In Russia, the tests of prototype of a new manual machine gun RPL-20 began. The weapons will be confirmed by the characteristics due to the terms of reference. About this Chief Designer JSC “Concern” Kalashnikov “Sergey Urzhumtsev told in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“Currently, we went to the stage of testing experienced samples, which are held in order to confirm their compliance with the requirements of the Tactical and Technical Operation,” said chief designer.
The basis of the RPL-20 is the feedback of the military, collected during the field testing of the RPK-16 machine gun, which was considered as a substitute for the Soviet RPK-74. “Kalashnikov” is developing a new machine gun in an initiative order. The first prototype of a light machine gun with ribbon diet has shown on the “Army 2020” forum.
It is known that the PPL-20 is developed under the cartridge of a 5.45 caliber at 39 millimeters. The rest of the machine gun characteristics are not yet disclosed.
RPK-16 machine gun, which has become a starting point in the development of RPL-20, uses cartridges of the same caliber 5.45 to 39 millimeters. The weapon provides rapidity at the level of 700 shots per minute. Machine gun weight of 4.5 kilograms received replaceable trunks and telescopic butt. The main difference between the RPK-16 from the promising RPL-20 is the shopping nutrition.
Earlier, Sergey Urzhumtsev spoke about the beginning of the development of a new rifle complex using a neural network. A promising system will help the arrow to identify the goals and aiming.