Type Assault rifle Used by Internal Troops | Place of origin Russia Designed Early 1990s | |
 | ||
Designer V. N. Telesh and U. V. Lebedev Manufacturer TsKIIB SOO
(Central Design Bureau of Sporting and Hunting Weapons) | ||
OTs-12 Tiss ("Yew Tree") (Russian:ОЦ-12 Тисс) is a Russian fully automatic assault rifle chambered for the sub-sonic 9x39mm round.
Work on the weapon started in the early 1990s. Basically a rechambering and reworking of the more conventional AKS-74U assault carbine, it differs only in the bolt, barrel, muzzle-brake, and magazine. The 20-round box magazine was designed so that it would be compatible with standard current-issue ammo pouches but a larger 25-round magazine was rumored.
In 1993 a few hundred were built and delivered to the Russian Internal Troops for evaluation. They performed excellently, with the subsonic round showing superior penetration of cover at short and medium ranges (200–300 m) when compared to the 5.45x39mm. Still, the OC-12 didn't go into mass-production and was discontinued later that year.