Since ancient times, the main weapon of divers is considered to be a knife, but it is better to stop the enemy on the way. To this end, the development of underwater firearms with a long range of destruction has been and is being carried out all over the world.
We present to you an arsenal of small arms of submarine fighters.
The main problem faced by the engineers was the resistance of water, which is 800 times more dense than air.
Also, when firing from automatic and semi-automatic weapons in a liquid medium, water that got into the barrel led to an accumulation of steam, which very quickly made the weapon unusable.
It was these two factors that showed the importance of developing a new type of weapon that was supposed to be effective and invisible both under water and on land.
Frank Liberatore's underwater weapons
The first to solve this problem with the help of a simple cartridge was proposed by Frank Liberatore, who created his "underwater weapon" in 1964. Liberatore's invention was a pole with a "mortar" mounted at the end with a rifle cartridge. There, under the mortar, there was a spike, which played the role of a trigger. When the shark attacked, it was necessary to hit it hard with this spike, as a result of which a shot took place.
Frank Liberatore's underwater weapons
"Shark Saber" by Harry Bulfer
Later, in 1987, compatriot Liberatore engineer Harry Boomfer improved the "underwater weapon" and called it "shark saber". This is not to say that his innovation was something supernatural. The engineer simply moved the trigger to the other end of the pole, making it possible to shoot at the enemy not only point-blank, but also at a distance, albeit very small.
"Shark Saber" by Harry Bulfer
S. K. Van Voorges triple-charge underwater device
The next person to improve the "underwater weapon" was the engineer Vorhees. His idea was also not original: he simply added a couple of additional barrels to the existing system.
S. K. Van Voorges triple-charge underwater device
R. Bar's underwater pistol
One of the first such developments was the revolver of the American engineer R. Barr from the AAI corporation.
R. Bara's underwater pistol
The Barr revolver, released in 1969, was a simple pistol with a rotating firing pin and six static barrels.
The main innovations were the foam casing, which gave the revolver zero buoyancy, preventing it from sinking or floating, as well as special ammunition.
It was these ammunition that largely determined the further development of underwater firearms. In fact, each cartridge was a separate barrel, in which a needle-shaped bullet was placed, pushed out by a wad. The same wad, after the shot, clogged the barrel of the sleeve, preventing the powder gases from escaping, thereby not giving away the location of the swimmer.
There is a legend that this revolver was used by British combat swimmers during the conflict in the Falkland Islands, but this is just a myth, since this weapon was in service only with Belgian commandos.
Revolver F. Stevens
Another model of foreign underwater weapons of "active" type - F. Stevens revolver has a rotating block of 6 barrels of.38 caliber (according to the American system of calibers, according to the Russian - 9, 0; 9, 3) and also shoots arrows.
Unfortunately, the photo could not be found.
C. Lambert's jet gun
The American engineer Chandley William Lambert developed in 1964 the multi-barrel "Rotating firing gun". This design is somewhat reminiscent of the previous one: an annular block of fixed barrels-cartridges (however, there are already 12 of them), a rotating firing pin, sequentially piercing the capsules of cartridges. The main difference is the use of rocket-propelled bullets. The weapon turned out to be more bulky and massive, so the designer equipped it with two handles for holding. The cocking of the hammer-striker and its rotation by 30 ° is carried out by a self-cocking firing mechanism due to the muscular effort of the shooter, as in a conventional revolver. Since this effort is quite significant, the trigger is made in the form of a massive bracket, which is pressed with two or three fingers at once.
Underwater multi-barreled rocket device of the revolving type by Chengli W. Lambert
The large size of the trigger guard also makes it easier to use the weapon with thick gloves. A noticeable drawback is a significant gas bubble formed during a shot, unmasking the arrow and making it difficult to accurately aim for the next shot.
Cartridge with a rocket-propelled bullet-harpoon.
