#Dragunov

We recently had a look at what modern sniper teams from the Western countries use.

Kalashnikov Concern’s newest weapon releases have received quite a lot of attention since they were first shown off at the ARMY 2016 military and technology forum in Moscow, and as the conference winds down, I want to take a more thorough pass through four of these new products from the company. Since we published announcements for three of these new weapons, Maxim Popenker, gun expert and TFB contributor, has published more detailed descriptions of the RPK-16, MA, and SVK rifles on his website, Modern Firearms. Let’s take a look at what he has to teach us about these new weapons:

As part of Kalashnikov Concern’s new product rollout for the Russian government’s ARMY 2016 military technology conference, the company has announced a new designated marksman’s rifle, named the SVK. Earlier this year, an article in PopMech.ru showed off a Kalashnikov Concern design called “SK-16”, but an anonymous source told TFB that development of that rifle has ceased, due to problems with the design, and the new SVK will be taking its place. The SVK uses similar receiver architecture to the Kalashnikov Concern MA, also announced this week, with a steel upper receiver spine supporting a Picatinny-type rail and providing a guide rod for the operating group, as well as rigidity for the whole firearm. The rest of the receiver is made of polymer (aluminum on the prototypes), and contains the fire control group and the magazine housing.

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.

What happens when you take the two concepts of a traditional, full-power rifle and machine gun round, and a small-caliber, high-velocity round, and smash them together? You get one of the most extreme military small arms calibers ever developed, and one of the last small arms projects from the twilight of the Soviet Union.

Modern? Sure, but let’s take a step back… Way back. It’s 1890 and smokeless powder has just been invented. There’s this guy named Rubin going around and spreading the gospel of the small caliber, high velocity .30″ bore round. You’re in Imperial Russia; what’s your country to do to keep up with this new tide of ammunition innovation?

We’ve seen AKs fitted with all manner of 1913 pattern rail farms, but what about the other way around? AR-15s with Soviet-style side rails, would anyone really do that?

The Dragunov Sniping Rifle System, Year of 1963, or SVD or “Dragunov” for short, has since the early 1960s (like its name implies) been one of the premier squad designated marksman weapons in the world. The longest-serving purpose-designed squad marksman rifle in the world, the SVD is chambered for the powerful and plentiful 7.62x54mmR cartridge (itself a record-setter, as it is the military service cartridge that has served its parent country the longest, of all time) and feeds from a 10-shot detachable box magazine. Given its age, the rifle could perhaps use some updating to modern standards, which is where Val of Czech company  Sureshot Armament Group comes in, with his KeyMod-compatible chassis design for the venerable Dragunov, pictures of which are embedded below:

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 just a new infantry weapon. The project, called Ratnik (a Russian word equivalent to “warrior”) is a total modernization of infantry equipment, introducing over 40 new items, including camouflage, comms gear, sights, body armor, navigation equipment, designators, and, of course, small arms. A three-year order for Ratnik equipment was placed in October of last year, and is expected to consist of deliveries of 50,000 units per year.

I recently did a TFB write-up on the inner working of the Chinese QBZ-95 bullpup. That piece plus my RS Regulate AK optic mounts and the new QBZ-95 optic articles got translated into Chinese and posted in some Mainland website as soon as they were up on TFB. That site didn’t bother to even put a link-back to the original TFB articles, but at least they acknowledged me as the author.

An evolution of the Type 85 rifle, the new Chinese NSG-85 appears to add some modern refinements to the Dragunov SVD platform.  The new rifle was shown at the 2014 Eurosatory exhibition in France last month.

Everyone has seen Saddam Hussein’s gold plated AKs. I came across this photo on the Wired Danger Room blog (they took the post down)