Today, Kalashnikov Group (Russia) presented new assault rifle prototype called AK-308 at the International Military-Technical Forum “Army-2018” According to the press release: “Weapon is based on AK-103 with certain design features taken from AK-12 and is [Read More…]
Modern Firearms website has published a new article telling about the official release of the 200-series of AK rifles. These rifles represent the next generation and evolution of the 100-series of AKs. In fact, they’ve been around for about a year but [Read More…]
No, Vz. 58 is not an AK version. The recently released video by Kalashnikov Media was just a good additional source to start talking about this topic. This rifle is so many times confused with the AK, that even Kalashnikov Media dedicated a separate video in their [Read More…]
ORSIS has first introduced their semi-auto rifle about a year ago during MILEX-2017 arms exhibition in Belarus. Recently, they have released it to the Russian civilian market. The Russian designation of the rifle is ORSIS-K15 “Брат”. The word [Read More…]
At the end of the past month, we reported about the adoption of AK-12, AK-15, AEK-971, and AEK-973 rifles by the Russian military. Back then it was not clear if they are going to adopt the RPK-16 light machine gun, too. Today, Kalashnikov Concern and TASS [Read More…]
A recent media video following a platoon of the Syrian Arab Army take over of al-Bukamal, a city in the eastern portion of Syria, on the border with Iraq shows a soldier with what appears to be the receiver, trigger guard, and stock of a shotgun (Remington 870 from the [Read More…]
The Firearm Blog is proud to present a line of unique pictures of the new and improved Kalashnikov AK-100M series. The AK-100M is the modernized version of the AK-100, with the obvious addition of the “M” in the name. It’s interesting to see some of [Read More…]
One of the most significant military events in the Russian Patriot Park is ARMY exhibition held annually in August. This year it was especially successful for the Russian companies. Particularly, Rostec State Corporation has signed sales contracts of a total sum of 40 [Read More…]
In this article Kalashnikov concern takes the opportunity to answer some of the Frequently Asked Questions about the production and development of Kalashnikov rifles. There are quite a few details revealed that I had no idea about. For instance, where can I find more [Read More…]
Over the past few months more information has emerged on one of Russia’s most interesting firearms – a big bore close quarters assault rifle. The Tula-based Instrument Design Bureau (KBP) designed ASh-12 (or ShAK-12 according to a recent Jane’s [Read More…]
A concept for an advanced suit of powered personal armor was unveiled late last month at the Moscow Prototyping Center, sporting hexagonal modular armor panels, full face helmet with mocked up information display, and a bullpup rifle. The suit, revealed to the internet [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern has announced about a new upgrade/modernization kit for AK style rifles. It is a drop-in kit which allows converting any stock AK-47/AKM or AK-74 rifle into a bit more modern weapon making it more adjustable and suitable for accessorizing. As seen in [Read More…]
The Victory Day Parade is a military parade annually held in Red Square of Moscow in celebration of victory in the Second World War. The parade takes place on 9th of May, which is the day when Nazi Germany signed the instrument of surrender in 1945. Let’s take a [Read More…]
History certainly does repeat itself, at least where Army procurement is concerned. US Senator from Iowa Joni Ernst has, in an address to Vice Chief of Staff Daniel Allyn on Capitol Hill earlier last week, called for a new upgrade program for the US Army’s [Read More…]
Military procurement is a very precise business, in which the costs, drawbacks, and benefits of different ideas and proposals are weighed in the balance, and those that don’t make the grade are relegated to research status or cancelled outright. It’s also a [Read More…]
In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the relatively rare or new knives, bayonets and multi-tools of Russian armed forces and special police units. Some of these edged weapons are adopted in small quantities by special forces, others are newly adopted [Read More…]
The Berlin Wall fell some 27 years ago. Now the situation around the Baltic Sea seems to turn to the worse again. As a reply Lithuania – a NATO member since 2004 – just updated their civil defense booklet, with clear information to citizens what they should [Read More…]
NORINCO and Chongqing Jianshe Industry Group have unveiled a brand new modern 5.56mm and 7.62mm rifle platforms. We do not know much about these new guns other than the photos included here, not even the source of these photos which were passed to us anonymously. What [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern’s newest weapon releases have received quite a lot of attention since they were first shown off at the ARMY 2016 military and technology forum in Moscow, and as the conference winds down, I want to take a more thorough pass through four of [Read More…]
An image of a mysterious new Russian machine gun was leaked to the public recently, during a visit to the Kalashnikov factory by Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov. The weapon is an intriguing dual-feed magazine/belt loading gun that features distinctly un-AK-like [Read More…]
As part of the recent Russian re-armament program including the T-14 Armata man battle tank, the T-50 air superiority fighter, and the AK-12 and A545 rifles, the Federation has initiated a program for a new 5.45mm caliber squad support weapon, called [Read More…]
Hognose, over at his blog Weaponsman.com, has written a tidy rundown of the past, present (and probable lack of a) future for burst-limited automatic small arms. A sample, and further discussion, is below, but I encourage my readers to click through and read his article [Read More…]
There’s very little that has truly been new in the way of firearms mechanisms in the past century. Materials and ammunition design have improved steadily, but the great bulk of firearms mechanisms in use today were designed in the early part of the 20th Century or [Read More…]
The title of this article is an Anglicized version of the title of the article linked below. The search for a successful selfloading weapon that could be issued en masse to troops was closely related to the development of early weapons that were predecessors to the [Read More…]
These two renders have been doing the round on Russian social media. Apparently they were made by Russian students. They show a very AK-74 (or AK-12?) rifle with a very modern angular design. Compare it with the Kalashnikov AK-12 below … I much prefer the [Read More…]
Russia’s next-generation infantry modernization program is in full swing, and while here at TFB we’ve covered two of the rifles, the AEK-571/A545 and AK-12, competing for orders as part of the program, but the program as a whole is more extensive than [Read More…]
Via his Facebook page, Larry Vickers shares with us some photos of a prototype upgraded AK-74 rifle, made by Kalashnikov Concern and adopted by the Russian [Read More…]
During the Army 2015 International Military-Technical Forum in June of this year, Kalashnikov showed off their products, including the AK-12, AK-15, and the new PL-14 pistol. Also present was the new upgrade kit for the AK-74 rifle, but what was missed by almost all [Read More…]
Our good friend Max Popenker sent us this photo from a recent trip to the range with a selection of Kalashnikov manufactured rifles. On the far left is the AK-105. This is the modern ultra short carbine version of the AK that replaced the AK-74U in Russian service. [Read More…]
One of the more interesting developments in the ammunition world from the past few years has been the growing interest in Russia for the 6.5 Grendel cartridge. Kalashnikov Concern’s new AK-12 rifle is rumored to have a 6.5mm variant, and the CIP standardized a [Read More…]