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| General view of the Russian issue 7N22 armor-piercing cartridges in caliber 5.45x39 mm. |
Overture: BY JOINT EFFORT
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Today's warfare has become more mobile and intensive, with rapid fire exchanges at various ranges. In the urban terrain and in the woods fire contacts can take place at an almost point blank to 100 meters and more. In the mountains, plain terrain the parties engage at 300 meters and more.
In my numerous and frequent meetings with Russian SPECOPS - SPETSNAZ, SOBR, OMON - who take an active part in action in North Caucasus and elsewhere, I am being told that both combat tactics and war materiel undergo considerable changes. The era of massive automatic fire - the crux of the Russian post-war small arms doctrine - seems to be over. To be superior in combat, one has to show superiority in accuracy of fire.
- If you want your soldier to outdo a well equipped and well-trained enemy, you should provide him with a better weapon, better ammo, better means of communications, - says Vladimir Feoktistov, deputy CO of the KRECHET group of special designation.
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During the months of August and September I worked closely with KRECHET helping them as much as I could to get better prepared for the mission in North Caucasus. I was not alone in my efforts. The group found full understanding and support from many defense enterprises here in Russia and the CIS. We got sponsor's aid from the BELOMO - the manufacturer of optical devices in Belarus, the ALPHA State Enterprise in Moscow - developer and manufacturer of specialty night reconnaissance equipment. The HOLSTER Company of Izhevsk offered cold-weather clothing for KRECHET?s snipers. The Izhevsk Radio Engineering Plant provided the group with newly designed radio stations. IZHMASH - Russia's manufacturer of the AK and SVD small arms systems helped them upgrade issue SVD Dragunov sniper rifles with newly devised clamp-on bipods, new and individually adjustable synthetic stocks. By way of experimenting, IZHMASH provided the necessary hardware to adapt high-power optical scopes to the PKM and RPK74 machine guns. It was my special consideration that KRECHET?s machine gunners could fire as accurately as snipers at extended rages over 300 meters. See for yourselves whether the experiment was worth the trouble: now an RPK operator can easily hit an E-4 full-size target into head at 300 to 350 meters. Snipers now use more powerful 3-9x42 optical scopes, and say that these are the things they always wanted to have.
There is another aspect in today's warfare: most of the involved manpower employ soft body armor or use light armored vehicles for both transportation or shelter against small arms fire.
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- To make your fire effective, you must use those types of ammunition that can defeat armor, - says Vladimir. - Why shouldn't somebody get us more information on what is going on in the ammo industry? Frankly, we need good cartridges.
When the group left for Chechnya, I called my friends at the Barnaul Machine-Tool Plant - the factory that specializes in manufacture of cartridges with enhanced penetration capability. I said, I wanted to do a research on their AP and special-purpose ammunition, and got their agreement to assist. Two days after, I was in Barnaul, a city of 700,000 people in Southern Siberia.
This is my report on experiments and findings.
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The secret of bullet's high penetration capability depends on its design and the material the bullet core is made from. Developers use various materials in manufacture of ballistic projectiles, such as bullets: steel, tungsten and even uranium alloys. This helps significantly increase the mass of projectile without any noticeable increase of its dimensions. Bullet's weight, dimensions and strength of its core enhance projectile's penetration capability.
The plant in Barnaul has its own know-how in manufacturing bullet cores.
The shape of a core in a common bullet like 7N6 or 57-N-231S looks like a
truncated cylinder at both ends. The core is made by stamping from special
brands of steel, such as 65G, steel 70 or 75. After thermal treatment, the
core acquires hardness within 60 to 65 HRC.
The core of the bullet that features enhanced penetration capability, such as 7N10, RS101, RS-51or 7N13 is also made by stamping from steel 70 or 75/ The core has a short ogive, while the tip is blunt and has a flat platform about 1.8 mm of diameter. Compared to the common bullet, 7N10, RS101, RS-51 and 7N13 feature enhanced penetration capability.
The 7N22 and 7N23 armor-piercing cartridges feature the core made of the
U12A steel, with high carbon content. The sharp core is made by machining of
the ogive part. The geometry of the core is thus made more accurate and
stronger.
In addition to the bullet's shape, the penetration capability can be
improved by the design of its lead jacket and the proportional correlation
of its elements.
I was able to test-fire the whole range of cartridges on the Shooting Range
of the Barnaul Machine-Tool Plant.
I began firing from 100 meters at armor plates 5 and 10 mm thick. The armor
fully corresponds to the standards of steel used in manufacture of Russian
BTRs and BMPs. Additionally, fire was conducted at the plate of common steel
3, 16 mm thick. The results were compared.
Only bullets that made clear perforations were counted. The range of calibers was between 5.45x39 mm to 7.62x54R. Various weapons were used, and namely: RPK 7.62x39 mm, PRK74 5.45x39 mm machine guns, AK-101 assault rifle in caliber 5.56x45 mm, the FAL automatic rifle by FN in caliber 7.62x51 mm NATO (.308 WIN), the MOLOT Vepr-308 semi-auto rifle, the Dragunov SVD sniper rifle and PKM machine gun in caliber 7.62x54 mm. As a comparison, I fired tracer cartridges of similar calibers, as well as the cartridges with common steel-core bullets.
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Finally, I was shown a brand new cartridge in caliber 9.3x64 mm, equipped
with the SP 17.4 g bullet. To fire the new round, I used the LOS-9 bolt
action rifle made by IZHMASH.
The results speak for themselves.
All the targets were successfully defeated. Both bullets of enhanced penetration and the AP bullets, shot by shot, were steadily piercing the plates. Tracers and common bullets made small craters on the surface but failed to defeat any of the above targets.
When I made two first shots from the LOS-9 rifle, I regretted I had neglected my earplugs - the sound blast was so strong. To keep on firing the 9.3x64 cartridges I had to use two empty 9x18 cases - the old trick that I usually did in my better days. The well-proven trick worked this time too. I fired two rounds at the 16-mm plate of steel 3 and heard the bullets bang heavily on the target. The magazine emptied, I, and my companions, ran to inspect the plates. The bullets made two craters 10 mm deep and about 25 mm of diameter. The back side of the plate had two prominent "bumps" but no perforations. Of course, the SP bullet even of such a tremendous power was not supposed to defeat the plate. However, I could imagine what kind of a round it might have been if I had it in the FMJ format, let alone as an AP cartridge. Valery Zakharyashtev - Barnaul's Technical Director - said they were planning on beginning commercial manufacture of the improved FMJ 9.3x64 mm cartridge before June 2001.
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IZHMASH has been long waiting for this cartridge and developed a series of
sporting rifles: LOS-9, SAIGA-9 and TIGER-9. IZHMASH's gun engineers also
devised a new version of the SVD sniper rifle, and designated it SVDK. The
new sniper cartridge, which the rifle will employ, has been designated as
9SN (9-mm snayperskiy). It is going to be a powerful weapon for both Army
and the SPETSNAZ units.
In the second phase of tests, the 7N22 and 7N23 AP rounds in calibers
5.45x39 and 7.62x39 mm were fired respectively. The target was a 5-mm armor
steel plate at 250 meters. We used the RPK74 and RPK machine guns. Mode of
fire: single shots.
When inspecting the penetrations, I was surprised by the performance of cartridges. The greatest surprise was their accuracy. See for yourselves: a regular RPK MG could fire 3 shots into a group of less than 20 mm, at 250 meters! This stimulated me into having an additional test for accuracy. I had a proper party to do this test: Alexander Makarenko, Barnaul?s test engineer, was an excellent sharp shooter who, in his younger days, used to defend his marksmanship of International class.
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Alexander offered me to shoot first. I took the LOS-9 bolt-action rifle and,
in the standing position, "banged" two shots at two square targets of about
12x12 cm at 100 meters. The bullets went home! This got Alexander's
attention. He said he would rather fire SVD at a standard target. He made a
good group, but I could see he did not like his performance. I suggested
that we redo the zeroing of the scope, which we did by firing two rounds
from a 10-rd SVD magazine. I took the gun and fired the remaining 8
cartridges at a steel plate. To provide better aiming, I had drawn a cross
with chalk on the 16-mm steel plate. Personally, I liked the group: rather
compact and evenly spread right inside the white cross.
Now it was Alexander's turn to fire. His group of 10 shots was even more
compact than mine.
- Good job, - I said and made a full set of photos.
- Material evidence? - grinned Alexander and we all went to lunch.
During the lunch I agreed that of course 7N13 cartridges could not beat "Boghinya" with a 13.0 g bullet or even "Extra" dedicated sniper cartridges as regards accuracy, but I can swear on a stack of Bibles, the 7N13 AP ammo could do a neat job, and do it all right!
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| Caliber/Case length, mm | Designation | Weight of round, g | Cartridge length, mm | Max. Pressure, Mpa | Bullet features | ||
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| Type | Weight g (gr) | V25, m/sec | |||||
| 5.45x39 | 7N6 | 10.5 | 57.0 | 294.2 | Steel Core | 3.42 (50) | 870-890 |
| 7N10 | 10.7 | 57.0 | 306.5 | Enhanced Penetration | 3.61 (56) | 870-890 | |
| 7N22 | 10.75 | 57.0 | 306.5 | AP | 3.68 (57) | 870-890 | |
| 7H3 | 6.6 | 56.8 | N/A | Blank | N/A | N/A | |
| 5.56x45 | RS-101 | 11.2 | 57.4 | 338.0 | Enhanced Penetration | 4.00 (62) | 900-920 |
| 7.62x39 | 57-N-231S | 16.3 | 56.0 | 274.6 | Steel Core | 7.90 (122) | 710-725 |
| 7N23 | 16.3 | 56.0 | 274.6 | AP | 7.90 (122) | 725-740 | |
| 57-N-231 | 8.2 | 48.2 | N/A | Blank | N/A | N/A | |
| 7.62x51 (.308 WIN) | RS-51 | 21.9 | 71.0 | 338.00 | Enhanced Penetration | 9.45 (146) | 820-835 |
| 7.62x54R | 7N13 | 21.72 | 77.16 | 284.00 | Enhanced Penetration | 9.56 (148) | 820-835 |
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