The concept of a heavy machine gun is not new in itself. The first copies of such weapons appeared during the First World War. Initially, their mission was to combat tanks, since the latter did not yet have good armor. Over time, the functions of a heavy machine gun expanded significantly. Now they began to use it to destroy the living forces of the enemy, his light equipment. Successfully large-caliber machine guns have shown themselves as a means of air defense. If you install such weapons on armored vehicles, its firepower will increase significantly. So the importance of a heavy machine gun for modern warfare is difficult to exaggerate.
Machine gun "Cord" - the story of creation
Historically, not many countries succeeded in successfully constructing such weapons. Among them are the USA and Russia. Until now, one of the most common large-caliber machine guns remains the American M2 and Soviet DShK, which were created before the start of World War II.
The story of "Korda" begins at the Kovrov arms factory to them. V.I. Degtyareva. Work on this project started in the early 90s, when the collapse of the USSR. The task of the new machine gun is to replace the Utes cliff that was previously in service, the production of which was now in other countries outside of Russia. The first batch went into service in 1997, and after the prototypes were tested, the Kord machine gun was adopted by the Russian army. Mass production began a year later - in 1998, and since 2000 it has been actively used.
Arms design and construction
The heavy machine gun "Kord" is an automatic weapon, the mechanisms of which work on the removal of powder gases from the bore. When firing, the barrel is locked with a wedge bolt. The barrel is made quick-change, it uses air cooling, which ensures its uniform expansion when heated and, thus, an increase in accuracy. This indicator is higher than that of its predecessor, NSV “Utes”, approximately 1.5-2 times. When shooting at 100 meters, the spread is not more than 0.22 m.
The trigger mechanism is designed in such a way that it can be controlled both manually (trigger) and with the help of the electric trigger (this solution is relevant for tank versions). It allows you to fire single shots and short or long bursts, as well as continuously. To prevent accidental firing there is a fuse.
It can be noted that the Russian machine gun "Kord" is so far the only machine gun among its own kind, which allows you to shoot both from the machine and from the bipod. In addition, Kord stands out among its large-caliber counterparts by its low weight. Its maximum weight with all accessories (machine tools, sights, etc.) cannot exceed 40 kg.
Food and Ammunition
A tape is used to power the machine gun, and it can be fed both on the left and on the right through a special window. The cartridges that are used for firing are Russian ammunition of 12.7 x 108 mm caliber. They can be equipped with armor-piercing incendiary, as well as tracer bullets. It was noted that an armor-piercing bullet fired from the Kord penetrates 20 mm thick armor from a distance of 100 m. It is possible, if necessary, to use ammunition for foreign machine guns - NATO ammunition 12.7x99, for this a separate modification is made.
As sights, an open sight of an adjustable type is used, the maximum range of which is designed for 2000 meters. It is also possible to install on the machine gun "Cord" and other types of sights - night and optical. To do this, an arm is made on the sights.
Weapon Features
When developing weapons, the developers faced three tasks of paramount importance:
- reduce the influence of movement of automation mechanisms on the barrel, thereby increasing its accuracy, and reduce resonance vibrations;
- to provide the possibility of using a machine gun on a bipod, reducing the level of recoil and increasing its stability;
- increase the survivability of the barrel to the maximum, thereby allowing the machine gun to be equipped with only one barrel.
Benefits
Machine gun "Cord" is made with exceptional quality. Its high technology gives very high operational and combat qualities. It compares favorably with its domestic and foreign counterparts in many respects. We can note the following positive aspects of weapons:
- high reliability in adverse conditions - temperature changes (operating range from -50 to +50), high levels of moisture or dirt, do without cleaning and lubrication as much as required;
- the ability to conduct accurate fire even with an overheated barrel, high reliability weapons;
- maintaining high rates of accuracy, accuracy and rate of fire throughout the entire life cycle;
- comfort and convenience during maintenance, as well as the ability to eliminate problems in the mechanism directly during the battle, thereby increasing its combat effectiveness.
It is also worth highlighting the approximate correspondence between the dimensions and the docking unit “Korda” and “Utes”, which allows for efficient replacement without any additional work.
Weapon versatility
Depending on the configuration, the Kord sniper machine gun can be installed on a wide range of equipment: armored personnel carriers, tanks, cars, warships, helicopters, railway platforms. If there is a need, you can quickly remove it from the machine and switch to firing from the bipod. Among the additional features are the transfer of the machine gun to the traveling mode, the installation of reflectors or collectors of machine gun belts and cartridges, the fastening of the box with cartridges on the swinging parts of the installations.
Machine gun shooting is possible from a prepared firing position and not. At the same time, its light weight and the ability to quickly transfer from marching to combat position allow the calculation to quickly change location and conduct effective shooting. When taking reliability into account, this significantly increases the survivability of the machine gun and the offensiveness of the attack.
The superiority of “Korda” over foreign analogues is indicated by the following facts. The weight of the American M2 excluding the machine is 38 kg, and with the machine it will weigh even more - 58 kg. By weight, the Kord wins only the M2 Lightweight, which weighs 27 kg. Another large-caliber machine gun - XM312 although it weighs less, but has a low rate of fire, thereby losing in this indicator, “Kordu”.
Now let's talk a little about the damaging effect, which has such a caliber machine gun (12.7 mm). “Cord” in this regard is also one of the best in the world. For example, during the Second Chechen War, a case was recorded when the bullets fired from it pierced through the five-story "Khrushchev". When firing in a wooded area, any trees can be ignored - hitting a bullet is enough to knock down any tree except the thickest ones.
The equally good large-caliber machine gun "Kord" also affects lightly armored vehicles, automobiles, armored personnel carriers and infantry fighting vehicles. By testing it was found out that it is possible to break even the American Abrams tank if you shoot at the back of the tower. What is there to say about a man? If a bullet hits the target, death is guaranteed, while it completely ignores any existing bulletproof vests. Therefore, the military ironically called the Kord machine gun 12.7 mm caliber "humane" weapons.
Options and Modifications
The extremely successful execution and versatility of the machine gun forced the designers to develop its various modifications. In addition to the original machine gun, there are such options:
- tank machine gun (index 6P49), can be produced with left-side power from the tape (6P51);
- option on the bipod (index 6P57);
- option on the infantry machine 6T20 (index 6P60);
- option on a pivot installation (index 6P58), or with the addition to this, a joint venture (index 6P59);
- An option for NATO ammunition 12.7x99 mm.
In the photo there is a tank version intended for firing exclusively forward and equipped with an electric trigger.
Machine gun "Cord" - specifications
Weight:
- the body of the machine gun - 25.5 kilograms;
- machine 6T7 - 16 kilograms;
- machine 6T19 - 7 kilograms;
- tape with cartridges (50 pieces) - 7 kilograms.
Length:
- tank - 1625 mm;
- infantry - 1980 mm;
Barrel length - 1070 mm.
Width:
- tank - 135 mm;
- infantry - 500 mm.
Height:
- tank - 215 mm;
- infantry - 450 mm.
Type of cartridge - 12.7 x 108 mm or 12.7 x 99 mm NATO.
Rate of fire - 600-750 rounds per minute.
Caliber - 12.7 mm.
Muzzle velocity - 820-860 meters per second.
Effective firing range - 2000 m.