Since October 1925, at the direction of the Revolutionary Military Council of the USSR, the staff of the Artillery Committee of the Art Administration of the Red Army began work on the creation of 12-20 mm machine guns. For the attention of the People's Commissar K.E. Voroshilov was presented several different options for infantry units. A special place in the history of small arms is given to the product of designer V.A. Degtyareva, which is listed in the technical documentation as a machine gun DK. Information on the design of this weapon, its device and technical characteristics is presented in this article.
Acquaintance
Machine gun DK (Degtyarev large-caliber) is a rifle unit that uses ammunition 12.7 x 108 mm. He has been in service with the Red Army since 1932. It is adapted for operation on military vessels and armored vehicles BA-9.
About the history of creation
In order to reduce the mass of weapons, the designers were proposed to use the German Dreyze machine gun, for which store supply is provided, as the basis. The Soviet rifle unit based on the 12.7-mm Vickers cartridge was developed.
Design work was carried out in two directions. In Tula, under the guidance of a weapons designer I.A. Pastukhov created a linear machine gun P-5. Testing of this model took place in 1928. The characteristics of the weapons did not satisfy the People's Commissar and the designers were tasked with increasing the rate of fire of the machine gun.
At the Kovrov plant number 2 in the design office created machine gun Degtyarev system. This model was intended to destroy ground moving armored targets. In 1929 the first project was ready. Hard clips were intended for ammunition, as in the Hotchkiss machine gun. The locking mechanism practically did not differ from the Degtyarev machine gun (DP), which was adopted at that time.
1929 was the year of the emergence of a new, more powerful cartridge with an armor-piercing shell. It was created specifically for small arms with store ammunition. Today, ammunition is known as 12.7 x 108 mm.
In 1930, two experimental machine guns, designed according to the Degtyarev scheme, were already ready. For them, it was provided for the ammunition from the disk store - developed by A.S. Kladova. The capacity was 30 ammunition. Due to the fact that the 12.7 x 108 mm cartridge had not yet been approved, it was planned that the DK machine gun would fire British 12.7 x 81SR or French 13.2 x 99 mm.
About testing large-caliber weapons
In 1931, tests were carried out of large-caliber weapons of the Dreyze system and the modified machine gun DK-32 with the receiver Shpagina G.S. Ammunition in this model of Degtyarev's design was carried out from cloth tape. 1932 was the year of the official adoption of the machine gun DK-32 for the Red Army.
About production
According to experts, the serial production of heavy machine guns Degtyarev was not established. In total, the Soviet defense industry produced one batch of 12 rifle units. They were used to test various machine tools and ammunition schemes.
By 1934, several more recreation centers were made, which were adapted for firing with a welt cartridge. This ammunition was used in the new ShVAK aviation machine gun, which could not function with the more promising flangeless Degtyarev cartridges.
Device
The machine gun DK had a fairly good rate of fire. High speed made it possible to use special buffers in the back of the rifle units of these rifle units. Their task was to prevent the frame from bouncing to its extreme forward position immediately after impact. Due to the presence in the design of the spring buffer, the operational life of weapon spare parts was significantly extended. In order to reduce returns and improve accuracy, a powerful muzzle brake was installed on the machine gun barrel, and a retractable shock absorber was installed on the machine.
Especially for this large-caliber rifle unit by I.N. Kolesnikov designed a wheel-tripod machine on which the recreation center could quite efficiently hit both ground and air targets.
The problem remained the ammunition system. However, designer George Shpagin was soon offered a tape receiver for a drum-type mechanism. As a result, the cartridges were fed using metal one-piece tapes. Each of the sections was equipped with 50 ammunition.
About the performance characteristics
- Machine gun DK-32 works due to the removal of powder gases.
- The total length of the weapon is 156 cm, the barrel - 110 cm.
- Shooting is carried out by a 12.7 x 108 mm cartridge.
- Within one minute, up to 450 shells can be released from a recreation center.
- Drum type ammunition. The capacity of the clips is 30 rounds.
- The aiming range for ground targets does not exceed 3500 m, for airborne targets - 2400 m.
- The projectile moves at a speed of 860 m / s to the target.
