Russian army stops buying Kalashnikov rifles

[MothBalls]

End of an era? I didn't see if it said they quit making them, or if Russia just quit buying them.

(CNN) -- The Russian army has ceased ordering the famed Kalashnikov rifle for its arsenal and is waiting on a newer model its manufacturer is developing.

The inventor of the weapon, Mikhail Kalashnikov, 91, has reportedly been deliberately kept uninformed about the decision.

In 2009, Kalashnikov told a CNN crew on an excursion to the Izhmash arms assembly plant in the Russian city of Izhevsk that two main qualities describe his machine gun: simplicity and reliability.

"It is a thousand times harder to make simple things than complicated ones," he said.

You would think they would have a reliable replacement before they stopped buying them. In the article it said they are waiting on development for a replacement.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/29/world/...a-kalashnikov/

[CCIP]

There's been a lot of proposed replacements going back to the 1980s, some of them even perfectly working prototypes or limited service rifles (spetsnaz etc.) - just that one hasn't ever been adopted into service. Most of them are modernized derivatives of the AK anyway so I don't think there's much to worry about.

Personally I'm a fan of the Abakan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN-94 I hope something like that gets adopted.
The downside, though, is that it is a somewhat more complex and sensitive rifle than Kalashnikov, requiring better care and training. Still, for a proper and professional army service, that shouldn't be an issue.

[em2nought]

Originally Posted by MothBalls

You would think they would have a reliable replacement before they stopped buying them. In the article it said they are waiting on development for a replacement.

Hmm, should probably get a Saiga soon.

[TFatseas]

Personally I'm a fan of the Abakan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN-94 I hope something like that gets adopted.
The downside, though, is that it is a somewhat more complex and sensitive rifle than Kalashnikov, requiring better care and training. Still, for a proper and professional army service, that shouldn't be an issue

The AN-94 is as dead as a doorknob. No funding, Nikonov's dead and it's production lines are long gone. The fact that the design came about between the death of the USSR and the birth of of the new Russia pretty much made sure of it staying a niche design.

Hmm, should probably get a Saiga soon.

No worries, Izmash is stepping up it's export production to cover the gap left by the Russian military pulling out its contracts.

[Platapus]

Back in the dark ages when I was in EOD school in MD, we visited the Beretta factory. One of the managers there had a very large private collection of AK rifles and he put on a display for us.

Being a gun nut since birth, I was eating this up with a big spoon.

He had a lot of rifles!

He disassembled one of his AK-47s (I forget which mod). I happened to be right in front of the table, drooling. He then asked me to reassemble it.

I told him that I couldn't as this was the first time I had ever seen one first hand. He told me not to think about it but to just put it together.

He was right. With the exception of the forward wooden handgrip, which can be tricky, the AK-47 goes together exactly as you would imagine it.

Simple and reliable.

It took me a formal class and many attempts before I could do the same for my M-16. But I was able to put together the AK just by looking at it.

A very well designed weapon. Probably one of the better designs.

Not being able to assemble an M-16 in a given time is one reason many fail the Expert Infantry Test.


I passed first time.

[MH]

AK is good basic rifle but its unsuited for modern warfare.