According to Russian media reports, the Russian Ministry of defense has decided to equip its fighter pilots with light weapons such as ppk-20 submachine guns and compact Lebedev modular pistols, and said that this adjustment will help enhance the pilots' field survival ability and confidence in carrying out flight missions. Ppk-20 submachine gun. Data picture Lebedev modular pistol. Data picture For a long time, countries all over the world have a tradition of providing guns for Air Force pilots. This approach can enable pilots to maintain a certain degree of field survival and self-defense after their fighter plane is shot down or crashed. As the most active and key component of air combat force, the training of Air Force pilots in any country is not easy, and it needs to pay a lot of economic cost and time cost. Therefore, to ensure the safety of Air Force pilots to the greatest extent has become a subject that all countries have been paying attention to and trying to solve. One of the solutions is to equip pilots with portable guns. What are the special requirements for pilots' guns? What are the rules of their update iterations? What direction will it develop in the future? See the interpretation. Self defense gun: the pilot's "personal sword" ■ Shi Fei The consensus on gun allocation for pilots remains unchanged, but the purpose of guns allocated has changed It has been a long-standing practice to equip pilots with guns. At first, the gun equipped by the pilot was not used when the pilot landed after fleeing the faulty or damaged fighter. Instead, it was used as one of the weapons of air combat to shoot each other directly in the air. At that time, specialized airborne aviation weapons and equipment had not been developed. Some ammunition such as hand grenades and hand dropped bombs were loaded into aircraft to attack ground targets. Facing the enemy's aircraft threat of almost the same level, pistols, rifles and some light machine guns were carried on the aircraft and became early "air combat" weapons. Although the effectiveness of such "air combat" weapons was not obvious, this did not stop the continuation of the practice of countries providing guns for pilots at that time. Nowadays, it has become a consensus among countries to equip pilots with guns. However, the use of guns has changed with the development of weapons and equipment and different operational requirements. The functional orientation of the pilot's gun has long changed from being directly used in air combat to self-defense after the pilot lands, crashes and parachutes. Moreover, the gun allocation of pilots in some countries has evolved from serving "survival" to highlighting the function of "survival + combat" at present. Pistol is the "evergreen tree" among the guns equipped by air force pilots all over the world. It is short, compact, portable and easy to use. During World War I and World War II, there was an example of "air combat with pistols". Since then, pistols have always been the preferred weapon for Air Force pilots in various countries. Especially for fighter planes with narrow cockpit space, pistols once became the best choice for pilots. However, since then, pistols, as pilots' guns, have been more used for pilots' self-defense after landing. For transport aircraft and bombers with relatively large cockpit space, pilots have the conditions to choose some short barrel rifles and submachine guns as matching guns. Compared with pistols, submachine guns and other weapons are more conducive for parachuting pilots to survive in strange field environment. Historically, the rifles equipped by air force pilots in some countries have been required to adopt the design of two barrel, one barrel is used to launch rifle ammunition and the other barrel is used to launch shotgun ammunition. In order to ensure the safety of pilots, Germany has even equipped pilots with M30 three tube life guns, including two barrels that can launch shotguns and single headed bullets. Obviously, choosing this kind of gun as a gun is conducive to the survival of pilots - it can effectively drive away wild animals, hunt and satisfy hunger after landing, and maintain the survival needs for a period of time. Today, some countries begin to bring combat functions into view when choosing new guns for pilots. On the one hand, this is because in the war, there was a new situation in which captured pilots were tortured and killed by the enemy, and more pilots began to consider choosing the way of tenacious resistance and waiting for help in case of "disaster"; On the other hand, it is because the guns that can only provide "survival" functions in the past can no longer meet some self-defense needs of current pilots, and there is an urgent need to improve the power of bullets; On the other hand, with the extensive use of helicopters, pilots need to face the threat of ground fire more directly. Once the helicopter is shot down, even if the pilot survives, he needs to fight in self-defense as much as possible before the rescue force arrives, so as to win valuable time for rescue. Compact, easy to control and practical are the common characteristics of pilots with guns Judging from the current situation of guns equipped by air force pilots in various countries, guns generally need to be compact, easy to control, practical and so on. It can provide considerable firepower and its power has been improved. Compared with the pistols equipped by pilots in the past, the pistols equipped by pilots in various countries are now different from the past in terms of initial speed, range, accuracy, firepower intensity and killing effect. In the case of relatively large cockpit space or high fit between life-saving kits and guns, submachine guns and assault rifles began to enter the fighter cockpit more. The distribution of guns for pilots in various countries has shown the trend of gun body from short to long and firepower from weak to strong. In fact, this trend was revealed a long time ago. American pilots were issued M1911 submachine pistols during World War II. The gun is characterized by large caliber and high firing speed, and has strong lethality at close range. In 1993, two US Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in Somalia. This battle shows that the MP5 submachine gun, as a self-defense weapon for its helicopter pilots, is actually beyond its ability. This eventually led to the change of the gun allocation