#Krinkov

The Russian small arms firm Kalashnikov Concern has announced several new weapons during the International Military-Technical Forum “ARMY 2016” held by the Russian government in Moscow, the first of which is a new take on a promising 20th Century experimental design. The new Kalashnikov MA (Малогабаритный автомат, loosely translated to “Micro Assault Rifle”) is based on a 1970s-era design by Yevgeny Dragunov, which was also called “MA”. The original MA competed against designs from the Soviet Union’s best small arms engineers and showed substantial promise, but was passed over in favor of the AKS-74U, which shared much of its design with the already-in-service AK-74. Now, the MA is getting a makeover, and another shot – Kalashnikov Concern has adapted the basic design for 21st Century requirements and manufacturing techniques, resulting in a very modern-looking weapon.

Following close on the heels of our other articles about the development and use of the AKS74U “Krinkov”, we now bring to TFB an article specifically about the prototypes that were entered into the design competition, that would later turn into the standardized AKS74U. Many of these did not see any sort of service after the competition, but they were extremely interesting and innovative designs that were indicative of forward thinking when it came to small arms technology in the 1970s. To put things in a competing design perspective with the M16, there wasn’t any long lasting successfully standardized extremely short version of the M16A2 from that time period. Of course there prototypes and limited fielding, but none of these came close to the sheer numbers of production and usage that the AKS74U saw in Afghanistan in the 1980s (as a result of the trials in the 1970s). The M4 really didn’t start getting into full issue until the late 1990s, and before that it was the CAR15, a somewhat perfected carbine that really only saw use among American special operations forces and some select few government agencies.

At media range day,  I headed over to CMMG to see what all the noise was about.  I had been shooting a few bays over, when some very loud automatic fire caught my attention.  It was the 10″ barreled Mutant (MK47 K), their AK-47 magazine compatible rifle, with a 10″ upper and their .30cal SV brake, as well as as an upper that had their new Krinkov-style brake attached.  After a break for setting up targets and oiling the bolts (they had been fired constantly for 2 hours at that point), It was my turn to have a go.

This article on TFB will be the first in a number of articles I’ll be completing about the Russian AKS74U, to include an upcoming TFBTV episode about the carbine. Essentially I want to fill a void in research about the AKS74U, that isn’t there in our community, beginning with not only the nickname that we have given to it in the States, but really a name that has caught on for any folding stock SBR or pistol AK platform.