According to SCMP, Chinese scientists have successfully developed an automatic rifle specifically designed for drones. This gun uses the same 7.62 mm bullet, with a velocity of 740 to 900 mm when leaving the barrel at 10 meters, equivalent to the power of the AK-47.
But the main innovation that sets this weapon apart is its virtually non-existent recoil, described as “as light as a keyboard stroke.” That means even a civilian drone—or a toy robot dog—could pick it up and fire at will, say the scientists and engineers involved in the project.
Previously, such a vision was limited to movies. On real battlefields, such as in Ukraine, small drones could only drop grenades or mortar shells.
Even dedicated unmanned weapon platforms or highly modified UAVs struggle with the recoil of machine guns, reducing their accuracy and versatility. Now, a new rifle developed by a team led by Professor Liu Pengzhan from the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at North China University offers a solution to these challenges.
The team found that drilling a strategically placed hole in the back of the barrel helped to escape the gas shock wave generated by the gunpowder explosion. Then, to maintain the bullet's muzzle velocity, Professor Liu and his colleagues designed a new bullet with a sealed reinforced membrane at the back and an electromagnetic induction chip inside.
When the command to fire is received, the chip ignites the explosive, propelling the bullet forward. Only when the pressure reaches a critical level will the gas burst the membrane and escape through the vent, eliminating recoil while ensuring high muzzle velocity.
This gun has a special design and uses smart bullets with chips to help eliminate recoil.
The gun's structure is very simple and the manufacturing cost is low. According to the researchers, it only requires installing a coil in the gun barrel to detonate the chip and protecting it with a ceramic layer that can withstand high temperatures and pressures.
North China University is a key research institution in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, established by the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Engineers from several military industrial enterprises are also involved in the research and testing of this weapon.
“ Multiple experiments have confirmed the effectiveness of this design ,” Professor Liu's team wrote in the scientific paper.
During the tests, the rifle was suspended in the air and fired, and the swing amplitude from front to back was only 1.8 cm, showing negligible recoil.
In 2016, China proposed to the United Nations to ban the conversion of UAVs into lethal weapons, becoming the first country among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to make such a proposal.
In 2021, China, along with more than 100 countries, proposed the move again, but it was vetoed by the US and Russia. Since then, China has been aggressively developing UAV weapons and gaining a significant advantage through its industrial capacity.
Recently, Beijing has placed dual-use drone products and technology on its export control list.
Source: https://vtcnews.vn/trung-quoc-che-tao-sung-truong-gan-duoc-moi-loai-uav-manh-ngang-ak-47-ar909675.html
Comment (0)