APS Underwater Assault Rifle

Infobox Weapon
name=APS


caption=
origin=flagcountry|Soviet Union
type=Underwater Assault rifle
is_ranged=yes
service=
used_by=
wars=
designer= Mikhail Kalashnikov
design_date=
manufacturer=
production_date=
number=
variants=
weight=2.4 kg (5.29 lb) empty 3.4 kg (7.5 lb) loaded
length=823 mm (32.4 in), stock extended 614 mm (24.2 in), stock retracted
part_length=
width=65 mm
height=
crew=
cartridge=5.66x39mm MPS
caliber=
action=Gas actuated
rate=600 rounds per minute (in air)
velocity= 365 meter per second (in air)
range=30 m at depth 5 m (98 ft at depth 16 ft) 20 m at depth 20 m (66 ft at depth 66 ft) 11 m at depth 40 m (36 ft at depth 131 ft)
max_range=
feed= 26 round Magazine
sights= The APS Underwater Assault Rifle is a derivative of the AK-47, designed in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s as an underwater firearm. Underwater, ordinary-shaped bullets are inaccurate and very short-range. As a result, this rifle fires a steel bolt caliber 5.66 mm (especially designed for this rifle and is often mistaken as 5.56 mm) and 120 mm (4.75 in) long. Its magazine holds 26 cartridges.

APS stands for Avtomat Podvodnyy Spetsialnyy or "Special Underwater Automatic [rifle] ".

The APS's barrel is not rifled; the fired projectile is kept in line by hydrodynamic effects. As a result, the APS is somewhat inaccurate when fired out of water. Its range and firing rate decrease with increasing depth, due to the higher pressure closing the cavity sooner (see supercavitation), and water pressure on the firing mechanism.

The APS has a longer range and more penetrating power than spearguns. This is useful in such situations as shooting through reinforced drysuits, and protective helmets (whether air-holding or not), and thick tough parts of breathing sets and their harnesses, and plastic casings and transparent covers of some small underwater vehicles.

The APS is more powerful than a pistol, but is bulkier and takes longer to aim, particularly swinging its long barrel and big flat magazine sideways through water. The APS has more stopping power against anti-frogman dolphins, but for most underwater fights, Russian commando frogmen prefer the pistol, which is more compact and easier to store away.

History

The arising of attack frogmen as a security threat in naval bases caused various anti-frogman techniques to be developed, and in the USSR one of these was guard frogmen sent to stop the attackers. At first these guard frogmen were armed only with knives and AK-type rifles. The rifle was carried in a waterproof case and could only be used on the surface, so the only effective underwater weapon against enemy frogmen was the knife. The SPP-1 underwater pistol was accepted in 1971, but soon proved to be useful only in close-up self-defence and not to attack a target which is farther away. Vladimir Simonov undertook the job of developing an underwater assault rifle. To let its mechanism work underwater, there had to be room for the flow of the water pushed aside by moving parts and by the gas produced by the propellant explosive in the cartridge. The APS rifle was accepted for use in the mid-1970s. One special improvement was a perforated gas tube, and in the sighting. Its design engineer received a state award in 1983.

But in use it was found to have a range of only 50 meters out of water; so the frogmen tended to use an SPP-1 pistol for self-defence underwater and an AK for use out of water. So the new ASM-DT Underwater Assault Rifle was introduced near the end of the 1980s.

Bibliography

* Piotr Taras "„Strzałki” dla płetwonurków", Komandos 9/93. ISSN 0867-8669
* Zbigniew Gwóźdź, "Strzały pod wodą", Komandos 7/8/96.ISSN 0867-86-69
* Leszek Erenfeicht, "CAZZONE broń strzelecka dla płetwonurków", Strzał 5/2003. ISSN 1644-4906
* Wiktor Suworow, "Specnaz. Historia sił specjalnych Armii Radzieckiej", Wydawnictwo Adamski i Bieliński, Warszawa 1999. ISBN 83-87454-50-8
*

ee also

* Underwater firearm
* List of Russian Weaponry

External links

* [http://world.guns.ru/assault/as69-e.htm Picture and information]
* [http://www.roe.ru/p_frame/main.htm Rosoboronexport's web site] (and on that page click "Special forces").
* [http://world.guns.ru/ammo/sp-e.htm Descriptions and pictures of various Soviet special purpose ammunitions.]
* [http://world.guns.ru/ammo/sp-e.htm#SP-3_PZAM Ammunition Information]
*http://mukhin.vif2.ru/diving/time_before_time/boets2.jpg Frogman with IDA71 and APS underwater rifle