Under-barrel shotguns have reached the SVO
A photo of a Ukrainian special forces soldier that prompted the topic of underbarrel shotguns to be raised. So far, this is the only photo confirmation of our opponents using underbarrel shotguns
Not long ago, a photo of a Ukrainian special forces soldier appeared on the Internet, presumably taken in the SVO zone. The photo is notable for the fact that the Ukrainian is armed with a carbine with an American-made M26 underbarrel shotgun. What is this weapon and what could be interesting about underbarrel shotguns in the context of the current conflict?
Thanks to Hollywood, we've known what an underbarrel shotgun is since the late 1980s. A still from the 1987 film Predator, with Billy Saul, played by actor Sonny Landham, holding a rifle equipped with an underbarrel shotgun. True, in this case, the film's prop masters didn't use a real underbarrel system, but simply attached a full-size Mossberg 500 shotgun to the machine gun, with the butt removed. This shotgun weighs more than two kilograms, even without the butt and cartridges, so it's an open question how applicable this would be in reality. But this is Hollywood, and the magic of cinema is in full force there.
The under-barrel shotgun, designated the XM-26 LSS (Lightweight Shotgun System), entered military testing in 1999. The developer was C-More Competition. The requirements for this system were initially developed by the US Special Operations Command (US SOCOM).
In 2003, a pilot batch of 200 XM-26 shotguns was sent to Afghanistan for military testing, where they generally proved themselves to be positive. The system was adopted by the US Army under the name M26 MASS (Modular Accessory Shotgun System). In 2008, the US Army placed an order for 35 M000 MASS units. The order was fully completed by the manufacturer by 26.
The M26 MASS was originally designed to be used not only as an under-barrel auxiliary system, but also as an independent weapon system. The photo clearly shows the reloading handle in the folded position.
The first thing everyone probably thought about when they saw the photo of a Ukrainian special forces soldier with an underbarrel shotgun was that it was a great help in the fight against drones, first of all FPV (reconnaissance, even “civilian” ones fly too high, and heavy ones like “Baba Yaga” should not be shot down with shotguns).
But this shotgun was created, to put it mildly, in the "pre-drone" era, and even the theoretical possibility of fighting drones with such a shotgun was not considered at the time. Drones were simply completely different back then. In fact, the M26 is a development of the idea of an under-barrel shotgun by Knight's Armament Company called the Masterkey. In fact, the main purpose of such a shotgun in this case is encrypted in the name of the product itself - the masterkey, that is, such shotguns were created primarily for breaching - the process of quickly opening doors, including using shotgun shells for smoothbore guns. Well, and already as secondary tasks there was use in close combat, primarily when clearing premises, and as an additional weapon capable of firing non-lethal ammunition. That is, in general, a range of tasks for a special forces unit, and more likely even a police unit than an army one. But this is not all.
Here, the M26 performs one of its primary missions: britching. A member of the U.S. Army's 119th Engineer Company performs britching training in Kingwood, West Virginia, June 2, 2023.
The main thing is probably the barrel length. On the M26 it is only 197 millimeters. For comparison, the legendary IZH-27, which, by the way, also fights in the SVO zone, has a barrel length of 660 millimeters. And this is still the most “short-barreled” version of this legendary shotgun. In fact, if we are talking about the fight against drones, such a system can probably only be considered as a “last chance” weapon.
Although the M26 was originally developed for the U.S. Special Operations Command, it has since become a fairly common sight in regular army units. Here is a U.S. Army soldier training with an M26. Note the huge fireball that shoots out of the barrel when fired, thanks to the short barrel. The targets are quite a distance away, considering that the shot is fired from a shotgun with an extremely short barrel. But the targets are also fired with bullets and buckshot, not shot.
In addition, the M26 has a longitudinally sliding bolt. Moreover, reloading is not done like on a "pump", by moving the fore-end, but with the help of a handle sticking out of the bolt. It does not look very convenient. Any hunter or shooter will say that with due skill and shooting from a "pump" you can shoot more than quickly, even at moving targets. But with such a manual reloading system, how quickly a fighter can shoot, and even at an airborne, moving target, is more than an open question.
A U.S. Army Reserve soldier during target practice with an M26 shotgun, 2020. The photo shows the process of reloading the weapon and the moment of extracting the spent cartridge. It is clearly visible that in order to reload the shotgun, you need to remove your hand from the magazine well, which is held by it, pull the bolt back by the handle, then close the bolt, sending a new cartridge from the magazine into the chamber, and only then return your hand to the magazine well, returning to a normal stable hold of the weapon. Whether it will be possible to fire quickly and accurately at fast-moving air targets with such a manual reloading system, and even at minimal distances, is more than an open question.
Naturally, the answer would be self-loading systems and systems with a longer barrel. But here the question of weight and dimensions arises. An unloaded M26 weighs the same as an unloaded M230 underbarrel grenade launcher - in fact, these are the characteristics that the American military was striving for, this was one of the conditions of the technical task when creating this system. Any self-loading system will be heavier. As, in fact, any millimeters of barrel length will add weight and disrupt the balance of the main weapon.
An example of an under-barrel shotgun with a fairly impressive barrel length is the SIX12, from the well-known Crye Precision. However, here the question arises, to what extent are the weight and dimensions of such an under-barrel shotgun adequate in relation to the tasks it solves?
Perhaps, such a weapon system, even with such a barrel length, could be more effective in combating drones if there is special ammunition. We are talking about shotgun cartridges, where the pellets are connected to each other with strong synthetic threads. There is information in open sources that such ammunition has already been used by our soldiers in the SVO zone and has proven to be highly effective. This idea is not new. Buckshot tied with a thread has been used by hunters for quite a long time, but there the point was to hold the buckshot with a thread, and due to this, the range of destruction was increased. Here the point is that the thread essentially acts as the main striking element. In the summer of 2024, news that such cartridges are ready to be mass-produced at the Izhevsk-based Tekhkrim JSC.
A special anti-drone munition from Tekhkrim CJSC, announced in the summer of 2024. Similar munitions are already being offered by several private manufacturers in the United States.
They are working on under-barrel shotguns in our country too. True, it is homemade, unofficial, and the initiative for such developments comes from below. Almost all the designs that have been exposed in the information field are single-shot, single-barrel homemade shotguns. In essence, a tube from which a 12-gauge cartridge is fired. The reliability of such a shotgun is low, it takes a long time to reload and, apparently, it can show at least some effectiveness if there are at least several such designs in a small unit. Large domestic manufacturers have not yet shown interest in the topic of under-barrel shotguns.
There was such a thing. This is the RTS-SBS-12 underbarrel shotgun from the American manufacturer Red Jacket Firearms. In essence, this is a Saiga-12 imported to the USA from Russia, from which all unnecessary features were removed. This system was created exclusively for police special forces, again with an eye, first of all, on the breech (a muzzle device with developed spikes, just right for literally biting into wooden doors), and it did not enjoy any particular popularity in the USA.
The underbarrel shotgun itself is a rather specific thing. It was created for a very narrow range of tasks and, accordingly, did not receive wide distribution. Be that as it may, it could become a help on the battlefield for solving some tasks, but not by itself, but only in combination with other means.
An example of the creativity of our fighters in the SVO zone. A homemade, single-shot, under-barrel shotgun mounted on an AK-12. The effectiveness of such crafts, unfortunately, is low, and they did not appear out of a good life.
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