This design used the "Lancejet" shells, created by the Californian firm M. V. A. as part of work on rocket-propelled small arms (see). The projectile had a caliber of 6.4 mm, a length of 300 mm, a launch weight of 55.7 g, a powder jet engine. For such projectiles, launchers with a length of 456 mm were made of aluminum alloy - a single-shot with an unloaded mass of 0.45 kg and a six-shot with a mass of 0.68 kg.
The complete combustion of the engine powder charge and, accordingly, the achievement of the maximum speed occurred at a distance of 2.4 m from the muzzle of the starting device. The energy of the projectile was enough to penetrate a 2-inch (50, 8-mm) plywood shield at a distance of 7.5 m (sources do not indicate the depth of tests). However, the strongest penetrating and stopping action is useless if the projectile misses the target. And in the case of the underwater "Lansejet", as with other versions of jet small arms, the accuracy turned out to be low - at the same range, only half of the shells hit a target with a diameter of 40 cm, which did not give hope for a reliable defeat of the enemy.
Multiple shot smoothbore spearguns
In the United States, multiply-charged smooth-bore underwater guns with barrels having three channels under a 12 mm caliber, designed to protect swimmers from sharks and other marine animals, and an underwater gun operating on the principle of a mortar were also developed. But all these samples are of interest only from the point of view of analyzing the variety of technical solutions.
Special underwater pneumatic gun
German underwater pistol BUW-2
In 1971, in Germany, the AJW company developed the BUW-2 underwater pistol. It is a semi-automatic multiple-charge launcher that fires hydrodynamically stabilized active-reactive bullets. The cartridges are housed in 4 barrels, which form a single-use unit. The press also reported on the presence of universal pneumatic pistols in the arsenal of foreign combat swimmers, providing a firing range under water of up to 10 m, and in the air - up to 250 m. Ammunition for them is steel needles with a caliber of 4-5 mm and a length of 30-60 mm. Moreover, the needles can be supplied with ampoules with toxic substances. The magazine capacity is 15-20 needles. However, analyzing the characteristics of the pistol, it seems very doubtful that the indicated firing ranges will be achieved. Even rough calculations show that such shooting is possible only under the condition of a gas pressure in the bore of about 2000 kg / m2 or more, and this requires a powder charge.
V. Lincoln Bar's underwater magazine harpoon rifle
The rifle turned out to be outwardly similar to the Lambert design discussed above, but the fundamental difference is a rotating drum with a block of 13 launch tubes with jet arrows and fixed strikers. The weapon is essentially a bulky revolver. The tubes are located in the drum as follows: one is in the center, and around the central tube 12 more are located in two concentric circles (6 in each row). There are three drummers: one central and one for each (outer and inner) row of tubes.
W. Lincoln Barr's underwater magazine harpoon rifle
Self-cocking trigger and locking mechanisms ensure consistent firing first from the outer ring of the barrels, then from the inner ring, and the final shot is fired from the central barrel. Each boom is equipped with a miniature jet solid-propellant engine at the rear, which has a capsule on the rear end wall, which is triggered when the striker strikes it and ignites the engine's powder cartridge. Under the pressure of the powder gases, the arrow flies out of the barrel in the direction of the target. To reload the weapon, the drum is separated from the body, loaded with arrows and reinserted into place. Large ammunition allows an underwater fighter to conduct a fairly long fire battle
Cartridge-barrel design
German pistol P11
The Heckler Koch firm approached the development of weapons for combat swimmers in an original way. In her P11 pistol, she used a replaceable block of five pre-loaded barrels, providing a shot without the formation of gas bubbles. The barrels are charged at the factory; they can only be reloaded in a special workshop.
The most unusual part of the P11 is the electronic trigger, which initiates the "barrels" of the electro-capsule. The electronic mechanism, well known from target sporting weapons, provides a low trigger force, widely adjustable operating time. But in an environment as aggressive as sea water, its reliability raises concerns.
