RAROG Plastic Machine Gun Tape (Polymer Links) Developed for PK, PKM, and PKT Pattern Machine Guns: ‘Tactical Gear Tested in War’!

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By David Crane
david (at) defensereview (dot) com

June 29, 2022

This one’s interesting. The Russian/Ukrainian war is apparently leading to some interesting small arms innovation in the form of plastic machine gun belt links, or “Plastic Machine Gun Tape” made by a company called RAROG, who’s slogan/tagline is, appropriately (and accurately) enough “Tactical Gear Tested in War”. The Firearm Blog (TFB) beat us to this one, and they report that:

A Ukrainian company, the Kharkiv Plant of Individual Means of Protection (HZISZ), which operates under a number of trade names including RAROG, have developed disintegrating plastic machine gun links for various Soviet/Russian-pattern 7.62x54mmR chambered belt-fed machine guns. The ‘KS-122 Machine Gun Tape’ can be used in PK, PKM, and PKT pattern guns as well as the older Goryunov-pattern machine guns, the SG-43 and SGM.

TFB also reports tht RAROG tested over 200 types of plastic/polymer, and made 26 design changes during the design and development process. And, the the final product will be black in color, rather than translucent (like the links featured in the RAROG promotional video below). Oh, and here’s the kicker. While the polymer machine gun belt links are designed to be disposable, RAROG claims that test links have been used successfully as many as 10 times without performance/reliability issues. That’s pretty impressive for polymer links

The following info comes directly from the RAROG website:

“PLASTIC MACHINE GUN TAPE (PACKING 1000 UNITS) PRE-ORDER ON 01.07.22

4 900 грн/packaging

In stockCode: 0080

Phone: +380 (63) 382-39-83

Return of goods within 14 days by agreement.

The Kharkiv Plant of Individual Means of Protection (HZISZ) produced the KS-122 Machine Gun Tape for Kalashnikov (PC, PKM, PKT, etc.) and Goryunov (SG-43, SGM) machine guns.
The tape consists of separate links made of plastic. Each link has three rings connected by a jumper. The links are hinged to the tape with cartridges inserted into the combined rings.

Price for 1000 units!

The special design of the links allowed to provide the clamping force of the cartridge, which provides a reliable removal when loading the machine gun, strong retention during transfer, the necessary flexibility, no delays in firing.

Advantages of a tape in comparison with an existing tape 6L5:
– The tape is 3 times lighter (the tape on 250 cartridges weighs 0,5 kg instead of 1,5),
– is not afraid of corrosion,
– is much cheaper in production,
– is convenient in modern mobile fight: shot part of the tape does not prevent the machine gunner to move on the battlefield, because the links are immediately removed from the machine gun.

The convenience of equipping the tape with cartridges is provided by a small device (weighing only 180 g), which is mass-produced by the factory. This device can be placed in each lot of 4 … 6 thousand links of the tape.

Specifications:

The cartridge used: 7.62х54R [Russian] Tape weight per 100 rounds: 0.189 kg.
Appointment: Machine guns PC, PKM, PKS, PKT
SG-43 and SGM machine guns
Tape fidelity radius (along the bottom of the sleeves): 250 mm.”

Interesting stuff, indeed.

Company Contact Info:

Kharkiv Plant of Personal Protective Equipment
Contact Person: Denis
Address: Mineralovodskaya, 11, Lviv, Ukraine
Phone: +380 (63) 382-39-83
+380 (96) 005-94-77
+380 (50) 134-08-39
Email: info@rarog.net.ua
Viber/Telegram: https://mssg.me/rarog
Website: rarog.net.ua
rarog.net.ua/ua

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RAROG Plastic Machine Gun Tape (Polymer Links) Developed for PK, PKM, and PKT Pattern Machine Guns: ‘Tactical Gear Tested in War’! by

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David Crane started publishing online in 2001. Since that time, governments, military organizations, Special Operators (i.e. professional trigger pullers), agencies, and civilian tactical shooters the world over have come to depend on Defense Review as the authoritative source of news and information on "the latest and greatest" in the field of military defense and tactical technology and hardware, including tactical firearms, ammunition, equipment, gear, and training.

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