Berezin's universal machine gun (Универсальный Березина)
The foundations for this large-caliber Soviet air machine gun were laid by its designer MEBerezin in 1937. At that time, he started working for the Tulza Design Office (Конструкторское бюро приборостроения - КБП) [i: , 7 mm, which was missing in the Soviet Air Force as an intermediate stage between the excellent machine gun ŠKAS cal. 7.62 mm and cannon ŠVAK cal. 20 mm. The result of his work was an air sludge machine gun. 12.7 mm called BS (БС - Березин, синхронный), ie Berezin, synchronized. Its automation worked on the principle of using the energy of gases taken from the barrel. It was characterized by small size and weight, ease of use, functional reliability and durability, as well as a high cadence for this caliber - 700 shots per minute. In addition, it showed considerable simplicity of production and was therefore, by decision of the Defense Committee (Комитет Обороны), before the successful completion of factory tests and tests at the polygon was approved on 12.4.1939 for series production and in 1940 officially introduced into armaments. In addition to the already mentioned advantages, its advantages were also simple charging, resp. recharging in case of detention (non-firing of the charge in the barrel) as well as quick replacement of the barrel and a relatively small number of components.
Despite these advantages, serious shortcomings have emerged. The mentioned reloading of the machine gun was an indisputable benefit, but as the system of its control by means of ropes showed, it required the pilot to use considerable force, which deprived him of valuable time and concentration in a combat situation. Insufficient resistance of some components of the automatic weapon system also became apparent.
And it was during the work to eliminate the identified shortcomings M.E.Berezin reworked the BS machine gun into a universal machine gun, usable not only in a fixed assembly but also in a moving variant. This created three variants of the machine gun called UB ( универсальный Березина), ie Berezinov universal, according to the space of its assembly. UBS - synchronized (УБC - Универсалъный Березина синхронный), aaaaaa] (УБТ - Универсалъный Березина турелъный) a UBK - krídlový [i: aaaaaееУУ ( The main parts of the weapon are the same in all versions, they differ by the trigger and drum mechanism derived from the method of their assembly. In the winged and synchronized version, charging and reloading the weapon (in the case of a detention) is for the first time pneumatic in Soviet weapons, which greatly facilitated its operation in combat conditions.
The machine gun has been subjected to thorough tests since January 7, 1941, and it has been verified that it works reliably (shoots) even at an altitude of 9,000 meters at temperatures of -45 ° C, it does not jam even during sharp combat turnovers or dive flights. With regard to the achieved results, on February 22, 1941, UB was approved for serial production and included in the armament of VVS. He arrived just in time, because after the invasion of the USSR by fascist troops very quickly proved the low effectiveness of the then main armament of Soviet aircraft - machine guns sludge. 7.62 mm.
The production of UB machine guns took place in the Tulsk Armory Plant (Тульской оружейной завод) and the Izhevsk Engineering Plant (Ижевской машьно
The machine gun in the synchronized version (UBS) was used on fighters I-15, I-15bis, Jak-1, Jak-3, Jak-7B , Jak-9, MiG -3 and LaGG-3.
year [mcol ] number of pieces produced | |
---|---|
1941 | 6.300 |
1943 | 43,690 |
1944 | 38.340 |
1945 | 42.952 |
TTD:
Raze: 12,7x108
total length: 2145 mm
barrel length: 1657 mm
width: 162 mm
height: 212 mm
weight weapons:
UBS: 21.45 kg
UBK: 21.14 kg
UBT: 21.43 kg
shooting speed:
UBS: 700-800 shots/min.
UBK: 800-1500 shots/min.
UBT: 800-1500 shots/min.
muzzle velocity: 810-830 m/s
charge weight: 123 - 137 g
grenade weight [projectile]: 36 g (48 g)
sources:
Широкорад, А.Б .: History of aviation equipment