The Ministry of Defense begins mass procurement of “Boa Constrictor” pistol systems. According to the data of two lots on the government procurement website, the Ministry of Defense will spend more than 384 million rubles on the purchase of two lots. More than 7.5 thousand pistol systems will go into service with special forces. The remaining 13 thousand will be distributed to control brigades at the headquarters of military districts. There will be two versions of the pistol, deliveries of both versions will begin this year and, according to the contract, should be completed at the end of 2023.
According to the procurement documentation, two versions of the pistol will be ordered: a general-arms pistol with the index 6P72 and a special-purpose pistol 6P72-1. The latter includes a silencer and a laser designator.
The Ministry of Defense signed a contract for the development of a new pistol complex with TsNIItochmash JSC in 2014. The defense department allocated 150 million rubles for its creation. Testing of the Boa constrictor officially ended in 2018. Initially, the Ministry of Defense acquired a small batch of several dozen units, which were tested by the troops at the training grounds of the Western and Central military districts for 2 years.
In 2022, the weapon was given the official name “9-mm SP pistol,” but the pistol remains better known under the designation “Boa Constrictor.” The experimental design work within which this rifle complex was created had this code.
What kind of “Boa Constrictor” pistol will be used by the Ministry of Defense? More details
With silencer and rangefinder
"Boa constrictor" consists of several elements. It includes new cartridges and a suppressor. A combined dual-band laser target designator was also developed specifically for this pistol. It can either operate in normal daytime mode or emit a beam in the infrared range that is invisible to the naked eye. It will be clearly visible in night vision devices used by special forces. The pistol was tested at temperatures from -50 to +50 degrees Celsius. He is not afraid of heavy dust in the air either. Its loaded weight is 980 grams, without cartridges - 780. The double-row magazine holds 16 rounds.
The main feature of the Boa Constrictor was the use of several new - more powerful - 9x21 mm cartridges. They provide a targeted shooting range of up to 50-100 m, provide good accuracy when shooting and allow you to penetrate body armor of the second class of protection. The special 7U4 ammunition with subsonic bullet speed has the same characteristics, which makes it possible to fire silently and flamelessly.
The pistol can serve as the main weapon when fighting in the city and indoors, in general in dense buildings, and in actions in the forest, when silent fire at a short distance (literally from several to tens of meters) is a decisive advantage. “Boa Constrictor” allows you to implement a similar task from a technical point of view.
According to the manufacturers, the pistol will not be a complete replacement for the most popular Makarov pistol (PM) in the army. “Boa Constrictor” was originally developed for special forces and special operations forces. It has special ammunition, which is not used in other types of weapons. The design is adapted for a silent shooting method. Therefore, it is quite expected that he found his niche among the Special Operations Forces. It will also be used by reconnaissance units that operate in the operational depths of the enemy.
How will the military replace the Makarov pistol? More details
The Russian army is changing caliber. How the self-loading Boa constrictor supplanted the Makarov pistol
The Russian army will receive new pistols in the near future. TsNIITochmash designers have developed the “Boa Constrictor” system, which will partially replace the legendary Makarov pistols. The first samples will enter service at the beginning of 2022. How “Boa Constrictor” fundamentally differs from its competitors and in which departments it will be used, iReactor found out.
The work to create a new pistol took more than five years. For the first time, the development of a pistol, which later received the designation “Boa Constrictor,” was reported at TsNIITochmash in the fall of 2015. The Boa Constrictor was created to replace the Makarov pistol (PM), which was adopted for service more than 60 years ago. The PM performed the role of a service weapon for the police and police well, but in recent years it has become increasingly difficult for it to meet the requirements of military personnel.
wikipedia.org / Stanislav S. Yanchenko/CC BY-SA 3.0
Perhaps the main disadvantage of the Makarov pistol is its low destructive power, low accuracy at medium and long distances, and small magazine capacity.
The creators of "Boa" took into account all the shortcomings of the PM. The new pistol fits well in both the right and left hands. The case was equipped with universal Picatinny rails on which additional equipment can be attached. The Boa Constrictor has a target range of up to 100 meters, which is twice as long as the Makarov pistol. Another advantage was the large magazine capacity, which holds 18 rounds. This indicator is considered one of the best in the world.
However, in a conversation with iReactor, military expert, retired colonel, TASS military observer Viktor Litovkin noted that although the “Boa Constrictor” was initially planned as a replacement for the PM, it will only be delivered to the troops in a limited batch. According to him, the new pistol will be supplied mainly to reconnaissance units and special forces units.
