History of the creation and development of small arms. Firearms - history of origin Brief history of firearms

To protect themselves from wild animals and hostile people, they began to use various objects: driftwood and sticks, sharp stones, etc. It was from those distant times that the history of weapons began. With the development of civilization, new types of it appeared, and each historical era corresponds to more advanced ones than at the previous stage. In a word, weapons, like everything else on our planet, have followed their own special evolutionary path throughout the history of existence - from the simplest to nuclear warheads.

Types of weapons

There are various classifications that divide weapons into different types. According to one of them, it can be cold and gunshot. The former, in turn, also comes in several types: chopping, piercing, percussion, etc. It is powered by the muscular strength of a person, but firearms operate by the energy of a gunpowder charge. Consequently, it was invented precisely when people learned to make gunpowder from saltpeter, sulfur and coal. And the Chinese were the first to distinguish themselves in this (back in the 9th century AD). The history of weapons does not have exact data on the date of creation of this explosive mixture, but the year is known when the “recipe” for gunpowder was first described in a manuscript - 1042. From China, this information leaked to the Middle East, and from there to Europe.

Firearms also have their own varieties. It comes in small arms, artillery and grenade launcher types.

According to another classification, both cold and firearms are melee weapons. In addition to them, there are weapons related to means of mass destruction: nuclear, atomic, bacterial, chemical, etc.

Primitive weapons

We can judge what the means of protection were at the dawn of human civilization from the finds that archaeologists managed to obtain in their habitats. All these finds can be seen in various historical and local history museums.

The most ancient types of primitive weapons were stone or bone arrowheads and spears, which were found on the territory of modern Germany. These exhibits are about three hundred thousand years old. The figure is, of course, impressive. For what purposes they were used, for hunting wild animals or for war with other tribes, we can only guess. Although rock paintings to some extent help us restore reality. But about the periods when writing was invented by humanity, literature, historiography, and painting began to develop, we have enough information about new achievements of people, including weapons. From this time on, we can trace the complete path of transformation of these defensive means. The history of weapons includes several eras, and the initial one is primitive.

At first, the main types of weapons were spears, bows and arrows, knives, axes, first bone and stone, and later metal (bronze, copper and iron).

Medieval weapons

After people learned to process metals, they invented swords and pikes, as well as arrows with sharp metal tips. For protection, shields and armor (helmets, chain mail, etc.) were invented. By the way, even in ancient times, gunsmiths began to make rams and catapults from wood and metal for the siege of fortresses. With each new round in the development of mankind, weapons also improved. It became stronger, sharper, etc.

The medieval history of the creation of weapons is of particular interest, since it was during this period that firearms were invented, which completely changed the approach to combat. The first representatives of this species were arquebuses and arquebuses, then muskets appeared. Later, gunsmiths decided to increase the size of the latter, and then the first ones appeared on the military field. Further, the history of firearms begins to record more and more new discoveries in this area: guns, pistols, etc.

New time

During this period, edged weapons gradually began to be replaced by firearms, which were constantly modified. Its speed, destructive power and range of projectiles increased. With the advent of weapons, I could not keep up with inventions in this area. During the First World War, tanks began to appear in the theater of operations, and airplanes began to appear in the sky. In the mid-20th century, the year the USSR was involved in World War II, a new generation was created - the Kalashnikov assault rifle, as well as various types of grenade launchers and types of rocket artillery, for example the Soviet Katyusha, and underwater military equipment.

Weapons of mass destruction

None of the above types of weapons can be compared with this one in terms of their danger. This, as already mentioned, includes chemical, biological or bacteriological, atomic and nuclear. The last two are the most dangerous. For the first time, humanity experienced nuclear force in August and November 1945, during the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the US Air Force. The history, or rather, of its combat use, begins precisely from this dark date. Thank God that humanity never had to experience such a shock again.

completely spontaneously. There is a lot of saltpeter in the soils of India and China, and when people made fires, the saltpeter melted under them; mixing with coal and drying in the sun, such saltpeter could already explode and keeping this discovery secret, the Chinese used gunpowder for many centuries, but only for fireworks and other pyrotechnic fun. As for the first combat use of gunpowder, it dates back to 1232. The Mongols besieged the Chinese city of Kaifeng, from whose walls the defenders fired stone cannonballs at the invaders. At the same time, explosive bombs filled with gunpowder were used for the first time.

European tradition often attributes the invention of gunpowder to the German Franciscan, monk and alchemist Berthold Schwartz, who lived in Freiburg in the first half of the 14th century. Although back in the 50s of the 13th century, the properties of gunpowder were described by another Franciscan scientist, the Englishman Roger Becan.

Firearms made a loud statement for the first time in European military history in 1346, at the Battle of Crecy. The field artillery of the English army, which consisted of only three guns, then played a very noticeable role in the victory over the French. And the British used the so-called ribalds (small-shaped cannons), which fired small arrows or buckshot.

The first firearms were wooden and looked like a log of two halves, or barrels fastened with iron hoops. Firearms made from durable tree stumps with the core removed are also known. Then they began to use tools welded forged from iron strips, as well as cast from bronze. Such guns were large and heavy, and they were mounted on large wooden blocks or even rested against specially built brick walls or piles beaten behind them.

The first hand-held firearms appeared among the Arabs, who called them “modfa.” It was a short metal barrel attached to a shaft. In Europe, the first samples of handguns were called pedernals (Spain) or petrinals (France). They have been known since the middle of the 14th century, and their first widespread use dates back to 1425, during the Hussite wars; another name for this weapon was “hand bombard” or “hand crank.” It was a short, large-caliber barrel attached to a long shaft, and the ignition hole was located on top.

In 1372, a unique hybrid of hand and artillery weapons, the “wick arquebus,” was created in Germany. This gun was serviced by two people and fired from it from a stand, and centuries later a crossbow stock was adapted to arquebuses, which increased the accuracy of shooting. One person aimed the weapon, and the other applied a lit fuse to the seed hole. The gunpowder was poured onto a special shelf, which was equipped with a hinged lid so that the explosive mixture would not be blown away by the wind. Charging such a gun took at least two minutes, and even more in battle.

In the second half of the 15th century, an arquebus with a matchlock appeared in Spain. This gun was already much lighter and had a longer barrel with a smaller caliber. But the main difference was that the wick was brought to the gunpowder on the shelf using a special mechanism called the lock.

In 1498, another extremely important invention was made in the history of gunsmithing, the Viennese gunsmith Gaspar Zollner first used straight rifling in his guns. This innovation, which made it possible to stabilize the flight of a bullet, once and for all determined the advantages of firearms over bows and crossbows.

In the 16th century, muskets were invented that had a heavier bullet and higher accuracy. The musket quite successfully hit a target at a distance of up to 80 meters, it penetrated armor at a distance of up to 200 meters, and inflicted wounds up to 600 meters. Musketeers, as a rule, were tall warriors with strong physical strength, since the musket weighed 6-8 kilograms, with a length of about 1.5 meters. However, the rate of fire did not exceed two rounds per minute.

Leonardo da Vinci, in his work Codex Atlanticus, gave a diagram of a wheeled flintlock. This invention was decisive for the development of firearms in the next couple of centuries. However, the wheel lock found its practical implementation thanks to German masters, Leonardo's contemporaries.

A German gun of 1504 with a wheel lock, now kept in the Army Museum in Paris, is considered the earliest surviving weapon of its kind.

The wheel lock gave a new impetus to the development of hand weapons, since the ignition of gunpowder ceased to depend on weather conditions; such as rain, wind, dampness, etc., due to which, in the wick ignition method, failures and misfires constantly occurred when firing.

What was this wheel lock? His main know-how was a notched wheel that resembled a file. When the trigger was pressed, the spring dropped, the wheel spun, and the flint rubbing against its edge released a fountain of sparks. These sparks ignited the gunpowder on the shelf, and through the priming hole, the fire ignited the main charge in the breech of the barrel, the resulting gas ejected the bullet.

The disadvantage of the wheel lock was that powder soot very quickly contaminated the ribbed wheel, and this led to misfires. There was one more, perhaps the most serious drawback - a musket with such a lock was too expensive.

A little later a flint lock appeared. The first weapon with such a lock was made by the French artist, gunsmith and string instrument maker Marin le Bourgeois from Lisieux, for King Louis XIII, at the beginning of the 17th century. Wheel and flintlocks made it possible to significantly increase the rate of fire of hand weapons compared to the wick, and experienced shooters could fire up to five shots per minute. Of course, there were also super professionals who fired up to seven shots per minute.

In the 16th century, several important improvements were made that determined the development of this type of weapons for three centuries to come; Spanish and German gunsmiths modified the lock (moved it to the inside), and also made it less dependent on weather conditions, more compact, lighter and almost trouble-free. Nuremberg gunsmiths achieved particular success in this area. Such a modified castle in Europe began to be called German, and after further innovations introduced into it by the French, battery. In addition, the new lock made it possible to reduce the size of the weapon, which made the appearance of a pistol possible.

The pistol most likely got its name from the Italian city of Pistoia, where in the forties of the 16th century, gunsmiths began to make these special types of guns that could be held in one hand, and these items were intended for horsemen. Soon similar guns began to be made throughout Europe.

Pistols were first used in battle by German cavalry; this happened in 1544 at the Battle of Ranti, where German horsemen fought with the French. The Germans attacked the enemy in columns of 15-20 ranks each. Having jumped to shooting distance, the line fired a volley and scattered in different directions, making room for the firing of the line following it. As a result, the Germans won, and the outcome of this battle spurred the production and use of pistols.

By the end of the 16th century, craftsmen were already making double-barreled and triple-barreled pistols, and in 1607, double-barreled pistols were officially introduced into the German cavalry. Initially, firearms were loaded from the muzzle, and in the 16th century, rifles and pistols that were loaded from the breech, that is, from the reverse side, became widespread; they were also called “breech-loading.” The earliest that has survived to this day, the breech-loading arquebus of King Henry VIII of England, was made in 1537. It is kept in the Tower of London, where in the inventory of 1547 it is listed as “a piece with a chamber, with a wooden stock and with velvet padding under the cheek.”

