Russia Reveals Astarta's New Sniper Rifle, Dubbed The United States' Barrett Killer

Russia's 12.7mm Astarta caliber sniper rifle. (TAS/Georgy Sultanov)

JAKARTA - Russia is showing off its new sniper rifle or sniper who is claimed to be more accurate than a similar weapon belonging to the United States, a large but lighter and more modern caliber than its predecessor.

Produced by the High-Precision System, part of Rostec, the rifle, the official name MC-572 Astarta, made its debut at the 'Army 2023'.

The manufacturer did not hesitate to call him the 'Barrett Killer' referring to the United States flagship sniper rifle, Barret.

"Today, we introduced the 12.7mm 'Astarta' anti-material rifle to the public for the first time. According to our experts, taking into account its overall characteristics, this rifle can be called the famous United States rifle 'killer' in this class, Barrett M82", said a company representative, cited from the August 18 Army Recognition.

According to developers of "Astarta", the rifle is lighter, more affordable and more accurate than an American-made rifle, but retains the same reliability.

"In the comparative test, Barrett managed to group five shots within six centimeters. Meanwhile, Astarta reached a clustering of 1.5 centimeters," they explained.

"This is unique. The caliber of the bullet is 12.7 millimeters. In other words, it's like all bullets flying into a small hole, one after another," Vitaly Bulgakov said on a separate occasion, deputy managing director of the JSC KBP (part of the High-Precision System), as quoted by TASS, emphasizing Astarta many times more accurately than US-owned Barrett rifles.

"Special task units will be the first to get the Astarta rifle. We focus on specialists, the troops don't need it mass," Bulgakov continued.

The high accuracy of these new weapons, in part caused by design innovation, a "pitched" barrel, a feature that also exists in the smaller caliber MC-566 rifle.

"When changing the firing mode from automatic to single shot, the accuracy achieved is comparable to that of a rifle with a bolt-action mechanism," the company explained, adding that the mass production of the rifle will be carried out starting in the next four months.

"We are preparing for production... We plan to start mass-producing this rifle within about four months. This is the first time we have accelerated production in conditions like this," the company's representative said on the sidelines of the 'Army 2023' event.