The main function of light machine gun is to provide support firepower for the team, which requires fierce firepower, light firepower and a slight compromise in range. However, there is such a light machine gun in history, which is not too big, but its weight is almost catching up with that of heavy machine guns. This is a Ma Keqin-tokarev light machine gun.
Ma Keqin-tokarev light machine gun
At the beginning of the founding of the Soviet Union, the military status of light machine guns has been recognized, and all countries have begun to explore and develop related technologies. Like light machine guns, aviation machine guns at that time were also the focus of research and development. Because it is difficult for the Soviet Union to come up with a reliable model, it simply improved the PV- 1 aviation machine gun on the basis of the Maxim machine gun.
PV- 1 Cancel the water cooling jacket directly, install the porous air cooling jacket, adjust the recoil auxiliary device to increase the firing rate appropriately, and install the synchronization device to become the aviation machine gun of the fighter.
On the basis of PV- 1, the synchronization device of light machine gun was cancelled and a bipod was added. The original grip structure is changed to rifle butt, which is convenient for soldiers to hold, and the ammunition supply is changed to canvas chain 100 or 250 rounds.
Strictly speaking, the Ma Keqin-tokarev light machine gun is a Maxim machine gun with water cooling jacket removed. The automatic principle has not changed, and even the structure of the gearbox is basically the same as that of the Maxim machine gun. This is a heavy machine gun.
The machine gun weighs 12.9 kg, weighs 15.5 kg when loaded with 100 rounds of ammunition, is 1.33 m long, has a barrel length of 655 mm and a firing rate of about 600 rounds per minute. ?
The production of this kind of gun ranged from 1925 to 1928. After the advent of DP-27 light machine gun, the production was stopped, with a total output of only 2,450. It is a relatively rare light machine gun.
There are many reasons why the Ma Keqin-tokarev light machine gun cannot be reused. The first reason is that the gun bears the name of light machine gun, which is actually not light in weight and is one of the heaviest light machine guns. Compared with the DP-27 machine gun that replaced it, the latter weighs 9. 1kg and is nearly 4kg lighter than it. At the same time, another famous machine gun ZB26 weighs only 9.6kg, which is too heavy for soldiers to carry.
Because of inheriting the principle of air conduction, the parts of firearms wear more and the load-bearing parts are more. There is no air-guided light machine gun, which is simple in structure and more troublesome to maintain than other light machine guns. At the same time, this structure also makes it impossible for machine guns to continue to lose weight.
The Soviet Union sealed more than 2,000 Ma Keqin-tokarev light machine guns for future use. In the late 1930s, these machine guns had been sealed for about ten years. In order to offset the threat from the east, the Soviet army used part of it to help our anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians. For our country lacking weapons and equipment, these machine guns can solve the urgent need. They are equipped in the elite Central Army, with a total of about 1400 people. In addition to China, Spain also acquired Soviet machine guns left over from the war and played some roles in World War II.
From a technical point of view, the Ma Keqin-tokarev light machine gun is only an emergency work, which is the product of temporarily meeting the demand of Soviet light machine gun. If other domestic light machine gun projects cannot make substantial progress for a long time, at least the soldiers still have a barely usable weapon in their hands.
Its predecessor, 7.62 mm diameter PV- 1 machine gun, barely used as an aviation machine gun, and its performance after being converted into a light machine gun is not so good, which has lagged behind the contemporary products. Only countries that were in urgent need of weapons and equipment at that time were able to buy these machine guns as treasures.
It is precisely because of the obvious defects of this gun that the Soviet Union did not continue to develop machine guns similar to the principle of short barrel recoil. Instead, DP-26 became the main light machine gun of the Soviet Union in World War II, and was considered as a qualified light machine gun after actual combat test. Ma Keqin-tokarev light machine gun has become a short-lived product in the history of light machine gun, and the low output leads to the scarcity of the physical objects that have been preserved to this day.