MOSCOW. Feb 28 (Interfax) - New sniper rifles are being developed for the Russian Defense Ministry as part the Ugolyok project, Albert Bakov, the General Director of the Central Scientific and Research Institute for Precision Machine Engineering (TsNIITOChMash), told the newspaper Izvestia in an interview.
"The Ugolyok project is underway. Sniper systems are being designed for the Defense Ministry: two semi-automatic sniper rifles," Bakov said.
As to whether the rifles might replace the Dragunov sniper rifle, he said, "We will never create a replacement for Dragunov."
"One could spend billions and achieve nothing on Dragonov's range of operation, up to 800 meters. The Dragunov sniper rifle is perfect. It can be used as an oar or tossed on the ground: it operates ideally on a distance from 500 to 800 meters. Perhaps, its optical sight or some other details could be improved but, on the whole, it cannot be made any better," Bakov said.
"Yet, rifles operating on longer distances are necessary in some cases. We are designing rifles of two calibers, i.e. 308 and .338 Lapua Magnum (special sniper rifle cartridges used on long distances). There is a minor problem: the rifle was initially designed for security services. Their requirements to rifle specifications are a bit different from the one of the Defense Ministry, which demands that we do not use any imported components," Bakov said.
TsNIITOChMash is a unit of the Rostec state corporation. It designs artillery systems and small arms.
It is also the leading designer of the Ratnik combat gear.