DShK
Template:Infobox weapon The DShK M1938 (Cyrillic: ДШК, for Template:Langx) is a Soviet heavy machine gun. The weapon may be vehicle mounted or used on a tripod or wheeled carriage as a heavy infantry machine gun. The DShK's name is derived from its original designer, Vasily Degtyaryov, and Georgi Shpagin, who later improved the cartridge feed mechanism. It is sometimes nicknamed Dushka (a dear or beloved person) in Russian-speaking countries, from the abbreviation.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
SpecificationsEdit
The DShK is a belt-fed machine gun firing the 12.7×108mm cartridge, and uses a butterfly trigger.<ref name=":2" /> Firing at 600 rounds per minute, it has an effective range of Template:Convert, and can penetrate up to 20 mm of armor up to a range of 500 m.<ref name=":1" /> The DShK has two "spider web" ring sights for use against aircraft. It is used by infantry on tripod mounts or deployed with a two-wheeled mounting and a single-sheet armor-plate shield. It is also mounted on tanks and armored vehicles for use against infantry and aircraft; nearly all Russian-designed tanks prior to the T-64 use the DShK.Template:Sfn
HistoryEdit
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Requiring a heavy machine gun similar to the M2 Browning, development of the DShK began in the Soviet Union in 1929 and the first design was finalised by Vasily Degtyaryov in 1931.<ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The initial design used the same gas operation from the Degtyaryov machine gun, and used a 30 round drum magazine, but had a poor rate of fire. Georgy Shpagin revised the design by changing it to a belt-fed with a rotary-feed cylinder, and the new machine gun began production in 1938 as the DShK 1938.<ref name=":1" />Template:Sfn The DShK and the American M2 Browning are the only .50 caliber machine guns designed prior to World War II that remain in service to the present day.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>
During World War II, the DShK was used by the Red Army, with a total of 9,000 produced during the war.<ref name=":1" /> It was used mostly in anti-aircraft roles on vehicles such as the GAZ-AA truck, IS-2 tank, ISU-152 self-propelled artillery, and the T-40 amphibious tank.<ref name=":1" /> Similar to the PM M1910 Maxim, when deployed against infantry, the DShK was used with a two-wheeled trolley, with which the machine gun weighed a total of Template:Convert.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 1944, a much cheaper muzzle brake patterned after the Polish Wz. 35 anti-tank rifle was introduced instead of the complicated early design.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After 1945, the DShK was exported widely to other countries in the Eastern Bloc.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In 1946, an improved variant was produced, with a revised muzzle and feeding system. Named the DShK 38/46 or DShK-M, over a million were produced from 1946-1980.<ref name=":1" /> The gun was also revised to become more reliable, and easier to manufacture.Template:Sfn The new DShK was produced under license in Pakistan, Iran, Yugoslavia, Romania, Poland<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Czechoslovakia.<ref name=":1" /> Czechoslovak variant, most often encountered on quads, is visually distinguishable by a rectangular muzzle brake.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> China produced their own variant of the design, designated the Type 54.<ref name="SAS 2008 1">Template:Cite book</ref>
After World War II, DShKs were used widely by communist forces in Vietnam, starting with the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954. While not as powerful as anti-aircraft cannons, the DShK was easier to smuggle through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.<ref name=":1" /> DShKs were a major threat to American aircraft in the Vietnam War,<ref name=":2" /> and of the 7,500 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft lost during the war, most were destroyed by anti-aircraft guns including DShK.<ref name=":1" />
In June 1988, during The Troubles, a British Army Westland Lynx helicopter was hit 15 times by two Provisional IRA DShKs smuggled from Libya, and forced to crash-land near Cashel Lough Upper, south County Armagh.<ref>Harnden, Toby (2000).Bandit Country: The IRA and South Armagh. Coronet Books, pp. 360–361 Template:ISBN</ref>
Rebel forces utilized DShKs in the Syrian civil war, often mounting the gun on cars. In 2012, the Syrian government claimed to have destroyed 40 such technicals on a highway in Aleppo and six in Dael.<ref name="SANA">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The DShK began to be partially replaced in the Soviet Union by the NSV machine gun in 1971, and the Kord machine gun in 1998.<ref name=":0" /> The DShK remains in service, although it is no longer produced.Template:Sfn
The weapon was used by Ukrainian forces in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine to shoot down Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones. The DShKs are fitted with a searchlight when attacking drones, which MANPADS have been unable to destroy. As many of the DShKs have been left over from the Soviet Union, they have been both cost-effective and one of the most reliable methods of destroying drones.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
VariantsEdit
- DShK-38: the original version of the DShK.
