PPS submachine gun

Lore & Background

The PPS was created in response to a Red Army requirement for a compact and lightweight weapon with similar accuracy and projectile energy to the Soviet PPSh-41 submachine gun widely deployed at the time, with reduced rate of fire, produced at lower material cost and requiring fewer man-hours, particularly skilled labour. Sudayev was ordered by the State Commission for Armaments to perfect for large-scale production the sub-machine gun design of Lieutenant I.K. Bezruchko-Vysotsky from the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy, who had created two prototypes in 1942; the second of these was the basis of Sudayev's gun. During design, emphasis was placed on simplifying production and eliminating most machining operations; most of the weapon's parts were sheet-steel stamped. These measures reduced the number of machined components to a bare minimum, cutting down machining time by more than half, to 2.7 hours of machining instead of 7.3 hours for the PPSh-41. There were also savings of over 50% in raw steel usage, down to 6.2 kg instead of 13.9 kg, and fewer workers were required to manufacture and assemble the parts. Thanks to the improvements in production efficiency, the Soviet planners estimated that the new gun would have allowed an increase in monthly submachine gun output from 135,000 units to 350,000 weapons. Prototypes were field tested between 26 April and 12 May 1942; the evaluation commission's report was largely favorable, but still proposed some minor improvements mostly aimed at strengthening the gun's structure. By July, Shpagin had finished his own improved model (PPSh-2), and it was pitted in field trials against the PPS, which was found superior in most respects: accuracy, reliability, maneuverability. On July 28, 1942, GAU head Nikolai Yakovlev and his aide Ivan Novikov presented Sudayev's gun to the State Defense Committee for approval. The firearm was accepted into service as the PPS-42. The weapon was put into small-scale production during the Siege of Leningrad; mass production did not commence until early 1943 at the Sestroretsk Arsenal. The full-scale production began in 1943, and the official count of PPS-42 guns produced was 46,572. Most were used during the military trials by the soldiers of the Leningrad Front. By end of the war some two million PPS-43 submachine guns had been made. Due to the oversupply of the Soviet army with submachine guns after the war, production of the PPS in the Soviet Union ceased in 1946.

Reader's Guide

The PPS was notable for its extreme cost-effectiveness and ease of manufacture, achieved through an efficient and simple, largely sheet metal design. Despite its crudeness, it has been described as controllable and reliable. The weapon's design emphasis on simplifying production and eliminating most machining operations allowed for significant savings in time and materials: machining time was reduced to 2.7 hours from 7.3 hours for the PPSh-41, and raw steel usage dropped to 6.2 kg from 13.9 kg. Soviet planners estimated that the new gun would have allowed an increase in monthly submachine gun output from 135,000 units to 350,000 weapons. However, due to the massive investment already made in machinery for PPSh-41 production, which was already being produced in more than a million pieces per year, it turned out it would have been uneconomical to completely abandon its production in favor of the PPS. By end of the war some two million PPS-43 submachine guns had been made. The PPS remained in service with some Soviet forces until the mid-1950s, with crews of armored vehicles and the Naval Infantry among the last to relinquish it. Some World War II-era weapons found their way to the Chinese People's Liberation Army and were subsequently captured by UN forces in the Korean War. The PPS was also license-produced in Poland and copied in Finland as the M/44 submachine gun.

Did You Know?

• The PPS was developed by Alexei Sudayev based on a design by Lieutenant I.K. Bezruchko-Vysotsky.
• Machining time for the PPS was 2.7 hours, compared to 7.3 hours for the PPSh-41.
• The PPS-43 magazine used a 'Double-Feed' design, improving reliability over the PPSh-41.