#Ak-15

A couple of months ago we reported about the prototype of a civilian AK-12 rifle that was being tested by competition shooters in Russia. That rifle had a model designation Saiga-AK12. Several days ago, Kalashnikov Concern announced that 2,000 deactivated AK-12 rifles will be sold to the civilians. And the latest news is that the civilian versions of both AK-12 and AK-15 rifles will soon hit the shelves of Russian gun stores under a new model designation of AK TR3.

According to Russian news sources, the Russian Ministry of Defense has agreed a contract with Kalashnikov Concern to purchase the first 150,000 new AK-12 and AK-15 rifles. The adoption of the AK-12 and AK-15 was first announced back in January 2018. 

AK-12 and AK-15 rifles were adopted by the Russian military at the beginning of the current year. These rifles inherited the best features of the AKM/AK-74 and added a number of small design changes that bring the good old AK to the 21st century. Although most of these changes are generally known to us, there is still quite a bit of mystery concerning how exactly some of the parts are redesigned and constructed.

Artsrun Hovhannisyan, the press secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Armenia, has published on his social media pages a post announcing about a contract signed between the Kalashnikov Concern and an Armenian company called Royalsys Engineering Ltd concerning the licensed manufacturing of AK-12 and AK-15 rifles in Armenia.

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]:

According to Russian news agency TASS, the Kalashnikov Concern officials have informed them that the AK-12 has successfully passed all the government tests and trials and it is planned to be adopted by the Russian armed forces. The key phrase is “planned to”, which means it is not quite official yet. The Kalashnikov Concern also released a video showing some design details of their newest firearms like the AK-12, AK-15, RPK-16 etc.

Fresh, and exclusive to TFB, pictures of the Kalashnikov Group’s Saiga MK 107 at the Army-2016 Expo combined with some history and background.

This guest post was written by Erik from Sweden.