THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMM…: UNDERWATER KALISHNIKOVS AND SOME ...

M. P.R. in Quebec forwarded this one to me, and amid a week of strange technological stories and blogs, this is one of the strangest. RT (Russia Today) is reporting that Russia has unveiled a new assault rifle, a Kalishnikov that easily fires both out of, and under, water:

Russia Debuts An Underwater Assault Gun

Now, we are told by the article, it is no longer necessary to carry one gun for normal use, and another gun for use under water, just change magazines. Oh, and by the way, there's an automatic grenade launcher too. And, best of all, the manufacturer in Tula (a place that, incidentally, used to be a major Russian tank production center during the World War, except for a brief unpleasant period when it was occupied by Colonel-General Heinz Guderian's panzer army in 1941), says it will be available for export too.

Now, I can, like you, imagine all sorts of scenarios that it would be rather handy to have underwater AK-47s  available, except, I cannot think of any of those scenarios, or even anything resembling those scenarios, having made the news lately (or, for that matter, ever), and with the exception of Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October, I can't imagine how underwater AK-47s would have helped there.

Which raises the question, what is this Russian armaments company developing these weapons for? and for whom?  Is the Russian Navy planning deep sea bases that it needs to defend from underwater invaders? Or, conversely, is it planning to invade American or Brazilian deep sea bases? Well, deep sea bases would, on the surface of things (to coin a pun), seem to be out, since the effectiveness of underwater weapons, both in range and accuracy - unless the Russians know something we don't - would diminish dramatically at deeper pressures.

Why develop such weapons at all, unless one is envisioning situations of underwater small arms combat (underwater artillery and tanks anyone?). But again, against whom? Are they to protect underwater oil derricks? or attack them? It is revealing - to that frustrating degree that Russia reveals anything - that the weapon will be deployed by Russia's elite and fearsome special forces, the Speznaz.

I'll admit folks, I find this story intriguing, fascinating, and my mind is going in many directions all at the same time, because the Russians are not stupid, and they don't wash dishes without a plan, much less invent ingenious weapons systems, unless there is a need for them... Shades of Mr. Medvedev's calls, a month before the Chelyabinsk meteor, for an asteroid defense system.

See you on the flip side.

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Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

7 Comments

  1. marcos toledo on November 7, 2013 at 11:40 pm

    I remember in the mid sixties of the last century mention of mini rockets the could be fired from a fire arm that could be shot underwater. They operated like mini torpedoes when fired underwater they also had no recoil as well. Then all mention of this ammunition drop off the news radar. Have the Russians revived this technology maybe.



  2. Jon on November 1, 2013 at 12:06 pm

    Given the rate at which water attenuates the effectiveness of a bullet, these wouldn’t be of much use, except in shallow water – as in spec ops swimmers who might need to shoot as they exit a body of water they have used to stealthily approach a target underwater.

    They can be very vulnerable as they exit the water and have to take extra time to prep their weapons for land use. A gun that could fire as one comes up out of the water, or before one breaks the surface, would be a nice advantage in that situation. I can’t see much other use for them, unless they are planning for torrential rains and flooding.

    Unless they also work better in space . . . or non-oxygen atmospheres.

    Maybe they are planning to fight in an area with lots of lakes and rivers – Io or Europa, perhaps?

    Energy weapons would be dangerous to the user underwater . . . not so these.



  3. Ramura on October 31, 2013 at 6:19 pm

    Underwater UFO’s????



  4. LSM on October 31, 2013 at 6:11 pm

    isn’t a Kalishnikov an out-dated Russian relic?- so if there’s even an inkling of truth to this report then I hardly think one would be up-dating a Kalishnikov to function in water-

    BUT: (am just trying to connect dots) if William Cooper’s testemonies in his “Behold a Pale Horse” are to be taken seriously (back in ’65- his report of a craft the size of a football field continuously emerging from and returning to the ocean)-

    more dots to connect: good ol’ Jules Verne (insider way back then?- haven’t yet ruled it out) with his “20000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth”- giving us a hint about something?- haven’t yet ruled it out-

    connecting more dots: why has NAVAL intelligence always been the top priority secret service organisation?- has to be a reason for it-

    obviously there’s something going on under our feet about which we have no knowledge/understanding whatsoever and yet we’ve been told to look to the sky for answers…

    Larry in Germany



  5. Luso on October 31, 2013 at 11:27 am

    New model of an “old” (1975) system.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APS_underwater_rifle
    It is an interesting capability, nervertheless, and the new system seems way more practical.



  6. Robert Barricklow on October 31, 2013 at 11:11 am

    A riddler/Puzzle me this Batman.
    Can’t think outside-the-box, or underwater, for that matter.
    Except Special Forces Underwater defense/offense.



  7. DanaThomas on October 31, 2013 at 7:47 am

    This gun is the answer to something, but we don’t know the question…



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