Russia will replace the legendary Soviet-era Makarov pistols used by its police and army with a new model that can work in extreme temperatures and rip through body armour, its maker said Friday.
The new pistol called Udav, or boa constrictor, has been successfully tested and will go into mass production in spring, according to Rostec, Russia's state corporation that acts as an umbrella for its military-industrial complex.
The Udav will be ‘one of the most powerful pistols in the world,’ Rostec said in a press release. The weapon will use 9 x 21mm rounds, and will be able to pierce 1.4mm of titanium or 4mm of steel armour from a 100 metre distance.
The pistol works in a range of extreme temperatures from -70 to 50° Celsius and ‘showed excellent performance in a whole complex of tests’ in the Arctic, the desert, and in highly humid environments, Rostec said.
The Udav will replace the Makarov, a semi-automatic pistol that has been a ubiquitous sidearm used by various security forces and the military.
The Makarov pistol, named after its inventor Nikolai Makarov, has been in production since the 1950s and replaced the TT pistol used during World War II.
It is a contemporary of the Soviet Kalashnikov rifle and is known for the same degree of reliability and ease of use, with variants produced in several eastern European countries allied with Moscow during the Cold War, as well as China.
The Makarov has also been included as a standard part of the cosmonauts' survival kit in Russian Soyuz space capsules used for landing back on Earth from space, to ward off wild animals in the event of landing in a remote forest area.
The effort to develop uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) is heating up with research efforts and exercises improving the speed of the process and the war in Ukraine is working as a proving ground for rapid development and fielding.
The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher is in high demand with Lockheed Martin doubling speed of manufacture since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As orders are racked up in Europe, the Indo-Pacific region is seeing the increasing presence of the system.
The company's Riddler uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) is designed to be small and light to allow easy deployment and the ability to access smaller areas such as bus or train aisles.
The Spanish Government has outlined plans to purchase communications and cybersecurity capabilities but most notably amphibious combat vehicles, self-propelled howitzers (SPHs), bridge-laying vehicles and an effort to replace its tanks from 2040.
Germany is Europe’s leading country for tank manufacture and until this month was committed to the Franco-German Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) which included tanks and other vehicles. Earlier this month, Germany and other European countries set up the Main ARmoured Tank of Europe (MARTE) project casting a shadow over the MGCS.
Denmark signed the Technical Arrangement for the multinational Common Armoured Vehicle System (CAVS) in April this year. The order means the country will receive its first vehicle this year.
Connect with us on socials
