Yesterday, we took a look at the new Snipex Monomakh anti-material rifle released by this Ukrainian company at the Arms and Security 2021 exhibition recently held in Kyiv, Ukraine. Besides this expansion of their anti-materiel rifle line, the company has also introduced a new belt-fed heavy machine gun chambered in 12.7x108mm. The new HMG is called Laska K-2. It does look similar to the M2 Browning machine gun but many key design elements are completely different. Let’s take a closer look.

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Besides the overall appearance, one of the similarities of Laska K-2 and M2 machine guns is the short barrel recoil operation mechanism. However, unlike the M2 which bolt is locked via a rear breech lock, this new HMG has a multi-lug rotating bolt locking into a barrel extension. In the video below, you can see the field stripping of the Laska K-2 HMG and the design of its key components.

As seen in the video, the Snipex Laska K-2 HMG utilizes polymer disintegrating links. If they perform well, polymer links should allow saving a lot of weight and should cost less compared to metal belt links. The belt of the Laska K-2 machine gun can be loaded into the gun without a need to open the top cover and the feeding direction of the belt can be changed. Watch the video below to see the Laska K-2 in action and the process of loading the 12.7x108mm cartridges into the polymer links.

The Snipex Laska K-2 machine gun has a 43.75″ (1111mm) barrel, an overall length of 72.44″ (1840mm) and it weighs in at 64 lbs (29 kg). The effective firing ranges on ground and airborne targets are 2000 and 1500 meters respectively. The gun fires at a rate of fire of 500-600 rounds per minute.

Earlier, in an article published on the website of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, Andriy Taran, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, said that the Ukrainian military is currently testing this machine gun and is expecting to adopt it.

Pictures by Snipex, www.snipex.com