Download - Infantry Heavy Machineguns
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Amost powerful heavy machinegun, devel-
oped as far back as in World War II butwidely spread much later, was the Soviet
14.5-mm Vladimirov machinegun. It was cham-
bered for the 14.5x114 round that had previous-
ly been used by PTRD and PTRS antitank rifles.
The HMG was used to derive a number of
various mounts. It used to fit Soviet postwarheavy tanks as a coaxial and anti-aircraft HMG.
Single-, twin- and quad-barrelled ZPU-1, ZPU-2
and ZPU-4 antiaircraft machineguns were
developed, too. The HMG was also emplaced
on river boats and APCs, e.g. the BTR-50,
INFANTRY HEAVY MACHINEGUNSINFANTRY HEAVY MACHINEGUNS
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Despite the expediency and effec-
tiveness of employing heavy
machineguns having been proven
repeatedly by many a war, their
development and production have
been mastered by only several
countries. The reason is not the
ability (or lack of it) of the industry
of even the developed countries to
develop and make rather sophisti-cated weaponry, but the realisa-
tion of the weaponry's role in pre-
sent-day wars and armed conflicts
as well.
,
(, .
3, 2007 .)
(continued fromin Army and Navy Review,Issue 3, 2007)
Victor Korablin,Professor,
Academy of Mil itary Sciences
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(Russian acronym for immediate action, incen-
diary), BS (Russian acronym for sintered metal
alloy core) has penetrating capability twice
as that of the B-32 bullet).At the same time, the armies of the United
States, its allies and a number of other coun-
tries in the postwar period remained equipped
with the Browning M2 HB with virtually no
changes despite all the drawbacks of the com-plicated design of the weapon, the need tohave it carefully and precisely regulated, and
necessity to maintain it regularly. In addition,
replacement of the quickly overheating barrel
required a lot of time, which considerably
decreased the weapon's effective rate of fire.
In addition to the United States, the productionof the Browning was launched by other coun-
tries as well. The development of a new HMG
was postponed because of high costs, despite
the expediency of the matter.
In the postwar period and up to the 1970s,
only two heavy machineguns were further
developed considerably throughout the worldin accordance with belonging to NATO or the
Warsaw Pact Organisation). They were the
Soviet DShKM and the US M2 HB.
In spite of all the advantages of the DShKM,
the Soviet Union considered it necessary todevelop a new heavy machinegun with lower
weight, which was to make it convenient for
infantry units to operate. The efforts to develop
the new weapon began in 1969. The new HMG
was developed by Tula-based designers G.I.
Nikitin, Y.I. Sokolov and V.I. Volkov.In 1972, the machinegun passed all the tests
and entered inventory, dubbed 'the 12.7-mm
NSV Utyos heavy machinegun (NSV stood forNikitin-Sokolov-Volkov). The weapon's body
weighed only 25 kg. The infantry version, the
NSVS (S stood for 'stankovy' - Russian for'mounted'), was set on the 6T7 tripod mount
designed by L.V. Stepanov and K.A. Baryshev.
The mount allowed the machinegun to fire only
on ground targets, but it was six times lighter
than the versatile mount. As a result, the total
weight of the HMG on the mount decreased to43 kg. In addition to the tripod-mounted
machinegun, there was a tank version desig-
nated as NSVT (T stood for 'tankovy' Russian
for 'tank-mounted') fitted on the tank antiair-
craft mounting. The 6U6 versatile antiaircraft
machinegun was developed for the AirborneForce. The 6U10 and 6U11 mounts were
designed for emplacing machineguns in pillbox
embrasures. The Utyos-M naval turreted
machinegun was developed to fit river vessels.
The 12.7-mm NSV is a gas-operated weapon.
The locking of the barrel is wedge-type with ahorizontally sliding bolt. The feeding is from a
metallic belt. The HMG has a dual feed. The fir-
ing mechanism is hammerless and uses the bolt
carrier's energy. The trigger mechanism with
the rear sear allows automatic fire only. Fire
control is performed through manual firing incase with the 12.7-mm NSVS or by means of the
electric trigger in case with the 12.7-mm NSVT.
The machinegun has a quick-detachable barrel.
The machinegun set includes the SPP-1
(SPP-1M) day telescopic sight. If necessary,
12,7- - -
A 12.7-mm DShKMmachinegun made byan Iranian arms factory
12,7- M2 HB ,
The 12.7-mm M2 HB is not bada weapon but lacks the reliability of its Russian rivals
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The new HMG has a different locking sys-
tem: the elevator with locking lugs was used
instead of the NSV-12.7's wedge-type lock. It
increased the machinegun's reliability duringintensive fire.
Due to introducing a new muzzle brake and
improving the gas-operation automatic parts,
the rec oil ene rgy dec reased and the
weapon's stability increased, which facilitat-ed the accuracy.
The barrel's new design allowed very
accurate intensive fire without its extra cool-
ing. In addition, the HMG featured a stable
rate of fire and accuracy throughout its use-
ful operating life.
Changing the barrel manufacture technologyand using new structural materials enabled the
barrel's service life to grow up to 10,000 shots
fired. Such durability of the barrel is commen-
surable with the service life of all the parts of
the machinegun, which enabled the HMG to do
without a replacement barrel.
The HMG's design provides high operatingreliability within the environment temperature
from -500C to +500C, in conditions of high dust
content, after submergence, without cleaning
and oiling it for a long time, ice-covered and
under other difficult operational conditions.The simplicity of the design makes the
HMG's maintenance easy and enables the
crew to provide minor discrepancy repair
required during tactical employment, using
spares parts and tools.
