The SVU project (Snaiperskaya Vintovka Ukorochennaya – shortened sniper rifle) traces its roots back to 1970s, when it was decided to develop a compact sniper rifle for Soviet airborne (VDV) troops. Such rifle was designed using standard Dragunov SVD action converted to bullpup layout. Back then this project never went past development stage, but in around 1991 it was resurrected in Tula and offered to Russian Internal Affairs Ministry (MVD) as a possible weapon for urban operations. At that time MVD accepted the offer, but requested the rifle to be converted from semi-automatic to selective fired version (probably inspired by German HK G8 “police automatic rifle”). Such conversion was developed by TSKIB SOO (Central Sporting and Hunting Arms Design Bureau in Tula). It was initially known as OTs-03 in semi-automatic version and as OTs-03A and OTs-03AS in selective fired versions (SVU, SVU-A and SVU-AS respectively). Since mid-nineties this rifle was produced in Tula and issued in limited numbers to various law enforcement organizations across the Russia.
There are no firm data on accuracy of SVU rifle, but on short- to medium ranges it is believed to be on par with standard Dragunov SVD rifles. Read the rest of this entry »

Brugger & Thomet (B+T) APR 308 sniper rifle was born in 2003 as a further evolution of the French PGM rifle. Brugger & Thomet company was a long-time distributor of PGM rifles, and in 2003 competed in a tender to sell the French Made but Swiss modified rifle to Singaporean army, which at the time sought a new 7.62×51 precision weapon. After some confusing communication over who had the rights to sell the rifle, Brugger & Thomet company decided to improve and to produce the rifle in fully Switzerland. The Brugger & Thomet (B+T) APR 308 sniper rifle was first presented to the public at 2005 MILIPOL exhibition, and is now adopted as a standard sniper rifle by the Army of Singapore..

Brugger & Thomet (B+T) APR 308 sniper rifle is a modular weapon, built upon a metallic lower receiver (main frame or chassis), which houses upper receiver with bolt group and barrel, as well as fire control group, folding buttstock and other furniture. Gun action utilizes traditional manually operated rotary bolt with three radial locking lugs at the front. Opening and closing rotation of the bolt requires only 60o of radial movement of bolt handle. Free-floating precision-made barrel is equipped with special muzzle brake which also serves as a mounting point for quick-detachable silencer and hosts folding front sight. Trigger group, manual safety and pistol grip are assembled into single detachable module. Trigger is of two-stage type and fully adjustable (trigger adjustments do not require disassembly of the unit).Ambidextrous manual safety is conveniently located above the pistol grip. Ammunition is fed from a detachable 10-round box magazine, which provides last round bolt hold-open feature. Read the rest of this entry »

The AS50 fifty caliber (12.7mm) sniper / antimateriel rifle is the latest development of the famous British company Accuracy International Ltd. First displayed in January 2005 in USA at the ShotShow-2005, this rifle reportedly has been developed especially for US SOCOM users, and is now being tested by the US NAVY Special Operations center. The AS50 is to provide combat operators with highly accurate and rapid aimed fire at extended ranges. To achieve such goal, the AS50 is built around gas operated, semiautomatic action, with “single rear locking” (most probably, this mean a tilting bolt). The two-part receiver is machined from high grade steel, the barrel is free-floated and fitted with effective muzzle brake. Easily detachable buttstock is fitted with recoil-reducing buttpad, as well as with folding rear grip, which also serves as a rear support leg. Read the rest of this entry »

The RT-20 was developed in the Croatia in the mid-1990s as a pure anti-materiel and anti-armor rifle. The RT-20 name means “Rucni Top, 20mm”, that is “Hand Canon, 20mm”. It is one of the most powerful anti-materiel rifles fielded by any army in the world today – the only others design roughly comparable to this monster in the terms of the caliber and effectiveness are the South-African NTW-20 rifle and the Finnish Helenius APH-20 (will be posted at this site later). The RT-20 had been successfully deployed during the war in the former Yugoslavia in the second half of the 1990s. It is manufacture by the Croatian company RH-Alan and is officially adopted by Croatian army.

