APS Amphibious Rifle - History

History

The rising threat of attacks by frogmen in naval bases caused various anti-frogman techniques to be developed, and in the USSR one of these was guard frogmen sent to stop the attackers. At first these guard frogmen were armed only with knives and AK-type rifles. The AK-47 was carried in a waterproof case and could only be used on the surface, so the only effective underwater weapon against enemy frogmen was the knife.

The SPP-1 underwater pistol was accepted in 1971, but soon proved to be useful only in close-up self-defence, not in attacking more distant targets. Vladimir Simonov undertook the job of developing an underwater assault rifle. To allow the rifle's mechanism to work underwater, there had to be room for the flow of the water pushed aside by moving parts and by the gas produced by the propellant explosive in the cartridge. The APS rifle was accepted for use in the mid-1970s. One special improvement was a perforated gas tube, and in the sighting. Its design engineer received a state award in 1983.

As with the SPP-1 the first stage of the work was to develop a cartridge. A 5.45 millimetres (0.215 in) by 39 millimetres (1.5 in) cartridge was lengthened by about 115 millimetres (4.5 in) to fit the sharp-fronted steel bolt. Another cartridge version was designed that contained a miniature rocket, which when fired makes a visible streak in the water. Next, Vladimir Simonov designed the rifle. The objective was ambitious; nobody ever before tried to build a functioning automatic underwater firearm. The most important problem was designing a receiver that could work under water. Compared to air, water is relatively incompressible, so the structure had to let water move around easily; as a result, its receiver is open at the rear. Since it operates on the principle of gas discharge, it has a gas controller to let it work underwater and on land.

The APS was adopted to develop in the mid-1970s, as Автомат Подводный Специальный АПС (Avtomat Podvodnyy Spetsial'nyy APS, Russian Automatic (automatic carbine) Underwater Special APS). Afterwards, there was lengthy improvement work on the APS. One improvement was fitting a perforated gas pipe with a special shield to break up the emitted gas bubbles, making targeting easier and reducing the visibility of the bubbles, allowing stealthier firing of the weapon.

The APS was the primary weapon of Soviet frogmen.

However, since the conception of this new weapon there were objections. It was the perfect weapon for the Soviet frogmen's underwater operations, but it was less use for Spetznaz soldiers fighting both on land and under water. Out of water the APS can shoot, but its effective range does not exceed 50 meters, and the rifle's lifetime drops to 180 shots in air from 2000 shots underwater. Therefore they mostly carried a SPP-1 pistol for self-defense under water and an AK-74 to fight on land. Therefore, at the end of the 1980s the ASM-DT Underwater Assault Rifle was developed.