No more AK purchases
Russia will stop buying Kalashnikovs:
This year has seen the end of the longstanding tradition of the Soviet times. Russia’s Defense Ministry has decided to completely refuse from purchasing the legendary AK-74 rifles for the army. There are two reasons for that: the country has too many Kalashnikovs and they are outdated.
Nikolai Makarov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces said: “Yes, we have refused. The reserves that we have in the country exceed the needs considerably.”
Also, the chief there then bashes the AK, saying it’s not good for the army. And bashes the quality. Sure, the AK has the ergonomics of a baseball bat and the controls are as easy to operate as getting the wishbone out in that game of Operation. But it does go bang when you need it to.
December 28th, 2011 at 10:58 am
Well, if they don’t want them, I guess I can make some room over here…; )
December 28th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Does this mean more and less expensive semiauto exports will now be manufacured, or will the existing 99,987,654,321 select fire AK’s be all that Russia will have to export?
December 28th, 2011 at 12:21 pm
Had a Norinco AKM many years back. Shot fine, accurate out to 200-300 yards. Easy to maintain. Traded it for another firearm because I wanted to reduce the calibers of ammunition to keep.
AK’s are just fine.
December 28th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Sure, the AK has the ergonomics of a baseball bat and the controls are as easy to operate as getting the wishbone out in that game of Operation.
Back when I owned a MAK-90, it wasn’t all that bad.
The only controls to speak of are the selector/safety and the trigger, neither of which are remotely finicky.
December 28th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
A bigger issue is that AK’s don’t scope especially easily. The biggest revolution in military small arms is the widespread adoption optics and weapon accessories facilitated by the 1913 rail.
Most of the attempts to add these features to AKs are very kludgy. Thats is why recent pictures out of Izmash look like Tapco threw up all over their product line. Addressing the problem elegantly would require essentially redesigning the whole gun.
December 28th, 2011 at 7:40 pm
The issue here is “goes bang when you need it to” isnt really all that rare, considering properly manufactured and taken care of mil-spec firearms. That alone is simply not good enough anymore.
Some of the other rifles being created in Russia right now are plenty interesting, so why not expand?
This also means the AK just went the way of the SKS. I wonder if our tyrants here will let us import them…
December 28th, 2011 at 10:06 pm
I sure like what Rifle Dynamics does to them.
December 28th, 2011 at 11:19 pm
“…look like Tapco threw up all over their product line…”
Belly laugh.