Special large-caliber silent sniper rifle 6C8 VKS / VSSK “Vykhlop”
Large-caliber sniper rifle VKS "Vykhlop" caliber 12.7mm STs-130
Cartridges 12.7mm STs-130
Large-caliber sniper rifle VKS Exhaust
The special large-caliber silent sniper rifle 6C8 “Exhaust”, developed by special order of the Special Purpose Center of the FSB of Russia, is a silent large-caliber sniper rifle made according to the bullpup layout. The weapon was first presented to the general public at the Moscow exhibition Interpolitex-2005.
The main purpose of the VKS / VSSK rifle is low-noise and flameless destruction of lightly armored and unarmored vehicles, as well as manpower wearing personal protective equipment (including heavy body armor) at a range of up to 600 meters. The rifle has an integrated silencer that can be removed for transportation or cleaning.
Reloading of the “Exhaust” rifle is manual; the reloading handle, located on the right side of the rifle, moves progressively, which is more ergonomic than controlling a traditional “bolt” bolt. On the handle connected to the bolt frame there is a pre-release lever and a handle safety device that prevents spontaneous opening of the bolt.
The barrel bore is locked by turning the bolt onto four symmetrically located barrel lugs. Trigger mechanism of hammer type. Five cartridges are placed in a plastic single-row magazine. The cartridge is reflected to the right.
The fuse control flag is located on the left. The “Exhaust” rifle has a folding bipod, which when folded is entirely located in the forend. The design of the bipod allows you to adjust the height of the line of fire when shooting. The height of the butt pad and the position of the butt plate are also adjustable.
The main sight is an optical one, for installation there is a universal mounting strip in the upper part of the receiver. The auxiliary sight is mechanical, aperture type, the front sight and rear sight are foldable.
The complex includes a large-caliber special magazine rifle (VKS) “Exhaust” with a removable silencer and special 12.7 mm cartridges with subsonic bullet speed. Several options for the 12.7 mm cartridge are presented:
— sniper STs-130 PT of increased accuracy with a shell bullet weighing 59 g, similar to the bullet of the 12.7 CH cartridge. The muzzle energy of the bullet is about 2500 J. The accuracy of fire with such a cartridge, as declared by the manufacturer, is characterized by a dispersion diameter of 2.5 cm at a distance of 100 m, i.e. fits within 1 arc minute;
— sniper STs-130 PT2 of increased accuracy with a solid (single-component) bronze bullet;
— sniper STs-130 VPS with high penetrating ability. With an armor-piercing bullet weighing 76 g with a heat-strengthened core protruding from the shell. This cartridge is designed to defeat manpower wearing personal armor of protection class 5-6 or lightly armored vehicles at ranges of up to 200 m;
— training STs-130 PU, designed for teaching loading techniques and testing the operation of weapon mechanisms.
The bullet from the STs-130 VPS cartridge at a range of 100 m ensures penetration of body armor of class 5 protection, and at a distance of 200 meters it penetrates a steel plate 16 mm thick. The cartridges are specially made, made on the basis of a special cartridge case, the total length of the cartridge is 97 mm. The heavy bullet allows you to achieve an effective firing range of 600 m - 185 times longer than that of the 9-mm VSS and VSK-94 sniper rifles.
Currently, the VSSK "Vykhlop" is in service with Russia and Syria.
Complete set and possibility of using additional equipment
This weapon is called not just a rifle, but a sniper complex, because it also includes specially designed ammunition. On the front of the rifle there is a folding bipod. When not needed, they are completely retracted into the forend, and during operation you can adjust their height.
The description of the 12.7 caliber VKS “Exhaust” should be supplemented with information about the design features. Reloading is done manually; the lever required for this is located on the left. The cartridge case is ejected to the right, as in most types of small arms.
On the back of the butt there is a pad that can be installed in any convenient position to protect the cheek from the effects of recoil.
The rifle is equipped with a diopter sight. Optionally, you can install a collimator.
Characteristics of the VSSK “Vykhlop” sniper rifle
- Caliber: 12.7mm STs-130
- Weapon length: 795 mm
- Barrel length: 450 mm
- Weight without cartridges: 5 kg.
