When it comes to weapons and is pronounced with the word "Russian", the very first association that arises in the minds of most shooters is, of course, the Kalashnikov assault rifle. However, domestic gunsmiths offered not only this popular design back in the Soviet years. Today there are many other machines, one of which is the increasingly popular ASh-12.
The road to domestic machines in the bullpup layout was very long and winding. The first development of assault rifles for special forces began in the Soviet Union. For several decades, the gunsmiths of the USSR have proposed more than one shooting system. However, for various reasons from bureaucracy and design imperfections to banal uselessness, most of them never went into series. The fact that the special forces needed their own machine gun was seriously thought about already when the Russian Federation was in the 1990s, at the height of the First War in Chechnya.
It was then that the ASh-12 assault rifle was developed. It was created specifically for the needs of the FSB of Russia by TsKIB SOO specialists. It was developed in parallel with the VSSK "Exhaust" sniper rifle. Both rifle complexes have the same parts and characteristics similar in a number of parameters. In addition to the bullpup layout, an important feature of the ASh-12 is its caliber. The weapon fires cartridges 12.7x55 mm STs-130 with a simply monstrous stopping effect.
The assault rifle is designed to deal with targets at medium, short and ultra-short distances. Sighting range is 300-350 meters. The weapon can be equipped with scopes, a silencer, numerous tactical accessories and an underbarrel grenade launcher. Despite the apparent complexity of the ASh-12, in reality it is a very unpretentious weapon and does not require any special care. In this case, the rate of fire of the weapon reaches 650 rounds per minute. And the ammunition supply is carried out from box magazines for 10-20 rounds. All this allows the machine to provide absolute flexibility in solving tactical problems.
At the first acquaintance with American shooters, the Russian machine gun made a strong impression on the latter. American experts and veterans of special forces consider the ASh-12 one of the best representatives of the family of "special assault rifles" and believe that with such a weapon the FSB of Russia should completely forget about the Kalashnikov, since the ASh combines all the necessary qualities for such a weapon. sense: precision, flexibility and high stopping power.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why the Russian pistol "Gyurza" banned in US stores.