Photo Of The Day – Here’s a look at the Russian APS Underwater Rifle, the Avtomat Podvodny Spetsialnyy “Special Underwater Assault Rifle”.

The APS fires 120 mm (4.75 in) long 5.66 mm caliber steel bolts, made specially for the APS. The magazine holds 26 “arrows”, and the barrel is not rifled. It makes me wonder if firearms like this have ever been used in combat, diver to diver? Or if it’s all James Bond mumbo jumbo to make the divers look more dangerous? It must be quite a hassle to dive with a rifle, let alone try to aim it.

All captions are machine translated from Russian.

As part of the tactical exercises, the military personnel of the special forces to combat submarine sabotage forces and means of the Novorossiysk Naval Base of the Black Sea Fleet performed underwater descents with a search for a model of an explosive device

Divers conducted an anti-sabotage inspection of the underwater hulls of ships and hydraulic structures of berths using the “comb” and “necklace” methods. As a result of search actions, a conventional explosive device was found and successfully neutralized.

In carrying out the task, personnel examined about ten ships and base support vessels, having spent a total of more than three hours under water.

All pictures by the Russian Ministry of Defense.