Here is some information about this weapon can be found on the Internet. In the 80s, a ballistic knife appeared in the USA, which, if necessary, could fire a shot with its blade. This edged weapon was intended for the army, but it was soon abandoned and even banned.


The knife had an extremely simple design. There was a powerful spring in its handle, which, if necessary, pushed the blade out.

Ballistic knives produced in the USSR were intended for special forces soldiers.[

In the USA, ballistic knives appeared in the early 1980s. These knives were designed as silent weapons. They can be used as normal ones without removing the blade from the handle or as throwing ones. To throw a knife, pull the lever and press the button (other options are possible depending on the design of a particular knife). The spring inside it is capable of throwing the blade 6 meters at a speed of 60 km/h (~16 m/s).

Advantages
The advantage of this type of knife is that it can be used at a distance, and with a force more powerful than just a blow or throw of a knife, however, after firing the blade, the fighter remained unarmed, so you must have at least two knives in stock. The blade of a ballistic knife, when fired, can go deep into a wooden board by 190-255 mm, this is more than enough for the blade of the blade to reach the vital organs of a person.

Combat use

Army special forces use a ballistic knife to silently destroy enemy manpower. Since the goal of the army special forces is to eliminate the enemy without unnecessary fuss and fuss, the enemy must be hit in the most vulnerable places. The shot is usually made in the neck area for two reasons:
the neck, as a rule, is not protected by personal protective equipment (body armor, unloading vest, or even just tight clothing).
a hit in the neck at least paralyzes the enemy, preventing him from raising the alarm.

If a shot to the neck is difficult or impossible, other weak spots on the opponent's body are used. This can be the chest - usually this is the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe heart, however, even a direct hit in the heart with a knife blade does not give a 100% guarantee that the enemy will die immediately and will not be able to scream. A shot in the solar plexus, in the area of ​​the lungs is possible if the enemy is without protective equipment.


The design was equipped with a fuse, but it was not very reliable.
The unreliability of the knife was revealed only during operation, and therefore its production was discontinued, and later it was completely banned.


And here are some more details:

A ballistic knife is such a semi-mythical weapon of special forces and spies that throws the blade over great distances due to the energy of the mainspring hidden in the handle. I came across the stories of "eyewitnesses" who, with their shameless eyes, saw how a Russian-made ballistic knife Scout pierced a concrete wall from a distance of 10 meters. Many specialists of unknown beasts are more modest in their assessments and point to the effective defeat of the enemy from a distance of 5-7 meters. Finally, all sorts of pessimists and just educated people note that, due to the unstable flight of the blade, the effectiveness of such weapons is limited to close combat, where a reusable knife will come in handy.

At one of the arms markets in the United States, the seller of ballistic knives from the Czech factory Mikov (photo above) (which either belong to or are not in service with the special services) pressed the wrong button and drove the blade into his eye. And then he squinted - in every sense of the word. The experts of the local judicial medical bureau decided to find out how lethal this weapon was, acquired a fresh corpse of a pig and began to crap with this knife into the corpse from different distances.

The conclusion is this - at a distance of less than one meter from the pig, the blade was stuck into the corpse with a point and penetrated into the tissues at a distance of 5-10 cm (they shot in the abdomen and chest). At a distance to the target of more than 1 meter, the blade began to rotate and, at best, left superficial cuts. The total flight length was 25-30 meters.

Conclusion - in close combat, such a ballistic knife produces penetrating wounds to a depth sufficient to damage vital organs, i.e. lead to death. However, the effectiveness of such a weapon is rather doubtful - the blade may not hit a vital organ, moreover, fatal wounds to the heart region are described, which left the victim with 10-15 seconds of targeted activity. Wounds in the liver or lungs appear even more slowly, and a ballistic knife of a similar design is, by definition, one-time use (in combat). We are not talking about any 5-7 meters, and even more so about breaking through a concrete wall from a distance of 10 meters.

That's it.

sources

According to the stories of a war veteran who served in intelligence, they were already used at the end of the Second World War. Several blades were inserted into the handle, as if into a holder, with the help of which it was possible to silently and remotely remove sentries. The last blade was not fired, but was fixed in the handle for hand-to-hand combat.

It was such a handle, but without a knife, that my father kept in a drawer of a bookcase, which was locked with a key.


In the 80s, a ballistic knife appeared in the USA, which, if necessary, could fire a shot with its blade. This edged weapon was intended for the army, but it was soon abandoned and even banned. The American soldier is not accustomed to hand-to-hand combat, he fights exclusively by bombing, including atomic bombing, like on Hiroshima. And with a knife, and even with a spring, he can cut his finger or something else.