Underwater pistol Heckler Koch HK P11
According to the authoritative publishing house Jane's, pistols of this type are in service with combat swimmers from countries such as Germany, Italy, France, Norway, Great Britain, the United States and others.
The pistol is designed for underwater combat operations, where conventional bullets lose their effectiveness at a distance of the order of one meter, or even less, depending on the depth. Therefore, special ammunition with a nominal caliber of 7.62mm was developed for the P11, firing long needle-shaped bullets that are well stabilized in water. The ammunition at the factory is loaded into five-charge barrel blocks, which are mounted on the frame of a weapon with a pistol grip. After firing all 5 charges from the barrels, the barrel block is removed and discarded, or stored for subsequent return to the factory for reloading (if the shooting was conducted under training conditions). Ignition of charges is electrical, the power source (two 9-volt batteries) is located in a sealed compartment in the pistol grip. The effective firing range is up to 15 meters under water and up to 30 meters in the air.
Special cartridge of caliber 7, 62 mm for the P-11 pistol
Cartridge with armor-piercing bullet
Bullet for underwater shooting
The cartridge for silent and flameless shooting in the air was loaded with a 7.62 mm bullet with an initial flight speed of 190 meters per second. The cartridge consists of a plastic sleeve and a bronze obturator with a rim and screw thread for hermetic fixation of the cartridge in the barrel. The cartridges are filled with electrical ignition caps. There are several options for equipping the cartridge: with a bullet with a lead core and an armor-piercing bullet with a steel core (the tip is painted black). Cartridges for shooting under water are equipped with an all-metal arrow-shaped bullet of 4, 8-mm caliber. Presumably, the bullet is stabilized by the cavitation effect achieved by the complex geometry of the bullet.
Special underwater pistol SPP-1 and special underwater assault rifle APS
Of particular burning interest are the Soviet APS assault rifle (special underwater assault rifle) and the SPP-1 non-automatic 4-barrel pistol (special underwater pistol) intended for underwater shooting. These samples were created more than 20 years ago, but only in the early 90s were they officially presented to the public. To say that this complex of underwater weapons and ammunition has aroused great interest of Western experts is to say nothing. It was a shock. And it was from what. This is due to the fact that, for example, in the United States, the problem of creating an underwater machine gun for a long time was considered unsolvable in principle and, according to the real perspective, was on a par with the development of a perpetual motion machine and a transparent tank (!).
Special underwater pistol SPP-1
Automatic underwater special APS.
Ammunition 7, 62x39; 4, 5x39; 5, 66x39 (USSR / Russia).
In the second half of the 1960s, units of combat swimmers appeared in our country: for example, in 1967, a detachment for combating submarine sabotage forces and means (PDSS) was formed in the Black Sea Fleet. The reason for this was the intensified work abroad on the creation of regular units of combat swimmers for conducting reconnaissance and sabotage operations. The memory of the death of the battleship Novorossiysk in the Sevastopol Bay on October 29, 1955 was also fresh. And although the assumption of sabotage looked (and still looks) the least likely, such a danger could not be disregarded. Soldiers, called upon to fight underwater saboteurs, needed a weapon capable of firing underwater. The 5, 66-mm APS assault rifle and the 4.5-mm SPP-1 pistol, created for this purpose, are of particular interest in the range of underwater weapons due to unusual technical solutions. The spouses Elena and Vladimir Simonov were directly involved in the development of weapons (V. V. Simonov is the grand-nephew of the famous Soviet gunsmith S. G. Simonov). In 1968. a task was issued to develop an underwater pistol, or rather a pistol complex. TSNIITOCHMASH and TOZ created a 4, 5-mm cartridge and a pistol, which were put into service in 1971. under the designation SPP-1 (special underwater pistol). Note that in parallel with the active SPP, the development of a 7.62-mm underwater rocket pistol was carried out, which was preceded by the study of foreign rocket models. The development of the SPS (4, 5x39) cartridge for the SPP-1 was carried out by P. F. Sazonov and O. P. Kravchenko. The bullet of the underwater cartridge looks somewhat unusual. This is a needle weighing 13, 2 g of large elongation (about 25: 1 - the length of the needle is 115 mm), colloquially referred to as a nail. The bunch is inserted into the sleeve of a conventional intermediate cartridge with a charge of gunpowder. Of course, measures are taken to seal and improve the corrosion resistance of the cartridge. The nose of the bullet is double-conical and slightly blunted. A bullet of such a scheme of large elongation at a high speed of movement in water forms a cavitation bubble (cavity) around itself, which is held throughout the entire path under water and serves as a stabilizer for the bullet - a unique solution.
