At the end of the 1990s, the designer team of Tula School of Design and Engineering cooperated with colleagues from the "VoenMekh" Higher Vocational Education College in St. Petersburg to develop the ASM-DT "Sea Lion" amphibious rifle. This special firearm is specially designed for naval combat divers. It is a further development of the underwater special assault rifle (APS), but it adopts a completely new technical route. When shooting in water, use needle-shaped ammunition (similar to MPS, MPST, with different diameters of projectiles), use 5.45×39mm ammunition in the air, and use magazines similar to APS and AK-74 for ammunition.
The gun can also be equipped with a GP-25 under-mounted grenade launcher, which has a huge advantage when combat divers perform tasks on shore. Different scopes can be installed as needed. The muzzle thread is the same as the AK-74 rifle, and a variety of muzzle devices including PBS silencer can be used.
The main mechanism of AFM-DT is directly taken from the APS underwater rifle, including the air guide with automatic adjustment device, the rotating and locking bolt assembly, and the trigger for single and continuous shooting group. The design team made some modern improvements to the gun, and the many drainage holes on the APS are no longer visible on the "Sea Lion" gun.
It is interesting to solve the problem of completely removing the water in the barrel and air duct when launching standard 5.45×39mm ammunition. When the ammunition is fired, a small part of the gunpowder gas enters the air duct through a small hole in the front of the barrel, and then sprays the internal water out of the barrel through the air duct and the hole in the front of the barrel.
This group of photos was taken at the Rzhev training ground. Here is a collection of a prototype gun for testing. Test engineer Major Shevchenko (AV Shevchenko) demonstrated the gun for us Use and decomposition status. The magazine card can be moved back and forth to fit two completely different magazines. In order to prevent dust from entering the gun, there is a large dust cover at the bottom of the receiver.
AFM-DT "Sea Lion" amphibious rifle has excellent performance. Its shooting effect in water is equivalent to that of APS underwater rifle, and its shooting effect in air is equivalent to that of AK-74. Although the "Sea Lion" has passed all tests and performed well in terms of reliability and main performance parameters, it has not been deployed. Now, you can see this very rare amphibious rifle in the Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signals Military History.
