#Ak12

In the previous article about the history of the AK-12, I talked about the “Ratnik” program and the earliest known prototype of the rifle. Now, it is time to talk about the second and third prototypes, which will be much easier, since I was personally involved in the trials and testing of those guns, as well as many demos and media events.

In the last 75 years, dozens of different Kalashnikov variants were developed all over the globe. At least 32 countries produced various AK rifles, hundreds of engineers tried to improve them. But, in all these years, not a single new variation of an AK has received as much attention from the media as the AK-12 assault rifle.

Kalashnikov Media, apparently inspired by IV8888, conducted a meltdown test of AK-12, the latest iteration of Kalashnikov rifle that was recently adopted by the Russian military. They fired this 5.45x39mm rifle in full-auto rapidly changing the magazines until the barrel ruptured right behind the gas block. The gun performed pretty well though firing 680 rounds of 7N6 ammunition before the failure which according to Kalashnikov Media is over three times the sustained fire requirement of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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 we can infer is that these rifles are intended for the export market to compete with modern rifle platforms such as the Kalashnikov AK-12 and the Galil ACE and to a lesser extent Western modern rifle platforms such as the H&K 416/17 and SCAR-L/H. They will most likely to be manufactured by North China Industries and marketed internationally by Jianshe Industry Group.