SPP-1 belongs to the type of non-automatic multi-barreled pistols. A block of four smooth barrels is hingedly attached to the frame and rotates around its trunnions. For loading, it folds down - as in "breaking" hunting rifles, and locks, again like a gun, on the lower hook and latch. Loading is done by a pack (clip) with four cartridges. When unlocking the block of barrels, the extractor pushes the stack of spent cartridges back, facilitating and somewhat accelerating the reloading: under water, the reloading process takes about 5 seconds.
The APS assault rifle ("special underwater assault rifle", not to be confused with the "Stechkin automatic pistol") is designed for firing special 5, 66-mm rounds MPS and MPST (tracer) type 5, 66x39. The cartridge (as well as the cartridge for the pistol) was developed at TsNIItochmash by Sazonov and Kravchenko on the basis of an intermediate cartridge case and is also equipped with a “nail”. The length of the "nail" is 120 mm, the weight is 20, 3-20, 8 g, the total cartridge is 150 mm and 27-28 g, respectively.
The barrel is smooth. The work of the automation is based on the removal of powder gases through a hole in the wall of the barrel bore, with a long stroke of the gas piston, there is a gas regulator. The barrel bore is locked by turning the bolt. A shot from the rear sear allows some compensation for the recoil effect, which is important under water. Nevertheless, the accuracy of the firing of an underwater machine gun is not great.
The trigger mechanism is assembled in a separate body and allows for single or continuous fire (short - 3-5 shots and long - up to 10 shots in bursts), equipped with a flag translator-fuse. Food - from a detachable box magazine for 26 rounds. The unusual shape of the magazine is associated with the large length of the cartridge and the relatively small width of the feeder spring. The long bullet caused a number of cartridge feeding problems. The two rows of cartridges in the magazine are separated by a plate, the upper bullets are held in place by a spring delay. A cartridge cutter is mounted inside the receiver.
Chinese three-barreled underwater pistol QSS-05
In January 2010, some information flashed on the Chinese CCTV channel about the creation in China of an underwater pistol of 5, 8 mm caliber
Above the four-barreled SPP-1 (USSR / Russia), below the three-barreled QSS-05 (China)
Chinese machine for underwater shooting
Also in 2010 on the Chinese CCTV channel, there was a report on the creation in China of an automatic machine for underwater shooting of 5, 8 mm caliber
Underwater shooting machine
Chinese 5, 8 mm ammunition for underwater shooting.
The similarity of the Chinese models with the Soviet ones suggests that China followed in the footsteps of Soviet designers and decided not to play with complex electronic launchers like the Germans, rocket arrows like the Americans, but simply recreated an analogue (I will repeat it again especially for amateurs who develop heated discussions about copying the Chinese of everything that fell into their hands, ANALOGUE) of the Soviet underwater pistol and machine gun.
Automatic two-medium ASM-DT "Sea Lion"
In order to expand the range of application of underwater assault rifles based on APS and AKS-74U units, a scheme of an "underwater-air" assault rifle with replaceable power supply was developed - a magazine from APS with MPS cartridges or from AK-74 with standard 5, 45-mm cartridges mod. 1973 (7H6). As a result, an experimental amphibious (two-medium, underwater) machine gun ASM-DT "Sea Lion" was born.
