Super Soviet Space Survival Machete

Description

Here is some of what the Soviet Sources said regarding their Super Soviet Space Survival Machete

TP-82 – a non-automatic three-barreled hunting pistol, which is part of the SONAZ stock complex (small arms of a wearable emergency), items are armed by Russian cosmonauts to protect against dangerous animals and criminal elements, hunting and hitting detection light signals in the event of a landing or splashdown in a deserted area . It has two upper horizontal smooth barrels of the 32nd hunting caliber and a rifled barrel of 5.45 mm caliber is located under them. SONAZ ammunition includes specially designed cartridges of 5.45 mm caliber SP – P (bullet), 32 caliber SP – D (shot number 3) and 32 caliber SP – S (signal)

The initiator of the development of this weapon is Alexei Leonov, who, together with Pavel Belyaev, entered into an emergency emergency landing in the taiga in 1965. Ordinary P.M., included in the cosmonaut’s emergency reserve already with the flight of Yuri Gagarin, did not solve the problem of survival in extreme conditions.

Boris Evseevich Chertok in his book “Rockets and People” described the emergency with Voskhod-2: “The cosmonauts spent the night in the forest of the Northern Urals. Helicopters could only fly over them and report that one of them was chopping wood, and put them on the fire. Warm clothes and food were dropped from helicopters, but Leonov and Belyaev could not be taken out of the taiga.” The most dramatic situation was when hungry bears came out of the forest to the fire, and the astronauts did not demand a serious opportunity for predators to take possession …Thanks to a lucky chance, the astronauts did not suffer then. Only a few days later, along the ski track laid by the rescuers, they managed to get to the Mi-4 helicopter, then transferred from it to the heavier Mi-6 and got to Perm.

In 1979, Alexei Leonov was present at the arms factory in Tula, where he was made by craftsmen with the discovery of a new weapon: if the astronauts had a special multi-functional weapon at hand, Leonov said, then we all felt confident. After that, the Tula gunsmiths, on their own initiative, decided to attack the “space weapon”.

The development was carried out in three directions: a revolver, a self-loading smoothbore gun, a three-barreled pistol. The gun was abandoned immediately – the weight and size did not allow it to be placed in the descent vehicle. Soon, two prototypes were sent to Star City: a three-barreled pistol and a revolver.A revolver with different-caliber chambers was screened out by the selection committee immediately, a three-barreled pistol, marked “TP-82”, was recommended for revision and adoption. By 1982, under the chief designer of the Tula Arms Plant V. A. Paramonov, the TP-82 acquired its physical appearance. In parallel with the commission of offenses in the Klimovsky TsNIITochMash for TP-82, various types of activities arose and were investigated.

By the time the technical project was completed, a set of three vehicles was proposed for a three-barreled hunting pistol: SN-D, SN-S and SN-P. By appointment of the head of the survival department of the Cosmonaut Training Center (CTC) Valery Trunov, the shooting complex received the nickname “Dream Poacher”. In the documents, it appears as SONAZ (small arms of a wearable emergency stock).

In 1982, the TP-82 went into space for the first time – it was included in the Soyuz T-6 emergency spare ship, which was flown by a joint Soviet-French crew. SONAZ was officially adopted in 1986. The widely published TP-82 pistol was demonstrated at the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR “Road to the Stars”, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s flight into space.

SONAZ was a mandatory kit for all Soyuz manned spacecraft from 1986 to 2006. Every cosmonaut who flew into space during this period is required to take a survival course, including being able to handle firearms. Since 2007, the TP-82 has received status in SONAZ for its intended purpose, specially manufactured for trips (at the same time, the applied machete remains among the participants in the cosmonauts’ equipment).

Another source, about the machete:

Machete for Soviet cosmonauts⁠⁠
It would be noted that such an exotic tool as a machete is more typical for Latin American countries and generally more suitable for the jungle, but even in the Soviet Union the machete took root quite well. True, in a rather highly specialized area.The fact is that the knife-machete at one time was included in the kit worn by astronauts of the emergency reserve of the USSR Air Force, and later Russia. In addition to it, there are a bunch of other interesting things: a saw knife, special matches, a TP-82 three-barreled pistol, which could be attached to a machete as a butt, etc.

The machete itself is triangular in shape with two sharpened utility blades and can be used as both a cutting tool and a digging tool. The total length of the machete is 355 mm, the blade length is 235 mm, butt width is up to 4 mm.The handle of the machete knife was made of hard rubber plastic, with raised lugs for a better grip and a lanyard hole. The handle has grooves for connection with the handle of the TP-82 pistol, with a fixed latch located on the handle of the machete. A machete requires a special sheath made of durable fabric that can be attached to a belt.