The Russian automatic ADS machine has won recognition among the military of different countries. After all, this is probably the first weapon in the world that is equally effective under water and on land. This is the conclusion reached by the military expert of The National Interest magazine, Peter Suchiu.
Half a century ago, the SPP-1 pistol and the APS submachine gun were adopted by combat swimmers of the Soviet Union. However, excellent shots under water, they were not effective on land, and the fighters were forced to carry two submachine guns: underwater and conventional. With the advent of the "underwater assault rifle", as the ADS was called in the United States - "Two-medium Special Machine Gun", this problem was solved.
Designers from Tula have created a machine gun with a bull-pop layout, that is, the trigger in it is located in front of the magazine with cartridges and a firing mechanism. As a result, the weapon turned out to be compact-the length is 660 mm, but with a full-fledged barrel-415 mm. Since the ADS is also designed for firing on land, the machine gun has the ability to install a silencer, a 40-mm grenade launcher, an optical and night sight.
The main novelty of the ADS machine gun is compatibility with cartridges of standard caliber 5.45×39 mm. On land, the machine shows a decent range of 600 meters, which is comparable to standard assault rifles.
"However, for use under water, special PSP cartridges are required with a longer bullet of a special shape with a flat end, which creates a hydrodynamic cavity to minimize water resistance, "InoSMI writes in translation.
The flat nose of the bullet creates a cavitation cavity around itself, a kind of air bubble, and the fired bullet does not roll in the water, but behaves stably.
Note that the core of the PSP cartridge is a 16-gram carbide bullet, the initial speed of which under water is about 330 m/s. At a depth of up to five meters, the effective firing range is 25 meters, at a depth of 20 meters - 18 meters.
Thanks to the ADS, combat swimmers will be able to do without special weapons for underwater operations and use one universal one. Therefore, the new submachine guns have already been received by the special purpose units of the Russian Navy.
Nikolay Grishchenko