In the 16th-18th centuries, the main type of army weapon remained a smooth-bore, muzzle-loading gun with a flintlock percussion lock, of a high degree of reliability. But hunting weapons could be double-barreled. Pistols were also muzzle-loading, single-barrel, rarely multi-barrel, and equipped with the same type of flintlock as shotguns.

In 1788, the French chemist Claude Louis Berthollet discovered “silver nitride” or “Berthollet’s silver fulminate,” which has the property of exploding upon impact or friction. Berthollet salt, mixed with mercury fulminate, became the main component of the shock compositions that served to ignite the charge.

The next exciting step was the invention in 1806, by the priest of the Scottish Presbyterian Church, Alexander John Forsyth, of the “capsule lock”. Forsythe's system included a small mechanism, which, due to its appearance, is often called a bottle. When inverted, the bottle placed a small part of the detonating composition on the shelves, and then returned to its original position.

Many have claimed the laurels of the inventor of the capsule; most researchers attribute this honor to the Anglo-American artist George Shaw or the English gunsmith Joseph Menton. And although the capsule was more reliable than flint and flint, this innovation had virtually no effect on the weapon’s rate of fire.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Swiss Johann Samuel Pauli, working in Paris, made one of the most important inventions in the history of gunsmithing. In 1812, he received a patent for a breech-loading center-fire gun, loaded with the world's first unitary cartridge. In such a unitary cartridge, a bullet, a powder charge and an ignition agent were combined into one whole. The Pauli cartridge had a cardboard case, with a brass base (similar to a modern hunting cartridge), and an igniter primer was built into the base. The Pauli gun, which had an amazing rate of fire for that time, was half a century ahead of its time and did not find practical use in France. And the laurels of the inventor of a unitary cartridge and a breech-loading gun went to the student Johann Dreyse and the French gunsmith Casimir Lefoshe.

In 1827, von Dreyse proposed his own unitary cartridge, the idea of ​​which he borrowed from Pauli. Using this cartridge, Dreyse developed a special rifle design in 1836, called the needle rifle. The introduction of the Dreyse rifles was a big step forward towards increasing the weapon's rate of fire. After all, needle rifles were loaded from the treasury, in contrast to muzzle-loading, flintlock and capsule weapon systems.

In 1832, Casimir Lefauchet, who, like von Dreise, was strongly influenced by Pauli, also developed a unitary cartridge. The weapon that Lefoshe released under this development was extremely convenient to use, due to the fast reloading and practical design of the cartridge. In fact, with the invention of Lefoshe, the era of breech-loading weapons on unitary cartridges began.

In 1845, the French gunsmith Flaubert invented the side-fire or rimfire cartridge. This is a special type of ammunition, the firing pin of which, when fired, hits not the center, but the periphery, bypassing part of the bottom of the cartridge case. In this case, there is no capsule, and the percussion compound is pressed directly into the bottom of the cartridge case. The principle of rimfire remains unchanged to this day.

American entrepreneur Samuel Colt went down in history thanks to the revolver that Boston gunsmith John Pearson developed for him in the mid-1830s. Colt essentially bought the idea of ​​this weapon, and the name of Pearson, like the Swiss Pauli, remains known only to a narrow circle of specialists. The first revolver model of 1836, which later brought Colt significant income, was called the Paterson Model.

The main part of the revolver was the rotating drum. The English term “Revolver”, which gave the name to the new type of weapon, comes from the Latin verb “revolve”, which means “to rotate”. But the Smith and Wesson revolver model No. 1 was designed by the American Rollin White, but this weapon went down in history under the name of the owners of the company “Horace Smith and Daniel Wesson.”

The Smith and Wesson model No. 3, model 1869, was introduced in 1971 into the Russian army. In Russia, this weapon was officially called the Smith and Wesson linear revolver, and in the United States simply the Russian model. It was a very advanced technique for those years. In 1873, this model was awarded a gold medal at the international exhibition in Vienna, and in combat conditions, it became especially famous during the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. But in the United States itself, Smith and Wesson model No. 3 became a hero of Indian warriors in the 80s of the 19th century.

Burmistrov Ilya

People have always needed and still need means of protection. In addition to using sharpened sticks and spears, people threw stones and threw darts. But about several tens of thousands of years ago, Homo sapiens made a real revolution...

It is not known exactly when a person first pulled a bowstring onto a slightly curved branch and sent an arrow at the target, but it certainly happened at least 30 thousand years ago. In fact, the history of small arms is equal in length to the history of mankind. Technical progress has always been characterized by improved weapons.

Small arms are bladed weapons/firearms, the principle of which is to send a charge over a certain distance. Used to destroy enemy personnel, fortifications and equipment.

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MUNICIPAL BUDGETARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

BEREZOVSKAYA SECONDARY SCHOOL

History of the development of small arms

Leaders: Chechugo L.G., history teacher,

Teacher-organizer of life safety Kovalev A.A.

Berezovo village 2013

Plan

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………pp. 2

1.Purpose………………………………………………………………………………………p. 2

2.Task…………………………………………………………………………………….p. 2

1. The main part is the history of the development of small arms:

1. Onion…………………………………………………………….……………p. 3

2. Crossbow……………………………………………………….……………p. 4

3. Firearms………………………………………...………………p. 4

4. Matchlock………………………………………………..…………p. 5

5. Wheel lock………………………………………..…………………p. 5

6. Percussion flint lock………………………………….………………p. 6

7. Percussion rifle………………………………………………………pp. 6

8. Revolver and pistol……………………………………………………….p. 7

9. Breech-loading repeating rifle………………….…………………p. 8

10. Rifles with optical devices…………………………..p. 8

11. Machine guns……………………………………………………………………p. 9

12. Automatic and self-loading rifles…………..…….…………p. 10

13. Submachine guns……………………………………………………… p. eleven

14. Automatic machines………………………………………………………………p. 12

15. Shotguns……………………………………………………..…………p. 13

16. Modern innovations………………..…………………………..……… p. 14

1. Conclusion……………………………………………………………..……page 15
2. Literature………………………………………..……………………….…p. 16

Introduction

People have always needed and still need means of protection. In addition to using sharpened sticks and spears, people threw stones and threw darts. But about several tens of thousands of years ago, Homo sapiens made a real revolution...

It is not known exactly when a person first pulled a bowstring onto a slightly curved branch and sent an arrow at the target, but it certainly happened at least 30 thousand years ago. In fact, the history of small arms is equal in length to the history of mankind. Technical progress has always been characterized by improved weapons.

Small arms are bladed weapons/firearms, the principle of which is to send a charge over a certain distance. Used to destroy enemy personnel, fortifications and equipment.

Target

Trace the process of formation, design and development of small arms.

Tasks

Study, compare, correlate the processes of development of small arms and draw conclusions.

Onion

Known since ancient times, it was simply a stick made of wood, tied with a bowstring made of sinew, but the first creators of bows quickly realized that this was not the maximum that could be extracted from a stick with a rope, and quickly ground the stick down to the ends so that it would break less in in the middle, then they ground it in the area of ​​the handle, and ground it in a plane perpendicular to the transverse axis of the bow (if you look at the bow frontally, as if from the front) so that the arrow was closer to the center of the bow, but then they tied a small block (bone) to the handle in the plane in which both bow axes lie.

Along with making fire and turning blades and knives for humans, the invention of the bow became a sensation. The ability to send a projectile, ease of manufacture and excellent characteristics for hunting made it possible to produce a bow in artisanal conditions.

Later, around 30 millennium BC. e. the arrow acquired feathers and a tip. Such an ideal ratio of destructive power and ease of use allowed the bow to displace the sling and boomerang.

By 6000 BC. e. people began to make bows of more complex shapes, for example, from several blocks of wood.

But one should not consider the bow a cheap weapon: not only does it require a special wood (yew, elm, beech, ash or at least acacia), but it also had to be sharpened evenly, carefully, so that the weapon was balanced.

For an ideal result, the shooter should have been trained from the age of 4-5. In addition, shooters often used “their own” arrows, adjusted to their weapons. This is not very convenient for the army. The bow is extremely demanding on the quality of training of fighters.

By the New Kingdom (circa 2800 BC) in Ancient Egypt, its soldiers began to wear armor, reinforcing their linen jackets with metal plates. Even lamellar shells gradually appear. Many of Egypt's opponents do the same. This is a reason to improve the penetrating ability of the bow, and by the reign of Thutmose III, double-bows - compound bows - became popular. Such weapons penetrate contemporary armor at a distance of 50-80 meters.

Since wood was brought to Egypt from the southern lands (Nubia), the Egyptians used animal horns and tendons, creating the world's first composite bow.

In the 3rd century. BC e. The Scythians created a composite bow with four bends. Their successors - the Huns - lengthened it from 70 cm to 1.5 m, strengthened the bends with bone plates and created a formidable weapon that pierced iron shields through and through. The Romans, Visigoths, and Franks together, at the cost of enormous blood, stopped this horde.

In Medieval Europe, the best archers were the British - thanks in part to Wales and King Edward I. Their classic long yew bow performed well in the Hundred Years' War, when the British shot almost 30,000 French knights at Crecy and the entire 25,000-strong French corps at Agincourt.

The latest improvement - the reverse bow - was created by the Ottoman Turks, thanks to which the latter captured the Balkans.

Lacking a choice, the bow was the main firearm for centuries and continued to compete with its successor, the crossbow, until the advent of firearms.

Crossbow

The idea of ​​placing the bow on the stock and hooking the string to save the archer's strength originated in the 3rd century. BC e. in ancient Greece and China. Archimedes later created a number of throwing machines. His developments went to the Roman Empire. Along with darts, Roman infantry used crossbows. But Rome, a zealous admirer of the “glorious traditions of the past,” kept only hired archers and crossbowmen. In China, the crossbow was used only in the northern provinces for protection against nomads.

In the Middle Ages, the Italian city-republics were the first to begin general “crossbowing”: Genoa, Venice, Padua, Milan... There were enough reasons: developed technologies, a high level of weapons, the military population was not particularly demanding of itself.

