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PU-21
Soviet machine gun From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The PU-21 (Russian: ПУ-21 Пулемёт с унифицированной подачей) is a 5.45×39mm machine gun designed by V. M. Kalashnikov and M. E. Dragunov between 1972 and 1977.
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History
Russian (at the time Soviet) military forces have not fielded a squad-level, intermediate caliber, belt-fed machine gun since the retirement of the RPD in the early 1960s.[1]
Official Soviet doctrine from the 1960s onward dictated that squad-level suppressive fire would be provided by the RPK, while PK machine guns would be issued at the company level to provide heavier fire[2].
The Soviet military moved from the 7.62×39 mm round to the 5.45×39 mm cartridge for its rifles and light machine guns.
Therefore, it considered adopting a dual-feed light machine gun in the new caliber to replace the RPK, similar to the FN Minimi in Western armies.
This resulted in the development of the PU-21 light machine gun.
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Design
The PU-21 can be fed from either a 45-round magazine or a 200-round belt. Its sights are graduated to distance of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft).[3][4]
Aftermath
The PU-21 prototypes were thoroughly tested by the Soviet Army in Leningrad, but military experts did not see convincing arguments for replacing the RPK and RPK-74 with the PU-21 design[5].
According to the Soviet military, the design was too complex compared to other weapons then in service, and failed to enhance combat effectiveness[6][7].
The PKM machine gun, the modernised PK variant, was adopted instead[8].
See also
- List of machine guns
- List of dual-feed firearms
- Ares Shrike 5.56
- RPK-74
- RPL-20, a similarly belted 5.45 machine gun, drew some inspiration from this project
- PKM
- FN Minimi
- QJY-88
- List of Russian weaponry
References
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