#7.62x54R

At this years MSPO (Miedzynarodowy Salon Przemyslu Obronnego), a large defense exposition in Poland, an upgraded PKM was unveiled to the public. The UKM 2000P is a 7.62x51mm upgrade that will be replacing the Soviet era 7.62x54R mm PKMs currently in service with the Polish Armed Forces. The article from Jane’s mostly concentrates on the specs and figures, but this is a little background on the machine gun and history. The company producing the weapon system is  Zaklady Mechaniczne Tarnow (Mechanical Plant, Tarnow), a Polish company that originally started in the railway business in 1917, being briefly interrupted by World War Two and currently producing mostly air defense, containers and industry level services for the Polish Armed Forces. Small arms seem to be a minor facet of the company, however they do have some odd designs, such as the Alex Tactical Sport Training and Training rifle, for the civilian market. Regardless, the UKM series of machine guns came about as Poland’s program into modernizing the PKM for standardization among NATO. There are a number of variants as put forth by the factory page–

Despite sounding like something the Czechs tried to export to Britain in the 20th Century, the UK vz. 59 was a GPMG adopted by Czechoslovakia during the height of the Cold War. Czechpoint, importer and manufacturer of Czech small arms, has covered the machine gun on their YouTube channel, in three videos embedded below:

TFB’s IWA coverage comes courtesy of Troubleshooter Berlin, who made it out to Nürnberg for the show. Many thanks to him for providing the pictures and information.

Semi-automatic versions of the Degtyaryov DP28 machine gun are being sold in the United States through AIM Surplus.  The DP28 MG was used by the Soviet Union during World War II and beyond.

Wolf Ammo announced a new 7.62x54R cartridge for 2011.  The new load is called Extra Match, and Wolf claims it is “one of the most accurate 7.62x54R rounds in the world.”

AimSurplus are selling a semi-automatic version of the belt-fed SG43 Goryunov machine gun. Their guns are build from original polish kits on new semi-auto US made receivers.

VLTOR are now mass producing their full and semi-auto PKM receivers. They selling PKMs built with their receiver and imported parts kits. Apparently their receivers are better than the original PKM receiver. Obviously the full auto receiver will not be sold to the public.
From VLTOR: