Text/Purple Electricity
Recently, the US "National Interest" website published an article introducing three "strange" rifles designed and manufactured during the Soviet period. The article commented that the rifles were taken as if they had been taken from the Alien and Predator movies.
However, the Americans are really rare and strange this time - during the Cold War, the Number of "Strange" weapons designed by the Soviet Union was really uncountable, and even if a list of various strange firearms was taken out, it was enough to write a book.
In fact, the brain hole of the Americans is not small
But that's not what we're focusing on today
(Source: reddit)
However, if we want to pick out the most unique, strange, and bizarre guns from these strange things, we will find that the designers of these rifles are often the same person...
(Draft: Zidian)
Yes, the vast majority of these strange and peculiar firearms are the work of the engineer German Korobov, the designer alone.
German alexander Koropov was born in Samara Oblast, Russia in 1913. It is not known whether his design was too advanced and idealistic, or because he was influenced by the name of this "traitor", and in his lifetime, German Koropov did not have any weapons and equipment that was adopted by the Soviet army.
In 1939, kolopov, a young engineer at the age of 26, graduated from the Ural Institute of Technology and came to Tula, the largest military city in the Soviet Union, to work in the Tula Instrumentation Design Bureau (KBP). There, his first job was to make improvements to the shkas air machine gun.
"Molotov cocktail"
Originally a homemade weapon for Finnish soldiers and civilians against the Soviets
(Source: wikipedia)
Koropov's next task, one of the few designs he was employed, was much simpler: to design a reliable fuze for the Molotov cocktail, a simple Molotov. Using springs, sheet metal and a pistol bullet, Korobov successfully designed a safe and reliable incendiary fuze that was welcomed by the front. However, not long after, the Soviet army changed from strategic defense to strategic offense, and the "Molotov cocktail" lost its place.
TKB-386 automatic rifle
(Source: Kalashnikov media)
But the design of such a rudimentary weapon is obviously a bit "overkill" for such an engineer. It wasn't long before Koropov designed the TKB-386 automatic rifle, but it wasn't approved by the Soviets. In 1946, in order to compete with the next generation of Soviet assault rifles, the first assault rifle designed by Koropov, the TKB-408, was born.
Compared with the weapons of the same era, the shape of the TKB-408 is undoubtedly impressive - Koropov boldly adopted a supportless layout that was still rare at the time on the TKB-408, greatly shortening the length of the full gun and facilitating mechanized infantry to fight in vehicles. In the test, the accuracy of the TKB-408 was very good, but it failed the reliability test and eventually lost to Kalashnikov's AK-46, the predecessor of the famous AK-47.
A TKB-517 assault rifle using a folding stock
Unwilling to be defeated, Korobov soon began the design of the new weapon: the Soviets needed new rifles to replace the AK-47 due to some problems exposed in their use. In 1952, Koropov's new work, the brand new TKB-517 assault rifle, was designed.
A TKB-517 assault rifle with a fixed stock was used
(Source: modernfirearms)
Compared with Koropov's other works, tkb-517 can be said to be the most traditional one. Except for the removal of the through strip that has been installed under the barrel since the pre-loading era to the top of the barrel, the other designs are still decent. In tests, the TKB-517 has very good burst accuracy and considerable recoil. But in the end, the Soviets chose a simple improvement on the ak-47, and the TKB-517 failed again.
TKB-022 assault rifle
Since then, Koropov's designs have gradually "let themselves go": in 1961, in order to participate in the Soviet "light assault rifle" program, Koropov came up with the tkb-022: a rifle made of red plastic throughout and with a magazine as a grip. It was also the world's first rifle to use plastic as its main body.
TKB-022P assault rifle (left)
and TKB-022pm assault rifle (right)
(Source: twitter)
Due to the heavy use of plastic parts, the TKB-022 weighs only 2.6 kg, much lower than the akm. But such a thick magazine, no matter how large the hand is, it is impossible to hold it comfortably, so it did not take long for Koropov to take out the tkb-022p and restore the traditional grip structure.
TKB-022pm assault rifle
However, whether it is tkb-022 or tkb-022p, there is no difference in performance from akm. So it wasn't long before Koropov pulled out a brand new TKB-022pm assault rifle. The biggest feature of this rifle is that the magazine is close to the bottom of the stock, and according to the traditional design, such a magazine cannot push out bullets at all.
How tkb-022pm works
But Korobov designed a complex ammunition supply system for TKB-022pm, in which bullets are no longer "pushed" out of the magazine, but "hooked" out. A series of other special designs have greatly improved the performance of the tkb-022pm. In the test, the accuracy of tkb-022pm was 3 times higher than that of akm. However, for various reasons, this overly peculiarly shaped weapon was not adopted.
Some netizens may ask: Having said so much, where are the guns with three barrels in the title?
"Device 3b(прибор-3б)"
(Source: pikabu.ru)
In 1966, Koropov came up with a "new gadget" – "Device 3b(прибор-3б)". In the original concept, the "Device 3b" was an automatic rifle with 3 barrels arranged side by side and could be operated by individual soldiers.
TKB-059 assault rifle
Soon, the "Device 3B" developed into the TKB-059 assault rifle. It was a rifle with 3 barrels, supplied with a 90-round magazine, and fired three barrels at the same time when the trigger was pulled, providing 3 times the firepower of a single-barrel rifle. Although the rate of fire per barrel is only about 600 rounds per minute, the rate of fire of three barrels at the same time reaches 1800 rounds per minute, which is comparable to the Gatling machine gun.
Extant TKB-059 assault rifles
Today it is preserved in the Tula State Weapons Museum in Russia
(Source: thefirearmblog)
But apparently, while delivering 3x firepower, the TKB-059 also has three times the recoil of a conventional rifle! Therefore, if you want to control this rifle, the physical fitness requirements for soldiers are very high. For such a high rate of fire, the amount of ammunition carried by a single soldier is difficult to guarantee continuous combat. In addition, the 3 barrels bring 3 times the lateral dimensions and greater weight of conventional rifles. Therefore, the rifle could only be stored in the museum in the end.
TKB-072 assault rifle
Koropov's fantasy didn't end there: in 1975, tkb-072 was born. This is a rifle that can shoot accurately in "unconventional shooting positions". Whether you're standing, sitting, running, or shooting, tkb-072 is capable of accurately hitting the muzzle of the gun on the target. However, due to the complexity of the structure, the TKB-072 was not adopted by the Soviets.
TKB-0111 assault rifle
Koropov's last military assault rifle was born in 1985. In order to compete in the "Abagan" program, Korobov further improved on the TKB-072, introducing the TKB-0111 assault rifle.
Competitors of the Abagan program
These strange and peculiar rifles
It is also the culmination of the history of the development of small arms and light weapons in the Soviet Union
(Source: militaryarms)
The "Abagan" program was a new rifle program proposed by the Soviet Army in the 1980s, which required to improve the shooting accuracy to 5 to 10 times that of the AK-74 while ensuring the reliability of the weapon. You know, the accuracy of the AK-74 is not the top in the same kind of weapons, but it is already quite high. If you want to improve the accuracy of 5 to 10 times on this basis, the traditional structure is obviously impossible to complete.
But the indicators of the "Abagan" program are too high, and the tkb-0111, which inherits the design of TKB-072, is still difficult to meet the requirements. So in the first round of testing, tkb-0111 and most of the other competitors were eliminated. Incidentally, the ultimate winner of the Abagan program was the famous An-94 assault rifle.
An-94 assault rifle
(Source: wikimedia)
It was also at the time of the "Abakan" project that overnight the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the collapse of the once huge Red Empire. Korobov has never been involved in the design of military weapons again. In the Russian era, Korobov designed a civilian shotgun, the mts-260 shotgun. Perhaps because the styling was too "special", the gun basically had no marketability, just a flash in the pan.
MTS-260 shotgun
For the shape of this gun, Xiaobian has really exhausted the word
On December 27, 2006, at the age of 93, Germanic Korobov passed away. In a sense, Koropov's life may have been sad: the talented designer served his country all his life, but almost none of his works were recognized by the world.
32 years after the birth of TKB-408 and 17 years after the birth of TKB-022
The use of bracketless structures and plastic materials of aug turned out
This rifle has influenced the design of several generations of light weapons around the world
But now we can see that every "creative" design of Koropov has achieved considerable success in later generations: today, weapons with no support structure are everywhere, and the use of engineering plastics as the main body of firearms has become the mainstream design. In the future, who dares to say that these seemingly "strange" weapons will not become the development trend of future weapons?