VSS Vintorez

Lore & Background

The VSS Vintorez was based on the RG-036 prototype designed in 1981 by TsNIITochMash. Further development was carried out in parallel with the AS Val, to provide a suppressed sniper rifle for Spetsnaz undercover or clandestine units, capable of defeating NATO body armour at ranges up to 400 m (440 yd) with as little noise as possible. The AS Val can trace its origins back to the 1960 U-2 incident, where the Soviets captured a US Air Force pilot (Gary Powers) alongside his equipment, including a suppressed pistol, which impressed them enough to issue a requirement for a similar Soviet weapon.

The captured pistol was examined by the TsNIITochMash at Klimovsk by a team of designers that included G. Petropavlov, Yu Krulov, V. Sabelinikov, A. Neougodev, A. Deryagin, A. Khinikadze, I. Kas'yanov, P. Serdyukov, V. Petrov, and V. Levchenko. They pioneered the development of suppressed weapons and specialized ammunition in Russia. With increasing tensions between the West and the Soviet Union during the late 1970s and 1980s, the KGB and GRU ordered the development of small arms suitable for covert operations around the world and in 1981, weapon designers P. I. Serdyukov and V. F. Krasnikov of TsNIITochMash began working on a combination of a new suppressed rifle and subsonic cartridge.

Reader's Guide

The VSS Vintorez uses a modified Kalashnikov action, a gas-operated rotating bolt combined with an integral suppressor and chambered for the 9×39mm subsonic cartridge. The barrel is optimised for accurate sniper fire paired with the SP-5 (7N8) cartridge firing a heavy 250 grain FMJ bullet at subsonic speed. The VSS Vintorez features a selective fire mechanism and uses the same detachable box magazine design as the AS Val. The VSS Vintorez is normally used in semi-automatic mode with 10-round magazines, whilst fully automatic mode is used for emergency situations, ambushes or attacks against soft-skinned vehicles such as trucks.

Both rifles are also compatible with the 30-round SR-3M magazines. The magazines have a series of horizontal indentations to provide tactile identification and prevent confusion with Kalashnikov-pattern magazines. The safety selector is similar to Kalashnikov rifles, but the fire selector that switches the firing mode is located behind the trigger. The VSS Vintorez can be broken down for transport in a special aluminium briefcase for clandestine operations.

A PSO-1-1 (1P43) telescopic sight, a NPSU-3 night sight with a 3.46× magnification, and two magazines are included in the briefcase. The VSS Vintorez can also mount the PSO-1 telescopic sight of the SVD rifle, or the 1PN52-1 night sight. Both rifles also feature built-in iron sights integrated with the suppressor. The integral suppressor makes use of the dual-chamber principle: propellant gases are vented through perforations along the barrel into the first chamber, where the hot gases cool down and lose pressure before passing through the second chamber via a series of mesh screens which break the gas stream even further before leaving the barrel.

The resulting sound signature is significantly lower than an unsuppressed rifle, and even from a short distance it cannot be recognised as the discharge of a rifle.