In one of its recent news releases, Kalashnikov Concern has announced that the Russian government will start testing the new AM-17 and AMB-17 compact assault rifles in 2018. Several Russian special service agencies including the Federal Protective Service (FSO) and Federal Security Service (FSB) as well as the Russian National Guard have expressed a high interest in these two firearms.

AMB-17

Once the tests are finished, the Kalashnikov Concern will start mass production of both rifles. The AM-17 will most likely replace the AKS-74U (a.k.a Krinkov). Dimensions wise the AM-17 is comparable to the AKS-74U. It has an advantage of being slightly lighter weight – 2.5 kg compared to 2.7 kg of Krinkov. BCGs of these rifles ride on a top chassis allowing them to have most of the receiver parts made of polymer material thus making them lighter. This layout was pioneered by Yevgeny Dragunov in his MA compact rifle design which ironically was AKS-74U’s competitor in the trials. The suppressed version (AMB-17) will probably be considered for replacing firearms like AS VAL or VSS Vintorez.

Below is a video recently released by the Kalashnikov Media demonstrating the two rifles:

https://kalashnikov.media/embed/4516418

Although the AKS-74U, VSS and AS VAL are great firearms with many years of service and proven to be extremely reliable, I think replacing them with these two rifles could probably be a good decision. AM-17 and AMB-17 will be able to fulfill the roles of a number of mentioned older firearms at the same time having a high level of parts compatibility between each other.