The PSS silent pistol or MSS "Vul" ("Вул") is a Soviet silent pistol operating on a sealed cartridge system.

Operation

Cartridge

The PSS uses a specially developed 7.62×41 mm necked round SP-4 (СП-4), also used by the

OTs-38 Stechkin silent revolver The OTs-38 Stechkin is a 5-shot, double-action revolver, in production and service since 2002, chambered in the silent 7.62×41mm SP-4 cartridge. Design The effective range of fire for the OTs-38 Stechkin is 50 m. The fired cases are kept in th ...

. The cartridge contains a propelling charge which drives an internal piston in contact with the base of the bullet. On firing, the piston propels the bullet out of the barrel with enough energy to achieve an effective range of 25 meters. At the end of its travel, the piston seals the cartridge neck, preventing noise, smoke, or blast from escaping.

Action

The PSS is recoil-operated. It has a slide designed to operate silently, in keeping with the pistol's design for silent operation. In other respects, the PSS generally follows traditional conventions, except for the slide's guide rod, which is located above the barrel and instead of guide rails on the pistol frame. The weapon uses a special cartridge with an internal piston. It has been measured to produce a sound level of 122 dB.

Variants

PSS-2

The PSS-2 silenced pistol was developed in Russia. The PSS-2 is based on the original PSS but with some features of the SR-1M pistol and some improvements. It fires the SP-16 noiseless 7.62×43 mm ammunition, more powerful than, but incompatible with, the original 7.62×41 mm cartridge.

Adoption

Developed around 1980 for

assassinations Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...

and

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

, the PSS was first issued to KGB

Spetsnaz SpetsnazThe term is borrowed from rus, спецназ, p=spʲɪtsˈnas; abbreviation for or 'Special Purpose Military Units'; or () are special forces in many post-Soviet states. Historically, this term referred to the Soviet Union's Spet ...

in 1983. It is under production in the special weapons foundry at

TsNIITochMash TsNIITochMash () is a Russian industrial design bureau which is a major designer and producer of weapons for the Russian military and MVD National Guard. The name is an initialism for Central Scientific - Research Institute for Precision Machin ...

. PSS pistols are still in use by some FSB and

MVD The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD; , ''Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del'') is the interior ministry of Russia. The MVD is responsible for law enforcement in Russia through its agencies the Police of Russia, Migration ...

units. The PSS-2 was adopted by the Russian FSB security agency in 2011. The PSS has also been used in the Syrian civil war.

Users

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References

External links

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Modern Firearms Page

video

www.kalashnikov.ru
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pss Silent Pistol Silenced firearms Semi-automatic pistols of Russia Semi-automatic pistols of the Soviet Union 7.62 mm firearms TsNIITochMash products Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1983