Cold War Shadows: The VSS Vintorez and AS Val Silent Weapons

Summary

The article details the development and technical specifications of the Soviet VSS Vintorez sniper rifle and its closely related counterpart, the AS Val assault rifle. Designed by Pyotr Serdyukov and Vladimir Krasnikov at TsNIITochMash in the 1980s, these integrally suppressed firearms use a specialized 9x39mm subsonic cartridge and were adopted by elite Soviet and later Russian forces for covert operations, particularly in conflicts like the Chechen Wars and the War in Ukraine.