The knife had an extremely simple design. There was a powerful spring in its handle, which, if necessary, pushed the blade out.


These knives were designed as silent weapons. They can be used as normal ones without removing the blade from the handle or as throwing ones. To throw a knife, pull the lever and press the button (other options are possible depending on the design of a particular knife).

The spring inside it is capable of throwing a blade 6-7 meters at a speed of 60 km / h (~ 16 m / s).


Advantages

The advantage of this type of knife is that it can be used at a distance, and with a force more powerful than just a blow or throw of a knife, however, after firing the blade, the fighter remained unarmed, so you must have at least two knives in stock. The blade of a ballistic knife, when fired, can go deep into a wooden board by 35-40 mm, this is more than enough for the blade of the blade to reach the vital organs of a person.


Combat use

Army special forces use a ballistic knife to silently destroy enemy manpower. Since the goal of the army special forces is to eliminate the enemy without unnecessary fuss and fuss, the enemy must be hit in the most vulnerable places. The shot is usually made in the neck area for two reasons:

The neck, as a rule, is not protected by personal protective equipment (bulletproof vest, unloading vest, or even just tight clothing).

A hit in the neck will at least paralyze the enemy, preventing him from raising the alarm.

If a shot to the neck is difficult or impossible, other weak spots on the opponent's body are used. This can be the chest - usually this is the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe heart, however, even a direct hit in the heart with a knife blade does not give a 100% guarantee that the enemy will die immediately and will not be able to scream. A shot in the solar plexus, in the area of ​​the lungs is possible if the enemy is without protective equipment.


Experts note that, due to the unstable flight of the blade, the effectiveness of such weapons is limited to close combat, where a reusable knife will come in handy.


At one of the arms markets in the United States, the seller of ballistic knives from the Czech factory Mikov (photo above) (which either belong to or are not in service with the special services) pressed the wrong button and drove the blade into his eye. And then he squinted - in every sense of the word. This is equivalent to a grenade in the paws of a monkey.

    • ballistic knives

      Ballistic knives. Continuation

      Potentially good damaging capabilities of throwing weapons are very difficult to implement in practice. The probability of a lethal defeat is small, and one cannot count on such a knife as a serious weapon. Another thing is if the strength and dexterity of a person is replaced by a mechanism, for example, to make a blade shoot. Such a knife has a clear tactical advantage. The enemy simply does not expect that the blade can fly into him. In addition, it is not convenient to throw a knife from any position. For example, it is quite clear that throwing while standing is much more effective than throwing from a prone position. But you can shoot from a knife with the same success from any position. It all depends on the convenience of aiming, since the damaging factors, the firing range and the force with which the blade hits the target are constant. Knives from which the blade flies are usually made like spring crossbows. This design is the simplest, and therefore more reliable. The secret Chinese weapon, consisting of a bamboo tube, a powerful spring, an arrow and a trigger mechanism, can be considered the historical prototype of shooting knives. It was worn in the sleeve and allowed to hit the target suddenly and at some safe distance. Conceptually, this design is almost the same as a modern shooting knife. It remains to replace the arrow with a blade, more precisely, to increase the size of the arrowhead so that it can also perform the functions of a knife. Attracts the versatility of such weapons. This is an ordinary knife that can both stab and cut, and if necessary, it instantly and suddenly turns into a throwing weapon for the enemy. In use, this knife is relatively silent, although a spring knife can hardly be called a completely silent weapon. The clanging of metal on metal, the ringing of a straightening spring serve as unmasking factors, but against the background of natural noises, such a shot is almost indistinguishable. Undoubtedly, a spring-loaded shooting knife is much more effective than a throwing one, although it is much more complicated in design. Why spring knives have not received much distribution? The answer is that their scope is special operations. Such knives were in service with many countries of the world: the USSR, the USA, Czechoslovakia, France, Switzerland and many others. Little is known about the design: the secret services are not very fond of revealing their secrets. The shooting spring knife could be either single-shot or multi-shot. The maximum range of destruction is no more than 5-7 m, although rumor ascribes the ability to hit the enemy at a distance of 25-30 m. A discrepancy from a misunderstanding that the range of the blade and the range of destruction are different distances. At a distance of 5-7 m, the blade, with a successful hit, will enter its full length and inflict a serious injury, and a hit from a distance of 25 m leads only to slight damage to the skin. Hence, one of the drawbacks of such knives is the short range of defeat, but these are melee weapons. Much more significant is that at first the knife shoots, the blade flies away, and then, in hand-to-hand combat, only the handle remains in the hands of the fighter. In order to reload the knife with a spare blade, there may not be enough time. They try to solve this problem in different ways. The simplest option is to use the handle itself as a weapon. To do this, it is docked with a massive metal scabbard to be used as a short club. In addition, the strong metal scabbard is an additional safety feature that increases the safety of using this weapon. In other knives, the blade is put on a sharpened pin. After the shot, the pin, rigidly fixed in the handle, can be used as a stylet. At the same time, the pin serves as a guide for the mainspring.

