Some reports suggest the round has successfully defeated body armor out to 500 meters, though this is outside the design parameters and has little official documentation. This round could defeat all common levels of body armor up to 300-400 meters. The SP-6 cartridge featured an armor-piercing projectile with a machine-hardened steel core. The SP-5 was loaded with standard “ball” rounds with a lead core and was intended for accurate sniper work out to 300 to 400 meters. To achieve stability at subsonic velocity, they were loaded with heavier projectiles. The designers created the improved subsonic ammunition based on the 7.62×39 case, necked up to 9mm. Testing at the KSPZ Klimovsk Specialized Ammunition Plant yielded a muzzle velocity of 925 to 958 feet per second with the 250- to 260-grain SP-5 and SP-6 projectiles (SP-Special Cartridge). The round should be for subsonic special-purpose, intermediate ranged weapons with improved penetration and stopping power against armored targets. TsNIITochMash designed the cartridge to meet Spetsnaz requirements issued from the Soviet Ministry of Defense in the prior decade. One the most distinguishing features of this weapon is the ammunition the 9×39 cartridge also born in the late 1980s in Klimovsk. When asked what his favorite weapon design is during an interview with Russian media, he responded, “It is not right to have a favorite of anything that kills.” The VAL and VSS would draw first blood in the Chechen conflicts of the tumultuous 1990s. In total, he would create 14 designs at TsNIITochMash, but the AS Val and VSS Vintorez are notably his most famous. Serdyukov came to Klimovsk in 1969 upon graduation and quickly became known as a gun smith with proclivities for design. Among the elite selected, the Baku native Serdyukov, an alumnus of the Tula Polytechnic Institute, was chosen to run the VSS Vintorez project. The need for such a weapon arose in the 1970s, and in 1972, the Soviet command established a special development group at TsNIITochMash. Both designs were the creation of Pyotr Serdyukov at the Central Research Institute of Precision engineering (TsNIITochMash) in Klimovsk. The Soviet Union’s answer in 1987 was the VSS Vintorez (Special Sniper rifle) and the assault variant, the AS Val (Special Automatic rifle). These changes contributed to the ever growing need for body-armor-defeating weaponry paired with a diminished sound signature, packaged in both a sniper rifle and an assault rifle. Terrorist threats were quickly spreading from the Middle East during the Afghan War and affecting urban areas. Organized crime and terrorist cells had adopted body armor use alongside its growing use by conventional fighting forces. In the mid-1980s, the Soviet Union was engaged in a silent battle. The VSS Vintorez and AS Val display at the Tula State Museum of Weapons.
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