We have a lot of good pistols that are represented in the armed forces. And to put it very roughly, they are all about the same. Pistols are chosen by professionals and specifically for their tasks. Some units need the Boa Constrictor, some do not. It is important to understand that when the purchase of “Boas” for the needs of the army begins, this will not mean that the next day all soldiers will switch to these pistols. This is not a weapon for combined arms units. Of course, “Boas” will be used, but not en masse: they will be used mainly for special operations forces and special forces operations, said Viktor Litovkin.
The new weapon is compatible with all 9 mm caliber cartridges: hollow-point, armor-piercing tracer. In addition, two unique cartridges were specially developed for the Boa constrictor - increased penetration and subsonic, military expert Litovkin said earlier in an interview with the Zvezda TV channel.
rostec.ru / TsNIITochmash
The design of the pistol is adapted for silent shooting. In addition, the “Boa Constrictor” can serve as the main weapon when fighting in urban environments with dense buildings, narrow rooms or in the forest - wherever silent fire at a short distance with cartridges with high lethal force can become the main advantage.
“Boa Constrictor” has a longer cartridge, which means it’s more powerful: the latter has a length of 21 millimeters,” added Viktor Litovkin.
At the same time, it is not just a pistol that is adopted, but a whole system that consists of several elements, the expert pointed out. Among them are not only new cartridges, but also a silencer and a dual-band laser designator. The latter can operate in normal daytime mode, as well as at night, when the device emits a beam in the infrared spectrum that is invisible to the enemy.
Let us remind you that earlier it became known that the Russian police will be completely re-equipped from a Makarov pistol to a Lebedev pistol. The decision to change the service weapon was made by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Kolokoltsev.
The irreplaceable "Makarov"
Attempts to develop a new self-loading pistol for the army have been ongoing in Russia since the very beginning of the 1990s. The most successful of them was the Yarygin pistol (Rook), which was adopted for service in 2003 and was purchased for officers, but was not widely adopted by the army. Until now, its supplies have been limited to small quantities. This pistol uses 9x19 mm cartridges, which are inferior in power to Boa Constrictor ammunition.
"Boa" received many modifications. A smaller version for concealed carry has been developed, which has the unofficial name “Snail”. The Aspid sports pistol was created on the basis of a slightly modified army model of the Boa Constrictor. Last year, TsNIITochmash also presented a marker training pistol based on the Udava. It shoots only with special dye bullets and has a bright blue body color, which prevents it from being confused with a military weapon.
Where to buy the Boa Constrictor pistol that Putin liked? More details
Colonel General Anatoly Sitnov , head of the Armaments of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation from 1994 to 2000, believes that the main PM pistol will not be replaced for a long time:
“The Boa constrictor pistol and a number of other pistols that our defense-industrial complex offered to the Armed Forces are, in fact, some highly specialized systems that, for example, can be used by special forces. Nothing remarkable has been done recently. Therefore, their purchases are minimal. The army needs a cheap, trouble-free pistol that can provide a high rate of fire. This is still the PM, its cartridges have been modified several times, thus its characteristics have constantly improved, which allows it to still remain the main pistol in the Armed Forces.”
What are the features of the new Russian pistol for the army?
State tests of a new army pistol are being completed, which should replace the PM - the well-known Makarov.
The news was announced by the new general director of the Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering (TSNIITOCHMASH), Albert Bakov. However, the fact that this institute is working on a promising pistol as part of the development work “Boa Constrictor” ceased to be a secret a few years ago. The RG correspondent managed to find out some details about the secret development of Russian gunsmiths.
The need to replace the PM has been long overdue. The pistol was developed on the basis of the German police pistol Walter PPK. The abbreviation meant police criminal pistol. His Russian version turned out to be very worthy. True, it did not differ in power. It couldn't be compared to the American Army Colt. Nevertheless, the trouble-free Makarov remains the main personal weapon in the army to this day.
At the end of the twentieth century, the Ministry of Defense decided to give the task of developing a new pistol for officers and those who were entitled to it according to the staffing schedule.
The process was launched, but creating a pistol - it would seem that nothing could be easier - turned out to be incredibly difficult. It didn't work out right away. Then the work was interrupted due to lack of funding, and views on the pistol of the future changed. As a result, as it turns out, the Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering in Klimovsk near Moscow, under the leadership of chief designer Alexander Borisov, seems to have coped with the task that had been set for a long time. And they did it without copying foreign designs.
