Interesting article about the development of the SPP-1:
So you are a frogman and, while you are froggin it up, you come snorkel-to-snorkel with another wetsuit-clad combat swimmer. You reach for your dive knife but come up short because you realize that you just brought a knife to a gunfight. Well, that dastardly commie has a SPP-1 pistol, and it works underwater.
Why the need
Underwater divers have been used by militaries around the world for centuries. As far back as the 1843, the British Royal Navy and others used divers for salvage. However, these early divers were tethered to the surface by lines that fed oxygen. The first ‘frogmen’ who swam independent of support ships had to do so with just a set of fins, a facemask, and a knife. These early combat swimmers reconned beaches in World War 2 as well as planted explosives when the opportunity arose.
It wasn’t until self-contained breathing apparatus including open and closed circuit varieties came about in the late 1940s that military divers could stay below the surface for longer periods. This new technology led to a greater flexibility of operations that included the laying of limpet mines on enemy ships in harbor. Soon most modern navies had specialized teams of frogmen optimized for underwater recon, sabotage, and other dirty deeds done dirt-cheap.
In 1956, the Soviets and British both caught a dose of diver versus diver combat. The cruiser Ordzhonikidze was visiting the British base of Portsmouth and Lionel Kenneth “Buster” Crabb, a former Royal Navy diver thought to be in the employ of British Intelligence, disappeared in the harbor during the ships visit. Fourteen months later, his body, sans head and hands, washed up. In 2007, a former Russian frogman finally claimed to the press that he had killed Crabb with a knife as the Brit poked around the Ordzhonikidze some fifty years before. It was the only weapon available.
It was this incident and others that may never be known that led the Soviets to develop an underwater pistol.
Rest of the article can be read here:
http://www.guns.com/2013/07/05/spp-1-the-soviet-water-gun/
So you are a frogman and, while you are froggin it up, you come snorkel-to-snorkel with another wetsuit-clad combat swimmer. You reach for your dive knife but come up short because you realize that you just brought a knife to a gunfight. Well, that dastardly commie has a SPP-1 pistol, and it works underwater.
Why the need
Underwater divers have been used by militaries around the world for centuries. As far back as the 1843, the British Royal Navy and others used divers for salvage. However, these early divers were tethered to the surface by lines that fed oxygen. The first ‘frogmen’ who swam independent of support ships had to do so with just a set of fins, a facemask, and a knife. These early combat swimmers reconned beaches in World War 2 as well as planted explosives when the opportunity arose.
It wasn’t until self-contained breathing apparatus including open and closed circuit varieties came about in the late 1940s that military divers could stay below the surface for longer periods. This new technology led to a greater flexibility of operations that included the laying of limpet mines on enemy ships in harbor. Soon most modern navies had specialized teams of frogmen optimized for underwater recon, sabotage, and other dirty deeds done dirt-cheap.
In 1956, the Soviets and British both caught a dose of diver versus diver combat. The cruiser Ordzhonikidze was visiting the British base of Portsmouth and Lionel Kenneth “Buster” Crabb, a former Royal Navy diver thought to be in the employ of British Intelligence, disappeared in the harbor during the ships visit. Fourteen months later, his body, sans head and hands, washed up. In 2007, a former Russian frogman finally claimed to the press that he had killed Crabb with a knife as the Brit poked around the Ordzhonikidze some fifty years before. It was the only weapon available.
It was this incident and others that may never be known that led the Soviets to develop an underwater pistol.
Rest of the article can be read here:
http://www.guns.com/2013/07/05/spp-1-the-soviet-water-gun/