Assault rifles USSR Competition 1944 ENG Job №1

INTRODUCTION

Hi! I see more and more people from Ru Forum here, how am I worse? I’m pretty well versed in small arms, I’m familiar with a lot of books, and especially with Soviet weapons, the thing is that I live in Moscow and I have access to the Russian state library! Of course I could tell you about German or English weapons, but you probably know about them as well as I do, so I want to tell you about something unique that you can’t read about on the Internet. One of such topics is the USSR assault rifles of 1944-1945.


HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

World War II showed the very different nature of warfare. The infantry solved the main tasks, not the artillery and armored vehicles, which were now designed to support the infantry. The infantry often fought alone if the terrain did not permit the use of heavy weapons. In turn, the infantry had a choice between rifles not effective for short range and submachine guns not effective for long range. This required a completely new type of weapon - the automatic rifle! So on August 12, 1943, the MAD (Main Artillery Department) approved tactical specifications for the new type of weapon. Next, a competition was announced for April 7, 1944.


THE FIRST ROUND OF THE COMPETITION:

APRIL-MAY 1944

KB P 315:

The KB P 315 was a DP machine gun modified by Degtyarev for the intermediate cartridge. The KB P 315 did not prove itself at the trials and showed average performance:

KB P 315 №1.


KB P 315 №2, can be visually distinguished by the absence of a front handle.

KB P 315 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - 625 rounds/min
|Weight - 6.774 kg/14.9 Ib
|Feed system - 50 round pan magazine

КB P 280 №1:

KB P 280 №1 was designed by KB 2 (Design Bureau №2), namely designers Ivanov and Alexandrovich. It is noteworthy that the KB P 280 had the option of bayonet attachment, but there is no photo with bayonet attached. The rifle showed poor reliability results in tests:


KB P 280 №1. Note the bolt, which looks very similar to the bolt from a Degtyarev machine gun.

KB P 280 №1 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - 580 rounds/min
|Weight - 6 kg/13.2 Ib
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine

RPS 2 P43:

The RPS 2 P43 was the creation of Simonov, who based it on his 1941 semi-automatic rifle. The weapon performed very poorly in reliability tests:

RPS 2 P43.

RPS 2 P43 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - (500-550?) rounds/min
|Weight - 6.2 kg/13.6 Ib
|Feed system - 30/45 round box magazine

RPS 3 P44:

The RPS 3 P44 made by Simonov was a rework of the experimental RPS 6 machine gun for the intermediate cartridge. The same weapon showed good reliability results in tests, and was more promising than the RPS 2 P43:

PRS 6.


RPS 3 P44.


RPS 3 P44 drawing.

RPS 2 P43 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - 535 rounds/min
|Weight - 5.8 kg/12.78 Ib
|Feed system - 30/45 round box magazine

TKB 345 №1/№2:

TKB 345 was designed by Korovin. The weapon showed average results in the tests:

TKB 345 №1.


TKB 345 №2.

TKB 345 №1 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - 620 rounds/min
|Weight - 6.85 kg/15 Ib
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine

AS 44 №1:

The AS 44 №1 is an early design of the Sudayev assault rifle. As it was a very early model, it had a number of shortcomings, but it seemed to be a promising design, despite poor reliability results in tests:



AS 44 №1.

AS 44 №1 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - (500-550?) rounds/min
|Weight - 5.2 kg/11.46 Ib
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine

AS 44 №2:

AS 44 №2 was similar in principle to AS 44 №1, but had a difference, the main one being a different pod mechanism. Due to the new design, the machine could not fire single shots, and model №1 was more promising:


AS 44 №2.

AS 44 №2 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - 420 rounds/min
|Weight - 5.1 kg/11.2 Ib
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine

AK 44 №1:

The AK 44 №1 was designed by the designer Kuzmischev. It is worth noting that it was one of the first made rifles of that competition, so together with the AS 44 they were subjected to additional tests before the competition. Unfortunately we have very little information about the early model:

Unfortunately this is the only photo I have.

AK 44 №1 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - N/A
|Weight - N/A
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine

AT 44:

The AT 44 is already in the game, of course, it was created by Tokarev, taking the AVT 40 as a basis. However, we would like to note that the actual rate of fire on the tests amounted to 690 rounds per minute. Also, the test report mentions the presence of a 35-round magazine. I guess it would be logical to increase the rate of fire and increase the recoil. I would also like to see the bipods unfolded.