It is worth clarifying that the main difficulty in designing a good pistol is its small dimensions. And the more powerful the cartridge, the more difficult it is to achieve reliability.
According to experts, designers from Klimovsk managed to solve an almost impossible problem. In dimensions and weight not much larger than those possessed by the Makarov, it was possible to realize a shot power that far exceeded that characteristic of the Colt, which has a much larger caliber and size.
The basis for the domestic pistol of the future is the ideas of the outstanding and oldest Russian designer Pyotr Serdyukov, which he implemented in the SPS self-loading pistol.
The exact characteristics of the promising pistol for the Russian army are still classified, but we can already say that in terms of its destructive power it will become one of the most powerful in the world. In any case, they will turn out to be no weaker than those possessed by the Union of Right Forces, which are open and demonstrative.
The cartridge is one of the most powerful pistol cartridges - 9x21 mm. The target firing range is 100 meters. At this distance, bulletproof vests consisting of two 1.4 mm titanium plates and 30 layers of Kevlar, or 4 mm thick steel sheets, are pierced. The SPS has an interesting feature - after simply replacing individual elements, it can fire standard 9 mm Makarov pistol cartridges and even 7.62 mm TT pistol cartridges. Perhaps the new pistol will inherit this quality.
This little-known fact from the history of the Union of Right Forces is interesting. In 1997, in the United States, new small arms created at TsNIITOCHMASH were demonstrated at one of the Marine Corps training grounds. The Americans were also shown Serdyukov’s pistol. Representatives of the Secret Service, the one that protects the president, asked to check the strength of their body armor. All bulletproof vests were pierced through by shots from the SPS. One can imagine the reaction of agents who are confident in their armor invulnerability.
The reaction was peculiar. FSO employees were prohibited from importing ATP into the United States. According to the Americans, it is too powerful even to protect the first person of the state.
In addition to its power, the pistol, which was made within the framework of the “Boa Constrictor” theme, is very elegant and even beautiful.
When work on the weapon was in full swing, the former management of TsNIITOCHMASH decided to take an extraordinary step. The team of Vladimir Pirozhkov, a world-famous industrial designer, was involved in shaping the appearance of the pistol. At one time, he came up with the design of the Citroen car, which became the base car for the President of France. Then he worked in the Japanese automotive industry - at . In recent years he has been working in Russia and for Russia. In the appearance of the new pistol, it was possible to realize its simply visible power and high technical aesthetics.
Several versions of the pistol were created, differing only in appearance. This was the first time this had been done in our country. And the result impressed even the most experienced gunsmiths - the designers managed to combine the simply visible power of the pistol with its technical aesthetics.
The creative collaboration between Pirozhkov’s designers and TsNIITOCHMASH continued in other areas.
In particular, in terms of the appearance of the equipment of the future. At the military-technical forum ARMY-2017, the equipment shown received a diploma for the best innovative project of the exhibition.
Weapons of the 21st century in Russia will be not only powerful, but also beautiful.
Sergey Ptichkin
What kind of gun?
We are talking about the Udav pistol complex of 9 mm caliber, the developer of which is the company TsNIITochmash (part of Rostec). The cartridge of the new pistol is longer than that of the PM - 21 mm instead of 18 mm. Thanks to this, the shot power and target range will be increased. According to experts, a bullet fired from a Boa constrictor will be able to penetrate a medium-class body armor (protects against a Kalashnikov assault rifle bullet) from a distance of several dozen steps. It is also known that the new pistol will have a larger magazine capacity - 18 rounds (MK writes about 9 rounds).
Earlier, the press service of TsNIITochmash reported that tests of the new pistol had been completed; they took place from August to December 2018 at the company’s testing base and the training grounds of the Russian Ministry of Defense in the Western and Central Military Districts. Based on the test results, the weapon was recommended for adoption. A representative of the Ministry of Defense told TASS that the military gave the pistol a high rating.
According to the development company, the “Boa constrictor” was tested in conditions that most closely correspond to combat ones. The operation of its mechanisms and ballistic qualities was tested in harsh climatic conditions and under the influence of various mechanical factors. The weapon showed stable operation at temperatures from plus 50 to minus 70 °C.
Pistol complex "Boa constrictor". Frame youtube.com
