New Russian Rifles to Operate on Land & Underwater

Russian combat divers have received the batch of new ADS 5.45mm "amphibious" assault rifles, that will enable them to shoot both on land, as well as underwater.

"Regarding the ADS amphibious assault rifles, production has been set up. Last week, the delivery of first batch of the assault rifles under the state procurement order has been completed," a source was quoted as saying by TASS on Thursday.

Earlier, the troops had to rely on APS rifle when firing underwater, and on conventional Kalshnikov rifle when on land.

The amphibious rifle made its first public debut at IDEX 2015 in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The new rifle was designed by Russia's Tula Instrument Design Bureau. It is equipped with a 40 mm grenade launcher which has a range of 400 m and fires various modifications of VOG-25 grenade.

The rifle is chambered in standard 5.45x39mm M74 cartridges and has facility for firing 40-mm grenade-launcher shots, Special cartridges are used for underwater applications. The bullpup layout has been adapter to provide shorter length compared to traditional schemes with the same barrel length, better balancing, while also eliminateing stock folding/unfolding operations. The ADS can adapt a suppressor and optical sights.

The weight of the gun including the grenade launcher and without sight is approximately 4.6 kg. The weapon has a firing rate of 700 rounds per minute with a range on land of 500 m. The weapon's effective underwater firing range when using the specially designed cartridge is about 25 meters at a depth of 5 meters and 18 m at a depth of 20 m. The length of the bullet is 53.5 mm compared to an overall cartridge length of 57 mm. Fired cartridge extraction to the forward makes ambidextrous shooting convenient and reduces gas pollution in the face of the shooter region.