Russian Southern district snipers receive 12.7mm Kord-M rifles.

Snipers of the motorized infantry formation of the Southern Military District deployed in Volgograd region received the latest upgraded 12.7mm Kord-M automatic rifles (ASVK-M), the district said. "The snipers are training fire from large-caliber Kord-M".

12.7mm modernized sniper rifle ASVK Kord-M 6V7M (Picture source: Vitaly Kuzmin)

ASVK-M is a part of the prospective Ratnik combat outfit and is designed to destroy light armor and troops in individual protection gear. It effectively fights adversary snipers and promotes the defense of major territories, river and sea space from small boats.

The Kord-M high-accuracy sniper system also is known as ASVK-M and 6V7M-1. The weapon was developed by the Degtyaryov Plant in the town of Kovrov. It turned out to be far lighter than its foreign rivals, in particular, the US-made M82 equipping virtually all special outfits in the world, and it is said to have surpassed its foreign competition in terms of targetable range, according to early feedback.

The 12.7mm cartridge hits targets at a distance of 2,000 meters and snipers remain invulnerable to adversary fire from ordinary-caliber small arms. The "free float" barrel does not touch other rifle parts along the whole length. It has an effective active-reactive compensator which decreases the recoil 2.5 times and camouflages the shot flash at night. The upgrade of the rifle decreased its weight, increased the resource to 4,500 shots, and provided a possibility to regulate the trigger. The designs allows mounting various optical and night sights.