Soldier of Fortune Magazine The Journal of Professional Adventurers
by Austin Lee
The prototype 6.02×41 isn’t just a cartridge – it’s Russia’s middle finger to NATO’s gear grind.
The Russians are at it again. Their new 6.02x41mm prototype is designed to punch through NATO body armor like paper – a modern evolution of the infamous 5.45x39mm “poison bullet” that once terrorized Mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan. Fast, lightweight, and devastating, it’s a stark reminder that the art of battlefield carnage never stands still.
READ MORE from Austin Lee: Barrett MK22 Sniper Rifle: A Precision Tool Under Fire
Back in the gritty trenches of the Russian-Afghan War, Soldier of Fortune magazine’s boots-on-the-ground reporting exposed the Soviet 5.45x39mm as a nasty little beast that turned Mujahideen fighters into Swiss cheese with its tumbling bullet design, earning the infamous “poison bullet” moniker for wounds that looked like a blender hit flesh at high speed. In the harsh Afghan theater, where fighters often went days without medical treatment or antibiotics, these injuries quickly festered into infections, gangrene, and sepsis, amplifying the myth of a “poisoned” projectile.
Galen Geer, SOF’s intrepid scribe, in the 1980’s smuggled out the ComBloc 5.45x39mm round for the AK-74 assault rifle. This lightweight round – clocking 2,950 fps with a 52-grain projectile – outmaneuvered the heavier 7.62×39, allowing Ivan to haul more ammo while delivering erratic wound channels and massive tissue destruction up to 500 meters.
Certificate for patent application on the 6.02×41
Fast-forward to today, and the Russians are cooking up the 6.02x41mm, a high-penetration prototype that’s got the Kremlin eyeing NATO’s ever-evolving body armor like a Russian bear spotting fresh meat. In 2023, officials with the Tula Cartridge Works filed a patent application for a design to punch through modern vests that can withstand the old 5.45’s best shots.
In the 1980’s dust-ups, the 5.45×39 was a game-changer, where SOF reports detailed its superior terminal ballistics. It tumbled early upon impact to carve out wound channels up to seven inches wide, versus the 5.56’s fragmentation that needed higher velocity to splinter into lethal shards.
But body armor has evolved, shrinking effective ranges to shorter distances and forcing Moscow to innovate. Enter the alleged 6.02×41, born from patent RU 2809501 C1 at Tula Cartridge Plant with Kalashnikov Concern’s input, ditching the exhausted tweaks of the 5.45 and 5.56 for a fresh intermediate round. It’s engineered for tungsten-carbide-cored projectiles around 7.5 grams (116 grains), blasting out at 800 m/s (2,625 fps) to maintain energy at 900 meters equivalent to the 5.45’s at 500, all while drilling through Level 4 plates that will stop its targets cold in their tracks.
Stack the specs, and the 6.02×41 flexes muscle where the old guards falter: muzzle energy hovers around 2,000 joules, dwarfing the 5.45’s 1,300 joules and the 5.56’s 1,700, with an effective range pushing 800 meters against armored foes – double the 400-500 meter sweet spot of the 5.45 (52-60 grains at 2,810-2,950 fps) or 5.56 (62 grains at 3,000 fps).
(Video screenshot)
Wound-wise, expect deep hard hitting penetration over wild tumbling; the 6.02’s AP design drills straight channels for hydrostatic shock without the 5.45’s chaotic flip or the 5.56’s velocity-dependent breakup, making it a surgeon’s nightmare for soft tissue behind barriers. It’s lighter than full rifle calibers but packs enough sectional density to retain velocity better than the skinnier 5.45, turning obsolete Cold War rounds into yesterday’s news for modern firefights.
Across the pond, Uncle Sam’s NGSW program’s 6.8×51 SIG Fury – chambered in the XM5 rifle and XM250 LMG – mirrors Russia’s pivot, hurling 135-140 grain slugs at 2,950-3,000 fps for 2,700 ft-lbs of muzzle thump, extending lethal reach to 600+ meters with armor-busting power that mocks the 5.56’s limits.
The Fury’s hybrid case handles insane pressures for flat trajectories and wound cavities that blend penetration with expansion, outpacing the 6.02’s estimated energy at range but at the cost of heavier recoil and ammo weight; think a sledgehammer versus the Russians’ scalpel. Both rounds scream “body armor is obsolete,” but the 6.02 edges in controllability for AK derived weapons platforms, while the Fury demands beefier guns, setting up an East-West slugfest where the winner owns the battlefield and bragging rights.
Abstract from patent application for 6.02×41 ammunition.
In the end, the 6.02×41 isn’t just a cartridge – it’s Russia’s middle finger to NATO’s gear grind, echoing SOF’s Afghan dispatches where innovation meant survival.
As grunts face vests tougher than tank hide armor, this prototype Russian cartridge promises to restore the assault rifle’s bite, outranging and outpunching the 5.45/5.56 duo.
Whether it hits production or fizzles out, one thing is clear: the arms race is heating up. The future is shaping up to be chambered in 6mm.
Austin Lee is the proprietor of Galilhub, and is a gunsmith and a competitive shooter. He writes frequently for Soldier of Fortune.