The RT-20 is built around the very powerful 20mm ammunition, originally developed for Hispano Suiza HS404 anti-aircraft round of WW2 vintage. This ammunition is still used in anti-aircraft guns in some countries for AA guns and generally available in HE (explosive) and AP (anti-armor) loadings, both suitable for anti-material roles. The AP loading also can be successfully used against infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers. The 20×110mm round fires the 130 gram (2000 grains) projectile at muzzle velocities about 850 meters per second. This results in high terminal effectiveness but also imposes a serious problem of excessive recoil forces. The 20mm Hispano round generates about 4 times more recoil when fired from 20 kg rifle, compared to .50BMG (12.7×99mm) round, fired from 10kg rifle (such as Barrett M95). To make the recoil more or less bearable by the average shooter, the Croatian designers developed a quite interesting counter-recoil system, that uses a reactive principle. The system consist of the large reactive tube, located above the barrel. The forward end of this tube is connected to the barrel at about its middle point. The rear part of the tube forms the reactive nozzle. Read the rest of this entry »

The development of this interesting weapon began in mid-1980s, when Austrian company Steyr-Mannlicher AG decided to develop a long-range anti-materiel rifle (AMR) – a modern equivalent of the WW2-era antitank rifles. Main targets for AMR are light armoured vehicles, helicopters, installations such as radar cabins, missile launchers, fuel tanks etc. To achieve desired effective range of at least 1000 meters, Steyr engineers first decided to use APDS (armour piercing, discarding sabot), or sub-caliber, ammunition. Development started from 12.7mm cartridges, and later Steyr developed a 14.5mm APFSDS (Arnour percing, fin stabilised, discarding sabot) ammunition in 14.5mm caliber and built few prototypes with smooth bores and semi-automatic actions, called Steyr AMR 5075. Further development led to even bigger caliber of 15.2mm fith same ultra-high velocity APFSDS projectiles. This system is called Steyr IWS 2000 (Infantry Weapon System 2000) and currently is probably in Adsvanced Development status or ready for adoption. Read the rest of this entry »

Dragunov SVD was designed not as a “standard” sniper rifle in its Western meaning of the term. In fact, main role of the SVD in Soviet / Russian Army is to extend effective range of fire of every infantry squad up to about 600 meters and to provide special fire support. SVD is a lightweight and quite accurate (for it’s class) rifle, cabable of semi-auto fire. First request for new sniper rifle was issued in 1958. In 1963 SVD (Snaiperskaya Vintovka Dragunova, or Dragunov Sniper Rifle) was accepted by Soviet Military. SVD can use any kind of standard 7.62×54R ammo, but primary round is specially developed for SVD sniper-grade cartridge with steel-core bullet. Every infantry squad in the Russian (Soviet) army had one man with SVD.
SVD rifle is extremely reliable in all conditions, and designed for heavy use. It has backup adjustable iron sights as a standard option, as well as a bayonet mount (standard AK-47 bayonet type).
Latest modernization incorporate rugged polymer stock. Also, for mounted and airborne troops a special variant was developed with folding buttsock and shortened barrel (590 mm). New flash hider/muzzle brake also installed. Read the rest of this entry »

The M76 sniper rifle has been developed by late 1970s at the Crvena Zastava Arms factory, in former Yugoslavia. It is still offered by the successor of Crvena Zastava, the Zastava Arms factory in Serbia. The M76 is based on famous Kalashnikov AK action, stretched and strengthened to accept much longer and powerful rifle ammunition. The trigger also has been limited to semiautomatic fire only. All controls and layout of the rifle are similar to AK, and it is fitted with typical side-rail on the left wall of the receiver, which can accept mounts fro day and night scopes. Standard sight is the 4X daylight telescope, and the M76 is fitted with adjustable open sights as a back-up measure. Read the rest of this entry »

This rifle first appeared in Chinese press as 12,7mm M99B, but it also was recently publicized as M06. It must be noted, however, that in official advertising literature, distributed by Poly Technologies Ltd, an export sales organization of the PLA, this rifle is designated as M99B. It appears that M06 rifle, which is slightly longer than M99B and is listed only with one caliber (12,7×108) is a “domestic use” version for PLA or PAP, while shorter and bi-caliber M99B is an export proposition.
This rifle is offered as anti-materiel / anti-sniper weapon, and is available for export in two calibers – 12,7×108 (M99B-I) and 12,7×99 / .50BMG (M99B-II). No firm facts are available on accuracy of this weapon, but it is believed that it shoots about 2 MOA with Chinese standard issue ammunition (available information suggests R50 accuracy as less than 200mm at 600m). This is way below Western “sniping” standards but more or less enough for anti-materiel work or short-range enemy snipers suppression. Read the rest of this entry »