- DShK 38/46: a modernized version of the DShK 38 introduced in 1946. The weapon is commonly referred to simply as the DShKM.
- Vz.38/46: a Czechoslovakian license version of the DShKM whose feeding mechanism was modified to allow the breech to be loaded from left or right and allow twin or quad mount.
- Type 54: a copy of the DShKM illegally produced by Norinco of China, which continues to be manufactured under Norinco's license in Pakistan and Iran.
- MGD-12.7: a Type 54 variant produced by Iran.
UsersEdit
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- Template:Flag<ref name="gander1995">Gander, Terry J.; Hogg, Ian V. Jane's Infantry Weapons 1995/1996. Jane's Information Group; 21 edition (May 1995). Template:ISBN.</ref>
- Template:Flag: Produced DShKM variant Type 54.<ref name="miller2001" />
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- Template:Flag: Manufactured DShKM variant named MGD 12.7.<ref name="g3defencemag">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Template:Flag<ref name="jones2009" /> called the "Doshka" by Iraqis.
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- Template:Flag: Used by the Pakistan Army. DShKM variant produced locally.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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Former usersEdit
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- Template:Flag: Produced DShKM variant TK Vz.53 which included a four barrelled version.<ref name="miller2001">Template:Cite book</ref>
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- File:Tamil Eelam Flag.svg Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
- Template:Flag: Passed on to successor states.<ref name="miller2001" />
- Template:Flag: Manufactured DShKM variant.<ref name="g3defencemag" />
Non-state usersEdit
- Template:Flagicon Al-Quds Brigades
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- Iraqi insurgents
- Template:Flagicon Provisional IRA<ref name="miller2001" />
GalleryEdit
- MTU-2 ring mounting (1).jpg
A Soviet Template:Sclass2 armed with the DShK machine gun on the MTU-2 ring mount, 1944
- Зенитчики бронепоезда «Железняков» у пулеметов ДШК.jpg
The DShK anti-aircraft machine guns mounted on the Soviet armoured train Zhelezniakov, May 1942
- 12,7-мм станковый пулемёт ДШК образца 1938 года.jpg
The WW2-era DShK M1938 anti-aircraft machine gun in the Artillery Museum (Saint Petersburg)
- Mitraliera DShK UM Cugir.jpg
A Romanian DShK chambered in 12.7×99mm NATO on display at Expomil 2005
- A soldier with the Ukrainian Land Forces fires a Degtyaryov-Shpagin Large-Caliber heavy machine gun.jpg
A soldier with the Ukrainian Land Forces fires a DShKM
- Black Sea Defense and Aerospace 2010 (6).jpg
DShKM TR-85M1
- Romanian URO VAMTAC S3 in service with the Romanian military.jpg
DShKM URO VAMTAC
- DShK on T-55 DD-SD-01-05147.JPEG
DShKM anti-aircraft machine gun on a T-55 tank loader's roof hatch
- Anti-aircraft gun in Museo Giron.jpg
The M53 is an anti-aircraft mounting of four 12.7 mm heavy machine guns vz. 38/46 (Czech copy of Soviet DShKM)
- Niger, Mélèk (N'Gourti)(10) (cropped).jpg
DShKM mounted on a Toyota Land Cruiser technical in Niger
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Leszek Erenfeicht (29 August 2012). "Dushka: The Soviet Fifty Caliber". Small Arms Defense Journal. Vol. 4, No. 3.
- Template:Cite book
External linksEdit
- DShK and DShKM at guns.ru.
- Video of Operation