Ukrainian Maxim Gun - It doesn't hurt that it's chambered in the standard Russian 7.62x54mm cartridge, variations of which are still widely used after 129 years.
Six years after Ukraine was first embroiled in armed conflict with Russia and its empires, the country still relies heavily on stockpiles of Soviet-era aircraft, vehicles, weapons and other military equipment, its derivatives or new designs that make use of existing ones. resources somehow. In a particularly extreme example, a recent video clip from the front lines shows that the Ukrainian military still actively uses the M1910 Maxim machine gun, which was designed before the First World War.
Ukrainian Maxim Gun
The video, which originally aired as part of a segment on Ukrainian television channel Channel 5 and has been circulating on social media since at least January 31, 2020, shows a member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine manning an M1910 machine gun at an unspecified location. . in the country's Luhansk region. Luhansk is one of the regions of Ukraine that declared itself an independent republic in 2014 after Russia annexed the illegal Crimea peninsula and the Kremlin nominally supported local separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. Luhansk and Donetsk make up the region known as Donbass, which has been at the center of the conflict ever since.
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This is certainly not the first time that images of the M1910 used in Ukraine have surfaced. In 2016, Ukraine
The news network posted a video of another Maxim weapon still in use in the country's armed forces.
The Russian M1910 is a direct descendant of Hiram Maxim's eponymous machine gun, which was the first widespread weapon of its type to be produced and used in the mid-1880s. Variants of the then-revolutionary weapon have quickly finding their way onto battlefields around the world and were manufactured under license in several countries, including Imperial Russia under the Tsar.
The M1910, first introduced in 1910, is a water-cooled weapon with a large hollow jacket around the barrel that is periodically filled with water to prevent it from overheating during sustained fire. This version also fires the standard Russian 7.62x54mm cartridge, the first versions of which entered Imperial Russian military service in 1891. After 129 years, this remains the oldest standard cartridge still in military use widespread, and Russia continues to produce new weapons to shoot it. relatively the latest variations of an ancient projectile.
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Russian maxims served in World War I with Tsarist forces, then on both sides of the Bolshevik Revolution and subsequent Russian Civil War, and in the Soviet Army during World War II. Although the Soviets began replacing them with newer SG-43 machine guns in 1943, the M1910 remained in production until 1945, with several general improvements added to the design over the years.
It is not clear which particular variant of the M1910 is seen in the recent video from Ukraine, but it does not have the so-called "tractor cap" rear over the cooling jacket that was added to many weapons, such as the one below, which begins . sometime between 1941 and 1943. The gun shown in the 2016 video clip has this feature.
This large cap allowed the machine gun crews to fill their jacket with snow, as an alternative to water that would freeze in the cold Russian winters. It's also worth noting that even if the gun in the Ukraine video was among the last M1910s made in the Soviet Union, it would still be 75 years old.
Various types of M1910s remained in reserve stock in the Soviet Union for decades, and were also widely exported to Soviet allies and associated forces. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some would still be stored in Ukraine, which last became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Year Old M1910 Maxim Machine Gun Used By Ukrainian Forces
As long as the weapon itself works, there are no real barriers to using it either. As noted, it uses standard 7.62x54mm ammunition, which is still in production in countries like Ukraine and Russia more than a century after its introduction. Later Soviet machine gun designs also continued to use replaceable cartridge belts to further reduce logistical requirements. This Ukrainian M1910 appears to be loaded with ammunition from a much more modern PK series machine gun.
A US Army soldier fires a PK series machine gun during an exchange with foreign forces. 7.62x54mm belted cartridge is clearly visible., US Army
There may even be some advantages to using the Maxim over newer models. The video shows it placed in a fixed machine gun bay, where a water-cooled gun that can fire indefinitely without overheating as long as the cooling jacket is refilled regularly and nothing physically breaks would be an ideal choice.
At the same time, it also shows how far Ukraine has had to dig to acquire more weapons and other military equipment, as it faces one of the world's largest armies and its empire. In any case, that this M1910 continues to serve in any capacity is a testament to both Maxim's pistol design and the Russian 7.62x54mm cartridge.
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Unfortunately, as the conflict in Ukraine does not appear to be ending anytime soon, this at least 75-year-old weapon may still have years of service ahead of it. Why is the Ukrainian military still using Russia's 100-year-old M1910 machine gun, but it has advantages over modern weapons?
UKRAINIAN FORCES are fighting Russian invaders with machine guns introduced when Ukraine was part of the Tsarist Russian Empire. The Maxim M1910 has a steampunk aesthetic: it weighs 68kg and features an armored weapon shield on a distinctive two-wheeled stand that allows it to be towed behind a vehicle or operated by a weapons team. The Russian media ridicule these antiquities, saying that the Ukrainians use them because they do not have modern weapons. The truth is more complicated.
As the name suggests, the gun was introduced in 1910. It is the Russian version of the first truly automatic machine gun, patented by British-American inventor Hiram Maxim in 1883. Earlier Gatling guns had six barrels that they had to be operated manually. In Maxim's design, firing the bullet activates the action and loads the next round. A finger on the trigger unleashes a hail of bullets. Thanks to the water-cooled barrel, it can shoot for long periods of time. Variants of the Maxim weapon proved to be a deadly and effective tool of killing and terror during the height of imperialism in the late 19th century, when small European forces could kill their losers by the hundreds or thousands. It revolutionized the war between European states.
Modern medium machine guns firing the same 7.62mm cartridge as the M1910 are much lighter and more portable: the current Russian PKM weighs less than a fifth. However, they do not have water cooling. Continuous firing for one minute can cause the barrel to warp or the weapon to "cook" when firing rounds without a trigger.
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In 2016, Ukraine's Defense Minister confirmed that he had authorized the release of some M1910s from government stockpiles (the Maxim weapon is not standard equipment, but is available upon request, as some defense units have regional). An audit in 2012 showed that Ukraine had 35,000 weapons in stock, all manufactured between 1920 and 1950.
Only a handful of M1910s have been seen in action since Russia invaded in February, but they are said to have proven effective in fixed defensive positions and fortresses. In addition to the water cooling that allows for continuous fire, its solid supports make it easy to aim. A Ukrainian soldier interviewed in 2016 said that the M1910 was very accurate at one kilometer, effective at three kilometers, and that he would not trade it for a more modern weapon. Some M1910s have even been modernized, and there are pictures on social media showing old machine guns with modern electronic "red dot" sights. The weapon is not officially in service with any other military, although they are also used by Russian-backed separatist militias in the Donbass region and have appeared in conflict zones from Syria to Vietnam.
Some of the Russian propaganda may be accurate: Ukraine's attempt to develop its own copy of the modern Russian PKM in 2011 was unsuccessful. The forces reported serious problems with the Mayak KM, as it is known, including the inability to aim at targets less than 400 meters away due to a sight-obscuring mount. In 2016, the chief of armaments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine admitted that there were still problems with the weapon, but the structure was changed. There are still few signs of the Mayak KM in use. Instead, Ukraine has imported several foreign machine guns, and Ukrainian mechanics collect weapons from destroyed Russian vehicles to convert them into infantry weapons. And some troops still use the trusty M1910. Machine guns remain an essential feature of infantry combat. Like a hundred years ago
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