When the Italian crossbow became a composite bow, and later a metal bow, an arrow from such a weapon pierced the knight's armor, and the noble knightly war came to naught. The Pope introduced a ban on the use of a crossbow, since it was unworthy for a nobleman to die from an arrow. The ban, of course, did not apply to Italian mercenaries, because mercenaries are scoundrels without faith, conscience and honor.

We switched from manual reloading to lever reloading. “Anglo-French” (with a tension collar) and “German” (with a serrated collar) crossbows appeared. Although it was inconvenient, the crossbow did not require years of training, allowing European armies to have more marksmen in their army. The goat's leg type lever has greatly increased the rate of fire.

The confrontation between the crossbow and the bow lasted throughout the Middle Ages. The first was suitable for militias and huge armies, the second was ideal for the nobility and professionals. The appearance of firearms immediately replaced the bow, and decades later, the crossbow.

Firearms

The first examples of guns and rocket launchers were created in China at the beginning of the 13th century. They found application in the Mongol army. After the import of gunpowder to Europe in the 15th century, guns began to be created en masse, and later bombards - the first mortars. Smaller versions of cannons and bombards could be picked up and fired. In Rus' they were called “hand-made arquebus”. They were not widely used due to their bulkiness, heavy weight and enormous recoil.

Matchlock

Hand bombards were loaded by bringing a hot rod to the wick. This obscured the sight, and the shooter's right hand could not adjust the weapon to the target.

The invention of the matchlock deprived the shooter of these inconveniences. Now the shooter needed to pull the trigger, a red-hot rod on a stand was brought to the wick, and all that was left was to wait for the shot. The new gun was nicknamed the arquebus. But it was much heavier than a crossbow, and its shooting qualities left much to be desired.

An improved and lighter version of the arquebus, the musket, first appeared in Spain and later spread throughout Europe.

The matchlock had a lot of disadvantages: high recoil, low accuracy, low rate of fire, dependence on the weather, and constant access to fire was needed.

Even the church cursed the “instrument of the devil.” But there was also a benefit: now the heavy knightly cavalry did not inspire fear in the soldiers, because the bullets pierced the armor. For this reason, musketeers made up half of the army in Western Europe. The other half are pikemen. You can't fight in close combat with a musket.

Wheel lock

Often a thought is ahead of its time. In an attempt to find a replacement for the wick, Leonardo da Vinci (1482) and later Ettor of Nuremberg (1504) created the wheel lock. It works with the help of a spring wound by a ring, which drives a wheel and drops a piece of flint onto it, as in modern lighters. Friction occurred and sparks were created to charge.

It was with this type of lock that the first pistols were created. They were developed by the Italian Camillus Vetelli from Pistoia. Also, cavalry - cuirassiers and reiters - could use firearms with such a lock.

But such a mechanism was too expensive - the technical level of many countries was not yet capable of mass production of such weapons. Only the best shooters and mercenaries received it.

And again there was a confrontation between two small arms technologies: a simple, cheap, but inconvenient matchlock, and a weather-independent, high-quality, but very expensive wheel lock.

The matchlock and wheel locks were replaced at the beginning of the 18th century by the percussion flintlock.

Percussion flintlock

A real revolution in military tactics was made by guns with percussion flintlocks. Created in Turkey, and later in Russia and Spain, simple, cheap and quite reliable, they used the same principle of striking a spark from a flint, but not due to the rotation of the wheel, but due to the movement of the flint itself, fixed in the jaws of the trigger, and its impact about a motionless flint.

Also, a bayonet was created for a musket with such a lock, which, together with the new formation of linear infantry, was considered the pinnacle of military-scientific thought; also with this lock, fittings or rifles - shotguns with a rifled barrel - were tested. Reloading them was incredibly difficult; only by the middle of the 19th century was a special rifle bullet created. But the lock had a drawback - since the gap into which the sparks should pass was small, a misfire could occur and the shot would not take place. For this reason, the flintlock was superseded in the 1920s. XIX century capsule.

Capsule rifle

The cap lock appeared at the beginning of the 19th century, initially in hunting weapons. He used a chemical explosive based on mercuric fulminate (mercuric fulminate), enclosed in a metal cap - a primer, or "piston". The trigger hit the primer, which was placed on a hollow seed rod - a brand tube, the cavity of which was connected to the barrel bore. This lock was simple, cheap, and very reliable. Its design was familiar and from the inside it completely repeated the impact flint one, which had long been mastered in production. By the 1840s, it had replaced the flintlock in the armies of almost all developed countries.

Later the primer from the side was moved into the gun itself. Using exactly the same method, a revolver pistol was created. Capsule locks were placed on fittings, and Claude Minier’s invention of a special bullet for rifles simplified the loading process - the bullet slid in a spiral to the end of the barrel. The capsule system reliably served the army throughout the 1st half of the 19th century.It was with the use of percussion rifles that the term “rifle” became established as the soldier’s individual weapon.

In 1827, the German engineer Dreyse presented his rifle project for Central European countries. It was accepted by the Prussian army, despite difficulties in production, but especially drew attention to its single, full cartridge and bolt-action trigger mechanism.

For this system, the first unitary cartridges and a bolt-action trigger mechanism were created, developed by the engineer Dreyse. His modified version of the lock used cartridges where the primer was part of the cartridge. This idea was reproduced after Boxer created metal cartridges.

In 1836, the French gunsmith Lefauchet created a cardboard pin cartridge.

The capsule was in the cartridge, and there was no need to worry about its loss. At first, a small pin was used for ignition, then, as in a revolver, the percussion composition was in the ring at the end of the cartridge, and only then in 1861 the primer was again included in the cartridge.

And in 1853 they developed an all-metal cartridge for pistols and rifles. A little later, they created a more reliable rimfire cartridge without a primer, only with a percussion compound. But it turned out that the cartridge with a primer was much more effective, and new central ignition cartridges replaced all outdated models.

Revolver and pistol.

The advantage of the pistol was supposed to be its rate of fire. But due to the fact that it was loaded, like a gun, from the muzzle, the pistol became a disposable weapon. After the creation of the cap lock, pistols began to be widely distributed in the army. At first they were made multi-barrel for greater effect. Only this option made the weapon much heavier.

The idea to leave the “barrel drum” alone and make a rotating container for changing cartridges came to John Pearson, who worked for the industrialist Samuel Colt. The latter received huge profits from the project and worldwide fame. The new weapon was called "revolver" ( English rotation). It was so perfect that it was classified as a separate type of weapon. The revolver forced the pistol out of the market due to its many advantages. The era of the revolver ended in the 1880s with the invention of smokeless powder, giving way to handguns.

At first, as before, pistols were made with multiple barrels, and then the American John Browning came up with the idea of ​​placing a magazine with cartridges in the pistol handle, and “covering” the trigger with a steel casing. This technology was borrowed all over the world, making pistols indispensable for security and special units, as well as for command personnel. The German gunsmith Georg Luger used a different design in the pistol: instead of a steel casing, he left a revolving striker, installed a fuse above it, and replaced the drum with a magazine.

Breech-loading repeating rifle.

At the front, soldiers suffered heavy losses not only because of problems with the rifle lock. Often they did not have time to recharge it. Loading from the barrel is a very long process, and soldiers had to stand up to their full height to reload. When the capsule lock moved into the rifle itself, several countries immediately developed breech-loading systems - introducing a special groove next to the lock. Now it was easier to reload the rifle without having to stand up to full height, and there was no loss of reliability and accuracy.

Opened in the 70s. smokeless powder made it possible to reduce the caliber from 15-18 to 8 mm. Lightweight cartridges had more ideal ballistic data.

But the single-shot rifle did not meet the requirements of the time.

Dreyse's bolt mechanism was perfect and ideal for reloading. Later, a loading accelerator, under-barrel and butt magazines were made. The accelerator only gave a gain in time. And both types of stores, although they had many options, when firing, the center of gravity changed, and the rifle itself became fragile. In addition, it had to be loaded one cartridge at a time, and the magazine could contain from 4 to 48 cartridges.

The under-barrel mechanism took root in the United States when, in 1860, the American B. T. Henry created a new trigger, which was nicknamed the “Henry bracket.” He sold the patent and rights to the weapon to the industrialist Winchester, who assigned his last name to the weapon.

The Winchester was quick-firing, but the soldiers did not like the fact that this inconvenient weapon discharged very quickly. Henry was unable to further develop his already complex mechanism, and the rifle became unpromising.

Having realized these mistakes, the designers made their choice on the middle store, which had many options, but was often stocked. Typically it held 5 rounds in a clip (a clip is a device for speeding up loading). The longitudinally sliding bolt provided a good rate of fire, and now the rifle was fully in keeping with its time.

Rifles with optical devices

After the invention of the telescope, gunsmiths in European and then American countries tried to start producing weapons with so-called telescopic sights. It was possible to do this only at the beginning of the 19th century. Along with them, a cheaper diopter sight began to be produced. The telescopic sight provided an enlarged image of the target, and the diopter sight helped the shooter calculate the distance to the object.

Sharp shooters were nicknamed snipers, which in English means “snipe hunter.” The fact is that it was not easy to defeat this bird: it was small and maneuverable.

The invention worked well in the United States, where, due to constant local conflicts, the majority of the population were experienced shooters.

The American Civil War gave a new impetus to the development of snipers: Northern Colonel Hiram Berdan created an elite brigade of accurate snipers. The selection was tough, but it was worth it: Berdan's snipers repeatedly thwarted Confederate advances. For example, at the Battle of Gettysburg, a Federal sniper shot and killed Confederate General John Reynolds from 600 m, as a result of which the Confederates retreated from the city in panic. Another example is Sergeant Grace, a Confederate sniper who shot Northern General John Sedgwick in the head from 731 meters while he was riding a horse. His shot stopped the Federal attack and led to the South's victory in the Battle of Pennsylvania.

The Great Patriotic War brought a new round of development of the sniper craft. Soviet soldiers fought to the death for their Motherland. Destroyed Stalingrad and the Belarusian forests became an ideal place for constant sniper fire. Ruins, soot, dust or dense tree crowns, swamps dangerous for traps, and excellent use of camouflage - you can’t imagine a better place for a sniper.

Machine guns

The 20th century was approaching, and the army needed automatic weapons for successful wars.