- Magazine capacity: 5 rounds
Sniper rifles
- Austria
- Hungary
- Brazil
- Czech
- South Africa
- France
- USA
- Russia/USSR
- Finland
- Uruguay
- Israel
- Germany
- Türkiye
- Switzerland
- South Korea
- Japan
- Belgium
- Poland
- Ukraine
- Croatia
- Serbia
- China
- Canada
- Great Britain
Ammunition
The special ammunition developed for the Exhaust deserves special attention. These are STs-130 cartridges, which have a large bullet mass and a relatively short cartridge case, with a small amount of gunpowder. This ensures subsonic bullet speed, high accuracy and excellent penetrating effect of the ammunition.
High muzzle energy is provided by the large mass of the bullet. This characteristic also increases the accuracy of the shot. For the STs-130PT cartridge (weight - 59 grams), the deviation is 25 mm at a distance of one hundred meters. It's just one minute of arc. The STs-130VPS cartridge (76 grams) penetrates a 16 mm thick steel plate at a distance of two hundred meters. Here are the main characteristics of the ammunition used for the Exhaust rifle.
- STs-130 PT cartridge with a high-precision jacketed bullet;
- STs-130 PT 2 cartridge with a bronze bullet of increased accuracy;
- STs-130 VPS cartridge with a high-penetrating bullet;
- training cartridge STs-130 PU, created for training with this sniper complex.
Disadvantages and advantages
Experts note that in terms of a number of characteristics, the VKS Vykhlop currently has no analogues in the world. Its main advantages are the following parameters:
- large caliber;
- high destructive power;
- relatively light weight;
- wide selection of applicable cartridges;
- compatibility with various types of sights;
- the ability to hit targets located in shelters;
- low level of sound and flame at the moment of firing.
Against the background of these advantages, even the need for manual reloading does not seem like a disadvantage. But still, this weapon also has weaknesses. These include high recoil, massive structure, and low rate of fire. There is no need to say that the short range is a disadvantage, because the rifle was developed specifically for conditions in which opponents are located close to each other.
Size matters
Having decided on the ammunition, the designers developed a “delivery tool” for it. First of all, it was necessary to make the weapon silent. If subsonic speed in ammunition contributes to this, then the weapon uses a silent firing device (SDS), or, more simply, a silencer.
To effectively suppress the pop of such a powerful cartridge, a very large volume suppressor is needed. The PBS turned out to be terrifying: huge, almost half a meter high. But the result is amazing: the “Exhaust” shot is so quiet that it is more like the click of an air rifle. In the subjective opinion of the author of the article, the sound of a VKS shot is even quieter than that of its colleagues - the special silent rifles VSS Vintorez and VSK-94, and the caliber of these samples is 9 mm versus 12.7 mm for the Vykhlop. In a busy urban environment, such a click will not be heard from a couple of tens of meters.
A fighter can fire completely comfortably without shooting headphones. The sound of a shot does not in any way injure the shooter’s ears, even if the fire is fired in a remote closed bunker, and anyone who has ever fired from a 12.7-caliber weapon knows: even “in the air” such a shot can cause concussion, and in a closed space it is guaranteed to injure organs of hearing.
Having solved the issue of noiselessness, the designers were faced with a new task: a huge silencer promised to significantly increase the dimensions of the rifle. And if we are at least accustomed to standard 12.7-caliber samples with a length of 1.5 m, then this one would be guaranteed to stretch two meters, standing on par with anti-tank rifles from the Second World War. For weapons that are intended to be used covertly, such dimensions are unacceptable.
To save precious centimeters, it was decided to use the bullpup system as a basis - not the most common for sniper weapons, but a fairly common layout scheme. In it, the magazine with cartridges is placed not in front of the fire control handle, but behind it. In this case, there is no need for a butt, since its role is played by a rearward-shifted receiver with a butt plate.
The bullpup layout allows you to significantly reduce the length of the weapon as a whole, while maintaining the length of the barrel. But the firing distance directly depends on the length of the barrel. As a result, the designers managed to create a large-caliber rifle with a length of just over half a meter and a weight of slightly more than 5 kg. With the silent firing device installed, the length is 1125 mm and the weight is 7 kg.
In the design of the weapon, it was decided to use a manual reloading scheme, which gives higher accuracy and accuracy of fire compared to automatic models. The recoil of such weapons is less, since there is no inertia from the movement of the bolt inside the receiver. Finally, this design is simpler and lighter, which affects reliability and convenience.