      In multi-shot knives, the problem is solved easier. The last blade is not fired, but remains in the handle, and the knife becomes normal. For example, when a double-bladed knife with one mainspring is fired, one blade flies forward under the action of the spring, while the other simply extends and locks in the firing position. Naturally, these blades have a different design. In practice, one blade is more often used, the design of which allows it to be used both for shooting and for hand-to-hand combat. But this decision is not so much constructive as economic. A knife with a universal blade is a little cheaper. In single-shot designs, a special non-firing blade is used, which can be mounted on the handle, made more massive and long. But in order to put the blade, it takes a certain time. But the biggest problem is the small stopping effect of such a knife, which is very important for weapons that are fired almost point-blank. The spring-loaded shooting knife is a very controversial design. On the one hand, it must have a relatively small size and weight, and on the other hand, it must have the necessary fighting qualities. Too powerful a spring is difficult to place in the knife handle and difficult to cock, since the physical capabilities of a person are not unlimited. Recall that such a knife is almost no different from a crossbow, on which special devices are used for cocking. A tighter spring is not only more difficult to compress, but the total reload time also increases. That is, the already low rate of fire of the knife is further reduced. In addition, a spring knife is potentially dangerous: it is always loaded, and when it performs its normal functions, there is a danger of an unauthorized shot. Therefore, they are supplied with reliable fuses, the simplest of which is a check with a ring, like on a hand grenade.

A ballistic knife is a knife in which the blade can be separated from the handle using gas or a spring. Simply put, the knife shoots its blade. The advantage of a ballistic knife over a conventional throwing knife is obvious: the blade flies farther and more accurately, the striking ability increases (it can pierce a wooden board to a depth of 40 millimeters). Today we will try to make a ballistic knife on our own, as they say, from what is at hand. To do this, we need a piece of sheet iron (circular saw), two metal tubes of different diameters, a drill, a grinder, emery and a gas burner (optional).

Manufacturing technology of a ballistic knife

We will start making a ballistic knife with its body. For the case, you can take a piece of metal tube (aluminum, copper, brass) with a diameter of, say, 25 mm. One end of the tube must be closed with a metal stopper. To do this, cut a thread at the end of the tube using a die (if there is a device for threading pipes), or simply solder the plug, weld it. The cork can be picked up for this pipe diameter in any plumbing store.

Since our ballistic knife will be of a spring type, we will need a powerful spring of a suitable diameter. At one end of the spring, it is necessary to fix the nut, and drill a hole for the bolt in the plug. We insert the spring into the handle of the ballistic knife and tighten the bolt. Now the spring sits firmly in the handle and will not go anywhere when fired.

Now we need to make, in fact, the blade of the ballistic knife itself. The blade can be cut with a grinder from any piece of sheet iron. We give it a wedge-shaped shape with emery. The blade can be thermally hardened and tempered. We clamp the blade with the tip in a vise and heat it red-hot with a gas burner, and then cool it in used oil.

Let's cut off another piece of a metal tube with a slightly smaller diameter, the one that we adapted for the body of a ballistic knife. We will also drill two holes in this tube and cut the threads. We insert the blade into the tube and screw the bolts. The blade is firmly fixed in the tube. Next, cut off the remnants of the bolts with caps with a hacksaw. We process these bolt cut points with a file and grind them so that they merge with the surface of the tube.

Now let's deal with the trigger mechanism of the ballistic knife. To do this, we need a metal strip with a curved edge. The strip can be cut from the same sheet iron from which we sawed the blade. Before bending the strip, it is advisable to heat it red-hot so as not to break it corny. Thus, we got the trigger guard of a ballistic knife.

Now, on the edge of the body of the ballistic knife, we saw through a rectangular hole for the trigger guard. On the tube into which the blade is inserted, we do the same. These holes serve to fix the blade in the cocked state.

