Design
The A-91 retains the simple gas-operated, rotating bolt action and a trigger unit design from the 9A-91, it features a bullpup polymer housing, with an integral 40 mm single-shot grenade launcher mounted under the barrel. The earliest prototypes of the A-91 bullpup were added with the grenade launcher above the barrel, and with a frontal vertical foregrip; current models are fitted with the underbarrel launcher, which serves as a forearm. The A-91 has a forward ejection system, initially developed in Tula by designers like Afanasiev during the early 1960s. In this system, the ejection port is located right above the pistol grip, and is directed forward. Extracted cases go from bolt head through the short ejection tube to the ejection port, and fall out of the gun well clear of the shooter's face, even when firing from the left shoulder. As for now, the A-91 is made in small numbers and, probably, is used by some elite police units in Russia; it is also offered for export and domestic military and police sales.
ADS amphibious rifle
In the early 21st century designers at KBP designed a dual medium rifle called ADS. The rifle is heavily based on the A-91, but can use 5.45×39mm PSP underwater cartridge. The rifle is in service with Russian combat divers.
A bullpup firearm is one with its firing grip located in front of the breech of the weapon, instead of behind it. This creates a weapon with a shorter overall length for a given barrel length, and one that is often lighter, more compact, concealable and more maneuverable than a conventionally configured firearm. Where it is desirable for troops to be issued a more compact weapon, the use of a bullpup configuration allows for barrel length to be retained, thus preserving muzzle velocity, range and ballistic effectiveness.
The Steyr AUG is an Austrian bullpup assault rifle chambered for the 5.56×45mm NATO intermediate cartridge, designed in the 1960s by Steyr-Daimler-Puch, and now manufactured by Steyr Arms GmbH & Co KG.
The IWI Tavor, previously designated as the Tavor TAR-21, is an Israeli bullpup assault rifle chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO, designed and produced by Israel Weapon Industries (IWI). It is part of the Tavor family of rifles, which have spawned many derivatives of the original design.
Pump action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by moving a sliding handguard on the gun's forestock. When shooting, the sliding forend is pulled rearward to eject any expended cartridge and typically to cock the hammer or striker, and then pushed forward to load a new cartridge into the chamber. Most pump-action firearms use an integral tubular magazine, although some do use detachable box magazines. Pump-action firearms are typically associated with shotguns, although it has been used in rifles, grenade launchers, as well as other types of firearms. A firearm using this operating mechanism is colloquially referred to as a pumpgun.
The FN F2000 is a 5.56×45mm NATO bullpup rifle, designed by FN Herstal in Belgium. Its compact bullpup design includes a telescopic sight, a non-adjustable fixed notch and front blade secondary sight. The weapon has fully ambidextrous controls, allowed by a unique ejection system, ejecting spent cartridge casings forward and to the right side of the weapon, through a tube running above the barrel. The F2000 made its debut in March 2001 at the IDEX defence exhibition held in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.
The TKB-408Korobov was a bullpup assault rifle prototype by Soviet designer German A. Korobov presented in 1946. The TKB-408 was submitted to a set of official trials conducted in 1946 to select an assault rifle for the Red Army. The Soviet Army commission found it unsatisfactory, with the trials eventually selecting Mikhail Kalashnikov's AK-47.
The Type 95 automatic rifle or QBZ-95 is a bullpup assault rifle designed and manufactured by Norinco, and issued since 1995 as the service rifle for the People's Liberation Army, People's Armed Police and various paramilitary law enforcement agencies in the People's Republic of China. The rifle's designation "QBZ" stands for "'light weapon' —'rifle' (Bùqiāng)—'automatic' (Zìdòng)", in keeping with the coding standards of the Chinese defense industry.
The AS Val "Shaft" and VSS Vintorez "Thread Cutter", 6P30 and 6P29 respectively, were a Soviet-designed assault rifle featuring an integral suppressor based on the prototype RG-036 completed in 1981 by TsNIITochMash. The two rifles hereafter are referred to as the Vintorez and Val. The Vintorez and Val were developed by TsNIITochMash to replace modified general-purpose firearms, such as the AKS-74UB, BS-1, APB, and PB, for clandestine operations, much like the PSS Vul. Manufacturing began at the Tula Arms Plant after its adoption by the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union in 1987.
The OTs-14-4 "Groza-4" is a Russian selective fire bullpup assault rifle chambered for the 9×39mm subsonic cartridge. It was developed in the 1990s at the TsKIB SOO in Tula, Russia.
The ASM-DT is a Russian prototype folding-stock underwater firearm. It emerged in the 1990s.
JSC Konstruktorskoe Buro Priborostroeniya (KBP) is one of the main enterprises in the field of Russian defense industry, based in Tula. It is engaged in designing high-precision weapon systems for the Army, the VMF and the VKS, as well as anti-air defense systems, high-rate-of-fire cannons and small arms, in addition to civilian products. Its full name goes as "Joint-Stock Company Instrument Design Bureau named after Academic A. G. Shipunov". Its shareholders include High Precision Systems, part of the State Corporation Rostec.
The Vepr is the first Ukrainian-made assault rifle, designed in 1993–1994 by the State Space Agency of Ukraine and announced in 2003. It is one of several bullpup conversions of the conventional Russian AK-family design, along with the Polish Kbk wz. 2005 Jantar, the Chinese Norinco Type 86S, the Russian OTs-14 Groza and the Finnish Valmet M82.
The 9A-91 is a compact assault rifle currently in use with Russian police forces. It is used as a cheaper and more versatile alternative to the SR-3 "Vikhr".
The OTs-12Tiss is a Russian fully automatic compact assault rifle. It is chambered for the subsonic 9×39mm round.
The Beretta ARX160 is an Italian modular assault rifle manufactured by Beretta. Developed for the Italian Armed Forces as part of the Soldato Futuro program, the ARX160 was launched in 2008 as a commercial weapon system independent from the Soldato Futuro ensemble, complete with a companion single-shot 40×46mm NATO low-velocity grenade launcher, called the GLX160, which can be mounted underneath the rifle or used with an ad hoc stock system as a stand-alone weapon.
The ADS is a Russian assault rifle specially made for combat divers. It is of a bullpup layout and is chambered in the 5.45×39mm M74 round. The ADS can adapt a suppressor and optical sights.
The ShAK-12, originally under the name ASh-12.7 battle rifle is a dedicated CQB/Urban Operations weapon, developed by TsKIB SOO, a subsidiary of the KBP Instrument Design Bureau of Tula, Russia, by request from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). The weapon was designed with extreme short-range stopping power in mind for FSB urban combat units. According to the Russian press, the first batch of ShAK-12 battle rifles were delivered to the FSB in late 2011.
The BR18 is a bullpup assault rifle made by ST Kinetics of Singapore.
The Kel-Tec RDB is a bullpup carbine offered in 5.56×45mm NATO semi-automatic rifle, manufactured by Kel-Tec Industries of Florida. It uses a rotary bolt with a spring loaded ejector and an extractor facing down, ejecting spent shell casings downward, allowing easy ambidextrous use.
The MDR is a family of autoloading bullpup rifles designed by Desert Tech in 2014. A second generation version of the rifle is marketed as the MDRX.
