Arms factory named after Degtyarev

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

JSC "Plant named after V. A. Degtyarev" is one of the leaders in the Russian defense industry. It produces weapons for the fleet, ground forces, aviation, and special forces. The products of the enterprise are used by the armies of 17 countries of the world. The plant specializes in machine guns and rapid-fire cannons of various calibers, sniper systems, complex grenade launchers. It also produces motorcycles and mopeds.

History Pages

For more than a hundred years, the Degtyarev Plant (ZiD) has been producing military products. With the outbreak of the First World War, the realization came that the Russian troops lacked light and mobile automatic small arms. In 1916, with a significant delay, the "First Russian Joint Stock Company of Arms and Machine Gun Plants" was created. He was instructed to quickly arrange the production of light machine guns (automatic machines) under a license purchased from the Danes. However, instead of a thousand products, by the middle of 1917, only 4 experimental ones were produced.instance.

The revolution did not prevent the development of the enterprise. On the contrary, the Soviet government ordered the restoration of unfinished production. Vladimir Fedorov was entrusted to manage the plant, and Vasily Degtyarev became his assistant and student, who later founded the leading design shooting school.

The weapon of victory

World War II was the finest hour of the enterprise. The plant named after Degtyarev (Kovrov) produced weapons that became symbols of victory. For example, Degtyarev's anti-tank rifle was designed in 20 days. Demand was so high that produced samples were sent to the front immediately after zeroing. Largely thanks to this gun, it was possible to stop the onslaught of Wehrmacht tanks at the beginning of the war.

The second recognizable product of ZiD was the legendary Shpagin submachine gun - PPSh. The designer was from the peasantry and understood that the soldiers needed a very simple but reliable machine gun. To disassemble the PCA in the field, no tool was required.

In total for 1941-1945, the Degtyarev plant supplied 1,202,481 weapons for various purposes to the front. In 1945, the enterprise was rightly awarded the Order of Lenin.

Post-war period

The end of the war did not bring the long-awaited peace. The Cold War, on the contrary, demanded an expansion of the range of weapons. Since 1959, the Degtyarev plant has launched the production of rocket technology. Highly efficient MANPADS and guided missiles became the highlight of the enterprise. To date, it is portable missile systemsgenerate the most income.

Plant named after Degtyarev: products

Most of the military is familiar with the "classics" of the plant - RPD-44 machine guns and anti-tank grenade launchers of the RPG-7 family. The continuity of traditions is also observed in modern weapons. The pride of the Kovrovites is the new Kord machine gun, which embodies many years of developments of the ZiDa design school.

The RPG-7 was replaced by more formidable and advanced mobile missile systems: the armored fighter of the Kornet anti-tank missile system and the thunderstorm of low-flying Igla MANPADS. Over the past 10 years, the army has received hundreds of thousands of guided projectiles and missiles for firing from helicopters, tanks, self-propelled guns.

Other weapons:

• sniper complexes 12, 7 mm series 6С8;
• aircraft guns of the GSh-23 and GSh-30K families;
• anti-sabotage grenade launchers DP-64 and DP-65;
• RGS-50M and AGS-30 grenade launchers;
• MTPU series offshore units;
• Kalashnikov machine guns of the PKM, PKMS, PKTM, PKMB series;
• other types of small arms and missile weapons.

Civilian products are represented by hunting carbines of the SVT-O series, motor cultivators and motor blocks, lawn mowers, ATVs, mopeds, road bikes, all-terrain vehicles. In Soviet times, ZiD produced the legendary Voskhod motorcycles.

Cord

The most successful domestic machine gun, of course, is the famous Kord, developed in 1998. His magnificentrate of fire (up to 650 rpm) and efficiency (caliber 12.7 mm, aimed fire range up to 2 km) have been confirmed in local conflicts.

The pride of the product is the ZiDovsky branded quick-detachable barrel. Its cooling system is such that when firing it heats up evenly along its entire length. This allows you to maintain high accuracy with prolonged firing. According to this indicator, the Kord is twice as superior as the Soviet-made Utes machine gun.

The weapon has a phenomenal survivability. It continues to shoot accurately after icing, immersion in water, without many days of cleaning. Cartridge 12.7x108 mm penetrates 20 mm armor of ground vehicles and aircraft (at altitudes up to 1.5 km).

Warrior

The introduction of promising military equipment such as "Warrior" required a fundamentally new small arms. AK-47, despite its amazing reliability, no longer meets the requirements of modern wars. The Degtyarev plant also joined the struggle for the right to equip soldiers with machine guns of the 21st century. The designers presented the A-545 model, unique in its characteristics, which is an improved version of the AEK-971 assault rifle.

The design feature is a mechanism that dampens recoil - the so-called telescopic balancer. It makes shooting smooth, which ensures high accuracy, unattainable for most types of small arms.

At first, the special commission was inclined to accept the development ofConcern "Kalashnikov" AK-12 due to a simpler design and cheap production. However, given the outstanding shooting performance of the A-545, it was decided to introduce both models into the troops.