#OSV-96

During the  International Military-Technical Forum ARMY-2018, Russian TsKIB SOO of Tula has introduced two new civilian firearms that are based on the company’s military products. The two guns are the civilian versions of the PP-2000 SMG and the OSV-96 .50 caliber rifle. Let’s take a brief look at each of these firearms.

A recent visit by the Vietnamese Vice President Ngong Thinh to the MoD’s state arsenal factory Z111 has revealed that the country is currently producing what appears to be a licensed copy of the Russian 12.7x108mm OSV-96 semi-automatic magazine fed anti-material rifle. Previous news articles from 2015 have suggested that the rifle would enter production or was at least in the prototyping stage of development during that year, but this confirms that the rifle will certainly be produced in Vietnam. Factory Z111 is the same factory in Vietnam that is also turning out 5.56x45mm Galil ACE rifles for the Vietnamese Armed Forces. This is not the first 12.7x108mm weapon system that Vietnam has produced, with the Vietnamese coming up KSVK anti-material rifle announced in August of 2017. We don’t seem to be seeing much of that particular design, being that it is a manually repeating bolt action rifle, it was probably less preferred by the high command to this semi-automatic one.

The Belarusian Historical and Cultural Complex “Stalin Line” has published a video telling about current small arms of Belarusian special forces. None of them is an unknown firearm, yet it is still interesting to see what combination of guns and accessories they use. You can watch the video (in Russian) and as always, we’ll take a brief look at each of the guns.

Syrian rebels have gotten their hands on the large Russian OSV-96 12.7x108mm anti-material rifle and have wasted no time in parading the gun in front of cameras.