OTs-33 Pernach

The OTs-33 Pernach (ОЦ-33 Пернач, Russian for "pernach") is a Russian 9x18 Makarov machine pistol, derived from the 5.45 mm OTs-23 Drotik machine pistol. The Pernach is an automatic pistol designed to replace the Stechkin APS in various special OMON units within the Russian police, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and other paramilitary units. The OTs-33 was developed in 1995 by Igor Stechkin at the TsKIB SOO design bureau, and it went into production at the KBP Instrument Design Bureau. It is also known as the SBZ-2 (Russian: СБЗ-2), derived from the names of the KBP team responsible for the pistol, namely Stechkin, Baltser (Бальцер) and Zinchenko (Зинченко). The designers were tasked with resolving the difficulty of controlling recoil in full-auto mode present in the Stechkin APS pistol and simplifying it for combat deployment. The new pistol has a "square" shape, which is simpler (and less expensive) to manufacture and has a novel operating principle that increases controllability and reduces recoil.