ASM-DT Underwater Assault Rifle

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The ASM-DT is a Russian automatic rifle designed for use in underwater combat. It emerged in the middle 1970s.

[edit] History of construction

Introduction of the APS Underwater Assault Rifle solved the problem of arming frogmen who are guarding a naval base, but remained the problem of arming Spetsnaz combat frogmen on attack missions. They needed a weapon that would protect them equally on the surface and underwater. The APS was of little use out of water (maximum range 100 meters and inaccurate) and wore out quickly (life 180 shots); so they used the SPP-1 pistol for self-defence underwater.

The Spetsnaz used the SPP-1 pistol, and the AK-74 rifle for battle out of water. The commandos thought that this arrangement was unsatisfactory, and demand did not cease about constructing a new weapon, an underwater automatic rifle which was as effective as an APS underwater and an AK-74 out of water.

Another problem was that a long smooth steel dart and a smooth barrel was best for it to fire underwater, and a normal-shaped bullet and a rifled barrel was best for it to fire out of water.

The rifle had to fire one sort of ammunition underwater and the other sort out of water. In 1991 year in the Engineering Institute of Artillery in Tula Yuriy Danilov (the rifle's project engineer) designed the ASM-DT to fire the two sorts of cartridges:-

5.45 39 mm assigned x MGTS. Standard Russian ammunition for use on surface, adapted for the ASM-DT's caliber.
5.45 39 ( ) x 7N6 strzelan'. This underwater ammunition looked like the APS's ammunition.

The ASM-DT rifle was accepted in year 2000 to arm the military power of Russia.

[edit] Description of construction

Automatic rifle enabling shooting underwater. It shoots underwater cartridges MTGS, on surface cartridges 5,45 39 mm x 7N6. Rifled barrel. Fixed gunsight. Means to fit a telescopic or optoelectronic gunsight. Folding stock. These can be fixed to it: grenade launcher GP-25, bayonet, silencer (UPMS or PBS-4).