The concept of a machine gun as a weapon with a much higher rate of fire than a rifle, as well as its first project, were put forward in 1718.

Although the first real machine gun appeared in 1883 (it was made by the American Hiram Maxim), at first this weapon was underestimated, and it became widespread only during the First World War, when the armies of the warring countries got stuck in the trenches ah and trench wars.

The basis of the operation of machine guns is either semi-free movement of the bolt back and forth, or repulsion by a gas piston, which is acted upon by the pressure of the powder gases, which flow back to the machine gun mechanism through the gas tube. The first samples of automatic rifles were created back in 1863 by Regulus Pilon. In Russia, such a weapon was made by D.A. Rudnitsky in 1886. But technical capabilities allowed European and American designers to make such weapons by 1908-10. Machine guns, approved and manufactured by 1900, were used in the Boer War and the First World War and were considered weapons of mass destruction.

The effectiveness of automatic weapons was confirmed by the experience of the First World War. Machine guns of the Maxim and Lewis system were effective and widespread weapons. Although the rate of fire made it possible to consider its design powerful, the machine gun weighed from 20 to 65 kg. Calculation – from 2 to 6 people.

Due to such shortcomings, a version of a light machine gun arose that could be handled by one person. The first samples of light machine guns were made in 1918. In fact, these are lightweight versions of heavy machine guns. Only in the late 20s were systems other than heavy machine guns created. In the USSR, the Degtyarev machine gun, made in 1927, was used.

Also in the Soviet Union, the first prototype of a high-speed machine gun was created - the aviation ShKAS Shpitalny and Komarov with a rate of fire of up to 3000 rounds per minute. Created at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it made a huge impression on the German command. It is known that a sample of the ShKAS was kept in the Reich Chancellery under glass: Hitler ordered that this weapon be kept until German engineers made the same one for the Luftwaffe. But this never happened.

During World War II, another type of machine gun was developed - a single one - both easel and manual. It is considered one of the most acceptable options.

Automatic and self-loading rifles.

Despite the obvious superiority over conventional repeating rifles, their automatic counterparts were not widely used due to their unreliability, fear of overheating of the barrel, and the fear of the ruling circles, who were afraid that there would not be enough ammunition for the assault rifles. Therefore, they were changed, making it possible only to fire single shots without jerking the shutter. Such rifles were called self-loading (purely conditionally). But nowhere did they rearm the army with them. Only in the USA, after 20 years of testing, in 1936 they approved the Garand rifle project and made a complete replacement for it. In the USSR, tests were also carried out in the 30s, but not a single project met the requirements. And only in 1936 the Simonov ABC-36 rifle successfully passed the tests and was put into service. Its working system was above the barrel. In 1938, it was replaced by the Simonov SVT-38 rifle. The new rifle now has a locking device (bolt skew) and a hammer trigger mechanism (instead of a striker-fired one). In 1940, a new SVT-40 with even better tactical data. But such rifles had a drawback - they required careful maintenance (this does not apply to the SVT-40). Therefore, repeating rifles were also used in World War II.

After the war, preference began to be given to machine guns, and self-loading and non-automatic rifles began to be used only as sniper weapons.

Pistols - machine guns

A submachine gun (PP) is an individual hand-held automatic small arms weapon of continuous fire that uses a pistol cartridge for firing and is effective at close ranges.

They did not become widespread during the First World War; they were mass-produced only from the late 1930s.

Based on the idea of ​​facilitating and increasing the tactical mobility of a machine gun, in 1915 in Italy, Major Abel Revelli created a light double-barreled light machine gun Villar-Perosa M1915 chambered for the Glisenti pistol cartridge (9x20 mm). It was used relatively widely in the Italian army, and especially actively by mountain and assault units. There were options for firing both from the machine and from a bipod or from the hands - which to some extent makes this weapon also a harbinger of the concept of a single machine gun.

But it was General Thompson (one of the creators of the PP) who invented the term submachine gun, which literally means “submachine gun”, in the sense of a lighter type of machine gun, which to this day designates this type of weapon in the USA and, partly, in other English-speaking countries countries.

It is curious that Thompson and his team of engineers began development with the idea of ​​​​an automatic rifle, and only later switched to the development of a light machine gun, carried by one person, suitable for offensive operations in trench warfare and chambered for the .45 ACP pistol cartridge, due to its unsuitability soon became clear which he bought from the inventor of the Blish system semi-free bolt for more powerful rifle ammunition.

In the interwar period, in most countries these weapons were considered unnecessary and secondary. But the conflict in Chaco and the “Banana War” in South America completely refuted this judgment, and after that the infantry was massively enriched with these weapons.

The Second World War was the apogee of the development of submachine guns. Some were cheap but unreliable, others were convenient but expensive. The PPS-43 of the Soviet engineer Sudaev was recognized by the whole world as the best project - it was reliable, simple, and accurate.

After 1945, they were actively improved in Western Europe; in the USSR, these weapons were replaced by automatic pistols. They are mostly fired in bursts with low accuracy. Currently, PPs are most often used by law enforcement agencies, special services, rapid response groups, attack aircraft, as well as crews of armored vehicles, artillery crews, missilemen, signalmen, rear officers and other military personnel for whom direct fire contact with the enemy is not a normal situation (so called the “second line”) as a weapon of self-defense - due to the small size of the weapon with relatively large firepower. Unofficially, PPs are called “anti-terror weapons.”

Slot machines

At the beginning of World War II, the infantry of most countries was armed primarily with repeating non-automatic rifles or shortened carbines using rifle cartridges, and submachine guns using pistol ammunition. In addition, many countries had a number of self-loading and automatic rifles in service. None of these types of weapons individually could provide the necessary firepower for the infantry, since:

– Repeated non-automatic rifles and carbines had a large, even excessive range of aimed fire for most real combat missions, but at the same time a very low rate of fire, which made non-automatic rifles useless in close combat with infantry;

– Submachine guns had a very high rate of fire, and in close-range combat they created a fairly high density of fire. But due to the use of relatively low-power ammunition designed for short-barreled weapons, the effective firing range of most models did not exceed 200 meters, which was often not enough to solve many combat missions, including heavy fire at medium distances.

Self-loading and automatic rifles, created on the basis of existing rifle-machine-gun cartridges, had a number of fatal shortcomings, such as:

strong recoil when shooting,

a very significant mass of weapons and ammunition,

complexity and low technological efficiency of production,

high cost of both weapons and ammunition.

However, the widespread use of PP during the war had a significant impact on the formation of infantry combat tactics and the weapons system of the Soviet army in the post-war period, when great importance began to be attached to the conduct of dense automatic fire along the entire front, to the detriment of shooting accuracy, and the Kalashnikov assault rifle replaced more an accurate, but slower-firing Simonov carbine, while in the West, especially in the USA, for some time the ideology of accurate self-loading weapons with powerful cartridges continued to develop, sometimes with the ability to fire in bursts at a critical moment of the battle, similar to Soviet pre-war developments - ABC and SVT.

Automatic rifles (assault rifles) are weapons that replaced repeating and self-loading rifles. The first prototype is the German MP-43 (StG 44). The rifle was the “middle ground” between the MP-40 and our SVT-40. In September, on the Eastern Front, the 5th SS Wiking Panzer Division conducted the first full-scale military tests of the MP-43, the results of which determined that the new carbine was an effective replacement for submachine guns and repeating rifles, increasing the firepower of infantry units and reducing the need for use of light machine guns.

Despite the splendor of the Sturmgewehr, time was lost and Germany lost the war. Most of the rifles were used on the Eastern Front, and this greatly affected the military doctrine of the Soviet Army.

The most successful weapons power, the Soviet Union, achieved particular success in automation.

After the war, a clear model of a weapon for a Soviet soldier was determined: a reliable, cheap and simple machine gun. It was precisely for these parameters that the Kalashnikov assault rifle project was ideally suited. The weapon was named AK-47 with a caliber of 7.62x54 mm.

The appearance of the AK and its use in the Korean War forced the United States to also begin developing assault rifles. The US Army M14 rifle was inferior to the AK in all respects.

After the outbreak of the Vietnam War, the US Army received the first batch of AR-15 rifles, which were given the name M-16. The rifle was accurate and lightweight, but was very unreliable and inconvenient for fighting on rough terrain. According to the results of the jungle battles, the AK-47 won.

But such a powerful AK cartridge reduced the accuracy of the hit due to the powerful recoil. An “intermediate” cartridge was required - stronger than a pistol cartridge, but weaker than a rifle cartridge.

The most successful option was the 5.45x39 cartridge. The AK-47 was “recalibrated” and given the name AKM-74.

Now, these days, an assault rifle is a combination of a non-automatic, self-loading and automatic (sometimes also a sniper) rifle. The mechanism is an improved bolt-trigger rifle system. The weapon was regularly improved during the Cold War from 1947-1991. As a result of the “war”, two types of machine guns and rifles were formed with their differences:

NATO rifles are accurate, convenient, but unreliable, complex in design, expensive and effective for fast operations and urban combat.

OVD rifles are simple, reliable, cheap, but have low accuracy and are effective in field and forest battles.

There are, of course, “ideal” machines, but their prices are very high.

Shotguns

A shotgun is a smooth-bore firearm that uses the energy of a fixed projectile to fire a number of small round balls (shot) or bullets. A shotgun is a weapon designed to be fired from the shoulder. Shotguns can be of a wide variety of calibers: from 5.5 mm to 5 cm. There are various shotgun mechanisms, including single-barreled, with two or more barrels; pump-action, lever, semi-automatic, there are even fully automatic options. Their mechanism is a Colt sliding forend.

Created at the end of the 19th century in the USA by many American gunsmiths as a replacement for a light machine gun and an offshoot of a repeating rifle. It has not become widely used and is still used mainly in the American army and special forces of the NATO bloc.

Modern innovations

The constant modification of small arms has led to new subtypes:

• Weapons for fighting underwater (colloquially “needlecushion”)
• Combination automatic rifles (loved by the NATO block)
• Weapons with caseless cartridges and rubber powder (weak armor-piercing, but saves metal)
• Bullpup design: the magazine is located behind the handle.

Who knows to what level a seemingly simple rifle can evolve?

