The creator of the "Cornet" and "Shell". To the anniversary of the legendary gunsmith Arkady Shipunov

November 7 marked the 95th anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Tula gunsmith Arkady Shipunov. He was at the origin of the creation of more than 70 models of weapons for the Ground Forces, aviation and Navy of Russia. Many infantry fighting vehicles, anti-aircraft missile and gun systems, ships, planes and helicopters in service with the Russian Army are equipped with guns developed under his leadershipIn honor of the anniversary, TASS tells about the life of the famous designer and his achievements in the field of the Russian military-industrial complex.

Arkady Shipunov was born on November 7, 1927 in the city of Livny, Orel region.  In high school, he was fond of physics and geometry. In 1944, Arkady moved to Tula and entered the Mechanical Institute for the specialty "Rifle and artillery systems and installations". The choice of the profession of an engineer-gunsmith, as the outstanding designer himself later told, was not accidental. The Great Patriotic War was going on in the country, and Arkady wanted to create weapons to protect the Motherland.

"In 1944, the first and second year students began. Addictions to this moment have been determined. There were two favorite subjects in the first courses: firstly, physics and secondly, mathematics. In physics, I always collected books, textbooks, read a lot. In some completely inexplicable way, I loved her. I liked to solve the evidentiary part," Arkady Shipunov told his colleagues.

Arkady Shipunov and Russian President Vladimir Putin during an inspection of the Instrument Engineering Design Bureau in Tula, 2003.
Source: Alexey Panov/ TASS

After graduation, he was assigned to the Research Institute-61 in Podolsk (now Tsniitochmash JSC is the Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering of Rostec State Corporation). At that time, they were working on improving aircraft guns there.

Gun GSH

In March 1962, Shipunov became the chief designer and head of the Tula Instrument Engineering Design Bureau (KBP, currently part of the High-Precision Complexes holding of Rostec State Corporation). During this period, as the designer himself told, his first development was born — the GS gun (Gryazev — Shipunov), created for jet fighters. These weapons are still in use in more than 40 countries around the world.

"It was a great success that Vasily Petrovich Gryazev and I could see the whole problem as a whole and choose the path. We did not make mistakes, that is, the problems studied turned out to be in other automation schemes, which we did not follow. We analyzed the existing schemes and came to the conclusion that three of them deserve special attention if the problem of rate of fire is solved," Shipunov later recalled.

Gun GSH-23 in the tail section of the Tu-95.
Source: Vasily Zimin/ Public Domain/ Wikimedia Commons

Today, the Russian Army is armed with 19 samples of small—caliber artillery weapons (mainly 30 mm caliber - approx. TASS). 14 of them, created by the design tandem of Arkady Shipunov and Vasily Gryazev, became the basis of the system of domestic rifle and cannon armament of three types of troops at once - Land, aviation and Navy.

From guns to missiles

In the late 1950s, the country's leadership, led by Nikita Khrushchev, decided to abandon further developments in the "cannon" direction. All Soviet research institutes were ordered to urgently switch to missile topics. Arkady Shipunov was also offered to develop missiles. He agreed, although, as his colleagues said, in his heart he was deeply convinced of the need to develop both directions.

The Shipunov Bureau received the go-ahead to continue development. "If you see a gun somewhere: on an IFV or on a helicopter, on an airplane, don't ask a stupid question: whose is it? It was developed by the Tula Instrument Design Bureau," the outstanding designer said later.

At the same time, Shipunov's team began active work on guided missile anti-tank complexes (ATGMs). However, the first ATGM called "Gadfly" turned out to be unsuccessful. After correcting the errors, the design bureau created the second-generation ATGM "Fagot", which was adopted in 1970 and is still used by the armed forces of several countries.

Anti-tank missile system "Fagot".
Source: Yuri Smityuk/?TASS

Shipunov's team made the control of the Fagot rocket semi—automatic - it was enough to aim and hold the sight at the target for the shot, then the automation itself directed the projectile.

Later, "Fagot" was unified into "Competition" and "Metis" — ATGM, for which the Design Bureau received the Order of the October Revolution, and Shipunov — the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

Since 1988, the Tula Instrument Engineering Design Bureau has been developing another world — famous ATGM - "Cornet". It was created on the basis of the Reflex tank guided weapon and was adopted by the Russian Army in 1998. 

In the NATO transcription of the ATGM "Cornet" — AT-14 Spriggan, which means a mythological creature capable of sending hurricanes destroying everything in its path. The use of the self-propelled version of the Kornet—EM against aerial targets is the know-how of the Russian system: a powerful thermobaric or high-explosive warhead allows the Russian ATGM to hit both unmanned aerial vehicles and enemy helicopters with high efficiency.

Anti-aircraft gun and missile complex "Tunguska".
Source: Vadim Savitsky/?press service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation/?tass

Another landmark work of Shipunov's team was the Tunguska anti-aircraft gun and missile system (ZPRK). As part of the complex, adopted in 1982, there are two anti-aircraft submachine guns capable of firing 5,000 rounds per minute. They were developed by the Gryazev—Shipunov tandem. In addition, Tunguska was armed with eight guided anti-aircraft missiles. Its main task on the battlefield is to protect troops and objects from air attacks at low and medium altitudes. In addition, the Tunguska is capable of destroying ground and surface targets.

In the early 1990s, Arkady Shipunov's team was given a difficult task - to create a new weapon for the country's air defense. Shortly after analyzing the military conflicts of that time and the latest trends in the creation of high-precision weapons, work began on the Pantsir-S1 short-range anti-aircraft missile and cannon complex.

The combat vehicle was adopted in 2012. According to the developer, it is designed for short-range cover of civilian and military facilities from means of air attack. The modern modification of the complex detects targets at a distance of up to 80 km and can hit them at a distance of up to 30 km. According to experts, "Pantsir-C1" will remain the leader in its class for the next 10-15 years. 

Idea Generator

In the last years of his brilliant design career, Shipunov, whom colleagues called a tireless generator of ideas, worked on robotic systems using artificial intelligence. Fire control systems with artificial intelligence elements created in his design bureau were used in Ka-50 and Ka-52 helicopters.

Also among the merits of Arkady Shipunov is the development, together with Vasily Gryazev, of a new GSH—18 army pistol. The main differences of the weapon were compactness and lightness, as well as a roomy magazine. It is noteworthy that, unlike classmates, the GSH-18 can be stored with a cartridge in the chamber, which allows it to be used almost instantly. Since 2001, the pistol has been supplied to special units and the army.

Gun GSH-18.
Source: Sergey Bobylev/?TASS

Shipunov headed the KBP until 2006, and after that he remained its scientific supervisor. During his time at the company, he became the author of 740 inventions, 70 weapons samples and 427 scientific papers.

Source: Alexander Ryumin/?TASS

Shipunov died on April 25, 2013 in Moscow at the age of 86. Since 2014, the Tula Instrument Design Bureau has been named after an outstanding designer.

Prepared by Vasily KuchushevTASS thanks the press service of the NGO "High-Precision Complexes" for their help in creating the article