AC-44

Cartridge Development

In the winter of 1942-1943, Soviet troops on the Volkhov Front captured the captured automatic carbines Mkb.42 (H). The new machine gun attracted the attention of the Soviet military, and in July 1943, at a special meeting of the Technical Council of the People’s Commissariat of Arms, foreign automatic rifles were discussed. It was not only about Mkb.42 (H), but also about the American carbine M1 Carbine, set under the Lend-Lease program, of a caliber of 7.62 × 33 mm . Based on the results of the discussion, it was decided that it is possible and necessary to create weapons of a similar class with an effective firing range of about 400-500 m ^[3] . However, since such ammunition did not exist in the USSR, it was decided to develop a new intermediate cartridge (reduced power) .

With the active participation of General V.G. Fedorov, several options for calibres - 5.6, 6.5 and 7.62 mm - were put into the technical task for the new cartridge. In the fall of 1943, the first intermediate cartridge of reduced power of 7.62 × 41 mm caliber was developed ^[4] , its basic version was developed in record time by designers N. M. Elizarov and B. V. Semin . In October 1943, at a meeting in the People's Commissariat of Arms, this cartridge was adopted for further development. He had a pointed shell bullet with a lead core and a bottle-shaped sleeve without a protruding lip ^[3] . Its muzzle energy was approximately 2/3 of the 7.62 mm rifle cartridge , and its ballistics was better than that of the American cartridge 7.62 × 33 mm ^[5] . In December 1943, a trial batch of cartridges was released ^[3] .

Competition

In November 1943, a competition was announced for the development of individual weapons for a new cartridge, including a machine gun. In its initial form, in tactical and technical requirements, an automatic weapon was to be considered a weapon of support for the compartment level, and a self-loading carbine under a new cartridge was to become a new weapon. Therefore, in May 1944, samples were presented at the competition, classified both as an automatic machine gun and as a light machine gun. In total, the competition was attended by samples of Degtyarev Design Bureau (two machine guns, one with disk power based on the DP-27 and the second with tape power), Tokarev (automatic devices based on the AVT rifle), Simonov, Korovin, Prilutsky (bullpup layout), Kuzmishchev and Sudaev ^[3] .

At the first stage of the competition, it was decided that not one of the samples fully meets all the requirements of the initial technical specifications, however, it is Sudayev’s machine gun under the AS-44 index. won the first stage and was recognized as the best in the aggregate of tests. The machine gun proved to be quite good, but some of its details (drummer and ejector) showed low survivability. It was recommended to modify the machine to increase the survivability of parts and the reliability of the automation. In August 1944, another test round took place, in which the Bulkin automatic machine (based on the Bren light machine gun with the top location of the store) and the Shpagin machine gun (based on the PPSh with a free shutter) additionally participated. As a result, the Shpagin submachine gun dropped out of the test quickly, since the free-gate system proved to be unviable when using intermediate cartridges. The AC-44 was again recognized as the leader, although again it was not possible to identify the winner ^[3] . By the accuracy of firing from bipods, Sudaev’s submachine gun was not inferior to the DP machine gun and exceeded all submachine guns in terms of firing efficiency, but lost in accuracy and accuracy of firing with single shots to the Mosin rifle. Upon completion of military tests, the commission stated ^[6] :

An assault rifle chambered in 1943 can take its corresponding place in the small arms system in the army and replace regular submachine guns (PPD-40, PPSh-41, PPS-43), provided that it will not be inferior to them in terms of maneuverability and accuracy of automatic shooting.

The new machine had another device that was different from the previous model. In the spring of 1945, after a series of improvements that facilitated the construction of all weapons, an experimental batch of machine guns was manufactured at the Tula Arms Plant. The tests took place after the war ended ^[3] : in the spring and summer of 1945, the first tests took place in the GSVG , as well as in the Moscow, Leningrad, Central Asian and Transcaucasian military districts and at the Higher Officer Courses "Shot" ^[6] . The overall experience was positive, but the army leadership demanded to reduce the mass of weapons ^[2] .

In October 1945, Sudaev introduced another modernized version called the OAS ( Sudaev's Lightweight Machine ) without bipods. Tests showed a decrease in the accuracy of fire due to high returns. Survivability also turned out to be unsatisfactory, and the commission demanded to eliminate the shortcomings. However, on August 17, 1946, Aleksey Ivanovich Sudaev suddenly died after an illness, and the further progress of work on his machine gun was finally stopped. In 1946, on the next round of tests, the project of MT Kalashnikov was recognized as the best , and in November his project was approved for the manufacture of a prototype - a prototype Kalashnikov assault rifle called AK-46 was made in Kovrov ^[2] .

AS-44 automation is based on the removal of powder gases through an opening in the barrel wall, with a long stroke of a gas piston located above the barrel and locking by skewing the shutter in a vertical plane ^[6] . The receiver is steel milled, a bolt group is hung inside it to reduce sensitivity to pollution (later Kalashnikov used this solution) ^[3] . Trigger mechanism - trigger type, worked from the mainspring. A flag type fuse was placed inside the trigger guard and pulled the trigger, and also combined with an interpreter ^[6] . The ejected cartridge case was ejected using an ejector on the bolt and a reflector on the left wall of the receiver ^{[3] [6]} .

The machine was equipped with a wooden butt and pistol grip, and on the muzzle of the barrel there was a brake compensator. The shooting was conducted both single and continuous fire from a closed shutter ^[3] using a horizontally moving translator on the left side ^[6] . Power was supplied from a detachable box magazine for 30 rounds with their double row arrangement. Sights was a front sight fly in a round head box with a sectorial whole. Firing was allowed at a distance of up to 800 m. On the first samples were folding bipod, located under the barrel in front of the forearm, and under the barrel there was also a tide for attaching a bayonet. Sudayev later abandoned the bipod to reduce the mass of weapons ^{[3] [6]} .

• AT-44
• Stg 44

• Bolotin D.N. The history of Soviet small arms and ammunition. - SPb. : Polygon, 1995 .-- 303 p.
• Popenker M.R., Milchev M.N. World War II: The War of the Armourers. - M .: Yauza, Eksmo, 2008 .-- 768 p.
• Popenker M.R., Milchev M.N. Small Arms of World War II: Collector's Edition. - M .: Yauza, Eksmo, 2014.

• Bamboo. Pictures from the exhibition (Russian) . The Armory Archive (November 12, 2009). - Posts from 12-11-2009 22:33 and 13-11-2009 21:19 contain photos of the AC-44. Date of treatment January 17, 2017.