Conclusion

So, at the cost of millions of lives in modern armies, powerful small arms. But was it worth it? We will never know because there has been no alternative in history. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, diplomacy was not at its best. But since the 20th century, one of the reasons for wars has been the desire to “train” the army and its weapons. Maybe it’s better to have “three-line soldiers” in the armies than for the destructive power of war to sweep away and distort entire cities and even states? Or should we agree that the trial and error method, using the example of wars, is the most effective? Nowadays, only local conflicts remain in different parts of the world. Most of the army “acts” in parades and exercises, and blood and explosions are on TV screens and computer monitors. But wars are going on - with the help of special troops - and the arms industry is not asleep.

But you shouldn’t look at military conflicts so monotonously. Wars force states to improve, and the altar of victory must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and usurpers. Many military defensive installations, considered obsolete, were reflected in civilian infrastructure and helped people live more comfortably. Well, we must not forget about the national pride of any state. Almost all countries in the world have their own military history.

Small arms - a bow, crossbow, pistol, revolver - were almost always a reliable chance for the survival of a person, and later of the state (such as the “Colt Law” and the emblems of partisan groups in the form of crossed AK-47 and M-16). This is a faithful friend who will not betray you if you look after him properly.

Still, states should not invest so much in the arms industry. Almost all of Europe's coal and iron reserves went into the production of armor and crossbows.

Simply put, you need to know the extent of weapons production. Remember Spain and the Aztecs of America. Countries that did not pay due attention to small arms were quickly occupied by other states. Think about the Soviet Union and Napoleon's empire. Countries with too much money turned into empires, but fell apart because the ruling circles forgot about ordinary citizens.

Introduction

Small arms are firearms that hit targets with bullets. Small arms include: pistols, revolvers, submachine guns, machine guns, automatic rifles, machine guns, various types of sporting and hunting firearms. Modern small arms are mostly automatic. It is used to destroy enemy personnel and fire weapons, and some large-caliber machine guns are also used to destroy lightly armored and air targets. Small arms have fairly high firing efficiency, reliability, and maneuverability. It is convenient and easy to use and the device is relatively uncomplicated, allowing the production of weapons in mass quantities.

small arms cartridge gunpowder

History of small arms

There is evidence that already in ancient times there were powerful weapons that spewed fire and smoke and operated at a considerable distance. Naturally, its device was kept in the strictest confidence, and everything connected with it was shrouded in the fog of legend. Was it a firearm, did it use the energy released during the combustion of some propellant, its properties similar to gunpowder? In some cases, judging by the manuscripts, this was indeed the case. At least it has been established: gunpowder was invented in ancient China, where it was used in warfare and for festive fireworks. Then he migrated to India. There is evidence that incendiary and, probably, explosive substances were also known in the Byzantine Empire. But the true history of firearms began in Europe, at the turn of the 8th-14th centuries.

Weapons are usually divided into artillery and small arms. The first strikes the enemy with large projectiles fired along mounted or flat trajectories. To maintain artillery systems, a crew of several gunners is required. The second, mainly individual, is used for direct fire at open, relatively close targets.

The variety of systems, calibers and other parameters against the background of modern handguns will make its first samples seem primitive. However, we must not forget that the transition to them from the bow and crossbow (throwing weapons) was much more difficult than the subsequent development of firearms. So what were the predecessors of today's rifles, pistols, machine guns and revolvers?

Experts recreate their general appearance and structure based on ancient drawings and descriptions, but only a few examples have survived. In our country they are exhibited in the State Historical Museum, the State Hermitage, the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering and Signal Corps, museums of the Moscow Kremlin, and the Central Museum of the Armed Forces.

It should be noted right away that hand-held weapons were not much different in principle from the guns of that time. Even the names were similar: in Western Europe - bombardellas (small bombards) (Fig. 1), and in Rus' - pikali (handbrake).

Rice. 1. Bombardella, early 15th century

Fig 2. Russian arquebus, 1375-1450.

At the end of the 14th - beginning of the 15th century, their barrels were a short iron or bronze tube, about 30 cm long and 25-33 mm in caliber with a blind end, near which a small ignition hole was drilled on top. It was placed in a trench hollowed out in a log - a bed 1.5 m long, and secured with metal rings. They loaded it through the muzzle with pulverized gunpowder (they began to make it granular later) and a spherical bullet made of copper, iron or lead. By the way, the shape of the bullet has remained virtually unchanged throughout the long era of smooth-bore, muzzle-loading weapons. This was explained by the fact that it is easy to manufacture and does not require stabilization in flight.

Having loaded the bombardella or handgun, the shooter either rested the butt against the ground or chest, or placed it on his shoulder and pinched it under the arm (this depended on the length of the butt and its configuration), took aim, and then ignited the powder charge by bringing a hot metal rod to the ignition hole (Fig. .3).

The Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps houses a short iron barrel from the 14th - 15th centuries, fastened with three rings. On the back there is a narrow groove leading to the ignition hole - this is what the ancestor of today's pistols looks like.

When creating hand weapons, medieval craftsmen solved the same problems as modern designers - they increased the firing range and accuracy, tried to reduce recoil, and increase the rate of fire. The range and accuracy of fire was improved by lengthening the barrels, and they combated recoil by equipping handguns and other self-propelled guns with support hooks and additional stops. It turned out to be much more difficult to increase the rate of fire. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the production of multi-barreled bombardelles, handguns, and guns was launched. Of course, their charging required more time, but in battle, when every second counts, the shooter fired several shots in turn without reloading.

New military equipment immediately affected battle tactics. Already in the 15th century, in many countries, detachments of shooters armed with “mini-guns” appeared. True, at first such weapons were inferior to bows and crossbows brought to perfection in rate of fire, accuracy and range, and often in penetrating power. In addition, forged or the barrels cast by eye did not last long, or even simply burst at the moment of the shot.

Experience has shown that it is very inconvenient to aim and at the same time bring the rod to the weapon. Therefore, at the end of the 15th century, the pilot hole was moved to the right side of the barrel. A small shelf with a recess was placed nearby, into which a measure of so-called seed powder was poured. Now it was enough to ignite it so that the fire would spread through the ignition hole into the breech of the barrel and ignite the main charge. This seemingly small improvement made a small revolution in the history of handguns.

After some time, the shelf was covered from wind, rain and snow with a hinged lid. At the same time, they found a replacement for the red-hot rod - a long wick, which in Western European countries was soaked in saltpeter or wine alcohol, and in Rus' it was boiled in ash. After such treatment, the wick no longer burned, but slowly smoldered, and the shooter could activate the weapon at any time. But it was still inconvenient to bring the wick to the shelf every time. Well, they managed to simplify and speed up this operation by connecting the fuse to the weapon. A hole was made in the stock through which a thin metal strip in the shape of the Latin letter S with a clamp at the end, called serpentine (in our country - zhagra), was passed. When the shooter lifted the lower end of the serpentine, the upper end, from which the smoldering wick protruded, fell to the shelf and touched the ignition gunpowder. In a word, from now on there was no longer any need to stay close to the field brazier to heat the rod.

At the end of the 15th century, the weapon was equipped with a rather complex matchlock for those times, in which a sear was added to the serpentine - a leaf spring with a protrusion, mounted on an axis on the inside of the locking board. It was connected to the serpentine in such a way that as soon as the shooter pressed the trigger, the rear end of the sear rose and the wick lay on the shelf, igniting the ignition powder. And soon the shelf itself was moved to the key board.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, the British attached a small shield to the shelf, which protected the eyes from the flash when fired. Then they switched to a more effective type of gunpowder. The previous one, crushed into dust, quickly absorbed moisture in damp weather, stuck together, and generally burned unevenly, which is why unburnt particles constantly clogged the barrel and seed hole. Experience has shown that small hard cakes should be fashioned from the powder mixture, and then split into relatively large grains. They burned more slowly than “dust”, but without leaving a residue and released more energy. The new gunpowder soon replaced all previous varieties and existed safely until the mid-19th century, when more effective pyroxylin gunpowder replaced it.

The bullets also changed. At first they were made from steel and other alloys in the form of arrows, balls, cubes and rhombuses. But then they settled on a round bullet made of lead, which is easy to process, and its heaviness gave the bullet good ballistic properties.

Curiously, for some time it was believed that the metal of the bullet must certainly correspond to the intended target. Indeed, only a steel bullet could effectively hit an enemy dressed in metal armor. And a certain French conspirator, before the assassination attempt on the Spanish King Charles 5, cast bullets for him... from gold!

No matter how hard the craftsmen tried to improve the matchlock, they were unable to achieve significant changes. The wick itself turned out to be a hindrance, which the shooter had to constantly keep smoldering. But what then is used to ignite the propellant charge in the barrel? And then a brilliant idea arose - to replace the wick with flint and a metal rectangle. The invention of the flintlock wheel lock marked the beginning of a new era in the history of handguns.

Controversies:

Between the need to strengthen Russian statehood and the uncertainty of the value orientations of Suvorovites;

Between the lack of military knowledge among adolescents and the need to master the basic elements of military affairs;

Between social interests and the interests of the teenager’s personality and his needs for self-development;

Between rather limited ideas about the history of the development of domestic firearms and the peculiarities of understanding the process of development of military affairs;

Between the age level of requirements for knowledge and quality of education and the objectively existing level of training of Suvorov students.

Target

Systematize practical experience and present some methodological techniques for studying the history of the development of small arms to form primary military knowledge among students.

Tasks

1. To help teachers of military disciplines in studying issues of initial military training and professional orientation of Suvorovites.

2. Create conditions for Suvorov students to master a certain base of historical knowledge necessary to understand the importance of studying military affairs.

3. In preparation for further study of military disciplines, introduce students to the basics of fire training.

4. Provide an educational impact on students through the creation of conditions for mastering the basics of military training.

5. Formation of military-professional competencies of students based on the use of innovative educational technologies.

Educational environment

Of great importance for improving the quality of education is the organization of the educational environment, which includes lessons, classes in an additional educational program, military-patriotic games and competitions in applied sports, visits to units of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the OMON Combat Training Center and military units located in the city. Tver.