The SV-1367 is standardly equipped with mechanical sighting devices - a front sight and a rear sight. An optical sight can be installed on the rifle, for which a Picatinny rail is mounted on top of the receiver. To prevent the front and rear sights from blocking the optics, they were made foldable. This is also useful because if the sight is suddenly damaged, the shooter can always raise the mechanical sights and use them.
Shot for the future
The development of the VKS Vykhlop began back in 2002. The secrecy status of the new complex was removed relatively recently, so for a long time nothing was known about its existence. Today the rifle is used in several special units of various law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation.
Due to the specificity of the tasks and the high cost of the rifle, it was manufactured in a very small batch. According to media reports, another type of weapon is being developed in Tula on the basis of this product and its ammunition - the ASh-12 assault rifle. However, representatives of the arms company themselves do not confirm this information.
It is no secret for a professional military man that any weapon has its own strengths and weaknesses, so you always have to sacrifice something: mobility and compact size - for the sake of increasing the caliber; lethal power - to reduce unmasking effects. The characteristics of small arms are often mutually exclusive, so a developer aiming for a specific result sometimes has to make compromises.
But let's take a look at the VKS "Exhaust". Its caliber is the same as that of the Utes heavy machine gun (although the ammunition used is different), and it has enormous power. Without knowing about the features of the “Exhaust”, one would assume that the rifle is huge, heavy, and the sound of the shot deafens everyone who is close to the shooter. For example, ASVK “Kord”, OSV-96 “Burglar”, SVLK-14S have exactly these characteristics. The “exhaust” is compact and convenient, a powerful silencer with a flame suppression function successfully combats unmasking, and the mass of the entire sniper complex is even less than that of a light machine gun.
Slowly and inevitably
The creation of the Vykhlop complex began with the development of ammunition. Since it was supposed to work at long distances, the 12.7 mm caliber was taken as the basis. In Russia, the 12.7 x 108 cartridge, developed back in 1930, was traditionally used to hit distant targets, used in large-caliber sniper rifles, heavy and aircraft machine guns. Such ammunition is capable of hitting targets at a distance of more than 1 km and penetrating armor steel sheets more than 10 mm thick.
However, the old cartridge turned out to be too long for the Exhaust complex. Tula gunsmiths decided to create a new 12.7 x 54 caliber ammunition. The deadly product received the general index STs-130 and several different types of bullets. Moreover, even the lightest of these bullets was significantly heavier than all those previously created for this caliber. The version with the PT index weighs 59 g, and the heaviest VPS is 79 - a real heavyweight.
A silver bullet with unusual shapes has a steel core inside and weighs 79 g. From 100 m, such a projectile will pierce through almost any body armor.
The heaviness of a projectile is not only the increased energy of the ammunition, allowing it to fly further and hit harder, but also the reduced speed of exit from the barrel. The fact is that reducing the speed of a bullet to subsonic levels (usually less than 300 m/s) is one of the common ways to make a shot quieter: objects moving faster than the speed of sound are accompanied by a shock wave, which is subjectively perceived by observers as a loud bang. Thus, Tula gunsmiths were able to “get what cannot be” - they made a powerful cartridge that does not rumble like a cannon.
True, you have to pay for everything: compared to the standard 12.7 cartridge, which is capable of hitting targets at distances of 1500-2000 m, the new ammunition demonstrates an effective range of 600-800 m. But the Tula people were not faced with the task of creating another ultra-long-range anti-material rifle , such as the Russian OSV-96 or the American Barret M82. What was needed was not only a powerful and accurate weapon, but also a silent weapon.
All STs-130 cartridges can be divided into two types - increased accuracy and increased penetration. The bullet of the cartridge with increased penetrating power has a steel core inside and has a rather bizarre shape, reminiscent of a multi-stage rocket. Such a “missile” at distances of up to 200 m is capable of perforating a sheet of armor steel 16 mm thick, and from 100 m it will pierce almost any existing body armor.
In addition to armor plates, such a cartridge will easily pierce a wooden wall or brickwork up to 10 cm thick. There is no doubt that wherever the bullet of the STs-130 cartridge hits, its victim is practically doomed: a dynamic blow to any part of the body with such a caliber is certain death, and if it hits a limb, it is guaranteed to be torn off and cause severe blood loss. By the way, the Exhaust magazine holds five of these deadly cartridges.
The pre-combustion lever protects against spontaneous inertial reloading of the weapon under the influence of a powerful recoil impulse when fired.
