Berezin UB (series)

Heavy-Caliber Aircraft Machine Gun

Soviet Union | 1941

"The Berezin UB heavy machine gun design proved a star player for Soviet aircraft during all of World War 2."

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Authored By: Staff Writer | Last Edited: 10/20/2022 | Content ©www.MilitaryFactory.com | The following text is exclusive to this site; No A.I. was used in the generation of this content.

The Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) was a staple of many combat aircraft during World War II (1939-1945). Just before the fighting began, the Soviets took into service the 12.7mm (0.50 caliber) Berezin (alternatively the "Beresin) "UB" HMG series for its growing collection of modern warplanes. The weapon went on to arm such types as the Yak-1, Yak-3, Yak-7, Yak-9, Lavochkin La-5, and the classic Ilyushin IL-2 "Sturmovik" (rear gunner mount), such was its historical reach.

The gun saw design work by Mikhail Berezin begin around the latter 1930s as an effort to develop a simpler, synchronizer-capable aerial machine gun solution using the same large-caliber cartridge as ground-based, in-service Soviet HMGs. Work began in 1937 leading to trials undertaken by way of the prototype Berezin "BS" in 1938. This then led to a quantitative order had in 1939 but progress slowed some by ongoing testing delays into the early part of 1941. Evaluations ultimately led to improvements that produced the satisfactory introductory "UB" model of April 1941 which headlined a whole series of related machine guns (the UBS, UBK, and UBT).

The gun was available in limited numbers by the time of the German invasion of the Soviet Union that same year but the invasion forced mass production to ensue thereafter.

This aerial weapon was chambered for the 12.7x108mm rimless heavy cartridge and fired from a gas-operated internal action fed by belted (disintegrating link belt) ammunition of 250-round count. To prevent overheating and fracturing / deforming of the barrel assembly, a simple air-cooled approach was utilized. Rate-of-fire ranged between 800 to 1,050 rounds-per-minute depending on application and regulator setting while muzzle velocity of the outgoing bullet was 2,670 feet-per-second. Sighting of the gun accomplished through a simple iron arrangement either in the cockpit (fixed, forward-firing installations) or over the gun (trainable mountings). Charging of the weapon also differed depending on the application: as a defensive-mounted, trainable machine gun solution, the operator simply managed the exposed charging handle as normal; for buried aircraft mountings, a pneumatic arrangement was featured.

Overall length reached up to 55 inches (UBT) with the barrel assembly measuring 35 inches long.

The outward appearance of the gun was rather utilitarian if streamlined and compact. There were three cylinders stacked ahead of the receiver, one of these being the barrel assembly itself. The receiver was rectangular in its general shape and housed the pertinent internal action as well as the feed and ejection ports.

Both the UBS and UBK were fixed aircraft machine guns typically embedded into portions of the airframe. The UBS differed in being synchronizer-capable (i.e., firing through a spinning propeller blade) while both versions were pneumatically charged by the operator. The UBK was the version fitted to trainable mountings (including turrets) and these had a manually-charged action.

Approximately 130,000 units of the Berezin design were produced during the war years which, in turn, promoted widespread use of this well-made and reliable aircraft machine gun. A dimensionally larger form, the Berezin "B-20", served as an automatic cannon but retained many of the same internal principles that made the Berezin machine gun form a success.

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Performance
Performance specifications presented assume optimal operating conditions for the Berezin UB (series). Information presented is strictly for general reference and should not be misconstrued as useful for hardware restoration or operation.

925
Rounds-Per-Minute
Rate-of-Fire

2,670 ft/sec
814 m/sec
Muzzle Velocity

Physical
The physical qualities of the Berezin UB (series). Information presented is strictly for general reference and should not be misconstrued as useful for hardware restoration or operation.

1,347 mm
53.03 in
O/A Length

890 mm
35.04 in
Barrel Length

47.29 lb
21.45 kg
Weight

Gas-Operated; Full-Automatic-Only
Action

12.7x108mm Rimless
Caliber(s)

250-round disintegrating belt.
Feed

Iron
Sights

Variants
Notable series variants as part of the Berezin UB (series) Heavy-Caliber Aircraft Machine Gun family line.

UB -Base Series Designation.

BS - Initial prototype form of 1939.

UBK - Embedded aircraft gun (fixed-forward mountings).

UBS - Embedded aircraft gun (fixed-forward mountings); synchronzer-capable.

UBT - Ring-mounted gunner's variant; manual charging.

Operators
Global customers who have evaluated and/or operated the Berezin UB (series). Nations are displayed by flag, each linked to their respective national small arms listing.

Contractor(s): State Factories - Soviet Union

[ China; North Korea; Soviet Union ]

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Going Further...
The Berezin UB (series) Heavy-Caliber Aircraft Machine Gun appears in the following collections:

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