APS Underwater Assault Rifle
Encyclopedia
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
derivative designed by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in the early 1970s as an underwater firearm
Underwater firearm
An underwater firearm is a firearm specially designed for use underwater by frogmen.Underwater firearms were first conceived during the Cold War during the 1960s and 1970s as a way to arm frogmen, and remain in arms inventories today.-Design:...
. It was adopted in 1975. It is made by the Tula Arms Plant (Тульский Оружейный Завод, Tul'skiy Oruzheynyy Zavod) in Russia. It is exported by Rosoboronexport.
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. 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.
The APS has a longer range and more penetrating power than speargun
Speargun
A speargun is an underwater fishing implement designed to fire a spear at fish.The basic components of a speargun are:A spear, a stock/barrel, and a handle/grip containing a trigger mechanism...
s. This is useful in such situations as shooting through reinforced dry suit
Dry suit
A dry suit or drysuit provides thermal insulation or passive thermal protection to the wearer while immersed in water, and is worn by divers, boaters, water sports enthusiasts, and others who work or play in or near cold water. A dry suit normally protects the whole body except the head, hands, and...
s, and protective helmet
Helmet
A helmet is a form of protective gear worn on the head to protect it from injuries.Ceremonial or symbolic helmets without protective function are sometimes used. The oldest known use of helmets was by Assyrian soldiers in 900BC, who wore thick leather or bronze helmets to protect the head from...
s (whether air-holding or not), thick tough parts of breathing sets
Scuba set
A scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....
and their harness
Harness
A harness is a looped restraint or support. It can also be referred to as an "hitcharness", especially by the Jordanian Armed Forces. Specifically, it may refer to one of the following harness types:* Bondage harness* Child harness* Climbing harness...
es, and plastic casings and transparent covers of some small underwater vehicles
Diver Propulsion Vehicle
A diver propulsion vehicle is an item of diving equipment used by scuba and rebreather divers to increase range underwater...
.
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.
History
The rising threat of attacks by frogmen in naval bases caused various anti-frogman techniquesAnti-frogman techniques
Anti-frogman techniques are security methods developed to protect watercraft, ports and installations, and other sensitive resources both in or nearby vulnerable waterways from potential threats or intrusions by frogmen or other divers....
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
AK-47
The AK-47 is a selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle, first developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It is officially known as Avtomat Kalashnikova . It is also known as a Kalashnikov, an "AK", or in Russian slang, Kalash.Design work on the AK-47 began in the last year...
. The AK-47 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
SPP-1 Underwater Pistol
The SPP-1 Underwater Pistol was made in the USSR for use underwater by Soviet frogmen as an underwater firearm. It was developed in the late 1960s and accepted for use in 1971. Underwater, ordinary-shaped bullets are inaccurate and very short-range...
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
Vladimir Simonov
-Biography:Vladimir Simonov was born in 1935 in Kovrov in the Vladimir Oblast.In 1955 he graduated from the Podolia Industrial Technical Secondary School with specialty in mining equipment....
undertook the job of developing an underwater assault rifle
Assault rifle
An assault rifle is a selective fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles are the standard infantry weapons in most modern armies...
. To allow the rifles 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.
As with the SPP-1
SPP-1 Underwater Pistol
The SPP-1 Underwater Pistol was made in the USSR for use underwater by Soviet frogmen as an underwater firearm. It was developed in the late 1960s and accepted for use in 1971. Underwater, ordinary-shaped bullets are inaccurate and very short-range...
the first stage of the work was to develop a cartridge. A 5.45 millimetre (0.214566929133858 in) by 39 millimetres (1.5 in) cartridge was lengthened by about 115 millimetres (4.5 in) to fit the sharp-fronted steel bolt. Another cartridge version was designed that contained a miniature rocket, which when fired makes a visible streak in the water. Next, Vladimir Simonov
Vladimir Simonov
-Biography:Vladimir Simonov was born in 1935 in Kovrov in the Vladimir Oblast.In 1955 he graduated from the Podolia Industrial Technical Secondary School with specialty in mining equipment....
designed the rifle. The objective was ambitious; nobody ever before tried to build a functioning automatic underwater firearm. The most important problem was designing a receiver that could work under water. Unlike air, water is incompressible, so the structure had to let water move around easily; as a result, its receiver is open at the rear. Since it operates on the principle of gas discharge, it has a gas controller to let it work underwater and on land.
The APS was adopted to develop in the mid-1970s, as Автомат Подводный Специальный АПС (Avtomat Podvodnyy Spetsial'nyy APS, Russian Automatic (automatic carbine) Underwater Special APS).
Afterwards, there was lengthy improvement work on the APS. One improvement was fitting a perforated gas pipe with a special shield to break up the emitted gas bubbles, making targeting easier and reducing the visibility of the bubbles, allowing stealthier firing of the weapon.
The APS was the primary weapon of Soviet frogmen.
However, since the conception of this new weapon there were objections. It was the perfect weapon for the Soviet frogmen's underwater operations, but it was less use for Spetznaz soldiers fighting both on land and under water.
Out of water the APS can shoot, but its effective range does not exceed 50 meters, and the rifle's lifetime drops to 180 shots in air from 2000 shots underwater.
Therefore they mostly carried an SPP-1
SPP-1 Underwater Pistol
The SPP-1 Underwater Pistol was made in the USSR for use underwater by Soviet frogmen as an underwater firearm. It was developed in the late 1960s and accepted for use in 1971. Underwater, ordinary-shaped bullets are inaccurate and very short-range...
pistol for self-defense under water and an AK-74
AK-74
The AK-74 is an assault rifle developed in the early 1970s in the Soviet Union as the replacement for the earlier AKM...
to fight on land.
Therefore, at the end of the eighties the ASM-DT Underwater Assault Rifle
ASM-DT Underwater Assault Rifle
-History and design:The introduction of the APS Underwater Assault Rifle solved the problem of how frogmen guarding a naval base could be armed, but there remained the problem of how to arm naval Spetsnaz combat frogmen when they were deployed on assault missions...
was developed.
In fiction
- The APS appears carried by Revy in the Black LagoonBlack Lagoonis a manga series written and illustrated by Rei Hiroe, and published in Shogakukan's Sunday GX since 2002. An animated television series based on the manga aired in Japan from April 8, 2006, to June 24, 2006, totaling twelve episodes. A second season, subtitled "The Second Barrage", ran for twelve...
mangaMangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
comic series and the fourth episode of the TV series.