A more compact
PP-2000 submachine gun is meant to replace the Kalashnikov AKS-74U assault
rifle.
MOSCOW, August 16.
/TASS/. Russia’s Defense Ministry is considering including a more compact
PP-2000 submachine gun into the military pilots’ survival kit instead of the
Kalashnikov AKS-74U assault rifle, a source in the domestic defense industry
told TASS on Friday.
"A proposal has
been put forward to study the possibility of arming military pilots with a very
compact PP-2000 instead of the AKS-74U. The defense agency has responded with
interest to this proposal," the source said.
TASS has no official
confirmation of this information yet.
A pilot’s survival
deployment kit, which the ground personnel place into the ejection seat bucket
before a combat sortie, includes the Kalashnikov AKS-74U assault rifle, the
ammunition load and grenades in addition to food and water supplies, a
first-aid set and communications gear. Also, when a pilot goes on a combat
sortie, for example, in Syria, he takes a Makarov or a Stechkin pistol with him
as additional arms and places it together with the magazines into the ammunition
vest.
The PP-2000 has been
developed by the Tula Design Bureau of Instrument-Making for the 9x19mm
Parabellum cartridge. The submachine gun is among the world’s lightest
firearms: it weighs 1.4kg without the magazine and the buttstock. As its
specific feature, the PP-2000 offers the possibility to use a spare magazine as
a shoulder support. The breechblock lever and the magazine’s latch button can
be re-installed on any side, which makes it possible for both a right-hand and
a left-hand serviceman to use the gun.
The serial-produced
PP-2000 submachine guns have been equipped with a removable side-folding
metallic butt since 2006. The PP-2000’s length is 582 mm with the unfolded butt
and 350 mm without the butt. For the sake of comparison, the AKS-74U is 730 mm
long with the unfolded butt and 490m long with the folded butt.
Source: ITAR-TASS
16-08-2019