КB P 310:

The latest entrant in this contest is KB P 310 (RD 44). It’s pretty funny to see him in a contest like this, but I can’t add any new information about him.

Contest Results:

More than one weapon did not fit the tactical specifications, weapons often had high mass, poor reliability and accuracy problems. In spite of this, designers gained experience with the intermediate cartridge. MAD paid special attention to the KB P 310 and RPS M3. A separate competition is needed for these models - machine guns with intermediate cartridge.


THE SECOND ROUND OF THE COMPETITION:

JULY-AUGUST 1944

AS 4 P44/AKSM 5 P44:

The AS 5 P44 was a modification of the Simonov semi-automatic carbine with a larger capacity magazine and original stock. In turn, the AS 4 P44 was the same redesign, but with the receiver from the RPS 6 and other minor changes. The AS 4 P44 never made it to the final trials due to private malfunctions.:





AS 4 P44.


AKSM 5 P44.

AKSM 5 P44 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - 500 rounds/min
|Weight - 5.1 kg/11.2 Ib
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine

AS 44:

The AS 44 is already in ours, however there are some nuances that I would like to correct. For example, the premium version has bipods, and the version from the research branch has a bayonet. It would be great to see bayonet and bipod on both models:

AS 44 with bayonet and bipods unfolded.

I also want to pay attention to the weird weapon model, it’s not right:

2024-08-13_13-15-20

One last thing. In the game, the AS 44’s rate of fire is not true, it should be 520 rounds per minute, but at this rate of fire it will be of little use, so let’s consider it a game convention.

AK 44 №2:

The AK 44 was a refinement of a past model, unfortunately there is very little information here as well. During testing, parts of the rifle broke after firing 1616 rounds and further testing of the weapon was stopped:


AK 44 №2.

AK 44 №2 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - N/A
|Weight - N/A
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine

TKB 356:

The TKB 356 was a completely new machine gun developed by Bulkin. Despite its original design, it performed very poorly in reliability tests and was withdrawn from competition:


TKB 356.

TKB 356 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - N/A
|Weight - 6 kg/ 13.2 Ib
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine

KB P 280 №2

KB P 280 №2 had a wooden forend, shortened barrel and buttstock, unlike the first model. The muzzle brake was abandoned due to its ineffectiveness:


KB P 280 №2.

KB P 280 №2 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - 580 rounds/min
|Weight - (6 kg/13.2 Ib?)
|Feed system - 30 round box magazine

ASh 44:

The ASh 44 represented a new design from Shpagin. Unusually for submachine guns of that competition, the ASh 44 operated on the principle of free bolt operation:




ASh 44.

ASh 44 Characteristics:
|Rate of fire - 466 rounds/min
|Weight - 5.48 kg/12 Ib
|Feed system - 35 round box magazine

Contest Results:

Sudayev’s automatic rifle was the most promising weapon. It showed the best results in comparison with its competitors. But it was still far from serial production, the AS 44 was heavy and unreliable. Sudaev himself was engaged in the development of the AS 44 after the trials, and it continued after the war, but due to the unexpected death of the designer, the development was stopped. Nevertheless, this did not mean that the competition for a new type of weapon was over!


P.S.

Your :heart: contribute to the release of new topics, share your opinion in the comments, I’ll be happy to respond!

30 Likes

Nice list! Can you make a list of all the probable AR options that they can add for the US? That would be much appreciated. In my opinion the M1944 Hyde Carbine is the most suitable choice. But I would like to know about the other options as well.

4 Likes

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it, and it’s important for me to figure out if I should write topics for the ENG Forum.

Still, I chose the USSR assault rifles for a reason. I don’t have any literature or unique material on US assault rifles, unlike this thread (you won’t be able to find any more information on weapons from this thread, the information in this thread is published for the first time on the internet), but maybe I can find something interesting, I will think about this proposal :thinking:.

5 Likes

Great write up! The one thing I would suggest is maybe include if a weapon is open or closed bolt?

Definitely. Not an issue mate.

I feel like it would be reasonable to make the M2 carbine an assaulter weapon, given it is a pseudo assault rifle. I doubt there’s any other options that would be closer to an assault rifle than a M2, but I could be wrong.

1 Like

The M2 Carbine, due to the current situation, is best suited for this role. But in addition to that there was the M1944 Hyde Carbine:

It’s worth noting that the M1944 Hyde Carbine is better suited as an event reward or in exchange for a gold bid, like the M2 Carbine for the research branch.

