VSS "Vintorez"

The VSS Vintorez originated in a Soviet programme for suppressed small arms run by TsNIITochMash at Klimovsk, an institute whose work in this field dated back to the examination of a suppressed pistol captured with U-2 pilot Gary Powers in 1960. In 1981, designers P. I. Serdyukov and V. F. Krasnikov began work on a combined suppressed rifle and subsonic cartridge, following requirements issued by the KGB and GRU for weapons suited to covert operations. The rifle was derived from the RG-036 prototype designed at TsNIITochMash in 1981, with development of the VSS itself beginning in 1983 and proceeding in parallel with the AS Val, an assault rifle variant with a folding stock developed in 1985. The two weapons were intended to replace adapted general-purpose firearms such as the AKS-74UB, BS-1, APB and PB. The Armed Forces of the Soviet Union adopted the rifle in 1987, after which manufacture began at the Tula Arms Plant. Its GRAU designation is 6P29.

The VSS uses a modified Kalashnikov action, gas-operated with a rotating bolt, combined with an integral suppressor. Its barrel is optimised for accurate fire with the SP-5 (7N8) cartridge, which uses a heavy full metal jacket bullet at subsonic velocity; the AS Val barrel is instead optimised for sustained automatic fire with the armour-piercing SP-6 (7N9) cartridge. The suppressor works on a dual-chamber principle: propellant gases are vented through perforations along the barrel into a first chamber where they cool and lose pressure, then pass through a second chamber fitted with mesh screens that break up the gas stream before it leaves the muzzle. The rifle has a selective-fire mechanism, with a safety lever similar to that of Kalashnikov rifles and a separate fire selector located behind the trigger. It is normally used in semi-automatic mode, automatic fire being reserved for ambushes, emergencies and engagements against soft-skinned vehicles such as trucks. Detachable box magazines are shared with the AS Val, and both weapons also accept SR-3M magazines; the magazine bodies carry horizontal indentations that stiffen the walls and allow tactile identification to prevent confusion with Kalashnikov-pattern magazines. Iron sights are integrated with the suppressor. The rifle can be dismantled and carried in an aluminium briefcase together with a PSO-1-1 (1P43) telescopic sight, an NPSU-3 night sight and two magazines. It can also mount the PSO-1 sight of the SVD or the 1PN52-1 night sight.

The VSS Vintorez was issued to Soviet troops from the late 1980s and was used in the First Chechen War in 1994 and the Second Chechen War in 1999, remaining little known outside Russia until Russian and Georgian forces both employed it during the Russo-Georgian War of 2008. It has since been used by Russian Spetsnaz in the Russo-Ukrainian War, and numbers were captured from Russian forces during the 2022 invasion. Ukraine's Alpha Group used the rifle in small numbers while guarding the Ukrainian embassy in Iraq in the 2000s; Militarnyi reports it had been withdrawn by 2014 for lack of ammunition. Other users include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cuba, Georgia and India, where it equips the MARCOS. In Russia it serves with Spetsnaz units, the FSB and OMON. The modernised VSSM (6P29M), delivered from 2018, has a redesigned dust cover with a Picatinny rail, a removable rail mount shrouding the suppressor, an adjustable aluminium buttstock and the 1P86 variable-magnification sight. The KO VSS is a semi-automatic civilian variant with a receiver-top Picatinny rail; the KO VSS-01 substitutes a dovetail mount.