Next, solder the metal bolt to the tube as a trigger guard stop. In the diagram, I tried to depict all the details, as detailed as possible. The diagram has no dimensions, as it is not an accurate guide to action. It only depicts the principle of operation of the simplest ballistic knife. You will have to adjust all the details yourself empirically.

The knife is easy to load. We insert the blade into the body, and compress the spring (we stick the tip on some hard object) until the hole of the blade with the trigger guard is fixed. All ballistic knife cocked. The trigger guard is held in place by spring pressure. We point the ballistic knife at the target, press the end of the trigger guard, the blade flies out of the body under the influence of the spring.

The disadvantage of such a trigger mechanism is that the trigger guard is separate from the body of the ballistic knife. The advantage is ease of manufacture. In order not to lose the bracket, you can attach it to the body with a chain.

And now about safety. That pointing a ballistic knife in the direction of a person is strictly prohibited I hope you don't need to explain. Shoot only at targets. In no case do not carry a cocked ballistic knife in your pocket. Firstly, such a trigger mechanism is extremely unreliable and does not have any fuse, so you are guaranteed an accidental shot and injury. Load the ballistic knife only when shooting directly at the target. Secondly, the spring, which is in a state of constant compression, loses its power.

In principle, you can think of some kind of fuse for a homemade ballistic knife, for example, something like checks. And you can even make it so that you can use a knife, not only to shoot, but also to cut bread, but this is a separate topic for conversation and, perhaps, someday, we will also reveal it. Good luck!

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A ballistic knife is a special knife with a detachable blade. Moreover, it does not just separate, but is fired at high speed (about 16 m / s), causing serious damage to the enemy at distances up to 10 meters. A normal knife strike has a much lower speed.

The idea of ​​​​the inventors of the knife is quite simple and understandable: to create a weapon that could be used not only in close combat, but also to defeat (and silently) the enemy at a distance.

Agree, a blade-shooting knife looks too "cinematic" to be truly effective. Few other edged weapons are surrounded by such a halo of rumors, speculation and insinuations. But at the same time, ballistic knives do exist, moreover, there is information that at one time special services of the USSR and the USA worked on improving these weapons. In 1986, ballistic knives were even officially banned in the United States. However, the effectiveness of their practical application raises many questions. However, let's talk about everything in order.

What is a ballistic knife? How does this "miracle weapon" work? Is it used in the army or special units?

Description

The secret of the ballistic knife device is quite simple. A special mechanism is inserted into its handle, which is a very powerful spring or a container of compressed gas, due to which the blade flies with great force in the right direction and hits the enemy. On the handle of a ballistic knife there are various types of fixing devices, with the help of which the blade is held. To throw a ballistic knife, you usually need to press a button or pull a lever on the handle (depending on the design of a particular knife). All ballistic knives have symmetrical, double-edged dagger-shaped blades, often with various cuts, probably to improve their ballistic performance. In general, the blades of such weapons resemble throwing knives in their shape, which, however, is not surprising. It is believed that the blade of a ballistic knife can hit the enemy at a distance of 6-10 meters and enter the board to a depth of 100 mm.

This is where the questions begin. How is the spring installed, how does it compress when the ballistic knife is “loaded”? How reliable is the locking mechanism, does it provide the necessary security to the owner of this “device”?

History

For the first time in significant quantities, ballistic knives appeared in the United States around the beginning of the 80s. Very quickly they became fashionable weapons. After all, a ballistic knife could be used as a regular one, and if necessary, hit the enemy at a distance. It all ended with the fact that the Americans banned the sale and carrying of such weapons.

It still remains a mystery who first thought of making a knife of this design. Most sources report that these weapons were created for employees of special services or units, Soviet or American.

English-speaking authors usually claim that ballistic knives were first made by the Soviet company Ostblok, although in this case it is not clear how they could get to the West at the height of the Cold War. In addition, an enterprise under that name never existed in the Soviet Union. And the very word “ostblok” seems, to put it mildly, strange: the “Eastern bloc” in the United States and Europe was usually called the USSR and the countries of the Warsaw Pact.

The Soviet army never had such weapons, and special units did not use them either. It is possible that some work in this direction was carried out, but no information was found on their application. And the reason for this is not the closeness of the archives, but the very controversial effectiveness of these weapons, which will be discussed below.

