Weapon Name- MA5B
Round Type- 6.5mm Grendel Caseless
Over-all length- 28 inches
Barrel length- 24 inches KE
Weight- 5.6 lb (2.55KG) unloaded,, 6.9 lb (3.13KG) with 50 rounds
Rate of Fire- 600 RPM
Feed Mechanism- Detachable Quadruple Box Magazine
Round Capacity- 50 rounds
Effective Range- 600 meters
Range- 1200 m (Supersonic, Velocity 375 m/s, 548 Joules)
Accuracy- .75 MOA at 600 meters
3 MOA for HE
Accessories- Picanty Rail
Quick switch firing mechanism- Extra Trigger
Scope/Sights- Picanty Rail
Muzzle Velocity- 820 m/s- 7.8 Gram Projectile
Firing System- Telescoping Bolt and Ak-108
Miscellaneous/electronic information- The weapon is a bull-pup, vertical bolt, Hi-Cap, caseless 6.5mm caliber weapon.
Basic Information
TKB-022PM No. 1 (ТКБ-022ПМ № 1), TKB-022PM No. 2 (ТКБ-022ПМ № 2) and TKB-022PM5 No. 1 (ТКБ-022ПМ5 № 1) were Soviet bullpup assault rifles, capable of fully automatic fire, chambered for the 7.62 x 39 mm round (TKB-022PM No. 1 and TKB-022PM No. 2) and the 5.6 x 39 mm round (TKB-022PM5 No. 1), developed by the small arms designer German A. Korobov in the 1960s.
These weapons had the best barrel length to overall length ratio among the assault rifles. Firing from an unstable position, the TKB-022PM No. 1 and the TKB-022PM No. 2 had a three times better accuracy than the AKM. The TKB-022PM5 No. 1 had a better accuracy than the AKM when fired from a hand in a lying position at a distance of 100 meters.
The TKB-022 assault rifle is gas-operated weapon with annular gas piston located around the barrel. To achieve minimum length, it is assembled into bull-pup configuration and uses vertically sliding breech block (bolt), rather than traditional and most common bolt that cycles back and forth. Since the movement of the bolt (breechblock) in this design cannot be used to extract, eject and load cartridges, Korobov developed a special U-shaped rammer / extractor, that strips the fresh cartridge from magazine, pushes it into the chamber, then, after the discharge, pulls the fired cartridge case back from the chamber. Upon feeding the next fresh cartridge, the fired case is pushed forward and slightly up, into the ejection chute above the barrel. Spent cases finally fell off the gun above the muzzle. The Gun was capable of full- and semi-automatic fire, with combined safety / fire mode selector switch located above the trigger on the left side of the gun. The gun housing was made from reddish-brown plastic, with a metal structure hidden inside.
Although these assault rifles performed well, they were turned down by the Soviet army for being too radical at that time. Additionally, there were concerns about the displaced center of gravity to the tail end of the weapon and the durability of the weapon's plastic housing during prolonged operations under difficult conditions or during storage itself.
The MA5B uses an extremely similar system to the Korobov TKB-022, exploiting the vertically sliding bolt and the U-shaped rammer, among the other parts. The primary difference between the Korobov TKB-022 and the MA5B is mostly material construction and the exploitation of a different round, the 6.5mm grendel, which results in a different barrel size, twist, and length. The bolt of the weapon, while similar, is also different.
The barrel is a heavy 24 inch smooth groove 5R 1 in 8.75 inch twist styled barrel. The magazine is a detachable quadruple column re-curve spring box magazine, capable of holding up to a maximum of 50 rounds.
