Recently, more and more disputes have flared up around the statement of the Minister of Defense of Russia Anatoly Serdyukov, who expressed claims to domestic small arms, in particular to the legendary Kalashnikov assault rifle and Dragunov sniper rifle. In the minister's opinion, this weapon is "morally obsolete" today. After Russia bought two French Mistral helicopter carriers, the decision to purchase modern small arms abroad does not seem so fantastic.
This material presents the views on this issue of the veteran of hostilities in Chechnya Sergei Glussky, gunsmith designer Dmitry Shiryaev and military experts Viktor Litovkin and Alexander Khramchikhin.
Weapon Designer Dmitry Shiryaev, who has worked for the famous TsNIITochmash for many years, believes that foreigners themselves admit that domestic weapons are one of the best in the world. And I am sure that even if our products are losing in some indicators, this does not mean at all that they should be abandoned. Russian weapons are one of the most reliable in the world. This is what should be taken into account when deciding on the purchase of any types of weapons. What is the use of a more accurate weapon for a soldier if it suddenly fails in combat conditions.
One of the most important problems is that now people simply refuse to work in the arms industry due to low wages, any foreign purchases can ruin the entire industry altogether, the gunsmith believes.
Sergei Glussky, participant of the counterterrorist operation in Chechnya, a former fighter of the Rosich special forces unit, believes that our small arms are unlikely to become obsolete. Sergei is not by hearsay familiar with the AK-74 and SVD assault rifle and declares this with confidence, during his service he did not hear bad reviews about these samples of small arms.
The opposite side of the conflict adheres to the same opinion, the main weapons used by the militants in Chechnya were the same AK-74 and SVD. At the same time, the money to finance their activities, which flowed from abroad, made it possible to purchase French or American weapons. Communication means used by the militants were often of foreign origin, but Sergei did not have to withdraw foreign samples of firearms from them. Militant snipers were 100% armed with SVD rifles.
This weapon is beyond any criticism in many ways. Therefore, I do not understand Serdyukov's statement that our machine guns and rifles are not good for anything. At the same time, the minister did not name the types of weapons that, in his opinion, would be useful to our army. If he had named samples, everything could be easily verified during normal shooting.
Most likely, the current problem is that Sredyukov is not a military man, so how could he know the disadvantages or advantages of certain types of small arms. Thus, he can say almost anything. Sergei Glussky considers it unacceptable when people who do not understand such issues make decisions that are capable of endangering the lives of servicemen.
Special automatic machine AS "Val"
During our service in the special forces, we were armed with IEDs and "Val", including silent ones, and there were no complaints about them. Who has problems with hitting and accuracy there now? Let Serdyukov show. Here I recall the story of Klim Voroshilov, to whom one soldier complained about the Mosin rifle, the marshal took it in his hands and hit all the targets with several shots, never missing. Perhaps the same situation is here.
And here is the opinion of the military expert Alexander Khramchikhin - Deputy Director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis. Certainly, there is some truth in Serdyukov's words, but this does not mean that we should start purchasing weapons abroad. I can highlight the pros and cons of the SVD and the Kalashnikov assault rifle.
The advantages of AK are that it is very unpretentious, and its design is very simple, in this respect it is an unsurpassed product. This machine was primarily designed for mass production for the army, which will wage a big "classic" war.
The disadvantages of the assault rifle are insufficient accuracy and rather low accuracy, which leads to a large expenditure of ammunition to hit the target. In the conditions of modern warfare, the aiming range of 400 meters, characteristic of these machines, is insufficient.
At the same time, we have more advanced weapons, the same automatic machine of the Nikonov system - "Abakan", but with all its advantages, unlike the same AK-74, it does not have its unpretentiousness.
If we talk about SVD, then this is a very good weapon, but time takes its toll and this rifle begins to become obsolete. Optical sights are still used with it, while now electronic sights are needed to increase accuracy, in addition, there is a tendency to increase the caliber of sniper weapons.
It is no coincidence that even before Serdyukov, Russia purchased consignments of sniper rifles from Austria and Great Britain. In England, from 1 to 2 thousand L96A1 sniper rifles were purchased, which were sold to special forces and the FSO. Despite this, in Russia there are a sufficient number of promising developments that meet modern requirements, but the release of which has not yet been mass-produced.
FSO officer on the walls of the Kremlin uses the British rifle L96A1
Now we may need to compete with the best examples of foreign weapons, including on the domestic Russian market. Competition is one of the engines of progress, perhaps in this way our small arms market will begin to get out of the state of "stagnation". But all this does not mean at all that Russia will have to completely switch to foreign systems of small arms.
And here is what Viktor Litovkin thinks about this - Executive editor of the newspaper "Nezavisimoye Voennoe Obozreniye". Today, the AK-74 is certainly an outdated assault rifle, not to mention the older versions of the AKM and AK-47. Now it is quite justifiably possible to make serious claims against it: for example, shooting from it is very inaccurate, since when firing, the barrel constantly leads to the side, no matter how confidently you hold the machine gun.
At the same time, this weapon has undeniable advantages - any fool can shoot from it in any scenario: sand is packed into the machine or you dropped it into the mud - nothing terrible happened for the machine. In Russia, there are options for replacing the AK with the same Abakan assault rifle, which differs much more in its firing accuracy. But at the same time, this machine is deprived of the advantages of the AK-74, God forbid dropping it into the mud. To clean it up quickly, especially in the conditions of the ongoing battle, will not work.
There are well-founded claims to our sniper weapons. Our rifles are completely automatic. Hence, after the first shot during the movement of the shutter, accuracy is lost. In this sense, the statements of some experts who consider the ancient Mosin rifle with optics to be the best sniper weapon are indicative. In addition, experts speak very flatteringly about the modern VSS sniper rifle and the special Val submachine gun.
As for foreign weapons, let's take Israeli and American models for example. All of them have high accuracy, but at the same time they are designed for very responsible and accurate fighters who will never forget to clean it. It's a paradox, but it is very difficult to accustom our Russian soldier to this.
If we proceed from this and from the price of most foreign models of small arms, taking into account that a colossal amount of money will be required to re-equip the entire army, options with the massive procurement of small arms are unnecessary and unrealistic.
