapon reloading handle.
Orsis T-5000 M, orsis.com
The mass and balance of the T-5000 M rifle are designed so that when fired, the recoil goes straight back. Thanks to this, the shooter can control the target even during the shot. The muzzle brake mounted on the rifle is quite effective, it allows you to reduce the recoil level by almost 50%, and the adjustable trigger allows the shooter to shoot without disturbing the aiming quality. The stability and high rigidity of the rifle stock retains "zero" zeroing even after a long time, according to the official website of the ORSIS company.
