The fighting in Ukraine has become a testing ground for modern Russian and Western weapons. Today, each weapon school receives an answer to the question “which designs are the best”. This also applies to sniper systems. Russian media talked about their features with Yuri Sinichkin, a former special forces sniper and chief engineer for the production of sniper rifles at Lobaev Arms.
It should be noted that we are talking about “complexes”. Since a naked “rifle”, no matter how sophisticated and modern, is nothing without high-quality optics with a thermal camera for working at night, as well as an experienced shooter and shooter.
Yuriy Sinichkin shared his experience gained in battles over the past nine years, since the conflict only reached its “hot” and “large-scale” phase a year ago, when military operations and sniper duels have been taking place in the Donbass since 2014.
Bernat Armangue / AP
“On the other side is a full arsenal of NATO sniper rifles and ammunition. The enemy is armed with American Barrett M82 in 50 BMG, British Accuracy International, Finnish Sako, etc. Even a few times , they met Austrian Steyr IWS 2000 rifles in battles with hypersonic bullets with plumage at the end. Simply put, the enemy has a full arsenal of everything that the Western weapon school has to offer,” says Sinichkin.
According to him, the West does not spare money and ammunition for the Ukrainian army. The enemy is armed with a full arsenal of armor-piercing, tracer, armor-piercing incendiary, high-precision and other ammunition. Each of them is honed for a specific task: from destroying senior officers to eliminating light armored vehicles at very long ranges.
As Sinichkin noted, the fighting in Ukraine took snipers to a new level. If earlier during the fighting in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia, etc., the “standard” working distance of a sniper was considered to be a distance of 800 meters, now high-precision shooters begin to work at least 1.5 km away.
“Now large, high-precision calibers are used to fire at a distance of two to two and a half kilometers. These are rifles for CheyTac .375 and .408 ammunition. Of course, these are all NATO calibers, but we in Russia have already adapted them to our rifles and also produce them, ”explains the engineer.
According to Sinichkin, Russian fighters are armed with modified versions of the Soviet SVD, as well as modern large-caliber ASVK rifles chambered for 12.7 mm for the destruction of lightly armored vehicles and high-precision rifles produced by arms companies private Russian ORSIS, Lobaev weapons and custom weapons.
SVD, or Dragunov sniper rifle, is a world famous rifle of the Soviet army. It was created in 1963 for late 19th century 7.62x54mm ammunition. SVD is the weapon of the “Marksman”, or the infantry sniper. It is suitable for destroying the enemy at distances up to 800 meters (provided the user has good shooting skills), then it loses its lethal characteristics. That is, even with armor-piercing ammunition, it will be almost impossible to destroy the enemy at a distance of one kilometer from the SVD.
Therefore, at these ranges snipers use NATO rifles in .338 Lapua Magnum and the .375 and .408 CheyTac above, as well as .50 BMG. These weapons are produced only by a few private arms companies in Russia.
Each of these rifles has its own strengths, and until February 2022, their manufacturers were competitors for the supply of anti-terrorist units of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, snipers of the FSO, as well as people who like to shoot at the shooting range.
Today, it does not matter which rifle shoots half a millimeter more accurately at a distance of two kilometers. Each of these companies is now focused on supplying Russian soldiers with weapons that can rival the expensive NATO sniper rifles.
Dmitry Serebriakov / TASS
Sinichkin said that a year ago, only one of their factories near Tarusa sold only 5-6 rifles per month, if it did not have a contract to supply weapons to law enforcement. Now they produce 12 times more per month. They work in three shifts seven days a week, day and night. With the support of sponsors, they were able to purchase expensive Western machinery for the production of additional rifles.
In general, over the past year, the production of sniper rifles, optics and ammunition for them has increased 12 times in Russia and continues to grow. However, snipers say this is still not enough. Sinichkin noted that the length of the front line is almost 800 kilometers. There are distinct areas where the enemy works “brazenly and with impunity” because Russian fighters do not have enough ultra-long-range sniper rifles.
“Enemy snipers are still probing the area. They receive information about our positions from the drones and send a group of snipers to the area, which correspond to given targets. By “feel the ground” it means that they fire, destroy the target, and if counter-sniper fire is not fired at them for a few minutes, or shelling with artillery, or at worst with mortars , then they can stay in position and destroy a few more people a day,” says Sinichkin.
Vova Zhabrikov/URA.RU/TASS
According to Sinichkin, in combat a sniper has a maximum of four minutes after firing to leave position and not come under return fire from mortars, artillery and counter-snipers. During this time, the shooter must move away at least a few hundred meters so as not to come under fire, but in a good way, no less than 500.
“If after the departure of the saboteur nothing” flew “at his position, then he understands that the enemy has meager weapons, there is no counter-sniper, and he can return to the point and make more rustle in the positions,” says Sinichkin.
In the coming months it will become clear how the fighting in Ukraine will develop further. Throughout the winter, Kiev was assembling an “armoured fist” and preparing for a massive counter-offensive with the latest NATO equipment, while Russian troops reinforced their defenses. For more information on the sectors of the front where the fiercest battles can be expected, Russian media has included this material.
Nikolai Safonov
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