Groza OC-14 and OTs-14 Assault Rifle

Groza OC-14-OTs-14 Assault Rifle

This Groza Assault Rifle (Thunder doesn’t that seem to be a common name for Russian weapons?) was developed in the early 1990s as a close-combat weapon for Spetsnaz, Alpha teams, airborne forces, and combat engineers. Primarily manufactured at a special arms facility called TSKIB SOO, it was also for a short time in the mid-1990s manufactured by Tula. Though it was used in decent numbers during the First Chechen War in 1999, it is apparently no longer being manufactured, possibly at the request of the troops themselves.

Groza OC-14 Assault Rifle

The OTs-14 Assault Rifle comes in two calibers: 7.62mm Kalashnikov and 9mm SP5/SP6. The 7.62mm version was primarily used by airborne troops and combat engineers, while the 9mm version is the more common one, used by Spetsnaz and Alpha teams. The Groza has a 75% parts commonality with the AK-74 and is essentially an AKS-74U upsized and turned into bullpup form. When mounted with the GP-25, a single trigger fires both the assault rifle and grenade launcher, with a barrel selector switching between the weapons. The Groza can mount the PSO-1 sight used on the SVD and SVU sniper rifles, and is threaded for a suppressor.

There are four basic configurations for the OTs-14; the standard version is called the OTs-14-4A, which is the rifle with a standardlength barrel and an attached grenade launcher. Without the grenade launcher, it is called the OTS-14-4A-01. With a short barrel installed, the designation is the OTs-14-4A-02 (attaching the GP-25 is not possible with the short barrel installed); when a suppressor is added to the short barrel, the designation becomes OTs-14-4A-03. (The long barrel is not threaded for a suppressor).

OTs-14 Assault Rifle With GLM

From an ergonomic standpoint, the OTs-14  Assault Rifle was apparently terrible; the AK series in general is not really suited to simple conversions to a bullpup layout; a lot of work has to be done to really make an AK-series bullpup work right. On the OTs-14 Assault Rifle, this meant that the charging handle would dig into the shoulders of some troops as it reciprocated, it could not be fired from the left shoulder (due to the position of the ejection port), it was rather unbalanced, and the pistol grip was uncomfortable. When using iron sights, they are both mounted on a detachable carrying handle, which resulted in an unusually short sight radius. Though the Groza  Assault Rifle has been produced since late 1992, it is nonetheless a rather rare weapon, normally only used by special operations personnel or Airborne Pathfinders. The 7.62mm version, in particular, is extremely rare, as production concentrated on the more compact 9mm version.