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…]
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…]
According to RIA Novosti and TASS (Russian news agencies) Land Forces of Russian Federation started issuing “Ratnik” (Warrior) kits to the troops. As covered earlier on TFB, Ratnik includes a number of upgrades to existing weapons and gear, as well as new equipment. [Read More…]
When the AK-Alfa rifle was announced at Kalashnikov USA’s booth at the 2016 SHOT Show early in the year, it created an enormous buzz. The rifle’s Kalashnikov heritage, sleek looks, and surprise appearance in association with Kalashnikov’s [Read More…]
The AK-12 is dead. Long live the AK-12! That’s the song Kalashnikov Concern is singing this week at the recent ARMY 2016 expo in Moscow, Russia. The radical AK-12 prototypes that have dominated Kalashnikov’s press over the past two years are gone, replaced [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…]
Gun guru and MVD agent KardeN gets to play with all the best toys – this time, it’s the 9mm Kalashnikov-based submachine gun, the PP-19-01 “Vityaz”. Designed to handle high pressure 9x19mm Russian ammunition, the Vityaz is a more elegant weapon [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…]
This article is an English-language translation of an article written for Мир увлечений: Охота & Оружие (World of Hobbies: Hunting & Weapons) magazine, by Andrey Donets and Dmytro Adyeyev. TFB reader dnepr0mike graciously aided the [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…]
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…]
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, [Read More…]
Kalashnikov Concern has been hard at work improving the AK-12 rifle, which – although its status has waffled between “adopted” and “not” – is expected to be adopted and standardized by the Russian armed forces. The YouTube channel of [Read More…]
The AK-12 rifle, slated to be adopted by the Russian Army in some capacity late this year, has been delayed in production until 2016. According to Russian news media sources, the rifle will undergo a series of improvements of an unspecified type. From [Read More…]
There has been a lot of news about the Russian AK-12 rifle to come out this past Winter, and we at TFB have stayed on top of our coverage of the design’s evolution. However, since late January, there are a few things we have learned, so now it’s about [Read More…]
The Russian Ministry of Defense has selected Kalashnikov Concern’s AK-12 rifle to be the next standard-issue service weapon. Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov says that up to 70,000 AK-12s are expected to be delivered in 2015, Vestifinance.ru reports: [Read More…]
The AK-12 has just been approved for use in the Russian Army, but what else do we know about the weapon? TV Zvezda has released a helpful video describing the rifle to the public: The problem for monolingual English-speakers such as myself being that we cannot [Read More…]
Coming on the heels of (and surely related to) news that Kalashnikov Concern has decided to launch the AK-12 on the open market, the Russian Army has announced today that both the AK-12 and the A545 (improved AEK-971 variant) have passed state trials and will be [Read More…]
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: Концерн «Калашников» планирует в [Read More…]
The AK-12 and the Russian Military are in Ross/Rachel will-they-or-won’t-they relationship. The Kalashnikov Group claimed the gun will be adopted by the Russian military in 2014, but the Russian government has denied this, saying it would not even be tested by [Read More…]
The Russian government will adopt the 5.45mm and 7.62mm (not sure if that is 7.62x51mm, 7.62x54mm or 7.62x39mm) version of the Kalashnikov AK-12 rifle. Google translate says … Kalashnikovs new generation of caliber 5.45 and 7.62 millimeters, as well as a long [Read More…]
The hottest gun of 2013 could be the Izhmash AK-12. The company is planning on delivering a semiautomatic version in 2013 chambered for .223 Remington and 12 Gauge. The drawings of the proposed sporting models are below. This is exciting news. Gun enthusiasts around the [Read More…]
Lionel attended TVM 2012 in Russia and took these photos of the new AK-12 fitted out with a red dot sight, flashlight, foregrip and laser/target designator. Is it my imagintion, or does the stock looks really low compared to the optic? The distance is similar to an [Read More…]
[ Many thanks to Halfbear for emailing us the link. ]
More photos of new Izhmash AK-12, and the first video I have seen, have been published by Russia Today. Russia Today is calling the AK-12 the Kalashnikov 5.0. I declared it the 5th generation AK back in November and so am very pleased to see I counted up the AK [Read More…]
Izhmash has officially unveiled the first working prototype of the AK-12 Assault Rifle. According to Max Popenker there will be two models, a Light model (5.45x39mm, 5.56x45mm and 7.62x39mm) that accepts all magazines that work with existing AK rifles, as well as a new [Read More…]
The next-generation AK rifle, formally referred to as the AK-200, has been named the AK-12. Its name refers to 2012, the year it will go into production. Izhmash is referring to it as the fifth generation Kalashnikov rifle1 . The controls have been modified so that they [Read More…]
Your Privacy Choices