Modern warfare involves the infiltration of contemporary technological solutions. One such innovation is the unique development by the Ukrainian company (Kharkiv Factory of Personal Protective Equipment) RAROG, specifically an ammo logistics system for machine guns PK/PKM.
The metal belt for the PK, PKM, and SG serves as the basis for equipping machine guns, but it is not manufactured either in Ukraine or in the overwhelming majority of the 53 countries that have machine guns in their arsenals. In addition to the shortage caused by the lack of production and constant battlefield losses, the metal belt has several significant disadvantages, including the need to remove it from the battlefield, manual loading of rounds, heavy weight, masking noise, corrosion, and so on.
Experts from the Kharkiv Factory of Personal Protective Equipment (Ukrainian Defence Innovations (UDI) Group, former Rarog Group) have found solutions to all these issues by developing a world`s first polymer disintegrated links for machine gun ammo belt, which significantly improves the mobility and effectiveness of machine gunners on the battlefield. This fact has been proven both through field testing and in actual combat. First samples were tested back in 2016. In 2019 Rarog won Sikorsky challenge (competition of innovative startup projects), suggested a new ammo logistic system for Armed Forces of Ukraine based on polymer links.
The polymer machine gun belt consists of a series of links, each of which has three rings connected by a crossbar. The links are hinged and connected by cartridges inserted into the aligned rings. This belt is three times lighter than the metal analogues, has low cost and high production speed, minimal noise during transportation, no corrosion, and prevents snags during operations. A key difference of this system is that the belts could be supplied to the combat zone already loaded, so soldiers do not need to spend time on this task. The standard machine gun belt for the PKM is supplied in solid links of at least 25 units. This creates inconvenience when shooting, the so-called tail. The links of the polymer belt simply fly out along with the cartridge cases. The metal belt must be collected and reloaded, the polymer belt is one-time use (although in training ground conditions Ukrainian soldiers use it up to 4 times in a row). Also, cartridges loaded into a metal belt are subject to corrosion during storage. This creates a risk that the machine gun may fail in a critical situation. Cartridges loaded into a polymer belt make less noise when moving as well.
The development and testing process of the polymer belt took much time, as Rarog aimed to ensure maximum convenience, reliability, and efficiency in this product. UDI Group`s representatives are in constant communication with Ukrainian defenders participating in combat operations on various parts of the frontline, and receive feedback from them. Throughout the war, the polymer belt produced by the Kharkiv Factory of Personal Protective Equipment has been used by the soldiers of Airborne Assault Forces, 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade, 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, and other units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Soldiers have praised the ergonomics, ease of transport and versatility of the polymer machine gun belt.
The opponents did not ignore this product. In 2022, an article was published on the website of the well-known Russian magazine (Kalashnikov), where the author, a weapons expert and editor-in-chief of the publication, Mikhail Degtyaryov, accused the experts from Rarog of «lack of professional knowledge and ignoring historical experience», while also emphasizing that replacing the usual metal belt with a much lighter and cheaper polymer one was impossible due to several critical shortcomings.
However, two years later, several Russian companies introduced their (new products) – a copy of Ukrainian development, one of which even made it to the cover of the aforementioned expert magazine.