Recently, the role and demand for such a subject as the basics of initial military training has increased, both for preparation for service in the Armed Forces and for creating conditions for further professional growth and a career in the public service.

Lessons on the basics of military disciplines are conducted mainly in a specialized classroom, which is equipped with a classroom board, stands with replaceable materials, a layout of the area, a demonstration computer complex, a media library, a video library and a TV. It is planned to install an interactive whiteboard and connect to the global Internet information network. Car simulators are actively used to conduct classes.

The educational environment extends beyond the boundaries of the Tver VU. Students participate in city competitions, visit museums in Tver, Moscow and other cities.

Principles:

scientific character;

accessibility;

systematization and sequence of training;

visibility;

strength of assimilation;

connections between training and education;

person-centered approach;

consciousness and activity of Suvorov students in training;

individualization and differentiation of training and education;

the use of interdisciplinary and intercourse connections;

connections with modernity.

Technology

Study of theoretical and methodological literature on basic military disciplines.

Studying the military training program in order to determine the forms and methods of organizing lessons in which fire training issues are studied.

Selection of content for lessons on the study of small arms.

Testing of methodological development materials.

Identifying results, making adjustments to your teaching activities, determining prospects.

Efficiency

Consideration of the development of domestic small arms in the course of studying the fundamentals of military disciplines made it possible to:

Teachers of the discipline should create conditions to increase the interest of Suvorov students in studying issues of initial military training and their professional guidance;

To form students’ understanding of the main trends in the development and improvement of Russian firearms at certain historical stages in the development of our society;

To form military-professional competencies and develop students’ analytical thinking through the use of innovative educational technologies;

Contribute to increasing readiness and motivation to serve in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

All this creates real opportunities for more effectively solving educational, educational and developmental problems, improving the quality of knowledge and skills of students.

I. Introduction

Studying in classes on military disciplines the history of the development of domestic small arms allows Suvorov students to form an idea of ​​the main stages of the emergence and improvement of firearms in Russia, forms pride in our country among the younger generation and helps to increase students’ motivation to study military affairs.

In our country, where such talented gunsmith designers as S. I. Mosin, V. G. Fedorov, M. T. Kalashnikov were born, who played a significant role in the development of small arms and in the creation of their first-class samples, knowledge of the history of its development is a matter of national pride and contributes to the formation of patriotism and readiness to defend the Fatherland.

Students begin to become interested in the history of their country, its glorious military past, and strive to improve their knowledge in the military field, using both educational and fiction literature, and modern communication systems. This contributes to the development of their analytical thinking and professional orientation.

III. Main part

Studying the history of the development of domestic firearms must begin with the appearance of the first examples of handguns in the world. It is necessary to explain its purpose, combat use, classification and tactical purpose. To consistently trace the entire path of weapons modernization at certain historical stages of the development of our society, to emphasize the priority and genius of Russian and Soviet designers who create weapons for many decades to come. Give a comparative description with foreign weapons using specific examples.

It can be useful for students to watch films and educational videos on the topic being studied, and practice using educational tools.

A real revolution in military affairs was the use of handguns, which appeared in the 14th century. The initial samples of hand-held firearms, which later became known as small arms, differed little from artillery guns. They were an iron or bronze pipe with a rod instead of a stock. The pipes were smooth-bore and were made by forge welding. Due to great difficulties in manufacturing small-diameter barrels, their caliber was large - over 20 mm. Shooting was carried out with round (spherical) bullets, first with iron, and then with copper and lead. The weapon itself had a lot of weight, was loaded from the muzzle, and when fired with a fuse, the charge ignited through a hole in the breech.

All types of handguns used in ancient times in Rus' were called squeaks. Hand-held arquebuses had an iron barrel, reinforced with iron rings and screws in a wooden stock with a butt. A wooden ramrod was placed in the fore-end of the stock. The imperfection of the first types of firearms was the main reason that they were not widely used for a long time.

The appearance of the matchlock

In the 15th century century, lighter arquebuses appeared, which had curved stocks to rest on the shoulder and could already be fired by one person. In the same century, a matchlock was also invented, which was a double-arm lever mounted on the side of the gun and turned over on an axis, at the upper end of which a wick was attached, which came into contact with the powder seal when the lower end of the lever was pressed.

The adoption of matchlocks helped reduce the weight and caliber of the gun and made it suitable for individual use.

At the beginning of the 16th century, powerful matchlock guns - MUSKETS - appeared in the infantry's arsenal. They had a caliber of 8.25 (20.955 mm), weight - 8-10 kg, bullet weight - 50 g, charge weight 25 g. The muskets had satisfactory accuracy at ranges up to 100-150 m.

The matchlock, which greatly simplified the use of the gun, did not solve the problem of quick and reliable ignition of the powder charge. It had many disadvantages: sensitive to moisture, accidental ignition of gunpowder, unmasking at night and very difficult to use.

Making flintlock guns

All these shortcomings of wick locks forced us to look for more modern methods of ignition. As a result, flintlocks began to appear already in the 15th century. The first type of such a castle was a wheel lock; its invention dates back to the end of the 15th century and belongs to the Italian scientist Leonardo da Vinci.

Almost simultaneously with the wheel lock, a flint lock or hammer lock appeared. This lock subsequently found a central place in the designs of military weapons.

Only by the beginning of the 18th century, the improvements introduced made it possible to operate a fairly satisfactory type of infantry smoothbore, muzzle-loading flintlock rifle for that time, which was in service until the middle of the 19th century.

The weight of the gun was about 6 kg, allowing the shooter to fire without using a special stand and carry it alone while on the move. Caliber 18-20 mm. The gun and bayonet had a length of 1900 mm. Firing range 250-300 steps (up to 200 m). Rate of fire up to one shot every two minutes.

Smoothbore percussion-capsule guns

Flintlock guns, along with some advantages, had serious disadvantages: low survivability of the lock; in wet or windy weather, the gunpowder became damp or was blown off the shelf; The gunpowder that burned on the shelf bothered the shooter, which impaired shooting accuracy.

These shortcomings of the percussion flintlock required the creation of a more advanced method of igniting the charge. At the end of the 18th century. shock compositions of fulminate of mercury and bertholet salt were found, which exploded from friction and impact.

In 1814, the capsule was invented (a copper cap with a percussion compound at the bottom, covered with foil).Before firing, such a capsule was put on a priming rod mounted on the side of the ground part of the barrel. Inside the rod there was a hole for igniting the powder charge from the primer. This lock turned out to be simpler and more reliable in operation. The number of misfires was significantly reduced, and shooting could be carried out in any weather.

The percussion cap lock was adopted in the infantry rifle model 1845, Cossack, dragoon, soldier pistol model 1948, carbine and fitting model 1849.

Development of rifled weapons

Gaspar Zollner (Vienna) in 1498 made a carbine with straight rifling in the target. This ensured better shooting accuracy and greater stability of the bullet in flight. In addition, a tightly driven bullet was not lost when carrying a weapon, which made it possible to keep it loaded in breaks between shooting and immediately open fire if necessary.

In the 16th century, weapons with screw rifling were created, which significantly increased the range and accuracy of fire. But due to the great difficulty of loading from the muzzle, these guns did not become widespread at that time.

The first models adopted as weapons by the Russian army were introduced by Peter 1 only at the beginning of the 18th century. fittings for non-commissioned officers and marksmen (snipers) of 6-6.5 line caliber (line - 2.54 mm).

To eliminate the main drawback of rifled guns - the low rate of fire, it was necessary to improve the loading method, which led to the creation of goat-loading weapons.

Goat-loading weapon

A sharp increase in the rate of fire of rifled weapons became possible due to the introduction in the 60s of the 19th century. unitary cartridges and loading from the breech. The rate of fire for rifles chambered for a unitary paper cartridge increased to 6-9 rounds per minute, and for rifles chambered for a metal cartridge to 8-9 rounds per minute.

Development of magazine weapons

A correct assessment of the value of the rate of fire led to the search for means of further increasing it, in particular, by accelerating reloading. For this purpose, repeating rifles were created. The following types of magazines have become widespread in small arms: under-barrel, butt and middle.

In connection with the urgent need to switch to weapons of a smaller caliber and in anticipation of the rearmament of the army with magazine weapons, tests began in 1878. In 1883, a special commission was formed to test repeating rifles. The head of the workshop of the Tula Arms Plant, Captain S.I. Mosin, was involved in it and was offered the task of designing a small-caliber rifle with a middle magazine.

Realizing the advantages of repeating rifles required the development of a new gunpowder that would not produce smoke and would provide the opportunity to improve the ballistic properties of weapons. Great achievements in the development of smokeless powders belong to Russian scientists. Back in the late 40s of the 16th century. In Russia, experiments were conducted on the use of pyroxylin for shooting, but due to its low chemical resistance, it was not widely used.

In mid-1889 in Russia, all the main issues regarding the development of domestic smokeless gunpowder were clarified, and the technology for its factory production was established. In 1890, D.I. Mendeleev discovered a special form of pyroclysin and developed pyrocoloid gunpowder, which was later adopted in other countries. With the development and production of smokeless powder, new opportunities for major improvements in firearms opened up.

In 1889, a sample of a repeating rifle from the Belgian manufacturer L. Nagan was delivered to the commission for testing repeating rifles. At the same time S.I. Mosin presented his rifle sample. The rifles were tested in parallel.

On April 13, 1891, Minister of War Vainovsky presented the Tsar with a report “On the approval of the model of a three-line gun proposed by Captain S.I. Mosin.” In this report, he was forced to admit the complete superiority of the Mosin rifle over the Nagan rifle. At the same time, Vainovsky took all measures to depersonalize the Mosin rifle. He suggested calling it “Russian three-line rifle model 1891.”

On April 16, 1891, Tsar Alexander III approved the model of the Mosin rifle and ordered it to be called the “three-line rifle model 1891,” even removing the word “Russian.”

The simplicity of the design and trouble-free operation in a wide variety of combat conditions provided the Mosin rifle with such durability that no other weapon of foreign armies had ever known. It remained in service for more than 50 years.

The emergence of automatic small arms

Rate of fire is one of the main combat properties of small arms. Along with the energy of the bullet at the target and the probability of hitting, the speed of fire directly determines the effectiveness of shooting. For this purpose, long before the advent of automatic weapons, numerous attempts were made to create rapid-fire weapons: multi-barreled systems (“organs”), multi-shot, drum and others, starting from the 15th century. But in all types and samples of these weapons, the energy of powder gases has not yet been used to perform reloading. Therefore, the disadvantages of loading, the relative complexity, heavy weight and high cost of the weapon did not allow its widespread use.

Only in the middle of the 19th century. Attempts were made to use the energy of powder gases to carry out individual operations to reload weapons. The first example of an automatic gun was registered by the American Regulus Pilon in 1863. In 1866, the English engineer Joseph Curtis designed an automatic gun with a rotating drum. In 1884, Hiram Maxim developed an automatic shotgun with a moving barrel. In 1887 in Russia, a project for an automatic rifle was proposed by D.A. Rudnitsky. However, during these 30 years, none of the listed rifles was adopted for service.

The first example of an automatic gun that found recognition and was widely used was the heavy machine gun of the American H.S. Maxim, proposed in 1884. The machine gun was first developed for a 4.2 linear cartridge, and in 1887 it was converted to a three-line cartridge.

Basic data of the Maxim machine gun:

Machine gun weight - 18.4 kg

Machine weight - 44.2 kg

Total weight - 62.6 kg

Technical rate of fire - 500-600 rpm

Firing range - 3200 steps

Belt capacity - 250 rounds.

Maxim's machine gun worked unreliably, there were frequent delays in firing, until the Russian officer N.N. Zhukov suggested introducing a special one on the muzzle and thickening the front end of the barrel. Thanks to this, the gas impulse increased, the recoil energy increased, there were no delays or failures, and the machine gun worked reliably.

Gradually, the Maxim machine gun was adopted into service in many countries.

In 1916, the 6.5 mm Fedorov assault rifle was developed and adopted in Russia. However, under the conditions of the tsarist autocracy, the production of machine guns was not organized, and only a special team was armed with them.

After the October Revolution, V.G. Fedorov, based on his machine gun, developed various standardized models of machine guns. The Fedorov system assault rifle was in service with the Red Army until 1928.

Principles of design and essence of automation operation

Small arms usually include firearms that fire bullets of up to 20 mm caliber. With a caliber of up to 7 mm, a weapon is called small-caliber, with 7-9 mm - normal caliber, over 9 mm - large-caliber. In all modern types of arrows. Weapons for throwing a bullet use the energy of a powder charge burning when fired. Such weapons are called firearms. When firing from it, the weapon must be reloaded after each shot. The process mostly consists of the following operations:

1. unlocking the bolt - disengaging from the barrel (receiver);
2. opening the bore - separating the bolt from the barrel;
3. case extraction - removing it from the chamber;
4. reflection of the cartridge case - ejection from the weapon;
5. feeding the next cartridge into the chamber;
6. closing the barrel bore with a bolt;
7. locking the bolt - engaging it with the barrel (receiver).

Some small arms systems use the so-called free locking of the bolt, without engaging it with the barrel. In such systems, the reloading process includes only five operations instead of seven.

Non-automatic weapons - all reloading operations are performed by shooters manually (7.62 Mosin magazine rifle).

Automatic weapons - all operations are performed using the energy of the gases of the powder charge.

Self-loading weapons - weapons that allow firing only single shots (Dragunov sniper rifle, PM)

Self-propelled weapons - weapons from which you can fire in bursts (Kalashnikov assault rifles and machine guns, KPVT, DShK)

By purpose, small arms are divided into military, service and civilian.

Military small arms are designed to destroy enemy personnel, unarmored and lightly armored vehicles.

Small arms are distinguished by caliber

small caliber - up to 6.5 mm,

average -6.5-9 mm and

large - over 9 mm.

The main types of modern small arms, taking into account their combat capabilities, include rifles, carbines, shotguns, pistols, revolvers, machine guns, submachine guns and machine guns.

Based on the number of barrels, they are divided into single-barrel, double-barrel and multi-barrel, and based on the type of bore - into rifled and smooth-bore. Small arms assigned to an individual serviceman and served by him alone in battle are individual.

Creation of domestic models of automatic rifles

Immediately after the Civil War, work began on the creation of an automatic rifle. For this purpose, Soviet gunsmiths Tokarev, Degtyarev, Fedorov and others were brought in. During the 30s, the Simonov automatic rifle was developed, which successfully passed the test and in 1936 entered service with the Soviet Army.

In 1938, it was replaced by the Tokareva self-loading rifle (SVT-38), which in 1940 was modernized and given the name SVT-40.

In 1943, an intermediate cartridge was developed by designers

N.M. Elizarov and B.V. Semin. For this 7.62 mm intermediate cartridge, the Simonov SKS-45 self-loading carbine was developed and adopted in 1945.

The work on designing automatic rifles includes

E.F. Dragunov. The rifle model he created during parallel tests with others showed the high tactical, technical and operational qualities of the rifle, and in 1963 it was put into service under the name “7.62 mm Dragunov sniper rifle” (SVD).

Development of submachine guns and machine guns

The submachine gun is an individual melee weapon. It successfully combines the light weight and portability of a pistol with the continuity of machine gun fire.

The first example of a submachine gun is considered to be the Italian Revelli submachine gun (1915), but it was more like a machine gun. Only in 1918, towards the end of the war, the design of a modern-looking Bergman submachine gun appeared in Germany. The first example of a submachine gun in the USSR was a Tokarev system submachine gun chambered for a 7.62 mm revolver cartridge. However, due to design flaws, it was not accepted into service. V.A. Degtyarev created a more modern submachine gun, which was put into service in 1934, and in 1940 it was modernized.

In 1941, an even more advanced Shpagin submachine gun (PPSh-41) was created and put into service.

In 1943, the Sudaev submachine gun was adopted, which turned out to be the best submachine gun during the Second World War.

The widespread use of submachine guns revealed the need to increase the firing range of this powerful type of individual infantry weapon. The conditions of modern combat required the creation of weapons capable of providing support for friendly troops in an offensive of 500 m or more. Such a weapon was an assault rifle created for the Model 1943 cartridge.

The first machine gun was developed by A.I. Sudaev at the beginning of 1944, but due to design flaws it was not adopted for service.

Along with A.I. Sudaev, other designers were involved in the work on the creation of the machine gun. The greatest success in creating an assault rifle was achieved by M.T. Kalashnikov. In 1946, he developed a model on the basis of which an assault rifle was developed, which later entered service with the Soviet Army. In 1974, the assault rifle was converted to a 5.45 mm caliber cartridge and received the name “5.45 mm Kalashnikov assault rifle.” AK74".

Development of domestic models of machine guns

The development of a domestic model of a light machine gun began immediately after the Civil War, despite great difficulties associated with the necessary production base, as well as experience in designing such weapons. In order to ensure a quick supply of light machine guns to the army, the simplest method of developing such a bullet was chosen by correspondingly altering the Maxim bullet, which was in production.

In 1925, the Maxim-Tokarev light machine gun was put into service, but upon extensive inspection by the troops, a number of shortcomings were discovered in the machine gun, and these machine guns were discontinued.

In 1927, D.P. Degtyarev’s light machine gun was adopted. Its main characteristics:

caliber - 7.62 mm;

weight - 10.5 kg;

rate of fire - up to 600 rpm;

practical rate of fire - 80 rpm;

magazine capacity - 47 rounds;

initial bullet speed - 840 m/s.

In 1944, it was modernized, and it was put into service under the name RPDM. But with the unification of small arms, the RPK light machine gun, the Kalashnikov system, became even more advanced, which subsequently underwent a reduction in caliber.

Along with the development of light machine guns, heavy machine guns are also being created. In 1939, the Degtyarev heavy machine gun (DS-39) was adopted. However, due to insufficient reliability, it was soon withdrawn from service.

In 1943, the Goryunov SG-43 heavy machine gun was adopted. With similar characteristics of the Maxim machine gun, its weight was almost halved. After the war, the machine gun underwent modernization and in 1961 it was replaced by a Kalashnikov machine gun on the Samozhenkov PKS machine gun. During the First World War, new types of weapons appeared on the battlefields - tanks, armored vehicles, airplanes. The presence of armor protection and high speed of movement made them less vulnerable to infantry weapons. The problem was solved by the creation of heavy machine guns. The first example of a heavy machine gun appeared in 1918 in service with the German army. This is a TUF (tank uid Flieger) machine gun of 13.35 mm caliber, system weight 123 kg.

After the end of the First World War, large-caliber machine guns were adopted in the United States - the 12.7 mm Brawling machine gun, and in 1924 in England - the 12.7 mm Winners machine gun.

The first Soviet heavy machine gun was put into service in 1938 under the name "12.7 mm heavy machine gun Degtyarev - Shpagin (DShK) model 1938." In 1944, the 14.5 mm heavy machine gun Vladimirov (KPV) was put into service ).In 1969, the 12.7 mm NSV heavy machine gun was developed and adopted to replace the DShK machine gun.

V. Conclusion

During the course of the lesson, students show great interest in the history of the development of domestic firearms, which is facilitated by watching videos and illustrative series demonstrating various types of small arms and their use, learn the names of outstanding Russian designers who played a large role in the creation of first-class small arms, and are convinced of the superiority of Russian weapons over foreign models.

To expand their knowledge in this area, in their free time from classes, Suvorov students use modern communication systems, study in the library, visit the school museum and improve their knowledge and skills at on-site workshops in military units and the Combat Training Center.

All this contributes to the formation in students of respect for the heroic past of our country, national pride and a sense of patriotism, awareness of their importance in the defense of our Fatherland, the formation of military-professional competencies of students based on the use of innovative educational technologies, and increased motivation for entering higher military educational institutions .

VI. Bibliography

1. Encyclopedia of weapons. Small arms.-M.: 1992

2. Bolotin D.N. Soviet small arms. - M.: Voenizdat, 1997

3. Zhuk A. B. Encyclopedia of small arms.-M.: 1994

4. Gnatovsky N. I. Shorin P. A. History of the development of small arms. M: 2009

5. Loschilov A.K. Fire training (part 3). - M.: Voenizdat, 1987

6. Fire training of motorized rifle units.-M.: 1986.

Application

The history of domestic firearms begins its development in ancient times. The first mention in historical documents of the use of firearms by the “Russians” refers to the Battle of Kulikovo. And when standing on the Ugra River, when the oppression of the Tatar-Mongol Yoke was lifted, the Russians used cannons.

