The
AS
also referred to as
"Val"
is a special
assault rifle
designed (created) by the
Soviets
. It has a built-in
suppresor
. The development began in the first half of the late 1980s in the Central Research Institute of Precision Engineering, in the city of
Klimovsk
part of the
Moscow
region. The lead designer of the rifle is
Pyotr Serdyukov
.
[1]
TsNIITochMash
(Central Institute for Precision Machine Building) developed it in 1987. Since 1987, the
Soviet Army
and the
KGB
used it in their
arsenal
.
Russian
Spetsnaz
special forces
and some
divisions
of the
Russian
Army
also use it.
The AS is expensive and there are not many available. It is not used often according to many Russian Spetsnaz operators.
[2]
It is used during
special operations
by either
sabotage
or reconnaissance units deployed behind enemy lines.
The AS and VSS are very effective. Some Russian army and special forces units, and Moscow’s intelligence and security forces still use it. Forces used the rifles during the last years of the
Soviet occupation of Afghanistan
. They were also important in the
Chechen wars
and the
conflict
in
Georgia
.
[3]
Most recently, Russia used the weapon during military operations in
Crimea
and
Syria
.
[4]
The AS has an
effective range
of about 300 m. It uses heavy
subsonic
9×39mm SP-6 (high-performance armor-piercing)
ammunition
(which weigh down the
bullet
). It also uses the SP-5 ball cartridge used by the
VSS Vintorez
suppressed
sniper rifle
. It can also use the same 10- or 20-round
magazines
of the VSS and the 30-round magazine of the SR-3M. Controls are similar to all
AK-type rifles
. It has a charging handle on the right side, a tangent rear sight, a magazine release button behind the magazine well, and a safety lever above the trigger guard. The fire selector is located within the trigger guard, behind the trigger.
The rifle has two modes of fire: semi-automatic and fully automatic fire. It has a cyclic
rate of fire
of 900 rounds per minute (RPM). According to its users, the AS is reliable, accurate, and well liked.
[
source?
]
The rifle has an AK-type side mount for various optical sights. For example, it has the 4x PSO-1 scope and night sights such as the 1PN51 calibrated for use with the 9×39mm cartridge. The standard open sights are graduated up to 400 m in 25 m increments.
The AS shares 70% of its
components
with its sister-gun, the
VSS Vintorez
. The differences are a skeletonized
steel
stock which folds to the left for storage and transportation (the gun can operate with stock folded, but it cannot have a scope while the stock is folded).
[5]
The
reliability
of the rifle is said to be equivalent to the
AKM
.
[6]
This includes functioning in difficult conditions such as
dust
,
dirt
,
sand
,
rain
, and at a
temperature
range from -50 °C to +50 °C.