The new HMG has the same external andlinkage dimensions and weight as the NSV-12.7.
This allowed having it replaced in all in-service
machinegun systems and combat vehicles.Design solutions used by the designers dur-
ing the NSV-12.7's upgrade resulted in a con-
siderable enhancement of the combat charac-teristics of the advanced Russian heavy
machinegun and led to the development of a
virtually new machinegun, in fact.
Ananlysis of the latest combat operations
has revealed the necessity of developing a
common HMG that could be tacticallyemployed on special mounts fitting unarmored
and armored vehicles, helicopters and river
boats. Such a machinegun must be easily
detachable and immediately employed by
infantry as an LMG.
High recoil energy of other Russian and foreign12.7-mm machineguns make the development of
a HMG on a bipod rather complicated. As far as
the new Russian machinegun is concerned, its
small size and low weight, lower recoil energy
and higher stability during firing have made devel-
oping a HMG on a bipod feasible.In 1998, a new MG dubbed the 12.7-mm
KORD entered the inventory. KORD is a Russian
acronym for 'KOvrovskiye Oruzheiniki
Degtyaryovtsy' (Kovrov gun makers
Degtyaryov followers). That way the arms
designers highlight that the Degtyaryov plantremains among the Russian leaders in design-
ing and producing small arms, inheriting and
continuing the work of arms designers
Fyodorov, Degtyaryov, Vladimirov, Simonov,
Goryunov, Shpagin, Voronkov and others.
12,7- ,
The 12.7-mm KORD can fire both from the mount and from the bipod
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Browning 38 1651 930 450600 1500 12,7x990.50 M2 HBfl
FN 0.50 36 1656 880 450550 1500 12,7x99M2 HB/QCBfl
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35,8 1588 860 575-600 1500 12,7x107-12,7 25 1560 820860 700-800 2000 12,710712,7 25 1577 820860 650750 2000 12,7x107
BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF HMGs
Country P e r f o r m a n c e sMachinegun Weight, Length, Muzzle Rate of Aimed Round
kg mm velocity, fire, fire usedm/s rd/min. range, m
USA
Browning 38 1,651 930 450600 1,500 12.7x990.50 M2 HBBelgium
FN 0.50 36 1,656 880 450550 1,500 12.7x99M2 HB/QCBUK
Manroy0.50 M2 38.5 1,651 893 450500 1,850 12.7x99
HB QCBRussia
DShKM 35.8 1,588 860 575600 1,500 12.7x107NSV-12,7 25 1,560 820860 700800 2,000 12.710712,7mm 25 1,577 820860 650750 2,000 12.7x107KORD
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At present, the following versions of the
12.7-mm KORD are in production:
The tank version 6P49 (1,625x135x215 mm,
27 kg) is the baseline MG variant. It has anelectric trigger and is designed to fit armored
vehicles to fight low-altitude aircraft, destroy
thin-skinned and unarmored vehicles and
weapon systems and kill bunched-up enemy
manpower.The infantry version - 6P50 (1,580x135x215, 25
kg) - is designed to fit medium mounts and to be
employed for mechanised infantry fire support.
The KORD with the left-side feed 6P51
(1,625x135x215, 27 kg) is designed for use with
the right-side feed machinegun in twin-gun
attachments.The infantry LMG version 6P50-1
(1,980x450x500 mm in the horizontal position,
32 kg) serves as a general-purpose (versatile)
machinegun.
The machinegun attachment version
6P50-2 (1,980x810x450 mm, adjustable height,
52 kg) is designed to fit stationary and mobilemilitary vehicles.
The machinegun attachment version
6P50-3 (1,980x810x1600 mm, adjustable height,
75 kg) has the same purpose as the 6P50-2 has,
additionally has a height-adjustable pedestalfor the shooter to assume different positions.
Considering the fact that the 12.7x99 round is
widespread on the world's ammunition market,
the KORD chambered for the standard 12.7-mm
NATO round has also been developed in
Kovrov. It has a different barrel, chamber andfeeding mechanism. Its performance is similar
to that of the standard KORD.
The KORD with a bipod on a MG mount and apedestal can fit naval ships, boats, railway flat
wagons and pickup and truck bodies.
A machinegun on a bipod is easily detachableand can be used as a hand-held one by infantry
for fire support in operations of all types. The
weapon's design provides it with a wide horizon-
tal field of fire. High accuracy is provided as well.
Its rather low weight (31 kg) and quick reaction
time enable the crew to displace easily and pro-vide fire support to attacking infantry while mov-
ing along with them. The machinegun is fed from
a portable 50-round magazine. The MG has an
open-type iron sight and an attachment for an
optical sight. Fitted with the optical sight and fir-
ing in the single-shot mode, the machinegun canbe used as a large-calibre sniper weapon.
The basic characteristics of up-to-date
12.7-mm machineguns from the world's leading
manufacturers are listed in the table. Analysis
of machineguns' performances shows that the
latest Russian designs are a match for their for-eign counterparts while gaining the lead over
them in some respects. The KORD's high com-
bat characteristics, original design solutions
and high manufacturability highlight its superi-
ority to the previous designs in the class, mak-
ing it internationally competitive.
4 2 0 0 7
ARMY
47
Many foreign experts were delightedto watch the KORD firing
12,7- 616 - fl
The 12.7-mm KORD on the 6U16gun mount and SP pintleis used on boatsand light craft