TP-82

The TP-82 was a triple-barreled Soviet combination gun carried by cosmonauts as a survival aid for landings in the Siberian wilderness before recovery crews arrived. Two side-by-side shotgun barrels fire 12.5x70 mm (40 gauge) ammunition above a single rifle barrel chambered for the 5.45x39mm round developed for the AK-74. The metal buttstock is detachable and sharpened so that it can serve as a machete, and the weapon also works as a flare gun for distress signals. It was compact enough to stow in a Soyuz descent module. The design followed cosmonaut Alexei Leonov's fear, after his Voskhod capsule malfunctioned and left him stranded, that the 9x18mm Makarov pistol in his kit would not stop bears or wolves. TP-82s flew regularly on Soviet and Russian missions from 1986 to 2006, and in 2007 the remaining ammunition was reported unusable, so a regular semi-automatic pistol replaced it.