Experimental amphibious (two-medium, underwater) assault rifle ASM-DT "Sea Lion".
In the late 1990s, employees of the Tula Design Technological Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TPKTIMash), under the leadership of Doctor of Technical Sciences Yuri Sergeevich Danilov, developed a unique amphibious (two-medium) automatic machine ASM-DT. This assault rifle allows for effective underwater fire with special ammunition with needle-shaped bullets of large elongation (structurally similar to the MPS and MPST cartridges from the APS assault rifle, but differing from them in the diameter of the needle bullets). When switching to the air, instead of a magazine with underwater cartridges, a standard magazine from an AK-74 assault rifle with cartridges of caliber 5, 45x39mm (7N6, 7N10, 7N22 and others) is installed, which allows effective shooting at targets on land at firing ranges and with accuracy close to those for the AKS-74U assault rifle, and much better than that of the APS assault rifle in the air.
Experimental assault rifle ASM-DT (special multi-purpose assault rifle) "Sea Lion".
Caliber: 5, 45mm (5, 45x39 M74 for surface and 5, 45x39 special for underwater shooting)
Automation type: gas-operated, locking by turning the shutter
Magazine: 30 rounds for surface or 26 - for underwater shooting
The ASM-DT assault rifle Sea Lion remained only an experimental weapon.
However Danilov Y. S. did not stop there, and as a result, the ADS (two-medium special automatic machine) was born. Like its predecessor (ASM-DT), this prototype used various types of magazines for surface and underwater shooting and had tactical and technical characteristics similar to the ASM-DT, but the layout of the machine was made according to the bullpup scheme.
One of the earliest prototypes of the ADS (A-91) assault rifle, based on the ASM-DT assault rifle, in a configuration for shooting "in the air"
One of the earliest prototypes of the ADS (A-91) assault rifle, based on the ASM-DT assault rifle, in a configuration for firing under water.
It is not known how fate would have developed, in my opinion, the excellent samples of engineering thought ASM-DT and ADS (aka A-91), which model would have been adopted, if not for the new improved model of the ADS machine gun, developed by Yuri Sergeyevich Danilov under new underwater cartridge 5, 45x39 PSP
Schematic diagram of ammunition 5, 45x39 PSP of the ADS assault rifle.
It was the development of this ammunition that made it possible to significantly simplify the design of the two-medium machine gun.
The first versions of the modernized ADS chambered for PSP
The new "underwater" cartridge had the same external dimensions as the standard cartridge 5, 45x39mm. The new cartridge, called PSP, was equipped with a 53 mm long bullet with leading belts, which was recessed into the sleeve for most of its length. This made it possible to maintain the overall dimensions of the new cartridge in the size of a standard ground cartridge and at the same time ensure the shape of the bullet, suitable for use in the aquatic environment. PSP is equipped with a carbide (in fact, armor-piercing) bullet weighing 16 grams, having an initial velocity (in the air) of about 330 m / s. In an aquatic environment, the bullet is stabilized and the resistance of the surrounding fluid is reduced by means of a cavitation cavity created around the bullet when moving due to a flat platform in the nose of the bullet. The effective firing range of the PSP cartridge under water is approximately 25 meters at a depth of 5 meters and up to 18 meters at a submersion depth of 20 meters. For education and training, the PSP-U training underwater cartridge has also been developed, which has a bronze bullet weighing 8 grams, with a lower effective firing range and lower penetration. When firing underwater, the PSP cartridge is superior to the 5.6mm MPS cartridges from the APS assault rifle in terms of combat effectiveness. Due to the standard dimensions, 5.45 PSP and PSP-U cartridges can be used from ordinary standard magazines from AK-74 assault rifles.
Final version:
Automatic - grenade launcher complex ADS
