#PKM

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–

Gunwebsites has a kickstarter to fund making identification playing cards, similar to the old aircraft identification playing cards, but with AK style rifles printed on them. If you are interested in supporting them, you can go to their kickstarter page.

TFB friend Cameron Slater from New Zealand emailed us photos he took at the 100 year commemoration ceremony of the WWI ANZAC military campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The ceremony was held earlier this year in Turkey where the campaign was fought. About 100,000 soldiers died and 400,000 were wounded during the bloody campaign, with casualties split about evenly between both sides.

Rifle Dynamics (RD) is one of the top tier custom AK builder in the USA. They are local to me and I was invited for a factory visit. Unlike the popular AR-15 platform with its lego like modular construction, building an AK properly requires a lot of skills and experience in metal working. The emphasis here is building it properly. Each step in the building processes and the careful selection of parts are essential in the safety and longevity of an AK build.

A Russian gun enthusiast has developed a Predator-style ammunition feeder backpack that holds 7.62x54mmR cartridges for the PK Machine gun. If my understanding of the Google-translation of the Russia text is correct, the backpack, feeding mechanism, ammo box and 450 rounds of 7.62x54mm weigh a total of 33.2 lbs (15.1 kg). The backpack has been designed to give the operator maximum mobility. The gun can be fired offhand or prone and the feeding mechanism reaches far enough for the machine gun’s flash hider to rest on the ground.

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: