History of the development of small arms. History of weapons - from ancient times to modern times History and problem of the creation of small arms

Burmistrov Ilya

People have always needed and still need means of protection. In addition to using sharpened sticks and spears, people threw stones and threw darts. But about several tens of thousands of years ago, Homo sapiens made a real revolution...

It is not known exactly when a person first pulled a bowstring onto a slightly curved branch and sent an arrow at the target, but it certainly happened at least 30 thousand years ago. In fact, the history of small arms is equal in length to the history of mankind. Technical progress has always been characterized by improved weapons.

Small arms are bladed weapons/firearms, the principle of which is to send a charge over a certain distance. Used to destroy enemy personnel, fortifications and equipment.

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MUNICIPAL BUDGETARY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

BEREZOVSKAYA SECONDARY SCHOOL

History of the development of small arms

Leaders: Chechugo L.G., history teacher,

Teacher-organizer of life safety Kovalev A.A.

Berezovo village 2013

Plan

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………pp. 2

1.Purpose………………………………………………………………………………………p. 2

2.Task…………………………………………………………………………………….p. 2

The main part is the history of the development of small arms:

1. Onion…………………………………………………………….……………p. 3

2. Crossbow……………………………………………………….……………p. 4

3. Firearms………………………………………...………………p. 4

4. Matchlock………………………………………………..…………p. 5

5. Wheel lock………………………………………..…………………p. 5

6. Percussion flint lock………………………………….………………p. 6

7. Percussion rifle………………………………………………………pp. 6

8. Revolver and pistol……………………………………………………….p. 7

9. Breech-loading repeating rifle………………….…………………p. 8

10. Rifles with optical devices…………………………..p. 8

11. Machine guns……………………………………………………………………p. 9

12. Automatic and self-loading rifles…………..…….…………p. 10

13. Submachine guns……………………………………………………… p. eleven

14. Automatic machines………………………………………………………………p. 12

15. Shotguns……………………………………………………..…………p. 13

16. Modern innovations………………..…………………………..……… p. 14

Conclusion……………………………………………………………..……page 15
Literature………………………………………..……………………….…p. 16

Introduction

Small arms are bladed weapons/firearms, the principle of which is to send a charge over a certain distance. Used to destroy enemy personnel, fortifications and equipment.

Target

Trace the process of formation, design and development of small arms.

Tasks

Study, compare, correlate the processes of development of small arms and draw conclusions.

Onion

Known since ancient times, it was simply a stick made of wood, tied with a bowstring made of sinew, but the first creators of bows quickly realized that this was not the maximum that could be extracted from a stick with a rope, and quickly ground the stick down to the ends so that it would break less in in the middle, then they ground it in the area of the handle, and ground it in a plane perpendicular to the transverse axis of the bow (if you look at the bow frontally, as if from the front) so that the arrow was closer to the center of the bow, but then they tied a small block (bone) to the handle in the plane in which both bow axes lie.

Along with making fire and turning blades and knives for humans, the invention of the bow became a sensation. The ability to send a projectile, ease of manufacture and excellent characteristics for hunting made it possible to produce a bow in artisanal conditions.

Later, around 30 millennium BC. e. the arrow acquired feathers and a tip. Such an ideal ratio of destructive power and ease of use allowed the bow to displace the sling and boomerang.

By 6000 BC. e. people began to make bows of more complex shapes, for example, from several blocks of wood.

But one should not consider the bow a cheap weapon: not only does it require a special wood (yew, elm, beech, ash or at least acacia), but it also had to be sharpened evenly, carefully, so that the weapon was balanced.

For an ideal result, the shooter should have been trained from the age of 4-5. In addition, shooters often used “their own” arrows, adjusted to their weapons. This is not very convenient for the army. The bow is extremely demanding on the quality of training of fighters.

By the New Kingdom (circa 2800 BC) in Ancient Egypt, its soldiers began to wear armor, reinforcing their linen jackets with metal plates. Even lamellar shells gradually appear. Many of Egypt's opponents do the same. This is a reason to improve the penetrating ability of the bow, and by the reign of Thutmose III, double-bows - compound bows - became popular. Such weapons penetrate contemporary armor at a distance of 50-80 meters.

Since wood was brought to Egypt from the southern lands (Nubia), the Egyptians used animal horns and tendons, creating the world's first composite bow.

In the 3rd century. BC e. The Scythians created a composite bow with four bends. Their successors - the Huns - lengthened it from 70 cm to 1.5 m, strengthened the bends with bone plates and created a formidable weapon that pierced iron shields through and through. The Romans, Visigoths, and Franks together, at the cost of enormous blood, stopped this horde.

In Medieval Europe, the best archers were the British - thanks in part to Wales and King Edward I. Their classic long yew bow performed well in the Hundred Years' War, when the British shot almost 30,000 French knights at Crecy and the entire 25,000-strong French corps at Agincourt.

The latest improvement - the reverse bow - was created by the Ottoman Turks, thanks to which the latter captured the Balkans.

Lacking a choice, the bow was the main firearm for centuries and continued to compete with its successor, the crossbow, until the advent of firearms.

Crossbow

The idea of placing the bow on the stock and hooking the string to save the archer's strength originated in the 3rd century. BC e. in ancient Greece and China. Archimedes later created a number of throwing machines. His developments went to the Roman Empire. Along with darts, Roman infantry used crossbows. But Rome, a zealous admirer of the “glorious traditions of the past,” kept only hired archers and crossbowmen. In China, the crossbow was used only in the northern provinces for protection against nomads.

In the Middle Ages, the Italian city-republics were the first to begin general “crossbowing”: Genoa, Venice, Padua, Milan... There were enough reasons: developed technologies, a high level of weapons, the military population was not particularly demanding of itself.

When the Italian crossbow became a composite bow, and later a metal bow, an arrow from such a weapon pierced the knight's armor, and the noble knightly war came to naught. The Pope introduced a ban on the use of a crossbow, since it was unworthy for a nobleman to die from an arrow. The ban, of course, did not apply to Italian mercenaries, because mercenaries are scoundrels without faith, conscience and honor.

We switched from manual reloading to lever reloading. “Anglo-French” (with a tension collar) and “German” (with a serrated collar) crossbows appeared. Although it was inconvenient, the crossbow did not require years of training, allowing European armies to have more marksmen in their army. The goat's leg type lever has greatly increased the rate of fire.

The confrontation between the crossbow and the bow lasted throughout the Middle Ages. The first was suitable for militias and huge armies, the second was ideal for the nobility and professionals. The appearance of firearms immediately replaced the bow, and decades later, the crossbow.

Firearms

The first examples of guns and rocket launchers were created in China at the beginning of the 13th century. They found application in the Mongol army. After the import of gunpowder to Europe in the 15th century, guns began to be created en masse, and later bombards - the first mortars. Smaller versions of cannons and bombards could be picked up and fired. In Rus' they were called “hand-made arquebus”. They were not widely used due to their bulkiness, heavy weight and enormous recoil.

Matchlock

Hand bombards were loaded by bringing a hot rod to the wick. This obscured the sight, and the shooter's right hand could not adjust the weapon to the target.

The invention of the matchlock deprived the shooter of these inconveniences. Now the shooter needed to pull the trigger, a red-hot rod on a stand was brought to the wick, and all that was left was to wait for the shot. The new gun was nicknamed the arquebus. But it was much heavier than a crossbow, and its shooting qualities left much to be desired.

An improved and lighter version of the arquebus, the musket, first appeared in Spain and later spread throughout Europe.

The matchlock had a lot of disadvantages: high recoil, low accuracy, low rate of fire, dependence on the weather, and constant access to fire was needed.

Even the church cursed the “instrument of the devil.” But there was also a benefit: now the heavy knightly cavalry did not inspire fear in the soldiers, because the bullets pierced the armor. For this reason, musketeers made up half of the army in Western Europe. The other half are pikemen. You can't fight in close combat with a musket.

Wheel lock

Often a thought is ahead of its time. In an attempt to find a replacement for the wick, Leonardo da Vinci (1482) and later Ettor of Nuremberg (1504) created the wheel lock. It works with the help of a spring wound by a ring, which drives a wheel and drops a piece of flint onto it, as in modern lighters. Friction occurred and sparks were created to charge.

It was with this type of lock that the first pistols were created. They were developed by the Italian Camillus Vetelli from Pistoia. Also, cavalry - cuirassiers and reiters - could use firearms with such a lock.

But such a mechanism was too expensive - the technical level of many countries was not yet capable of mass production of such weapons. Only the best shooters and mercenaries received it.

And again there was a confrontation between two small arms technologies: a simple, cheap, but inconvenient matchlock, and a weather-independent, high-quality, but very expensive wheel lock.

The matchlock and wheel locks were replaced at the beginning of the 18th century by the percussion flintlock.

Percussion flintlock

A real revolution in military tactics was made by guns with percussion flintlocks. Created in Turkey, and later in Russia and Spain, simple, cheap and quite reliable, they used the same principle of striking a spark from a flint, but not due to the rotation of the wheel, but due to the movement of the flint itself, fixed in the jaws of the trigger, and its impact about a motionless flint.

Also, a bayonet was created for a musket with such a lock, which, together with the new formation of linear infantry, was considered the pinnacle of military-scientific thought; also with this lock, fittings or rifles - shotguns with a rifled barrel - were tested. Reloading them was incredibly difficult; only by the middle of the 19th century was a special rifle bullet created. But the lock had a drawback - since the gap into which the sparks should pass was small, a misfire could occur and the shot would not take place. For this reason, the flintlock was superseded in the 1920s. XIX century capsule.

Capsule rifle

The cap lock appeared at the beginning of the 19th century, initially in hunting weapons. He used a chemical explosive based on mercuric fulminate (mercuric fulminate), enclosed in a metal cap - a primer, or "piston". The trigger hit the primer, which was placed on a hollow seed rod - a brand tube, the cavity of which was connected to the barrel bore. This lock was simple, cheap, and very reliable. Its design was familiar and from the inside it completely repeated the impact flint one, which had long been mastered in production. By the 1840s, it had replaced the flintlock in the armies of almost all developed countries.

Later the primer from the side was moved into the gun itself. Using exactly the same method, a revolver pistol was created. Capsule locks were placed on fittings, and Claude Minier’s invention of a special bullet for rifles simplified the loading process - the bullet slid in a spiral to the end of the barrel. The capsule system reliably served the army throughout the 1st half of the 19th century.It was with the use of percussion rifles that the term “rifle” became established as the soldier’s individual weapon.

In 1827, the German engineer Dreyse presented his rifle project for Central European countries. It was accepted by the Prussian army, despite difficulties in production, but especially drew attention to its single, full cartridge and bolt-action trigger mechanism.

For this system, the first unitary cartridges and a bolt-action trigger mechanism were created, developed by the engineer Dreyse. His modified version of the lock used cartridges where the primer was part of the cartridge. This idea was reproduced after Boxer created metal cartridges.

In 1836, the French gunsmith Lefauchet created a cardboard pin cartridge.

The capsule was in the cartridge, and there was no need to worry about its loss. At first, a small pin was used for ignition, then, as in a revolver, the percussion composition was in the ring at the end of the cartridge, and only then in 1861 the primer was again included in the cartridge.

And in 1853 they developed an all-metal cartridge for pistols and rifles. A little later, they created a more reliable rimfire cartridge without a primer, only with a percussion compound. But it turned out that the cartridge with a primer was much more effective, and new central ignition cartridges replaced all outdated models.

Revolver and pistol.

The advantage of the pistol was supposed to be its rate of fire. But due to the fact that it was loaded, like a gun, from the muzzle, the pistol became a disposable weapon. After the creation of the cap lock, pistols began to be widely distributed in the army. At first they were made multi-barrel for greater effect. Only this option made the weapon much heavier.

The idea to leave the “barrel drum” alone and make a rotating container for changing cartridges came to John Pearson, who worked for the industrialist Samuel Colt. The latter received huge profits from the project and worldwide fame. The new weapon was called "revolver" ( English rotation). It was so perfect that it was classified as a separate type of weapon. The revolver forced the pistol out of the market due to its many advantages. The era of the revolver ended in the 1880s with the invention of smokeless powder, giving way to handguns.

At first, as before, pistols were made with multiple barrels, and then the American John Browning came up with the idea of placing a magazine with cartridges in the pistol handle, and “covering” the trigger with a steel casing. This technology was borrowed all over the world, making pistols indispensable for security and special units, as well as for command personnel. The German gunsmith Georg Luger used a different design in the pistol: instead of a steel casing, he left a revolving striker, installed a fuse above it, and replaced the drum with a magazine.

Breech-loading repeating rifle.

At the front, soldiers suffered heavy losses not only because of problems with the rifle lock. Often they did not have time to recharge it. Loading from the barrel is a very long process, and soldiers had to stand up to their full height to reload. When the capsule lock moved into the rifle itself, several countries immediately developed breech-loading systems - introducing a special groove next to the lock. Now it was easier to reload the rifle without having to stand up to full height, and there was no loss of reliability and accuracy.

Opened in the 70s. smokeless powder made it possible to reduce the caliber from 15-18 to 8 mm. Lightweight cartridges had more ideal ballistic data.

But the single-shot rifle did not meet the requirements of the time.

Dreyse's bolt mechanism was perfect and ideal for reloading. Later, a loading accelerator, under-barrel and butt magazines were made. The accelerator only gave a gain in time. And both types of stores, although they had many options, when firing, the center of gravity changed, and the rifle itself became fragile. In addition, it had to be loaded one cartridge at a time, and the magazine could contain from 4 to 48 cartridges.

The under-barrel mechanism took root in the United States when, in 1860, the American B. T. Henry created a new trigger, which was nicknamed the “Henry bracket.” He sold the patent and rights to the weapon to the industrialist Winchester, who assigned his last name to the weapon.

The Winchester was quick-firing, but the soldiers did not like the fact that this inconvenient weapon discharged very quickly. Henry was unable to further develop his already complex mechanism, and the rifle became unpromising.

Having realized these mistakes, the designers made their choice on the middle store, which had many options, but was often stocked. Typically it held 5 rounds in a clip (a clip is a device for speeding up loading). The longitudinally sliding bolt provided a good rate of fire, and now the rifle was fully in keeping with its time.

Rifles with optical devices

After the invention of the telescope, gunsmiths in European and then American countries tried to start producing weapons with so-called telescopic sights. It was possible to do this only at the beginning of the 19th century. Along with them, a cheaper diopter sight began to be produced. The telescopic sight provided an enlarged image of the target, and the diopter sight helped the shooter calculate the distance to the object.

Sharp shooters were nicknamed snipers, which in English means “snipe hunter.” The fact is that it was not easy to defeat this bird: it was small and maneuverable.

The invention worked well in the United States, where, due to constant local conflicts, the majority of the population were experienced shooters.

The American Civil War gave a new impetus to the development of snipers: Northern Colonel Hiram Berdan created an elite brigade of accurate snipers. The selection was tough, but it was worth it: Berdan's snipers repeatedly thwarted Confederate advances. For example, at the Battle of Gettysburg, a Federal sniper shot and killed Confederate General John Reynolds from 600 m, as a result of which the Confederates retreated from the city in panic. Another example is Sergeant Grace, a Confederate sniper who shot Northern General John Sedgwick in the head from 731 meters while he was riding a horse. His shot stopped the Federal attack and led to the South's victory in the Battle of Pennsylvania.

The Great Patriotic War brought a new round of development of the sniper craft. Soviet soldiers fought to the death for their Motherland. Destroyed Stalingrad and the Belarusian forests became an ideal place for constant sniper fire. Ruins, soot, dust or dense tree crowns, swamps dangerous for traps, and excellent use of camouflage - you can’t imagine a better place for a sniper.

Machine guns

The 20th century was approaching, and the army needed automatic weapons for successful wars.

The concept of a machine gun as a weapon with a much higher rate of fire than a rifle, as well as its first project, were put forward in 1718.

Although the first real machine gun appeared in 1883 (it was made by the American Hiram Maxim), at first this weapon was underestimated, and it became widespread only during the First World War, when the armies of the warring countries got stuck in the trenches ah and trench wars.

The basis of the operation of machine guns is either semi-free movement of the bolt back and forth, or repulsion by a gas piston, which is acted upon by the pressure of the powder gases, which flow back to the machine gun mechanism through the gas tube. The first samples of automatic rifles were created back in 1863 by Regulus Pilon. In Russia, such a weapon was made by D.A. Rudnitsky in 1886. But technical capabilities allowed European and American designers to make such weapons by 1908-10. Machine guns, approved and manufactured by 1900, were used in the Boer War and the First World War and were considered weapons of mass destruction.

The effectiveness of automatic weapons was confirmed by the experience of the First World War. Machine guns of the Maxim and Lewis system were effective and widespread weapons. Although the rate of fire made it possible to consider its design powerful, the machine gun weighed from 20 to 65 kg. Calculation – from 2 to 6 people.

Due to such shortcomings, a version of a light machine gun arose that could be handled by one person. The first samples of light machine guns were made in 1918. In fact, these are lightweight versions of heavy machine guns. Only in the late 20s were systems other than heavy machine guns created. In the USSR, the Degtyarev machine gun, made in 1927, was used.

Also in the Soviet Union, the first prototype of a high-speed machine gun was created - the aviation ShKAS Shpitalny and Komarov with a rate of fire of up to 3000 rounds per minute. Created at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, it made a huge impression on the German command. It is known that a sample of the ShKAS was kept in the Reich Chancellery under glass: Hitler ordered that this weapon be kept until German engineers made the same one for the Luftwaffe. But this never happened.

During World War II, another type of machine gun was developed - a single one - both easel and manual. It is considered one of the most acceptable options.

Automatic and self-loading rifles.

Despite the obvious superiority over conventional repeating rifles, their automatic counterparts were not widely used due to their unreliability, fear of overheating of the barrel, and the fear of the ruling circles, who were afraid that there would not be enough ammunition for the assault rifles. Therefore, they were changed, making it possible only to fire single shots without jerking the shutter. Such rifles were called self-loading (purely conditionally). But nowhere did they rearm the army with them. Only in the USA, after 20 years of testing, in 1936 they approved the Garand rifle project and made a complete replacement for it. In the USSR, tests were also carried out in the 30s, but not a single project met the requirements. And only in 1936 the Simonov ABC-36 rifle successfully passed the tests and was put into service. Its working system was above the barrel. In 1938, it was replaced by the Simonov SVT-38 rifle. The new rifle now has a locking device (bolt skew) and a hammer trigger mechanism (instead of a striker-fired one). In 1940, a new SVT-40 with even better tactical data. But such rifles had a drawback - they required careful maintenance (this does not apply to the SVT-40). Therefore, repeating rifles were also used in World War II.

After the war, preference began to be given to machine guns, and self-loading and non-automatic rifles began to be used only as sniper weapons.

Pistols - machine guns

A submachine gun (PP) is an individual hand-held automatic small arms weapon of continuous fire that uses a pistol cartridge for firing and is effective at close ranges.

They did not become widespread during the First World War; they were mass-produced only from the late 1930s.

Based on the idea of facilitating and increasing the tactical mobility of a machine gun, in 1915 in Italy, Major Abel Revelli created a light double-barreled light machine gun Villar-Perosa M1915 chambered for the Glisenti pistol cartridge (9x20 mm). It was used relatively widely in the Italian army, and especially actively by mountain and assault units. There were options for firing both from the machine and from a bipod or from the hands - which to some extent makes this weapon also a harbinger of the concept of a single machine gun.

But it was General Thompson (one of the creators of the PP) who invented the term submachine gun, which literally means “submachine gun”, in the sense of a lighter type of machine gun, which to this day designates this type of weapon in the USA and, partly, in other English-speaking countries countries.

It is curious that Thompson and his team of engineers began development with the idea of an automatic rifle, and only later switched to the development of a light machine gun, carried by one person, suitable for offensive operations in trench warfare and chambered for the .45 ACP pistol cartridge, due to its unsuitability soon became clear which he bought from the inventor of the Blish system semi-free bolt for more powerful rifle ammunition.

In the interwar period, in most countries these weapons were considered unnecessary and secondary. But the conflict in Chaco and the “Banana War” in South America completely refuted this judgment, and after that the infantry was massively enriched with these weapons.

The Second World War was the apogee of the development of submachine guns. Some were cheap but unreliable, others were convenient but expensive. The PPS-43 of the Soviet engineer Sudaev was recognized by the whole world as the best project - it was reliable, simple, and accurate.

After 1945, they were actively improved in Western Europe; in the USSR, these weapons were replaced by automatic pistols. They are mostly fired in bursts with low accuracy. Currently, PPs are most often used by law enforcement agencies, special services, rapid response groups, attack aircraft, as well as armored vehicle crews, artillery crews, missilemen, signalmen, rear officers and other military personnel for whom direct fire contact with the enemy is not a normal situation (so called the “second line”) as a weapon of self-defense - due to the small size of the weapon with relatively large firepower. Unofficially, PPs are called “anti-terror weapons.”

Slot machines

At the beginning of World War II, the infantry of most countries was armed primarily with repeating non-automatic rifles or shortened carbines using rifle cartridges, and submachine guns using pistol ammunition. In addition, many countries had a number of self-loading and automatic rifles in service. None of these types of weapons individually could provide the necessary firepower for the infantry, since:

– Repeated non-automatic rifles and carbines had a large, even excessive range of aimed fire for most real combat missions, but at the same time a very low rate of fire, which made non-automatic rifles useless in close combat with infantry;

– Submachine guns had a very high rate of fire, and in close-range combat they created a fairly high density of fire. But due to the use of relatively low-power ammunition designed for short-barreled weapons, the effective firing range of most models did not exceed 200 meters, which was often not enough to solve many combat missions, including heavy fire at medium distances.

Self-loading and automatic rifles, created on the basis of existing rifle-machine-gun cartridges, had a number of fatal shortcomings, such as:

strong recoil when shooting,

a very significant mass of weapons and ammunition,

complexity and low technological efficiency of production,

high cost of both weapons and ammunition.

However, the widespread use of PP during the war had a significant impact on the formation of infantry combat tactics and the weapons system of the Soviet army in the post-war period, when great importance began to be attached to the conduct of dense automatic fire along the entire front, to the detriment of shooting accuracy, and the Kalashnikov assault rifle replaced more an accurate, but slower-firing Simonov carbine, while in the West, especially in the USA, for some time the ideology of accurate self-loading weapons with powerful cartridges continued to develop, sometimes with the ability to fire in bursts at a critical moment of the battle, similar to Soviet pre-war developments - ABC and SVT.

Automatic rifles (assault rifles) are weapons that replaced repeating and self-loading rifles. The first prototype is the German MP-43 (StG 44). The rifle was the “middle ground” between the MP-40 and our SVT-40. In September, on the Eastern Front, the 5th SS Wiking Panzer Division conducted the first full-scale military tests of the MP-43, the results of which determined that the new carbine was an effective replacement for submachine guns and repeating rifles, increasing the firepower of infantry units and reducing the need for use of light machine guns.

Despite the splendor of the Sturmgewehr, time was lost and Germany lost the war. Most of the rifles were used on the Eastern Front, and this greatly affected the military doctrine of the Soviet Army.

The most successful weapons power, the Soviet Union, achieved particular success in automation.

After the war, a clear model of a weapon for a Soviet soldier was determined: a reliable, cheap and simple machine gun. It was precisely for these parameters that the Kalashnikov assault rifle project was ideally suited. The weapon was named AK-47 with a caliber of 7.62x54 mm.

The appearance of the AK and its use in the Korean War forced the United States to also begin developing assault rifles. The US Army M14 rifle was inferior to the AK in all respects.

After the outbreak of the Vietnam War, the US Army received the first batch of AR-15 rifles, which were given the name M-16. The rifle was accurate and lightweight, but was very unreliable and inconvenient for fighting on rough terrain. According to the results of the jungle battles, the AK-47 won.

But such a powerful AK cartridge reduced the accuracy of the hit due to the powerful recoil. An “intermediate” cartridge was required - stronger than a pistol cartridge, but weaker than a rifle cartridge.

The most successful option was the 5.45x39 cartridge. The AK-47 was “recalibrated” and given the name AKM-74.

Now, these days, an assault rifle is a combination of a non-automatic, self-loading and automatic (sometimes also a sniper) rifle. The mechanism is an improved bolt-trigger rifle system. The weapon was regularly improved during the Cold War from 1947-1991. As a result of the “war”, two types of machine guns and rifles were formed with their differences:

NATO rifles are accurate, convenient, but unreliable, complex in design, expensive and effective for fast operations and urban combat.

OVD rifles are simple, reliable, cheap, but have low accuracy and are effective in field and forest battles.

There are, of course, “ideal” machines, but their prices are very high.

Shotguns

A shotgun is a smooth-bore firearm that uses the energy of a fixed projectile to fire a number of small round balls (shot) or bullets. A shotgun is a weapon designed to be fired from the shoulder. Shotguns can be of a wide variety of calibers: from 5.5 mm to 5 cm. There are various shotgun mechanisms, including single-barreled, with two or more barrels; pump-action, lever, semi-automatic, there are even fully automatic options. Their mechanism is a Colt sliding forend.

Created at the end of the 19th century in the USA by many American gunsmiths as a replacement for a light machine gun and an offshoot of a repeating rifle. It has not become widely used and is still used mainly in the American army and special forces of the NATO bloc.

Modern innovations

The constant modification of small arms has led to new subtypes:

Weapons for fighting underwater (colloquially “needlecushion”)
Combination automatic rifles (loved by the NATO block)
Weapons with caseless cartridges and rubber powder (weak armor-piercing, but saves metal)
Bullpup design: the magazine is located behind the handle.

Who knows to what level a seemingly simple rifle can evolve?

Conclusion

So, at the cost of millions of lives in modern armies, powerful small arms. But was it worth it? We will never know because there has been no alternative in history. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, diplomacy was not at its best. But since the 20th century, one of the reasons for wars has been the desire to “train” the army and its weapons. Maybe it’s better to have “three-line soldiers” in the armies than for the destructive power of war to sweep away and distort entire cities and even states? Or should we agree that the trial and error method, using the example of wars, is the most effective? Nowadays, only local conflicts remain in different parts of the world. Most of the army “acts” in parades and exercises, and blood and explosions are on TV screens and computer monitors. But wars are going on - with the help of special troops - and the arms industry is not asleep.

But you shouldn’t look at military conflicts so monotonously. Wars force states to improve, and the altar of victory must be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and usurpers. Many military defensive installations, considered obsolete, were reflected in civilian infrastructure and helped people live more comfortably. Well, we must not forget about the national pride of any state. Almost all countries in the world have their own military history.

Small arms - a bow, crossbow, pistol, revolver - were almost always a reliable chance for the survival of a person, and later of the state (such as the “Colt Law” and the emblems of partisan groups in the form of crossed AK-47 and M-16). This is a faithful friend who will not betray you if you look after him properly.

Still, states should not invest so much in the arms industry. Almost all of Europe's coal and iron reserves went into the production of armor and crossbows.

Simply put, you need to know the extent of weapons production. Remember Spain and the Aztecs of America. Countries that did not pay due attention to small arms were quickly occupied by other states. Think about the Soviet Union and Napoleon's empire. Countries with too much money turned into empires, but fell apart because the ruling circles forgot about ordinary citizens.

Considering the history of the emergence and development of firearms, it should be noted that gunpowder or an explosive composition close to it has been known in Asia since ancient times. Most likely, the inventors of gunpowder were the peoples of India or Indochina. In the mentioned regions, there is a lot of saltpeter in the soil. It can be assumed that after lighting a fire, the saltpeter that was in the soil underneath could melt and then in the rain, mixed with ash and coal, drying in the sun, become capable of producing an explosion.

There is evidence that 1500 BC. In India, an explosive composition similar to gunpowder was known. The Sanskrit text of the Hindu law of that time reads:

A commander should not use any cunning in war, should not use poisoned arrows, nor fiery weapons large or small, nor any kind of fire-fighting devices.

This document is most likely not talking about firearms, but about throwing weapons, such as ballistae, which threw jugs and cauldrons with burning or explosive substances.

History contains more reliable information about ancient explosives. So, from the 4th century. The Greeks used the so-called "Greek fire". Saltpeter was not included in its composition; it was replaced by resin, oil, rosin, sandarak 1 Sandarak or sandarake (sandarake - red arsenic) - aromatic resin. and ammonia mixed with sulfur. In the 7th century, the Greeks successfully used their fire against the Saracen fleet at the Battle of the Dardanelles. In 941, the Greeks drove Prince Igor and his retinue away from their shores with such fire.

A real explosive - carbon nitrate sulfide gunpowder - appeared in Europe around the 1st century. AD According to some sources, it was brought by the Moors to Spain, according to others - by the Greeks to Constantinople. However, gunpowder had no combat use for a long time. At first it was used as an incendiary substance, and much later it began to be used as an explosive and propellant. Thus, the first gunpowder rockets were known to the Chinese since the 10th century. This is confirmed by Chinese sources describing such missiles as flying fire spears, which, when launched by igniting gunpowder, burned everything within a radius of 10 steps.

The first information about the combat use of weapons similar to firearms by the Arabs dates back to the 10th century. But the true history of firearms began in Europe at the turn of the 13th-14th centuries.

Firearms are divided into artillery and small arms. The first hits the enemy with large projectiles fired along a flat or mounted trajectory. The artillery systems are serviced by crews consisting of several people. Small arms, mostly individual, are used for direct fire at open targets. GOST 28653-90 “Small arms. Terms and Definitions" defines small arms as barreled weapons with a caliber of less than 20 mm, intended for throwing a bullet, shot or buckshot.

The first samples of firearms were a metal pipe up to half a meter long, with an internal diameter of 20-40 mm, one end of which was made blind, and a small pilot hole was drilled nearby. Such a trunk was placed in a wooden stock and secured with metal rings. Loading was carried out through the muzzle: powdered gunpowder was poured into it, compacted with a wad, and then a projectile made of stone or metal was placed. The shooter aimed the gun at the target. He rested the butt against his chest or shoulder, pinned it under his arm or placed it on the ground, everything depended on the size and weight of the firearm system, and brought a rod hot on a brazier to the ignition hole. In Rus', guns designed for hand-held shooting were called handhelds.

On top is a Western European hand grip from the late 14th century, equipped with a hook for carrying (length 297 mm, caliber 32 mm). Below is a Western European hand grip with a lightweight butt (length 950-1000 mm, weight - 25.5 kg, caliber - 30-35 mm)

Experience has shown that it is very inconvenient to take aim and at the same time bring a hot rod to the weapon. Therefore, at the end of the 15th century, the ignition hole was moved to the right side of the barrel. A small shelf with a recess was placed nearby, into which a measure of so-called seed powder was poured.

Handle with an iron handle from the late 14th century.

After some time, the shelf was covered from the wind and snow with a hinged lid. At the same time, they found a replacement for the red-hot rod - a long wick, which was soaked in saltpeter or wine alcohol or boiled in ash. After such treatment, the wick no longer burned, but slowly smoldered, and the shooter could bring the weapon into action at any moment of the battle.

It was just inconvenient to bring the wick to the shelf each time.

Then a hole was made in the stock, a strip of metal bent through it, bent in the shape of the letter S, with a clamp at the end, called serpentine (in Rus' - zhagra), and a wick was attached to its upper end. When the shooter lifted the lower end of the serpentine, the upper one, with the smoldering wick attached, dropped to the shelf and touched the ignition gunpowder.

At the end of the 15th century. the weapon was equipped with a rather complex matchlock for those times, in which a sear was added to the serpentine - a leaf spring with a protrusion, mounted on an axis on the inside of the locking board. It was connected to the serpentine in such a way that as soon as the shooter pressed the trigger, the rear end of the sear rose and the wick lay on the shelf, igniting the ignition powder. And then the shelf itself was moved to the key board.

Matchlock pattern: A-serpentine (jagra); B - the simplest matchlock, in which a sear is used: B - an improved matchlock of the second half of the 17th century.

However, even the improved matchlocks were far from perfect. At night, the light of a smoldering fuse unmasked the shooter; in windy and damp weather the weapon failed.

Matchlock

It was possible to get rid of these shortcomings after the invention of the wheeled or wheeled lock - a combination of flint and steel.

Historians do not know for sure the inventor of this device. Only one thing is obvious - it was impossible to invent a wheel lock without knowing the clock mechanism. Therefore, some researchers are inclined to believe that the first watchmaker from Nuremberg, Johann Kiefus, made such a lock in 1517. According to others, the author of the wheel lock was Leonardo da Vinci.

Wheel lock device: 1 - trigger; 2- mainspring; 3 - flint; 4 - trigger lips; 5 - trigger; b - powder shelf cover; 7 - winding key; 8 - wheel

The wheel lock was a rather complex mechanism, consisting of 35-50 parts. The most important of them was a steel wheel with notches, the axis of which was connected by a chain to a powerful mainspring.

Before firing, it was wound up with a special key, after pressing the trigger, it spun the wheel, which sharply struck the flint with notches, and the carved sparks ignited the seed powder, which ignited the main charge.

Improving the wheel lock, the gunsmiths added a stopper to keep the wheel cocked, and then came up with a sliding shelf cover. In the 17th century an additional rod was introduced, which made it possible to cock the spring with one turn of the trigger.

Wheel lock

Now preparation for a shot included several sequential operations: the shooter cocked the hammer, squeezing the spring, poured gunpowder into the barrel and onto the priming shelf, placed a bullet in the barrel and pushed the shelf cover. After this, the weapon was constantly ready to fire.

The wheel lock was expensive and quite difficult to manufacture. Therefore, only wealthy people or the most privileged military units could afford weapons equipped with such locks. However, wheel guns and pistols were successfully used until the 18th century, and hunting weapons with such locks were made even until the beginning of the next century.

Dutch type flintlock: 1 - descent; 2 - trigger; 3 - flint; 4 - traction; 5 - spring feather; 6 - sear

At the end of the 15th century, another important improvement was made in weapons - rifled barrels appeared, which at first had a straight cut. Only in the next century did straight rifling give way to a screw rifling, which ensured that the bullet rotated in flight, which made it possible to increase the efficiency of shooting. Gradually, rifled weapons became widespread, first as hunting weapons, and from the 20s of the 18th century. began to enter service with some armies.

The next stage in improving the charge ignition system was the creation in the second half of the 16th century. flint lock. Unlike the wheel lock, sparks were struck in it after a strong impact of the flint on a steel flint. The flintlock turned out to be simpler and more reliable than its predecessor.

Flintlock of a Cossack soldier's pistol, model 1839.

According to some researchers, the flintlock was developed by Spanish or Portuguese artisans. They even name the most likely inventor - a certain Simon Macuarte, who served in the 60s of the 16th century. in the workshops at the court of the Spanish king Charles V. But a more plausible version is that the flintlock was invented almost simultaneously and independently of each other by gunsmiths from different countries. For this reason, the so-called Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Karelian, Mediterranean, Swedish and other types of this device and their variants, differing in location, shape, finishing and principles of interaction of parts and assemblies, quickly spread.

The next step in the development of firearms was the appearance in the 16th century. ready - unitary ammunition. Initially, they were a bundle of waterproof paper, in which gunpowder and a round lead bullet were alternately packed, and the shooters themselves equipped them, adhering to established standards. Before firing, it was necessary to bite the lower edge of this unique cartridge case, pour some of the gunpowder onto the primer shelf, and the rest into the barrel. A bullet and a wad got in there too. After this, the charge was compacted with a cleaning rod and the hammer was cocked.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. In many countries, experiments were carried out to replace gunpowder with various chemicals, in particular mercury fulminate. These experiments were a catalyst for the creation of new ignition mixtures and charge ignition devices.

In 1807, the Scottish pastor Alexander-John Forsyth created a fundamentally new device that was supposed to replace the flintlock. Forsyth placed a small cylinder filled with explosive on the seed shelf. When I turn it over on the shelf, this substance spills out, which flared up when the trigger was hit. Such substances began to be called initiating (from the Latin initio - to begin), and Forsyth’s lock “chemical”. The Englishman John Manton suggested mixing the initiating composition into tubes rolled from paper or sheet copper. A more successful idea was to press the initiating substance into a copper cup - a primer, which was put on a hollow tube screwed into the breech of the barrel. After the trigger hit the primer, the initiating composition ignited and the flame through the tube ignited the main charge. Such devices are called fire tubes. Unlike their predecessors, capsule systems were not dependent on the weather and worked even in the rain.

Percussion cap lock

The invention of capsules provided a new impetus for the development of firearms. In 1812, the Frenchman Samuel Pauli patented a metal unitary cartridge and a breech-loading rifle for it. However, the system turned out to be complex and expensive, so it was not further developed. More successful was his student, the German Johann Dreyse, who created a needle rifle, adopted by the Prussian army in 1841 under the name “light cap gun model 1841.” The design of the rifle was classified and was an important state secret of Prussia. The rifle was loaded from the breech with ready-made cartridges with a paper sleeve and a cardboard bottom. The capsule was located between the bullet and the powder charge in the pan - the spiegel. The breech of the rifle was locked with a horizontally sliding bolt, the combat face of which rested against the breech of the barrel and provided a good seal. Inside the bolt was a spiral mainspring that wound around a long firing pin with a needle at the end. The rifle barrel had four grooves, the range of the aimed shot reached 600 m.

Dreyse's needle system had certain disadvantages: scraps of paper cartridges remained in the barrel, making loading difficult; a paper sleeve does not ensure the tightness of the cartridge; the high temperature of the powder gases and their pressure contributed to the rapid wear of the needle, which often broke.

Dreyse needle rifle

Around the same time, the Frenchman Casimir Lefauchet invented the so-called pin cartridge, which originally had a cardboard sleeve with a copper bottom (1837), and in 1853 was equipped with a metal sleeve. The Lefoshe cartridge had a pin, one end of which was in front of the primer, located inside the cartridge case, and the other protruded out through the side hole in the case body at the bottom. When the trigger hit a pin protruding beyond the chamber, the primer composition ignited and a shot occurred. Such cartridges became most widespread in the 50s of the 19th century in civilian revolvers, and the military accepted this system without much enthusiasm.

The disadvantages of this system were: the difficulty of loading, since the cartridges had to be placed in the chambers (drum chambers) in a strictly fixed position; an accidental impact on the protruding studs resulted in a shot.

In 1849, French gunsmith Louis Flaubert received a patent for a gun and side-firing cartridges. They were a short cartridge case with an explosive compound, the explosion of which ejected the bullet. The American Beringer improved the Flaubert system in 1856 - he lengthened the cartridge case and placed ordinary gunpowder in it, and four years later his compatriot Daniel Wesson established the industrial production of such cartridges. This scheme has survived to this day in cartridges for small-caliber weapons (rimfire cartridges).

Pauli, Dreyse and Lefoshe worked on center-fire cartridges, but the first successful example was made by the Frenchman K. Pote. Having started experiments in 1829, 29 years later he received a patent for a cartridge with a cardboard sleeve and a metal bottom, in the middle of which a primer was placed. Somewhat later, the English colonel Edward Boxer proposed making a metal bottom in the form of a cup, and rolling the body from sheet brass.

The proliferation of centerfire cartridges initiated the emergence of many original and varied barrel locking systems. So, in the mid-60s of the XIX century. In Great Britain, a competition was announced for the best way to convert percussion rifles into breech-loading ones. The winner was Jacob Snyder, who formalized his invention in 1862. After two years of testing, his 14.5 mm rifle chambered for the Boxer cartridge was adopted for service. The bolt of the Snyder rifle with a spring-loaded striker and a device for extracting spent cartridges opened to the right and upward and was considered the best at that time.

In Russia, the reclining bolt was developed by the head of the St. Petersburg Maritime Museum, Lieutenant Nikolai Mikhailovich Baranov. His system allowed for the conversion of muzzle-loading 6-line rifles of the 1856 model into breech-loading ones. In 1869, Baranov rifles were adopted by the navy.

It soon became obvious that it was necessary to part with large-caliber conversion systems. Gunsmiths were again puzzled by the problem of securely locking the barrel. For breech-loading rifles using a unitary cartridge, the best turned out to be longitudinally sliding bolts, rotated around its axis to lock and unlock the barrel, and for ejecting the cartridge case and chambering the cartridge - rectilinearly pushed back in the receiver using handles. Such bolts were available in the 10.4 mm Swiss Vetterli rifle of the 1868 model, 10.67 mm Russian Berdan rifles No. 1 and 2, the I-mm German Mauser rifle of the 1871 model, etc. The first samples of rifles with longitudinally sliding bolts were single-shot.

Berdan rifle shutter device

Russian 10.67 mm infantry rifle Berdan No. 2 model 1870 (length with bayonet - 1850 mm, without bayonet - 1345 mm)

The advantage of longitudinally sliding bolts was obvious: they reliably locked the barrel; when opening the bolt to remove the spent cartridge case, the striking mechanism was simultaneously cocked; The cartridge was sent into the chamber simultaneously with locking. This was a serious advantage compared to other rifles. Such bolts were used in combat rifles for almost his age and are still widely used in sporting and hunting weapons today.

With the beginning of the use of unitary cartridges, people began to think seriously about creating magazine-launched weapons. They tried to increase the rate of fire of single-shot rifles by using so-called accelerators 2 Accelerators - special packs and boxes made of cardboard, canvas, wood, tin, used to hold cartridges in the left hand along with the rifle during shooting. or attached magazines, from which cartridges, under the influence of a spring, were fed to the receiver window and sent by the bolt into the chamber.

At the same time, repeating rifles were designed that had stock, under-barrel and middle magazines.

Priority in the creation of repeating rifles belongs to the American Christopher Spencer, who in 1860 patented a rifle with a seven-round magazine located in the butt. The magazine was a metal tube into which another was placed - like a clip with a feeder and a spiral spring. When loading, the barrel was lowered, the clip was removed, cartridges were inserted into it one by one and placed in place. The cartridges were fed into the chamber by turning the swing-type bolt, equipped with a lever in the form of a trigger guard. Lowering, the bolt captured the cartridge, sent it into the chamber of the barrel, and the combat cylinder locked it. Other designs of butt magazines are also known (Evans, Wilson, etc.), but their common disadvantage was the complexity of the feed mechanism and the movement of the center of gravity of the weapon as the cartridges were consumed.

Under-barrel magazines were more successful, although they had the same disadvantages as butt magazines. Such a store was first developed by the American Walter Hunt in 1848. The cartridges in such stores were placed inside a metal tube located under the barrel parallel to it. When the bolt moved under the influence of the feeder spring, the cartridges were fed into the chamber. A very successful design for a rifle with an under-barrel magazine was developed in 1860 by the American Benjamin Henry, who worked for the arms manufacturer Oliver Winchester, but the fame went not to the creator, but to the owner of the company. The rifle's bolt was a sliding type with a bracket attached under the neck of the stock so that reloading was carried out without removing the butt from the shoulder. The locking, impact and feeding mechanisms, which were based on a steel rod, were simple. When the bracket was lowered, the rod was moved back by two pairs of connecting rod levers, the trigger was cocked, and the feeder with a cartridge from the magazine was raised. The reverse stroke of the shackle sent the rod forward, placing the cartridge in the chamber and locking the barrel.

In Europe, rifles with under-barrel magazines appeared only in the 70s of the 19th century: 11-mm French rifle of the Gra-Kropachek system, model 1874, 1878, 11-mm Austrian Mannlicher rifle, model 1871, 1887. and a number of others.

However, the middle magazines, which were located under the bolt and were devoid of the disadvantages inherent in butt and under-barrel magazines, turned out to be more reliable and advanced. The first such store was created in 1879 by the American inventor James Lee. Its design was a metal box that held five cartridges with a spring at the bottom that pushed the cartridges upward. Austrian Ferdinand Mannlicher modified the design by adding a cutter to eliminate cartridge distortions. Initially, these stores were loaded one cartridge at a time, but this drawback was eliminated by the invention of burst loading and loading by means of a clip.

A significant event in the evolution of small arms was the creation and development of industrial production in the 70-80s of the 19th century. smokeless powder. During combustion, smokeless powder produces virtually no smoke and develops higher pressure, which improves the ballistic properties of the weapon. The properties of smokeless powder made it possible to reduce the caliber of the weapon and the size of the cartridges; an increase in the initial speed of the bullet led to an increase in the range of the shot and the accuracy of fire. The military immediately appreciated the advantages of the new gunpowder, and in many countries the design of small-caliber magazine weapons began.

Russia also took part in the rearmament process. In 1891, a new 7.62 mm repeating rifle called the “three-line rifle of the 1891 model” was adopted by the Russian army.

Three-line (7.62 mm) rifle model 1891

The creator of this rifle, one of the best in the world, which served for more than half a century in the Russian army, was Sergei Ivanovich Mosin. The rifle turned out to be simple, technologically advanced in production and superior in quality to foreign models. The main advantage of this weapon was its simplicity: the bolt consisted of only seven parts, its assembly and disassembly was carried out quickly and without any tools. The bolt was separated from the receiver after it was moved to the rearmost position and the trigger was pressed. The design of the rifle turned out to be so successful that until 1946 there was no need to resort to expensive rearmament, although the French, German, British, American and Hungarian armies were rearmed twice during the same period of time, and the Japanese - three times.

Following the results of the Russo-Japanese War, the question arose about modernizing the cartridge for the Mosin rifle, and above all its bullet. Its development was undertaken by a special commission headed by A. Kern, which in 1908 adopted a new cartridge. The bullet weight was reduced to 9.6 g, the powder charge was increased to 3.25 g, and the total mass of the cartridge was reduced to 22.45 g, therefore the number of cartridges carried by a soldier increased from 120 to 137 without increasing their weight. The muzzle velocity of the modernized cartridge reached 860 m/s (versus 660 m/s for the old one).

In 1895, 7.62-mm revolvers of the soldier and officer models were adopted into service with the Russian army, differing from each other only in that cocking the hammer in the officer model was carried out by simultaneously pressing the trigger, while in the soldier model this required a special technique with the right thumb hands.

Russian 7.62 mm revolver of the Nagant system, model 1895.

This revolver, designed by the Belgian Leon Nagant, had advantages over the previously used Smith and Wesson 4.2 line (10.67 mm) revolver. Its design had an original feature compared to other revolvers in service with foreign armies, namely the sliding of the drum onto the barrel at the moment of firing, which eliminated the breakthrough of gases between the front edge of the drum and the breech end of the barrel.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. designers from many countries worked on the creation of self-loading and automatic weapons: pistols, machine guns, rifles.

The first type of automatic weapon to receive combat use was Hiram Maxim's heavy machine gun. It was adopted by the armies of a number of states, including Russia. The automatic operation of the machine gun was based on the use of recoil energy from a movable barrel. Russian gunsmiths improved the Maxim machine gun. More than 200 changes were made to its design, which reduced its weight, made it reliable and trouble-free. Alexander Alekseevich Sokolov invented a wheeled machine and developed cartridge boxes.

In addition to machine guns of the Maxim system of various modifications, the states adopted 8-mm German machine guns of the Schwarzlose system of the 1907 model and the Dreyse system of the 1908 model, a 7.71-mm English machine gun of the Vickers system of the 1909 model, and an 8-mm French machine gun Hotchkiss system model 1914, etc.

Russian machine gun of the Maxim system of the 1910 model on the Sokolov machine (caliber - 7.62 mm, barrel cooling is water (4 l), machine gun weight without cooling water - 20.3 kg, machine gun weight with the machine - 54 kg, rate of fire 500-600 rounds per minute)

Experience of military conflicts of the early 20th century. and the first years of the World War 1914-1918. showed that heavy machine guns were quite heavy and inactive, which made it difficult to use them in offensive operations, so intensive work began on the creation of lightweight machine guns, called light machine guns. The war confirmed the viability of these weapons. Among the most common light machine guns of that period are the 7.62-mm Danish Madsen machine gun of the 1902 model, the 8-mm French Chauchat machine gun of the 1915 model, and the 7.71-mm English Lewis machine gun of the 1915 model.

The first patent for an automatically operating (self-loading) rifle was received in 1863 by the American Regulus Pilon. Three years later, the English engineer J. Curtiss made a multi-shot gun with a drum-type magazine, the operating principle of which was based on the use of the energy of powder gases. In 1885, a self-loading rifle was developed by the Austrian Ferdinand Mannlicher; in 1898, the German company of the Mauser brothers also released an automatic rifle, but these self-loading systems did not compete with conventional magazine rifles - breakdowns and failures were too frequent.

In Russia, inventor Danila Antonovich Rudnitsky back in 1887 presented a project for a self-loading rifle to the ranks of the Main Artillery Directorate, but received a negative conclusion.

7.62 mm Russian self-loading rifle of the Fedorov system (prototype 1912) (length without bayonet - 1200 mm, weight without bayonet and cartridges - 4.8 kg, magazine capacity - 5 cartridges)

After the Russo-Japanese War, which showed the advantages of rapid-fire weapons, the outstanding Russian gunsmith Vladimir Grigorievich Fedorov proposed converting the Mosin three-line rifle into a self-loading rifle. However, this attempt was unsuccessful. Then Fedorov developed a new reloading mechanism, operating due to the recoil of the barrel during its short stroke. The resulting rifle was simple in design and easy to handle. During tests in 1912, Fedorov's rifle showed its best performance. In 1913, Fedorov also developed a new cartridge with improved ballistics of 6.5 mm caliber, which was smaller in size and weight, less heated the barrel and did not have a rim (flange). But due to military difficulties, it was not possible to establish the production of these cartridges, and the Fedorov rifle had to be redesigned for the available Japanese cartridge for Arisaka rifles by placing a special insert in the chamber. During the First World War, an entire unit that fought on the Romanian front was equipped with such rifles.

By 1914, the designs of self-loading rifles were, in general, worked out and they began to enter the army. However, no army has dared to completely abandon traditional repeating rifles. Only the Mexican government acquired a significant number of self-loading rifles of the Mondragon system, which were produced in Switzerland until 1911. In 1917-1918 French non-commissioned officers received RSC (Riberol, Sutter, Chauchat) self-loading rifles, but they were still massive and not reliable enough.

The desire to increase the rate of fire of short-barreled weapons led to the appearance of rather cumbersome multi-barreled systems, then drum revolvers, and only in 1872 Plesner patented the design of a self-loading pistol. However, black powder, which after a shot forms a lot of solid products that clog the mechanisms, was not suitable for such weapons. Only with the advent of smokeless powders did these weapons receive further development.

The first self-loading pistols were bulky and clumsy, since their layout resembled a revolver: magazine boxes, loaded like a rifle, with a clip on top, were located in front of the trigger guard, i.e. where the revolver drums were located. Many of the first self-loading pistols had a similar design, in particular the 7.63 mm Austrian pistol of the Mannlikhsra M-96 system, the 7.63 mm German pistol of the Bergmann system of the 1897 model, the 7.63 mm German K-96 pistol of the Mauser system, developed in 1893 and gained enormous popularity due to its reliability and high lethality. This pistol worked on the principle of using recoil energy during a short barrel stroke. Locking was carried out using a swinging cylinder; the magazine had a capacity of ten rounds.

The greatest development in pistol design began with the creation in 1897 of John Browning of an optimal layout scheme. To reduce the size of the weapon, the inventor placed seven cartridges in a flat magazine with a spring to feed them into the barrel. The magazine was inserted into a hollow handle, which simplified and speeded up loading. Browning replaced two springs, combat and return, with one - return-combat, which, with the help of a special lever, acted on the bolt and firing pin. Later this principle became generally accepted.

At the beginning of the 20th century. Many different systems of self-loading pistols have been created. In addition to those mentioned above, pistols from Mannlicher, Roth, Roth-Steyer, Borchardt-Luger, Colt, etc. are accepted for service.

In 1926, the first domestic self-loading pistol TK (Tula Korovin) of 6.35 mm caliber was manufactured and adopted as a personal weapon for senior command personnel.

S.A. also worked on improving and designing new domestic pistols. Prilutsky, F.V. Tokarev, I.I. Rakov, P.V. Voevodin.

At the end of the 20s of the 20th century, the Artillery Committee decided to develop a pistol chambered for the 7.63 mm Mauser pistol cartridge. Later, the caliber of the cartridge was reduced by one hundredth of a millimeter - to 7.62 mm.

In the summer of 1930, field tests were carried out on 7.62 mm Korovin, Prilunky and Tokarev pistols in parallel with Walter, Borchardt-Luger, Browning and other pistols of 7.65, 9 and 11.43 mm calibers. The Tokarev pistol was recognized as the most successful in most respects and was adopted by the Red Army under the name “7.62 mm pistol of the 1930 model.” In 1933, it was modernized and became known as the “7.62 mm pistol mod. 1930/33 (TT)".

Pistol Tula Korovin (TK) caliber 6.35 mm.

From the very beginning of the First World War, all armies experienced a shortage of light automatic weapons. During this period, submachine guns appeared, which were automatic weapons that fired pistol cartridges. The very first submachine gun was created by the Italian engineer B. Reveli in 1915. This design was a pair of small machine guns that fired pistol cartridges. The operation of the automation was based on the use of the recoil of the bolt, whose recoil was slowed down by the friction of the bolt lugs in the grooves of the receiver. However, the submachine gun was heavy, bulky and consumed a lot of ammunition.

In December 1917, in Germany, inventor Hugo Schmeisser patented a rather successful submachine gun, called the MP-18. The principle of automation was similar to the Italian one, but without slowing down the bolt rollback by friction, which made it possible to simplify the design of the weapon. The trigger mechanism ensured firing only in automatic mode.

7.9-mm German submachine gun MP-18 (MR-18) (length - 820 mm, weight with cartridges - 5.3 kg, magazine capacity - 32 rounds, rate of fire - 550 rounds per minute)

During the period between the two world wars, many countries, including our country, actively developed submachine guns for various pistol and revolver cartridges.

American officer John Thompson designed a submachine gun chambered for a powerful 11.43 mm pistol cartridge, which gained worldwide fame primarily thanks to cinema. A special feature of its design was the presence of a fire translator, which made it possible to select the firing mode.

11.43 mm American Thompson submachine gun (length - 857 mm, weight without cartridges - 4.8 kg, magazine capacity - 20, 30, 50 and 100 rounds, rate of fire - 675 rounds per minute)

In our country, the first submachine gun was made by Fedor Vasilyevich Tokarev in 1927 under the 7.62 mm cartridge for the Nagan system revolver. However, tests showed the unsuitability of such low-power ammunition.

The most optimal turned out to be a pistol cartridge of 7.62 mm caliber, model 1930, based on which Vasily Alekseevich Degtyarev designed a model called the “7.62 mm submachine gun of the Degtyarev system, model 1934.” (PPD-34).

In 1940, Georgy Semenovich Shpagin created a new submachine gun, simpler in design and more technologically advanced in production, which was adopted for service under the name “7.62 mm. Shpagin system submachine gun model 1941" (PPSh-41). Since 1943, serial production of 7.62-mm submachine guns of the Alexey Ivanovich Sudaev system of the 1943 model (PPS-43) began.

7.62-mm Soviet submachine gun of the Degtyarev system (PPD-40) model 1940 (length - 788 mm, weight with cartridges - 5.4 kg, magazine capacity - 71 cartridges, rate of fire - 900 rounds per minute)

The Second World War showed that all submachine guns for which pistol cartridges were standard had a limited effective firing range (30-50 m), which led to the creation of a new type of cartridge, intermediate in power between pistol and rifle.

In the USA in 1941, a self-loading carbine was created for an intermediate cartridge based on the Garand rifle. In Germany, work was also actively underway to create a new type of weapon. In 1943, the “7.92-mm reinforced MP-43 submachine gun” was adopted, in 1944 the Schmeisser “Sturmgever” MP-44 assault rifle, and a year later the FG-45 “Volkssturm” assault rifle.

In our country N.M. Elizarov and B.V. Semin created a very successful intermediate cartridge - the 7.62-mm cartridge of the 1943 model. Based on this cartridge, the 7.62-mm Degtyarev light machine gun of the 1944 model (RPD) and the Simonov self-loading carbine of the 1945 model were designed and put into service (SKS), Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1947 (AK-47) and other types of small arms.

In the 60-70s of the XX century. the development of handguns was driven by trends in caliber reduction. The fact is that a small-caliber bullet with a high initial velocity has a good flat trajectory, destructive power and penetration ability, and the low recoil impulse when firing such cartridges helps to increase the accuracy of shooting in automatic mode. Among the most famous modern small-caliber weapons, we should highlight the 5.56-mm American M16A1 automatic rifle, the 5.56-mm German Heckler&Koch NK-33 assault rifle, the 5.56-mm Austrian SteyrAUG, the domestic 5.45-mm Kalashnikov AK- 74 and Nikonov AN-94.

Domestic 5.45 mm Nikonov AN-94 assault rifle

The history of the development of small arms shows that fundamental changes in the design of firearms were determined by changes in the type of ammunition used, or more precisely, by the method of initiating a shot. The unitary cartridge with a percussion primer determined the development of firearms from the 19th century. Until now. Today, many countries are developing so-called caseless cartridges, consisting of only three elements: a cylindrical powder block, a bullet and an igniter primer. The greatest success in this area was achieved by the German company Heckler & Koch, which developed the 4.7 mm G-11 automatic rifle.

It can be assumed that in the near future there will be a transition to a non-impact, electronically controlled method of initiating a shot. The use of ultrasound (US) has great prospects, which, due to its properties, makes it possible to place an ultrasound capsule directly in the bullet. This makes the transition to a caseless cartridge much easier.

XIIRegional competition for young researchers

"Step into Science"

Section:Story

Subject:

Khachetlov Musa Zelimkhanovich

Place of work:

North Caucasian Suvorovskoe

military school, 9th grade

Vladikavkaz

Scientific adviser:

Tokarev Sergey Anatolievich

Fundamentals teacher

military training

Vladikavkaz, 2014-2015

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

ChapterI. Historical features of the creation and adoption of small arms in the pre-October period (mid-19th – early 20th centuries)

3-5

ChapterII. Views of the military-political leadership of the Soviet Union on the issue of equipping the armed forces with modern small arms.

6-7

ChapterIII. The need to provide the Russian army with advanced small arms.

8-9

Conclusion.

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

"SI VIS PACEM, PARA BELLUM"

Whoever wants peace should prepare for war.

Who wants victory, let him diligently train warriors.

Whoever wishes to obtain a favorable result, let him wage war based on art and knowledge, and not on chance."

Roman historian Cornelius Nepos

(Biography of the Theban commander Epaminondas)

Relevance of the project due to:

1. The most important role of small arms in the overall weapons system of the state.

2. Construction of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, during which the organization of weapons is being improved, including the provision of small arms.

Subject of study: Arming the Russian, Soviet and Russian armies with small arms.

Purpose of the study:

Analyze the factors that determined the development of small arms;

CHAPTER I HISTORICAL FEATURES OF THE CREATION AND ADOPTION OF SMALL ARMS IN THE PRE-OCTOBER PERIOD

(middle XIX - Start XX centuries)

The creation and adoption of new types of small arms during the period under review is characterized by extreme conservatism of state and military authorities, even in the conditions established on the basis of the experience of previous wars and existing weapons systems.

Design ideas often encountered a disdainful, bureaucratic attitude towards the matter from leading military circles, which was typical for that time. The command of the Russian army for some time was against equipping troops with new types of small arms.

Thus, our army, unlike Napoleonic’s, met the War of 1812 with terribly varied weapons. Rearmament and unification were delayed so much that the troops had 28 calibers of guns! The wear and tear of which was not particularly surprising: among the troops one could even find fusees from the times of Peter the Great. And such “savings” will triumph for several more decades.

In its history, Russia lost one war precisely because of the backwardness of small arms - the Crimean War. As Russian weapons designer V.G. wrote bitterly. Fedorov, none of the wars that Russia waged “revealed such a sharp backwardness in weapons as the Eastern War of 1853–1856.” .

The Russian army faced the war virtually without fittings, rifled guns, with which almost the entire British and most of the French armies were equipped. “Neither the British, nor the French and Italians had silicon weapons,” the gunsmith Fedorov wrote in his study, “in the Turkish army only a small part of the reserve troops had them.” .

Our soldiers could fire only 300 steps, while the enemy could shoot our troops with impunity without entering the fire zone - from 1200 steps.

The Russian army suffered its greatest losses from rifle fire: the English and French riflemen with impunity knocked out not only the first line, but even the reserves. Moreover, the enemy riflemen actually paralyzed the Russian artillery, destroying the gun personnel with rifle fire all from the same 1200 steps.

At the height of the war, military officials, as usual, came to their senses and tried to solve the problem with massive purchases abroad. Ordering mainly not rifled weapons, but again smooth-bore guns! They tried to place an order in the Belgian Littich (now Liege), but the factories were already loaded with orders for... England and Turkey, Russia's opponents. And those manufacturers who agreed to supply refused to determine the exact deadline for delivery of weapons, inflated prices to the point of madness, and even began to raise them every 15 days.

They tried to get out of the situation in the traditional national way: they hastily collected guns of different sizes and calibers throughout the country and transported them to Sevastopol, including those made in 1811–1815.

Approximately the same situation happened during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877–1878. “Suddenly” it was discovered that the Turks were shooting “further” than the Russians! Only this time it was not at all that Russian rifles turned out to be worse than Turkish ones.

The Krnka rifle, which was in service with the Russian infantry, fired at 2000 steps, but it was only “prudently” equipped with a sight at only 600 steps, in order to “remove the temptation from soldiers to shoot that far.” And the maximum distance for aimed shooting was generally ordered to be 300 steps - like a smoothbore gun! Because Russian military leaders stubbornly continued to consider only bayonet fighting as the most important type of combat.

How did its main ideologist, General M.I., philosophically substantiate this concept? Dragomirov, “firearms correspond to self-preservation; cold - self-sacrifice. Therefore, the first concern of any commander during the fire period of a battle is to conserve reserves for the dump period.”

Hence the practical conclusion: teaching a soldier to shoot far and quickly is morally damaging and ruining him!

Until the end of the 19th century, Russian military officials tried their best to avoid real rearmament, always giving preference to the “economical” conversion of old weapons: for a new lock, bolt, cartridge, etc.

The lack of a systematic approach in the field of small arms is a centuries-old disease of Russian officials, who are accustomed to solving everything exclusively “at the hardware level.” More precisely, they were terribly unwilling to decide or change anything at all. And the argument always sounded the same: you need to be more economical.

In the second half of the 19th century, dense masses of infantry, advancing in columns and close formation, with troops operating in dismembered combat formations, widely using crawling and running to get closer to the enemy, predetermined the need to further increase the rate of fire of small arms. This led to a search for ways to improve it, in particular through the development and creation of repeating rifles.

However, the development and adoption of new types of small arms by the Russian army was hampered by the lag of the views on military tactics officially accepted in Russia.

The military theorist of the late 19th century, General Mikhail Dragomirov, categorically opposed the adoption of a repeating rifle. “A new military ghost has arisen in Europe,” the general sneered, “magazine rifles. France, Austria, Germany and Italy accepted: should we accept? According to the logic of the Panurgian herd, they should be accepted: for if Europe accepted, how could we not accept? After all, this is Europe, since from an early age we were taught that without the Germans there is no salvation for us.” .

According to Dragomirov, Berdan rifle No. 2 is an eternal weapon, why do we need a Mosin rifle?! And after all, the commission chaired by Minister of War P.S. Vannovsky, who was deciding whether the Russian army needed a repeating rifle, came to the conclusion that “increased shooting in general, and a repeating rifle in particular, is only suitable for defense.” And “turning to the answer to the main question posed in the commission’s program: which of the guns has an advantage - a burst system or a single-shot one - the commission is inclined to side with the latter” .

This was said in 1889, when the vast majority of states had already rearmed with repeating rifles! So the Russian army could easily have faced the war with Japan the Dragomir style - with single-shot rifles firing black powder cartridges.

In April 1887, during tests, General Dragomirov also spoke negatively about the Maxim machine gun: “If the same person had to be killed several times, then this would be a wonderful weapon. Unfortunately for fans of quickly firing bullets, it is enough to shoot a person once and then shoot him after him while he falls; as far as I know, there is no need.”

With this approach to equipping the army with modern small arms, another equally serious problem arose - in Russia there were no specialized institutions that were engaged in the development and construction of new types of small arms.

From the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. weapons of the Russian army, as a rule, were created on the basis of foreign models. This applies to the Berdan rifle No. 2 and No. 1, the three-line rifle of the 1891 model, the Nagan revolver of the 1895 model and the Maxim machine gun of the 1905 model.

Thus, the development of small arms in Russia during the period under review lagged behind advanced foreign countries.

CHAPTER II . VIEWS OF THE MILITARY-POLITICAL LEADERSHIP OF THE SOVIET UNION ON ISSUES OF EQUIPING THE ARMED FORCES

MODERN SMALL WEAPONS.

The 1917 revolution in Russia opened a new era in human history. It marked the beginning of a civil war that shocked the whole world.

The very meager reserves of weapons of the old Russian army were used to equip the Red Army. As for small arms, these were the famous Russian three-line (7.62 mm) repeating rifle of the Mosin system mod. 1891, carbine of the same system mod. 1907 and a heavy machine gun of the Maxim system mod. 1910

With the end of hostilities, the question arose of revising the entire weapon system of the Red Army and equipping it with new types of automatic small arms.

Much credit for equipping the Red Army with automatic weapons belongs to the outstanding Soviet commanders and military leaders M.V. Frunze, K.E. Voroshilov, M.N. Tukhachevsky, I.P. Uborevich, B.M. Shaposhnikov and others.

Despite significant successes in arming the Red Army with new types of weapons, the available capabilities were far from being fully used.

In the Soviet Union, despite the constant concern of its leadership to strengthen the country's defense capability, in 1941 history repeated itself again. According to the testimony of the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, member of the State Defense Committee of the USSR A. I. Mikoyan, already “a month after the start of the war, we did not have enough rifles.

During World War II, submachine guns, automatic weapons that use a pistol cartridge, found widespread use. Submachine guns appeared in the 1920s and quickly gained popularity due to their effectiveness and convenience.

Initially, the military-political leadership of the Soviet Union was against the adoption of submachine guns: Stalin considered them “gangster weapons” unworthy of the Red Army, and Marshal Grigory Kulik believed: “A machine gun is a weapon for police in capital countries to suppress demonstrations of workers. Aimless shooting with a large waste of ammunition. A Red Army soldier must hit the target with precise, well-aimed shots, and for this the most suitable weapon is the Mosin rifle.” .

The highest military leadership of the Red Army considered the submachine gun exclusively as an auxiliary weapon, not suitable for arming the entire army or even a significant part of it, mainly due to its characteristically small effective firing range.

However, the experience of the Winter War of 1939/40 dramatically changed the attitude towards this type of weapon.

The main model of individual small arms in it was the modernized Mosin magazine rifle of the 1930 model, supplemented by significant quantities of automatic rifles of the Simonov system and, subsequently, self-loading Tokarev systems. The main support weapon was the Degtyarev machine gun.

The effective use of the Suomi submachine guns by the Finns made a great impression on the leadership of the Red Army. It was after the Finnish War that work intensified in the USSR to establish mass production and modernize existing Degtyarev submachine guns, as well as to develop new models of submachine guns, in particular, a competition was launched, in which the famous PPSh (Shpagin submachine gun) later became the winner.

In the Soviet Union, after the end of the war, the development of submachine guns as a class of weapons generally ceased for many decades to come. Given the low demand of the police for the creation of new models and the presence in warehouses of large stocks of PPSh and PPS, which are replaced by Kalashnikov assault rifles in the troops, the production of this type of weapon was discontinued, and the prototypes being created did not go into production.

At the same time, in a number of countries during this period, work on creating new types of submachine guns continued. For example, in Czechoslovakia, the Sa submachine gun was created and adopted for service. 23, according to a number of sources, which later served as the prototype for the famous Uzi.

Developed in 1946–47, and still in service to this day, the Kalashnikov assault rifle has received a wide variety of evaluations throughout its long service.

At the time of its appearance, the AK was an effective weapon, far surpassing in all the main indicators the models of submachine guns chambered for pistol cartridges available in the armies of the world at that time, and at the same time being little inferior to automatic rifles chambered for rifle ammunition, having an advantage over them in compactness, weight and effectiveness of automatic fire. The Kalashnikov assault rifle was brought to perfection until the 1970s.

Small arms designer F.V. Tokarev at one time described the AK as distinguished by “reliability in operation, high accuracy and shooting accuracy, and relatively low weight.”

In 1974, the Kalashnikov assault rifle chambered for 5.45 mm caliber, the AK-74, was adopted for service: it also took a long time to fine-tune, rework, refine and modernize. The military initially considered the adoption of the AK-74 family to be a temporary half-measure: there was nothing breakthrough in its design that could provide the Soviet army with superiority over the weapons of potential opponents.

The reliability and reliability of the weapon are almost the standard for its class.

However, technological progress does not stand still, and, despite the reliability and simplicity of this weapon, many gunsmith experts started talking about the fact that the machine gun is morally and technically outdated. For example, it is inferior in shooting accuracy to modern Western models of small arms (a kind of payback for reliability and simplicity). The accuracy of the battle also leaves much to be desired, especially when firing in bursts.

Today, even the latest modifications of the Kalashnikov assault rifle are outdated weapons with virtually no reserves for modernization.

The main disadvantages of the Kalashnikov assault rifle are the following:

1. Weight. The machine gun itself cannot be called too heavy, but when using additional sighting devices it is considered a bit heavy.

2. Ergonomics. Compared to other types of small arms, the Kalashnikov is not considered the most convenient weapon.

3. Receiver with a detachable cover does not allow the use of modern sights (collimator, optical, night) .

Undoubtedly, the Kalashnikov assault rifle has numerous positive qualities and will be suitable for arming the armies of a number of countries for a long time, but there is already a need to replace it with more modern models, moreover, having radical differences in design that would make it possible not to repeat the shortcomings of the outdated system.

CHAPTER III .NEED TO PROVIDE THE RUSSIAN ARMY WITH ADVANCED SMALL WEAPONS

The set of requirements for modern automatic small arms has been the driving force behind promising Russian developments in this area.

Russian military equipment "Ratnik" is part of a general project to improve the quality of an individual soldier on the battlefield and is a complex of modern means of protection, communications, weapons and ammunition.

As of June 22, 2014, automatic weapons for the “Ratnik” equipment are being tested by automatic weapons from two manufacturers: the Kalashnikov concern and the Kovrov plant named after Degtyarev. A new type of small arms should be put into service within the next few months.

The absence of a pistol in the Ratnik combat equipment is puzzling - it is not included among the nine small arms and grenade launchers. At the same time, a number of military leaders believe that a soldier does not need a pistol at all.

The experience of combat use of law enforcement units in local conflicts, including in the North Caucasus region, clearly proves the need for a serviceman to have a pistol as a “weapon of last chance,” which is used as a last resort when other types of weapons are no longer available.

At present, it is urgent to resolve the issue of increasing the combat capabilities of motorized rifle units of the Russian Ground Forces, since there has been an imbalance in the balance of forces with similar units of the armies of leading foreign states.

For example, the smallest tactical unit of the US Army is a motorized infantry squad of 10 people. The department is armed with:

7.62 mm single machine gun M240 - 1 unit.

5.56 mm M249 light machine gun - 2 units.

5.56 mm rifle M16A2 - 6 units.

ATGM "Javelin" - 1 unit.

66 mm grenade launcher M72A2 - 3 units.

The smallest tactical unit of the Russian Army is a motorized rifle squad of 8 (7) people. The department is armed with:

5.45 mm light machine gun RPK-74M - 1 unit.

5.45 mm assault rifle AK-74M - 5 units.

40 mm RPG-7V2 - 1 unit .

As we see, the Russian motorized rifle squad is significantly inferior to the US motorized infantry squad, both in the quantity of small arms and in their quality. The firepower and fire capabilities of a motorized infantry squad are 2 times higher than those of a motorized rifle squad. The conclusion suggests itself that it is urgently necessary to take measures to eliminate the existing inequality in the combat capabilities of a motorized rifle squad.

We believe that the squad personnel need to replace the AK-74M assault rifle with a more advanced one, or increase the caliber, and also equip it with an optical sight with a “Day-Night” mode.

The Dragunov sniper rifle (SVD) with a 7.62x54 mm cartridge should be replaced with a more modern one that can cope with NATO body armor, for example, the SVDK with a 9.3x64 mm cartridge.

Introduce into the staff of motorized rifle units a sniper rifle with increased accuracy and penetration, for example, the SV-338 chambered for a larger caliber cartridge, which is designed to destroy enemy personnel, including those protected by personal armor at distances of up to 1,500 meters.

The motorized rifle units of the Russian Ground Forces do not have such weapons as a light machine gun chambered for 5.45x39 mm belt-fed. A light machine gun is necessary to create a high density of fire in modern combined arms combat, especially to support the actions of a maneuver group, to give it additional firepower and to perform other fire missions.

The creation of a new machine gun (following the example of the Belgian Minimi Para) will allow us to have in service a more powerful, highly mobile weapon with more ammunition, with approximately equal dimensions (914 mm and 1065 mm) and weight (6.56 kg and 5.5 kg) of a standard light machine gun RPK-74M. At the same time, the new machine gun will be an addition to the PKM and PKP machine guns.

AK-12 (2012) AEK-971 (1984)

RPK-74M (1990).) FNMinimi(Belgium)

Winston Churchill once said that generals are always preparing for the last war. Who, then, is preparing for the wars of the future?

CONCLUSION

Thus, until the 20s of the XX century. the process of designing weapons in Russia continued to be the lot of single designers. The absence of specialized organizations that carried out the development of new types and types of weapons inevitably leads to a lag in equipping the army with modern weapons.

The creation of new types of weapons should be based on the knowledge accumulated by previous generations in various fields of science and technology. In this case, taking into account the experience of foreign designers is of particular importance.

To successfully solve the problems of equipping the army with new types of weapons, it is necessary to take into account objective factors: the level of economic development and scientific and technical achievements, the nature and characteristics of the armed struggle, the assessment of the weapons of a potential enemy and the tactics of their use.

Management bodies and officials responsible for the successful solution of weapons problems in the system of power structures must occupy one of the key positions and have the ability to influence decision-making, both in the military department of the state and in the highest echelon of power.

An indispensable condition for realizing the achievements and capabilities of science and technology in the creation of new types of small arms is the presence of trained personnel of weapons designers.

LIST OF REFERENCES USED

1. Bolotin D.N., History of Soviet small arms and cartridges, St. Petersburg, Polygon, 1995.-302 p.

2. Leshchenko Yu.N., Organization of arming the Russian army with small arms: late XIX - early XX centuries - M., 2009.

3. Zhukov G.K., Memories and Reflections. M.: Voenizdat, 1986. T. 2, pp. 56 – 57

4. Dragomirov M.I., The effect of infantry fire in battle // Weapons collection. 1888. No. 3

5. Fedorov V.G., Armament of the Russian army in the 19th century. St. Petersburg, 1911. 275 p.

6. Fedorov V.G., The evolution of small arms. Part 1, 2. M.: Voenizdat, 1938 - 1939

7. Zhuk A.B. Encyclopedia of Small Arms. M.: Military Publishing House, 1998.-782 p.

“Historical aspects of the organization of arming the Russian, Soviet and Russian armies with small arms”

Khachetlov Musa Zelimkhanovich

Scientific supervisor: Tokarev Sergey Anatolyevich

Teacher of basic military training

FGKOU "North Caucasus Suvorov Military School", 9 A class, Vladikavkaz

The problems of war and peace are the most pressing for modern civilization. Experience of local wars and armed conflicts of the late 20th - early 21st centuries. shows that, despite the widespread use of precision weapons, small arms continue to play an important role and are effective weapons in close combat.

Combat experience shows that in conditions where the use of aviation, tanks and artillery is impossible or ineffective due to various circumstances, small arms remain the only means of engaging the enemy by fire.

Meanwhile, historically it has developed that an insufficient supply of small arms has accompanied the domestic armed forces throughout almost the entire history of their existence.

Famous designer and historian of small arms V.G. Fedorov noted: “... Russia has not waged a single war during which the tsarist army would have had enough weapons...” .

It is important to note that each “gun drama” was preceded by general calm and confidence in the impossibility of its repetition, and without an analysis of historical experience and the lessons of military history, it is difficult to comprehend the essence of the phenomena and processes in military affairs that are currently occurring, and even more so to predict the main directions of their development in future.

Therefore, from the point of view of trends and prospects for the development of small arms, the topic of the project has great theoretical value and practical significance.

The above puts forward the task of organizing the armament of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with modern small arms as a priority.

The relevance of the project is due to the critical role of small arms in the overall armament system of the state, the construction of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, during which the organization of weapons is being improved, including the provision of small arms.

The subject of the study is the arming of the Russian, Soviet and Russian armies with small arms.

The main objectives of the study were:

Analysis of the factors that determined the development of small arms;

Explore the process of creating and adopting small arms;

Show the features of activities to equip the Russian army with small arms;

Formulate proposals for the use of historical experience in modern conditions.

While working on the project, the authors proceeded from the concept given in the domestic military encyclopedia: “Armament is the process of qualitative development and quantitative growth of military equipment in the state, as well as equipping the Armed Forces with it.”

Firearms of any era are similar in principle of operation. It consists of a tube or barrel along which a projectile or bullet moves under the influence of explosion energy, an ignition device and means of controlling the fuse. The development of firearms is characterized by improvements in the barrel and the firing mechanism, or “lock,” so called because it was originally made by metalworkers.

Development of ignition systems
The first firearm was a hand-held self-propelled gun - a simple pipe with a stand at the end on which it rested when firing. The powder charge was ignited using an igniter, the flame of which was directed into the ignition hole in the breech (the closed end of the barrel).
The first mechanical spring ignition system was a matchlock (late 15th century). The very first musket with a matchlock was called an arquebus (arquebus). Such locks have been used for over 200 years. The first matchlock weapon that could be fired from the shoulder was also the arquebus (16th century). Ancient weapons were massive and often required a stand to fire them. The gunpowder and bullet were driven into the barrel through the muzzle along with a wad that held them at the rear of the barrel. Ignition (fine black) gunpowder was poured onto the ignition shelf while the wick slowly smoldered in the castle. Such weapons were not suitable for horsemen. Almost all matchlock weapons were smoothbore (with unrifled barrels); weapons loaded from the breech were very rare.
The wheel lock was a step forward compared to the matchlock: once cocked, it could be in combat readiness for a long time, and was also instantly activated. It was invented at the beginning of the 16th century. (many of the surviving copies are German), but it was complicated, fragile and expensive. Rich people usually rode horses, so carbines and wheel-lock pistols became the weapons of horsemen. It was widely used by German mercenaries (XVI century) and English cavalry (early XVII century).
The matchlock appeared at the end of the 15th century. A slowly burning wick, fixed in a serpentine trigger, dropped onto the gunpowder in the tray when the trigger was pressed.
In a flintlock, flint was used for the fuse. There were two types of flintlock. They differed in that the flint (a piece of metal that is struck by a flint) and the shelf with the ignition chute were combined in one of them, and separated in the other.
The flintlock gun soon replaced all other types of guns. Muskets such as the British "Dark Betsy", the French from Charleville, and later the breech-loading Ferguson rifle, Jaeger rifles and Kentucky rifles contributed greatly to the development of firearms.
Many inventors tried to increase the firepower of weapons by creating multi-barreled guns, compound charges and other means. This is how double-barreled guns and mitrailleuses appeared. Modern navies and air forces of all countries use multi-barrel guns.

Percussion and repeat firearms
In 1805, the Reverend Alexander John Forsyth (1769 -1843) created a lock that used highly sensitive explosive detonating gunpowder for the fuse. As in later designs, this bolt used the property of fulminate salts to explode when struck, for example by a trigger, to ignite the charge. Of the other impact ignition systems, the most successful was the capsule one.
The fundamental design of the weapon did not change at first, and many flintlock rifles were converted into percussion rifles. In 1835-1836 Samuel Colt (1814-1862) patented a cylinder revolver; This is how multiple firearms arose. actions. In 1847, American Dragoon Captain Walker gave Colt an order to produce 0.44-inch weapons. This large six-shot saddle revolver was called the Walker Colt.
It was followed by other cavalry revolvers, the .31" pocket model, the .36" naval revolver, the police revolver model, the .44" army revolver, and cylinder-equipped shotguns, muskets, and rifles. All impact-action Colts were designed to fire single shots - for each shot you had to cock the hammer with your thumb. For the most part, these were flip-grip revolvers that did not have the rigidity of a rigid frame revolver.

Ammo and modern firearms
Cartridges have been used for many centuries, but they did not combine a bullet, charge and primer. The first unitary cartridge was made in 1812, and in 1837 it was improved by the German gunsmith Johann Dreyse (1787-1867) for use in his needle rifle. American Daniel Wesson (1825-1906) developed an improved side-firing cartridge in 1856; the same cartridge was used in the Henry rifle. In a side firing cartridge, the striking compound was located at the bottom of the cartridge case along its circumference. Centerfire cartridges were then created with the primer in the center of the bottom of the case; they were used in 1873 in the Colt revolver and Winchester carbine. Center fire cartridges are used for most types of modern small arms, including machine guns and cannons.

History of the development of small arms. History of weapons - from ancient times to modern times History and problem of the creation of small arms

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