So far, the main means of drilling holes for blasting operations at open‑pit mines are percussion drilling machines. More than 1,500 machines operate at mines and quarries, with a total drilling volume exceeding 3 million linear meters of wells per year. Increasing the productivity of the machines and improving drilling operations have been given much attention in recent years, but drilling productivity still grows very slowly. At mines with good organization of drilling operations, where machine downtime is minimized, drilling productivity has practically not increased in recent years, i.e., the reserves for increasing productivity through organizational measures have been largely used up. To further increase productivity, it is necessary to modernize the machines.