The legendary weapon of the Great Patriotic War, the Degtyarev-Shpagin large-caliber machine gun of 1938, remains relevant despite its considerable age. The weapon is installed as an anti-aircraft machine gun on most armored vehicles, tanks, and armored personnel carriers.
The DShK was exported and supplied to fraternal socialist regimes. It was actively used, for example, by Vietnamese partisans against low-flying and relatively slow American helicopters. With its caliber, it easily pierced them through and through.
According to him, from a distance of 500 meters, the DShK easily penetrates steel armor up to 15 mm thick. This was clearly demonstrated by another incident that also occurred in Iraq during the war in 2003, when the Soviet weapon playfully coped with the Abrams M1. The power plant at the rear of the turret turned out to be defenseless against a burst from the DShK. Fuel leaked out, caught fire, and the tank burst into flames.
For its effectiveness, it is also called a wall piercer. With a powerful cartridge, it easily pierces lightly armored vehicles such as armored personnel carriers. Therefore, many insurgent movements in Africa, the Maghreb, and the Middle East actively use this model of machine gun.
Many experts call the Degtyarev-Shpagin machine gun the most common weapon of the Second World War, which is still actively used. The military highly appreciates the important qualities of the DShK — reliability, ease of maintenance, and penetrating power.
Technical characteristics of the modified DShK:
- rate of fire — from 600 to 1,200 rounds per minute, depending on the firing mode
- bullet speed — up to 860 m/s
- sighting range — up to 3.5 km
- use at any time of the day
- displaying the target image on the monitor
Earlier, www1.ru reported that the latest counter-battery radar based on the Tigr-M armored vehicle has been developed in Russia.
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