Sudayev AS-44

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Sudayev AS-44
general information
Military designation: AS-44
Country of operation: Soviet Union
Developer / Manufacturer: Alexei Ivanovich Sudayev
Development year: 1943
Manufacturer country: Soviet Union
Production time: 1944 to 1945
Weapon Category: Assault rifle
Furnishing
Overall length: 1033 mm
Weight: (unloaded) 5.67 kg
Barrel length : 505 mm
Technical specifications
Caliber : 7.62 × 39 mm
Possible magazine fillings : 30 cartridges
Ammunition supply : Curve magazine
Fire types: Single continuous fire
Visor : Rear sight and front sight
Closure : Tilt block closure
Charging principle: Gas pressure charger
Lists on the subject

The AS-44 ( Russian автомат Судаева АС-44 Awtomat Sudajewa 44 ) was a prototype of a Soviet assault rifle with a caliber of 7.62 × 39 mm .

development

Alexei Sudayev developed the weapon during the siege of Leningrad in 1943/44. After the agent cartridge 7.62 × 39mm as in 1943. M43 for service rifle explained and thus a central direction was given in the development of small arms, various Soviet arms designers began to develop semi- and fully automatic weapons for this caliber. Sudayev's first prototype, a recoil loader with a mass lock, wooden butt, pistol grip and permanently mounted bipod convinced Sudayev that the cartridge was too powerful for unlocked weapons, but that a construction derived from a self-loading rifle would be too heavy and unwieldy. Therefore, Sudayev chose the path of a radical redesign, although he had designed a convincing submachine gun with his PPS-43 , while Tokarew and Shpagin adapted their proven designs ( SWT-40 and PPSch-41 ) to the new caliber.

All of Sudayev's other experimental weapons that led to the AS-44 were gas-operated loaders with a tilting block lock . The basic design with wooden stock, pistol grip and permanently mounted bipod was retained, however. Since the test weapons of other designers also had the permanently mounted bipod, there was possibly a corresponding request by the GAU or the People's Commissariat for the Defense Industry . The AS-44 had a fixed, long return gas piston.

Sudayev was one of the first designers to use the concept of large tolerances in order to keep the weapon functional under all conditions - a concept that would later achieve world fame with the Kalashnikov AK-47 .

A small series of the second prototype was produced for troop tests, issued in the summer of 1945 and received good reviews, but was found to be not yet fully developed and too heavy overall. Sudayev's premature death in 1946 prevented further work on the weapon.

literature

  • Günter Wollert, Reiner Lidschun: Infantry weapons yesterday . (1918-1945). In: Illustrated encyclopedia of infantry weapons from around the world . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89488-036-8 , weapons, p. 430 .
  • Günter Wollert, Reiner Lidschun, Wilfried Copenhagen : small arms . (1945-1985). In: Illustrated encyclopedia of rifles from around the world . 5th edition. tape 1 + 2 . Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-89488-057-0 , weapons, p. 402, 403 .
  • Christopher John Chivers: The Gun . Simon & Schuster, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-7432-7173-8 , pp. 155, 186 ( limited preview in the Google book search - book about the origin of the Kalashnikov.).
  • Mikhail Kalashnikov, Elena Joly: The Gun that Changed the World . Polity, 2006, ISBN 0-7456-3691-8 , pp. 56, 57, 59 ( limited preview in Google Book Search - French: Ma derniére création est un piége á taupes . Translated by Andrew Brown).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Günter Wollert, Reiner Lidschun: infantry weapons yesterday . (1918-1945). In: Illustrated encyclopedia of infantry weapons from around the world . 3. Edition. tape 1 + 2 . Brandenburgisches Verlagshaus, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89488-036-8 , weapons, p. 430 .
  2. ↑ Christopher John Chivers: The Gun . Simon & Schuster, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-7432-7173-8 , pp. 186 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Maxim Popenker: AK-47 AKM. In: Modern Firearms. modernfirearms.net, accessed on December 28, 2017 (It remains uncertain whether the weapons were used in combat, for example during Operation August Storm .).

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