Subsequently, with the improvement of the metalworking industry, new types of firearms began to appear, such as“arquebus” is foreign, and in Rus' “Unicorns” with a wick fuse.

At the turn of the 16th-17th centuries in contrast to Western muskets, “Russian self-propelled guns", “Hands” and “Squeaks” with flintlock.

A huge leap in the development of the domestic arms industry occurred in the 18th century during the reign of Peter the Great. The first large arms factories in Russia were opened in the city of Tula, which began to produce"Baguinet" and "Fuse" with a wheel lock, superior to the old squeaks in accuracy and rate of fire, as well as the ability to attach a bayonet to them.

In 1826 year, an infantry rifle with a percussion cap lock entered service with the Russian Army, which significantly increased the rate of fire and firing range.)

In 1856 at weapons appeared linear rifle, but unlike Western models, it was loaded from the muzzle and this reduced the rate of fire of the weapon.

And so in 1867 the year the Italian was adopted Carly rifle , which was loaded from the breech.

As a counterweight to the Italian Carli rifle, it was adoptedBerdan riflein two versions: convertible top and triple lock. Improved examples of these rifles can still be found in gun stores.

Russian designer Sergei Ivanovich Mosin

In 1891, Sergei Ivanovich Mosininvented the world's best three-line rifle with which the Russian army entered the First World War.

During the harsh times of the First World War, an improved model was put into service 1914 of the year. This model is still used in the Armed Forces and is highly respected by professional snipers. It is characterized by high range, accuracy and reliability. (during the CTO in Chechnya, one of the Barayev brothers was killed by our sniper with a shot in the head from a distance of 1800 meters).

At the same time, it entered serviceNagan system revolver,distinguished by its particular reliability (non-standard bullets).

In 1910 year was adoptedMaxim machine gun.This model of machine gun was distinguished by its high firing efficiency, accuracy and long range (looking ahead, I will say that this machine gun was used in the Red Army and with the adoption of a cartridge with a heavy T 10 bullet, MDZ, BZT, it made it possible to fire at the enemy who were out of sight of the machine gunner. Today it is the only such weapon.

Also entered serviceMauser pistol,distinguished by high accuracy and reliability (in service with the Chinese Army).

In 1915 year a machine gun entered service Shosha Lewis - The first air-cooled machine gun.

Before the outbreak of the First World War, Tsar Nicholas II was presentedFedorov assault rifle,but after examining it, the Tsar said: “We don’t have enough cartridges for such a weapon.” And therefore this machine gun was not adopted by the Russian Army.

The work of Soviet gunsmiths to improve submachine guns was the main basis on which, over time, it became possible to create new weapons that meet all modern requirements. Mainly, the desire to increase the efficiency of submachine guns, that is, to increase the range and accuracy of fire, led to the creation of a cartridge of the 1943 model (an intermediate cartridge between a pistol and a rifle) and the testing of the first sample of a weapon chambered for this cartridge already in 1944. It was invented by a talented designer Sudaev A.I. according to the traditional proven design of a submachine gun (that is, with a blowback bolt). However, it soon became clear that such a scheme was unacceptable for a new weapon, much more powerful than a pistol cartridge. Stronger recoil energy required a heavier bolt, which caused a number of circumstances incompatible with the new requirements for small arms. Therefore, a new scheme was used for the new cartridge - with rigid locking of the barrel and the use of a percussion mechanism, allowing for more accurate fire.

Company machine gun of the Dyagterev systemcame already with a tape power receiver, as opposed to a disk power supply.

DShK - was intended both for anti-aircraft fire and to cover a motorized rifle platoon from light combat helicopters and fire at ground targets.

Tank KPVT - was invented as a tank, and then installed on the BTR-60PB (floating armored personnel carrier), 70, 80, BRDM. Has various types of ammunition: MDZ (instant incendiary), BZT (armor-piercing incendiary tracer), B-32 (armor-piercing) (20 layers)

RPK and PKM

NSVT (12.7 mm) in its design replaced the DShK. It has great armor penetration. The main anti-aircraft machine gun of the "UTOS" system is installed on all tanks of the Russian Federation. (22 pages)

Modifications of the Kalashnikov assault rifle (24 pages) In 1946, the young designer M.T. Kalashnikov proposed his own system, which was put into service the following year. The Kalashnikov assault rifle (AK) operates on the principle of using the energy of powder gases discharged through the bore hole. The barrel is locked by lugs that rotate around the longitudinal axis of the bolt. Fire is carried out both single and automatic. The fire selector is also a fuse. The magazine capacity is 30 rounds. The mobile sector sight is designed for shooting at a range of up to 500 meters.

To this day, the AK, having undergone repeated modifications, continues to remain an individual small weapon that fully meets all modern requirements.

SVD – an effective range of 1200 meters is one of the favorite rifles of snipers.

7.62 mm pistol PSS "Val" 1983

Designed for silent and flameless shooting at a distance of up to 50 m. It is an individual weapon of hidden attack and defense. It is in service with special forces of internal affairs bodies and units of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. For shooting, a special SP-4 cartridge is used, which muffles the sound of the shot. When fired, the resulting powder gases push not the bullet, but the piston, which, having given the bullet the required initial speed, becomes jammed in the cartridge case. With an absolutely silent shot, a bullet pierces a steel helmet at a distance of 20 m. The pistol's automatic operation is powered by the recoil energy of the free bolt. The high recoil impulse of the SP-4 cartridge ensures reliable operation of the pistol in any conditions. The double-action trigger mechanism allows the first shot to be fired by self-cocking. Safety locks prevent a shot from being fired if the trigger is accidentally pressed or if the pistol is dropped (26 pages)

9-mm pistol PYa Yarygin 2003

The pistol was developed by designer V.A. Yarygin and was adopted by the Armed Forces in 2003. It is intended for close combat shooting and is a personal weapon for officers.

9-mm pistol SPS Serdyukov, Belyaev 2003 (Gyurza)

The pistol, previously known as RG055, SR-1 “Vector” or “Gyurza”, and in 2003 officially adopted by the Russian Armed Forces and the Ministry of Internal Affairs under the designation SPS - Serdyukov Self-loading Pistol, was developed at the Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering (Klimovsk) Pyotr Serdyukov and Igor Belyaev.

9-mm rifle VSK-94

Created on the basis of the small-sized 9A-91 assault rifle for use by special forces of law enforcement agencies and the army. Special SP-5 and SP-6 cartridges are used for shooting.

An effective silencer significantly reduces the sound level when fired and completely eliminates muzzle flash, allowing you to covertly hit targets at ranges of up to 400 m. The absence of muzzle flash has a positive effect on the operation of night vision sights.

9-mm rifle VSS "Vintorez"

Serdyukov - Krasnikov 1987 It is a group weapon of hidden attack and defense. Designed to engage targets with sniper fire in conditions requiring silent and flameless shooting. Special SP-5 and SP-6 cartridges are used for shooting. A special muffler surrounding the barrel muffles the sound of a shot so much that when superimposed on any other noise it becomes indistinguishable.

An optical or night sight is mounted on the rifle using a universal mounting. (30 words)

9-mm submachine gun PP-19 “Bison” 1993

The weapon is designed on the basis of the receiver of a Kalashnikov assault rifle (up to 60% of the parts are borrowed), but the automation operates due to the recoil energy of a massive blowback bolt. The shot occurs when the shutter is unlocked. It is possible to use standard and upgraded 9x18 mm PM ammunition. Open sight. The rear sight is mounted on the receiver cover, and the front sight is mounted on the barrel. The barrel lining is made of plastic. The main difference between the weapon is the cylindrical auger magazine with a capacity of 67 rounds. The cartridges are arranged in a spiral. Their feeding system is borrowed from the Calico company.

The safety switch, cocking handle and spent cartridge ejection window are located on the right side. The rotary type folding stock folds to the left towards the receiver. The presence of a compensator ensures good accuracy of combat. Thanks to the high rate of fire and large magazine capacity, the weapon allows you to create a good density of fire at distances of up to 100 m.

5.45-mm assault rifle AN-94 “Abakan” Nikonov

The assault rifle was created as part of the Abakan army competition to replace the AK-74. 9-mm A-91 assault rifle is a personal weapon of attack and defense. Designed to hit targets with both single and automatic fire. It is in service with special forces of internal affairs bodies and units of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

9-mm assault rifle A-91

It is a personal weapon of attack and defense. Designed to hit targets with both single and automatic fire. It is in service with special forces of internal affairs bodies and units of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Having a weight and dimensions comparable to modern models of submachine guns, the machine gun significantly surpasses them in firing range and bullet penetration.

5.66 mm APS automatic rifle

Designed to combat combat swimmers. The machine gun is a weapon system with locking of the barrel bore and removal of powder gases. The weapon functions both in water and in air. The 26-round magazine works reliably in a variety of operating conditions

hand grenade launcher DP-64 "Nepryadva" 1990

The DP-64 hand-held grenade launcher system was developed in 1989 and put into service in 1990.

Designed to combat combat swimmers. It is a 45-mm hand grenade launcher with high-explosive (FG-45) and signal (SG-46) grenades. It can be equipped with coast guard units, military and civilian ships, boats and other vessels. The complex allows you to destroy combat swimmers at a distance of up to 400 m and at a depth of up to 40 m.

hand-held revolving anti-personnel grenade launcher RG-6 1989

The design of the RG-6 (product index 6G30) is characterized by extreme simplicity and manufacturability. The entire structure is assembled on a body in the shape of a disc-shaped box with a tubular axis and a tubular rod.

7.62 mm machine gun "Pecheneg"

The Pecheneg machine gun was developed by TsNIITochmash and is intended to destroy enemy personnel, fire and vehicles, as well as air targets and has better accuracy of fire compared to analogues: - more than 2.5 times when firing from a bipod, - more than 1.5 times when shooting from a machine gun.