The idea of hitting aircraft and lightly armored vehicles led to the creation of heavy machine guns with a caliber of more than 12 mm. Such machine guns were already able to hit a lightly armored target, get a low-flying aircraft or helicopter, as well as shelters, behind which there was infantry.
According to the classification of small arms, the 14.5 mm KPVT machine gun is already adjacent to artillery weapons. And in the design, heavy machine guns have much in common with automatic guns. At the same time, individual modifications of large-caliber machine guns have more shot energy than automatic small-caliber guns.
Design assignment
Before designing the KPVT (machine gun designed by Vladimirov), it was necessary to choose the concept of weapons. The basis was taken 20-mm aircraft gun V-20 of its own design.
The first machine gun was introduced to factory tests in November 1943.
The weapons acceptance commission noted a number of advantages of the new development, such as:
- seriously developed automation;
- the strength of the components of the machine gun meets the requirements of combat anti-aircraft weapons.
At the same time, the commission especially emphasized the possibility of using a machine gun in air defense. By April 1944, the People's Commissariat had ordered the factory number 2 to produce for military trials:
- machine guns (under the designation CPV - 44) - 50 pcs.;
- anti-aircraft installation - 1 pc.
When the Great Patriotic War ended, both the machine gun and anti-aircraft gun in May 1945 were sent to military tests. And already in 1946 they were put into service, and the release of the 14.5 mm infantry PKP and its anti-aircraft version was established at the plant named after Degtyareva. By 1952, eight thousand anti-aircraft versions of the CPV were delivered to the armed forces.
Also, work was carried out synchronously on the creation of the KPVT (14.5 mm machine gun) for installing the upgraded version (with electric drive) on tanks and various types of infantry fighting vehicles.
Machine gun device
Automation has been redesigned so that the recoil of the barrel during a short stroke uses the energy of powder gases, which are discharged through a special muzzle device (recoil amplifier).
The weighted barrel of the Vladimirov machine gun is made on the basis of the calculation of firing a cartridge with a large charge of gunpowder. The movable barrel during machine gun operation made it possible to make the automation work smooth, which, in turn, does not increase the stroke length of the entire system.
The design of the trigger mechanism provides only automatic fire when firing from the rear sear. As soon as the drive locks the mobile system to the extremely forward position, a shot is fired.
KPVT - a machine gun with automatic fuses, eliminating the locking of the bolt and firing with an improperly connected barrel. The fuse also blocks the feed of the tape to the machine gun if the cartridge has not been removed from the link.
It was possible to switch the feed direction of the tape, which facilitated the installation of a machine gun in complex installations. Accordingly, the reload handle can easily be installed on the left or on the right side.
Also, the presence of a quick-detachable barrel, which is removed with the casing, for which the handle is provided on the latter, can be attributed to the advantages.
KPVT in numbers
The Vladimirov machine gun is so powerful that a bullet fired from it retains its carcass at all flight distances, which is from 7 to 8 km!
But since bullet dispersion increases at such large distances, and monitoring the results of firing and its correction is difficult, it is recommended that the aiming range be limited to 2000 m.
KPVT - machine gun, TTX which are displayed in the illustration below.
The mass of the movable system and the rollers on its elements ensure the smooth operation of machine gun automation.
Also, the advantages of the system include the fact that there is no need for precise adjustment of the gaps, which ensures high reliability, despite various operating conditions.
Interesting Facts
The KPVT tank machine gun during combat operations showed such high armor-piercing ability in NATO standard steel armor RHA that in the early 1970s. and to date, NATO countries, issuing those. task for the design and creation of new military equipment, took into account the damaging effect of an armor-piercing bullet fired from the KPVT!
And this is not surprising, since at distances from 500 to 800 m KPVT confidently pierced the frontal armor of the main types of armored personnel carriers of the probable enemy. The most common M113 armored personnel carrier (USA) was also threatened with defeat.
Based on this penetration ability, the combat mass of the main BMPs of the NATO countries Marder A3 (Germany) and M2A2 Bradley (USA), relative to Russian BMPs, was doubled.
Twin installation
KPVT - a machine gun, the photo of which is presented in the article, found its application as an anti-aircraft weapon for hitting air targets with single (ZPU-1) and twin units (ZPU-2, ZU-2).
On ZU-2 installations, an automatic type anti-aircraft sight was installed, equipped with a second (right) gunner's seat and an additional frame for the cartridge box. In this version, it was adopted in 1955.
The installation had wheels for towing over long distances, but the forces of calculating the installation could move it over the field for short distances.
Mountain modification
For use in mountainous conditions, PGI-1 was used because of the possibility of its dismantling for movement through mountains by calculation forces. The mining installation was developed back in 1954, but its adoption was suspended due to the then "rocket mania" fashionable in the USSR government.
But in 1968, the collapsible PGI-1 was adopted, and at first it was tested in the army of Vietnam as an aid to this country in the fight against American aircraft.
Also in later military conflicts in Afghanistan and in the Chechen company PGI-1 found wide application.
Quad anti-aircraft machine gun
The quad anti-aircraft gun from the large-caliber CPV ZPU-4 was adopted in 1949 under the index GAU 56-U-562. ZPU-4 entered service with air defense to protect against air attacks of tank, motorized rifle regiments and airborne divisions.
For firing from ZPU-4, the APO-3-S automatic sight was introduced. Due to the counting-decisive mechanism, the calculation of the task of hitting the target was accelerated, given the speed, course and dive angle.
All these parameters had to be manually entered for the calculation of the gun, which, under the conditions of rapidly growing aircraft speeds, reduced installation capabilities. But at that time it was a significant step forward, if we compare the previous anti-aircraft sights.
But also the 14.5-mm KPVT machine gun on the ZGU-4 for this arrangement can be called its main drawback, because the installation showed low “survivability” of its main armament. And this is due to the fact that the machine gun itself was originally developed as a tank.
What is KPVT intended for?
KPVT itself is a machine gun, the characteristics of which were originally laid down with the expectation of installation on tanks. Moreover, the idea of creating it was such that it was used in conjunction with a tank gun.
The option was not excluded, in which the KPVT was located on the tower as a turret.
The tank version received an electric start from a 21-V source and a pulse counter of shots, respectively, based on the tank application, the spent cartridges were retracted. He also had a detachable receiver.
In addition to domestic armored vehicles, KPVT (machine gun) was installed on armored vehicles of the Warsaw Pact countries.
When using KPVT on armored vehicles, it turned out to be the most "long-lived" weapon, since, as a rule, it was he who equipped all the armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.