AS-44

• Name — AS-44 • Origin — Soviet Union • Type — Assault rifle • Is Ranged — yes • Service — 1944–1945 (limited) • Used By — Soviet Union • Wars — World War II • Designer — Alexey Sudayev • Design Date — 1944–1945 • Production Date — 1944–1945 • Variants — Seven different prototypes • Weight — 5.6 kg • Length — 1,000 mm • Part Length — 505 mm • Cartridge — 7.62×41mm • Action — Gas-operated open tilting bolt (First six prototypes) Gas-delayed blowback (Seventh prototype) • Rate — 520 rounds per minute • Range — 800 m • Feed — 30 round detachable box magazine • Sights — Hooded front post and adjustable tangent notch rear iron sights graduated from 100 – 800 meters

In 1942 Soviet forces began encountering the new German Mkb-42(H) assault rifle being used by German forces on the battlefield and captured them. The Soviets were impressed by this new weapon that they wanted to make their own. In the summer of 1943, the Soviets began development of a new intermediate cartridge and the Soviet M43 7.62×41mm intermediate cartridge was developed and provided to Soviet small arms design bureaus to design a series of new weapons around this new cartridge which included a semi-automatic carbine, an automatic rifle, and a squad automatic weapon for the Soviet military. Design competitions were announced and designs for an automatic carbine were submitted for testing from various designers including Sudayev, Tokarev, Korovin, Shpagin, Bulkin, Fedorov, Simonov, Dementiev, Korobov, and Kalashnikov which lasted up to 3 trials before Kalashnikov's rifle was chosen for adoption in 1947. In May 1944, Alexey Sudayev who had already designed the successful PPS submachine gun delivered the first and fourth models of his AS-44 for tests. The AS-44 successfully met the competition's requirements and in the spring of 1945 an experimental batch of them were manufactured at the Tula Arms Factory. During the summer of 1945, these were sent for testing in the Moscow, Leningrad, Central Asian, and Transcaucasian military districts. The tests determined the AS-44 was reliable, but not as accurate, or long ranged as the Mosin-Nagant rifle currently in service. When fired from its integrated bipod its range and accuracy were judged to be superior to that of sub-machine guns in Soviet service. However, the AS-44 was overweight at 5.6 kg and its accuracy, when fired without its bipod was considered inferior. In spite of positive evaluations, the AS-44 was not approved for mass production at that time. The next set of modifications and trials would have started in early 1946 but Sudayev became ill and died on August 17, 1946, which prevented this from occurring.