1 Like

Yeah. But I want to see something new in this regard. So I was wondering whether there were any other light rifles in the .30 Carbine. I know about a few like the Bendix-Hyde Carbine and the M1944 Hyde Carbine. But not a lot.

I feel like this should be added to the TT alongside the Type 2 SMG in the 6.5×30mm Type 95 Arisaka cartridge. This should also be the case since we are slated to get Assault Engineers for these two factions in the near future.

2 Likes

If Japan gets that the type Hei automatic should have its mag size brought down to 20

1 Like

I love all of them, what a great topic!

1 Like

OMG you have no idea, I could NOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME find the pan magazine capacity for this one, literally counted the grooves on the mag manually under a photo editor and esitmated 50rd pan lol
image

Fantastic research, 100% bookmarked for future reference!

Re RPS, I always assumed from writings it was a 7.62x54R weapon? Was it ever in competition with RD-44 trials?

Presuming thats jsut the difference between RPS3 and RPS6

2 Likes

Hehe, “Nash Slonyara!”.

Glad the Eng community can appreciate your works too, now.

Still no scoped assault rifle/machinegun/submachinegun for soviets in counterpart to scoped stg, i’m in sorrow…
3 Likes

Huh, that really made me laugh, at least because I had the same situation myself when researching the Czech Praga I 23 :joy:.

Thank you so much, I really appreciate it.

In 1942, a machine gun was made for the rifle cartridge - RPS 3:




It was supposed to replace the DP 27. The machine gun showed good results in tests, and most importantly it was very easy to produce.

The RPS 6 model appeared in the course of revision of the machine gun, it can be distinguished visually by a different buttstock:

It was already going to be produced, but for some reason the factory was in no hurry to do it, and further with the appearance of the intermediate cartridge the work on replacement of the DP 27 stopped abruptly. I can’t say why the RPS 6 never went into serial production, but I can’t say that it was influenced by the new intermediate cartridge.

Just when Simonov was brought in to design a weapon for the intermediate cartridge, he took the RPS 6 and redesigned it for the new cartridge!
That’s how the RPS M3 P44 came to be (there’s really some name confusion here, especially when you don’t know Russian):

By the way, Sergei Simonov Gavrilovich’s birthday is coming up soon! What does that mean? Well, first of all, most likely in the game will be some kind of mini event. In the second is an anniversary (130 years), so such a date, the Museum of Artillery in St. Petersburg will likely make an exhibition of weapons Simonov, I hope someone who is a gun enthusiast will photograph the exhibition and send to the Internet. In honor of such a date, youtubers and magazines can post archival materials on Simonov’s weapons, we have quite a developed gun culture.
And of course, if you have a question about the weapons of the USSR (I know a bit less about the weapons of other countries), don’t hesitate to ask me! I often help with writing topics on Ru Forum.

2 Likes

Fantastic stuff! Thanks so much!
Yeah its quite hard to find this level of detail in english literature, esp about just prototype/experimental research like this.

A pleasure and hope to see many more detailed posts like this :vulcan_salute: :+1:

1 Like

How russian soldiers of ww1 used german produced sniper scopes without mounts? As a spy pipe or what? (spent a couple of days digging through photos and books about fedorov assault rifle squad that got 20 german sniper scopes for some reason and still no photos of how they used them on fedorov assault rifle…)

fedorov is kinda a ussr weapon too, so…
1 Like

If you liked my theme, I can recommend my themes in Russian:

Spoiler

Пулемет Льюиса и его модификации Работа №1
Диски и английские пулемёты Работа №2
Пулемет ДП и его модификации Работа №3
Фольксштурм Работа №4
Автоматы под Kurzpatrone Работа №5
Французские самозарядные винтовки Работа №6
СВТ/АВТ и эксперименты с боепитанием Работа №7
Все про ZB26 Работа №8
ПТРС - магазины, эксперименты и оптика Работы №9
Советские карабины под пистолетный патрон 1942 года Работа №10
Ручные гранатомёты СССР конкурса 1944 года Работа №11
Конкурс карабинов США 1941 года Работа №12
Штыки для СССР Работа №13
Штыки для Германии/Италии Работа №14
Гранатомёты Германии/Италии Работа №15
Всё о MG 34 и MG 42 Работа №16

My thread about the Lewis machine gun was written by me quite a while ago, I think it would be great to improve it here))))))

3 Likes

I have no evidence of optics being used on Fedorovs automatics I assume they were not used.

image
:nerd_face:

1 Like

Then why did they got german scopes? If they were armed only by fedorovs?