Soviet military intelligence (subdivisions of the GRU of the General Staff of the USSR) was armed with standard bayonet-knives, the reconnaissance knife "Cherry", adopted back in 1943, and the NRS-2 shooting knife, which probably became the source of the legend about the "terrible" ballistic knives of the Soviet special forces. The only problem is that the NRS-2 fired at the enemy not with a blade, but with a bullet (special cartridge SP-4) from a special device mounted in the knife handle. The Soviet special forces were armed with a sufficient number of silent weapons, which, in terms of their characteristics, were significantly superior to any ballistic knives.

On the Internet you can find information about the Soviet (or Russian) "terrible" shooting knife "Scout", the design of which is not entirely clear, but its combat properties are simply amazing. It is reported that this ballistic knife is capable of crushing brick and even concrete. But the evidence base in this case is not thick.

There is information (again, unconfirmed) that Tula gunsmiths were engaged in the development of a shooting knife in the mid-80s. However, in their project, the blade was supposed to fly out of the handle not due to the expansion of the spring, but using the energy of powder gases. For this, a special cartridge was installed in the knife handle. It seems that this project ended in success, but the blade was never put into mass production. In this case, we are probably dealing with the usual distortion of information: we are talking about the Soviet NRS-2 shooting knife, which really existed and was put into service. Both its creation and production were really engaged in Tula. But he did not shoot with a blade, but with a special cartridge from the handle.

Domestic sources, as a rule, attribute the invention of the ballistic knife to US special services, which can be read on many sites dedicated to this topic. It is reported that such a weapon appeared thanks to the development of the US military department, which began in the mid-70s of the last century. Allegedly, the ballistic knife was supposed to enter service with the American special forces and be used by them as a silent weapon.

Advantages and disadvantages of ballistic knives

The idea of ​​a blade flying out of a knife looks really nice and quite tempting, and it is likely that this weapon gives its owner some advantages in a duel. Why are ballistic knives still not the usual weapons of spies and saboteurs of various stripes and calibers?

One of the main advantages of this weapon is its great versatility compared to a conventional knife. Not every knife is suitable for throwing, and throwing it correctly is a whole science. And here he pressed the button and “filled up” the adversary. In this regard, the ballistic knife looks much more attractive.

The second advantage of this type of weapon is its power. According to various sources, a blade fired from a ballistic knife can pierce a board to a depth of 40 to 100 mm. This is more than enough to damage the vital organs of the human body. Yes, and the range of destruction of a ballistic knife is also quite impressive, various sources indicate 6 and even 10 meters.

Another advantage of a ballistic knife can be called the "surprise effect" for the enemy. Such a weapon is not very well known and widespread, so it is unlikely that your opponent will be ready for a blade flying out of a knife and, therefore, will not be able to react to it in time.

On this, probably, the advantages of this type of melee weapons end. The disadvantages begin. There are not so many of them, but the quality of the cons of shooting knives fully explains why they are still not in service with the army or special services.

First of all, there are big doubts about the reliability of the knife mechanism, which, judging by the declared characteristics, should be quite powerful. At the same time, the creators of such weapons need to ensure its safety for the owner and reliability during use, which is not so easy to achieve. Using the energy of a compressed spring to fire a blade is not a very good technical solution. The fact is that the spring, being in a compressed state for a long time, loses its properties, and it needs to be changed. And the use of various compressed gases for firing seems rather complicated and not very reliable. Many questions are raised by reloading such weapons. When using such a powerful spring, putting a new blade in the handle is a serious problem that only a physically strong person can solve.

In addition, the ballistic properties of such blades are highly questionable. The accuracy of this weapon seems highly questionable. In this regard, the design of the Soviet NRS-2 knife, which fires special cartridges, looks much more reliable and efficient.

It is also unknown how sensitive the ballistic knife is to various contaminants, and whether they affect its "shooting" functions.

And finally. One of the main disadvantages of a ballistic knife is its "disposability". A single shot - and you don’t have any knife at all, neither conventional nor ballistic. In this regard, the same NRS-2 looks much more preferable.

In the twentieth century, the military experimented a lot with edged weapons, trying to give it a "new breath". The Americans, for example, have been working for quite a long time on the creation of small crossbows for the needs of special forces. These developments ended quite successfully: they resulted in the creation of several models of crossbows, which can be used in practice. However, despite the use of the most modern technologies and materials, they were significantly inferior to existing models of silent firearms. And we are talking about a crossbow - a weapon proven by centuries of practice. The same curiosity as a ballistic knife, in terms of its effectiveness, cannot be compared with a conventional silent pistol at all.