#Aek-971

Russian Degtyaryov Plant has published on their social media pages а photo depicting their new rifle called KSO18 (КСО18). According to the company, this is their newest balanced action rifle which they will soon officially introduce to the Russian civilian market. This rifle is apparently based on Degtyaryov Plant’s AEK-971 which in 2018 was adopted by the Russian military as A-545 (GRAU index 6P67 (6П67)) along with its 7.62x39mm sibling, the AEK-973 (A-762, 6P68) and AK-12/AK-15 rifles.

The concept of balanced recoil has been around for a long time. The main idea of this design is pretty simple – to counter the impulse of the bolt carrier moving back, there is a special rod that moves forward at precisely the same time. Both counter balancing rod and bolt carrier are connected to the gas system and linked to each other via a gear. This mechanism considerably reduces felt recoil and muzzle rise, making burst and full auto fire much more controllable.

With the recent official news that the new AK-12 and AK-15 rifles have been adopted by the Russian Ministry of Defense it’s with interest we with Kalashnikov’s help can take a deeper look into how the rifles were developed and engineered.

The Russian Defense Ministry has made a decision regarding its next infantry rifle: It will adopt everything, it seems. Not only will Russian Army forces receive the improved 5.45x39mm AK-12 ( the new AK-12, not the different previous version), and the 7.62x39mm AK-15, but the 5.45mm Degtyarov AEK-971 and 7.62x39mm AEK-973 will be procured for special units as well. This “two-tiered” rifle mix is not unusual in the modern era, but a formal, simultaneous adoption of two such weapons is quite strange for a major military such as that of the Russian Federation. From Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) [machine translated from Russian with corrections]:

As you know, Russia hasn’t yet made a final decision which one of the new AK-12 and AEK-971 assault rifles to adopt. Both firearms are being extensively tested and issued in small quantities and both seem to be adequate to be adopted.

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 before. However, there are exceptions, and one truly innovative piece of small arms mechanical technology of the past 30 years is the balanced action concept. This concept exploits the fact that, for automatic weapons chambered in small caliber rifle rounds like the 5.45x39mm, the greatest contributor to the disruption of the weapon after each shot isn’t the rearward force generated by the round itself, but the recoil of the moving parts group, especially as it bottoms out against the rear of the weapon’s receiver. Larry Vickers, on his recent trip to Moscow, got the once-in-a-lifetime chance to fire Kalashnikov Concern’s entry into the balanced-action game, the AK-107 alongside famous Russian 3-gun champion Andrey Kirisenko:

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 just a new infantry weapon. The project, called Ratnik (a Russian word equivalent to “warrior”) is a total modernization of infantry equipment, introducing over 40 new items, including camouflage, comms gear, sights, body armor, navigation equipment, designators, and, of course, small arms. A three-year order for Ratnik equipment was placed in October of last year, and is expected to consist of deliveries of 50,000 units per year.

The dark horse of the Russian next-generation individual weapon trials has been the A545, better known as the AEK-971. Where the AK-12 is essentially the well-known and respected Kalashnikov with some new architecture that supports the modern accessory-driven paradigm, the A545 is the incarnation of a more radical concept, dating back to the Abakan trials that produced the AN-94. While the AEK-971 and its derivatives fundamentally do trace their ancestry to the Kalashnikov, they incorporate the “balanced action” principle, where in addition to the mass moving rearwards, a forward-moving mass is coupled to the reciprocating group, which allows not only a great reduction in center-of-gravity shift during firing, but also gives a measure of constant-recoil effect to the firearm as well. Coupled with an effective muzzle brake, this mechanism dramatically reduces disturbances in fully automatic fire. Below is a Russian-language video from November of 2014 discussing the A545:

Russian news media today reports that, one year after Mikhail Kalashnikov’s death, the company that bears his name has officially launched the AK-12 rifle on the open market. Russia Today reports: