DUSHANBE, October 9, 2014, Asia-Plus — Special sniper rifles, called the Vintorez (“thread cutter”), have gone into service of snipers serving in the Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan, according to Russia”s Central Military District press center.
Servicemen of the Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan have reportedly used the VSS (Vintovka Snayperskaya Spetsialnaya or “Special Sniper Rifle”) during shooting practices in mountain areas.
The VSS (Vintovka Snayperskaya Spetsialnaya or “Special Sniper Rifle”), also called the Vintorez (“thread cutter”), is a suppressed sniper rifle that uses a heavy subsonic 9×39mm SP5 cartridge and armor-piercing SP6 cartridge. It was developed in the late 1980s by TsNIITochMash (the Central Research Institute for Precision Machine Building) and manufactured by the Tula Arsenal. It is issued primarily to Spetsnaz (Special Purpose Forces) units for undercover or clandestine operations, a role made evident by its ability to be stripped down for transport in a specially fitted briefcase.
The VSS is normally fed from a 10-round magazine and fired semi-automatically. Should the operational need arise, the weapon can be used in fully automatic mode using either its original 10-round magazine or the 20-round magazines from the AS rifle.
It uses a heavy subsonic 9×39 mm SP-5 cartridge. Subsonic ammunition is used to avoid a sonic boom. The bullet is very effective at penetrating body armor. For this purpose it is equipped with a hardened steel or tungsten tip to penetrate a 6 mm (0.2 in) high-density steel plate at 100 m; a 2 mm (0.08 in) steel plate or a standard army helmet can be fully penetrated at 500 m; however, the rifle is typically employed under 400 m.
The Russian military based deployed in Tajikistan is Russia”s largest non-naval military facility outside the country. It was officially opened in Tajikistan in 2004 under a previous agreement, which was signed in 1993, and hosts Russia’s largest military contingent deployed abroad.
A total of some 6,000 Russian troops are stationed at three military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base – in Dushanbe, Qurghon Teppa, some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe, and Kulob, about 200 kilometers southwest of Dushanbe.