of US pilots to the M4A1 carbine, which was more threatening to bulletproof armor. Gau-5a survival rifle. Data picture The US Air Force currently trains gau-5a survival rifles with a range of more than 200 meters. It can be stuffed into the life bag with four magazines and ejected with the ejection seat. It also cancels the full-automatic shooting function to reduce the consumption speed of bullets. Russia and the United States have certain similarities in improving the firepower and power of pilots with guns. Steckin APS submachine pistol. Data picture In 2015, after Turkey shot down a Russian SU-24 fighter in the Turkish Syrian border area, resulting in the death of a pilot, the stechkin APS submachine pistol became the standard for Russian pilots. This type of submachine pistol not only has a firing speed of 600 rounds / min, but also the pilot can carry 5 magazines and 100 bullets at one time, with strong fire continuity. PP-2000 submachine gun. Data picture In 2019, relevant media disclosed that Russia planned to equip its pilots with PP-2000 submachine guns. This type of submachine gun is more powerful and can fire 9 × The 19mm bullet and two kinds of high-pressure bullets can puncture the light bulletproof vest when using high-pressure bullets. The recently unveiled ppk-20 submachine gun has a firing speed of 800 rounds per minute, which helps Russian pilots falling into enemy areas better get rid of the encirclement, pursuit and interception of enemy armed personnel. Other countries also attach great importance to enhancing pilots' self-defense firepower. The Dutch air force replaced the original Glock pistol with MP9 submachine gun; Britain has equipped its helicopter pilots with L85 assault rifles, which reflects this. Compact structure and small volume, which can well fit the cabin environment. Compact structure, small volume and light weight have always been the basic requirements of pilots for their guns. This requirement stems from the relatively narrow cockpit space and limited load of the fighter. Only in this way can the gun be accepted by the fighter and stuffed into the ejection life bag with limited size. The design of retractable butt, foldable grip and detachable barrel has been widely used in some newly developed pilot guns in recent years. The PP-2000 submachine gun in Russia weighs only 1.4kg, and the gun length after folding the butt is only more than 300mm, which is suitable for placing in the fighter emergency bag. Compared with the previous large aks-74u short assault rifle, PP-2000 submachine gun takes into account the dual requirements of firepower and portability. The ppk-20 submachine gun, together with a magazine full of 30 bullets, weighs only 3kg. The butt and small handle of gau-5a life-saving rifle in the United States can be retracted and folded. The barrel components can be quickly disassembled, stored separately at ordinary times, and quickly assembled when in use. After the gun is completely folded, it can be put into a smaller life bag. It is practical and easy to control, which can make the pilot quickly enter the combat state. At a critical juncture, pilots sometimes need to defend themselves at the first time of departure, which requires a hand-held weapon to enable them to quickly enter and maintain a good combat state. The current pilot self-defense gun usually enhances the controllability of the gun in two aspects. One is to make the process of guns from decomposition to assembly and shooting easier and faster. For example, the pilot's life-saving rifle in some countries is equipped with a quick locking system. The barrel can be quickly installed or disassembled, and can be assembled, debugged and fired in a short time. Second, the use of ergonomic principles to make the operation of guns more convenient. The design of ppk-20 submachine gun fully reflects this. The improved side folding butt enables the pilot to hold the gun with one hand; The butt length can be adjusted and 6 gears can be selected. The pilot can choose the most appropriate shoulder posture to perform different tasks; The safety switches on both sides of the gun body are easy to operate, whether the pilot is used to using his right or left hand. "Pluralism", "standardization" and "extensibility", and the new gun allocation mode partially indicates the development trend With the general attention of countries all over the world, the performance of pilots' gun allocation is constantly improving. In general, the future development of pilot gun allocation is showing the following trends: First, match the length and strive to complement each other's advantages. Judging from the development of pilots' guns in the United States, Russia and other countries, the current guns equipped by pilots have shown a trend of long and short matching, complementary advantages and overall upgrading. In 2019, the United States began to distribute portable M18 compact pistols to pilots to replace M9 pistols. At the same time, the pilot's life bag is also equipped with gau-5a life-saving rifle, and the pilot will have both long and short self-defense guns at the same time. Russia also began to use ppk-20 submachine gun and Lebedev modular pistol with better performance to replace the original rifle or submachine gun and Makarov pistol respectively. The types of pilots with guns tend to be diversified, which may become a new model for pilots with guns in various countries in the future. Makarov PM pistol. Data picture Second, unify standards and improve the scope of application. With the increasing practice of pilots' gun allocation in various countries and the pull of practical needs, especially the lessons learned from the past, more and more countries are trying to unify and standardize pilots' gun allocation, so as to fundamentally solve the problems of insufficient firepower, miscellaneous types and narrow scope of application in the past. In this regard, the US Air Force started earlier. In the 1980s, the United States uniformly equipped pilots with M9 pistols. However, the pilot's evaluation of the gun was not high. In 2018, this situation was reversed only after the gau-5a survival rifle was installed. One of the reasons is that the gau-5a survival rifle shows strong applicability and has become a gun for pilots of various models. Nevertheless, this type of survival rifle still failed to cover the pilots of all US aircraft. But it reflects a trend, that is: