#Serbia

AKs of Zastava Arms USA are some of the highest quality production Kalashnikov pattern rifles currently available in the USA. Their full-size 7.62x39mm rifle, ZPAPM70, is a rugged and reliable gun and as the company says, is built like a tank. However, 7.62x39mm Zastava AKs have always lacked one important feature – chrome-lined barrels. A lot of people have been asking Zastava Arms USA to add this feature to the rifles and looks like the company listens to its customers because from now on, all ZPAPM70 rifles will come standard with chrome-lined barrels.

Serbia’s Zastava Arms, best known for their AK-pattern M70, have been developing a new rifle for the past couple of years. Back in 2017, TFB reported that they were working on a new rifle chambered in a 6.5mm cartridge. The Zastava M17 is designed to be a more modular rifle, based somewhat on the company’s M05 rifle, which has a railed forend.

Earlier this month, the Serbian Army debuted a new 6.5 Grendel weapon system, developed by Zastava. The rifle, called M17, is a heavily modified variant of the M70 AK family that has been developed by the company for decades. It incorporates a number of significant new features and improvements detailed below. The new rifle comes as part of an infantry upgrade for the Serbian Army which includes new 7.62x54R rifles, optics, helmets, and load-bearing equipment. This development marks the first adoption of the 6.5 Grendel round as standard by a national military force. The new rifle is advertised to be half a kilogram lighter than the previous rifle, although it’s not clear whether that is supposed to be the 7.62x39mm M70 or the 5.56x45mm M21. Reportedly, the rifles and the new caliber have not yet been adopted, but are still in testing.

Serbian Zastava Arms has introduced a new rifle during the “ Partner 2017” International Fair of Armaments and Defense Equipment held in Belgrade, Serbia. The rifle is called MAR which stands for Modular Automatic Rifle.

This past week a Serbian product, the 40mm/6 M11 made by Yugoimport SDPR J.P. was seen in use by the Safwa Islamic Brigade & Suqur al-Shamal opposition groups in northern Aleppo. The launcher isn’t very prevalent outside of Serbia and thus it’s presence in Syria indicates a line of supply that might lead back to Serbia. The 40mm/6 M11 is essentially a copy of the South African Milkor 40x46mm Low-Velocity MGL 6 round grenade launcher developed in the 1980s. Currently Milkor still produces the MGL, licensing the launcher out to various companies across the world.

The 6.5 Grendel is in many military small arms enthusiasts’ eyes the ideal military caliber, in theory combining the best characteristics of both 7.62mm and 5.56mm rounds. However, in the thirteen years since the round’s introduction, it has found little if any traction with actual military users – until now. It seems that the Serbian government has quietly adopted the “slow and steady” six five earlier this summer. From Novosti Online:

A design out of Serbia, from a company named NB International New Arms Technologies, is incorporating a number of features from around the market onto the Kalashnikov platform, in what they call the “Assault Rifle, B 15”. The rifle takes inspiration from the folding stock of the G36, what looks to be a CAA AK grip, possibly the selector switch from a Czech Vz 58, and Diamond Head BUIS sights mounted on a full length picatinny rail. In fact I think the only feature that seems to be original on the rifle is the design of the receiver, which is very clean sided compared to your traditional Kalashnikov rivet and dimple sides. However I might even be wrong with this as it may just be some sort of tight fitting sheath on top of it.

This photo was taken in Serbian in 2012 during the destruction of 17,000 confiscated firearms. The most striking thing about the photo, at least to me, is what terrible quality the weapons are. Among the serviceable weapons there are piles of ancient rusted revolvers and cheap Chinese air rifles. Like most gun destruction programs, they tend to collect and destroy the lowest quality weapons, while the good stuff remains on the street (or buried underground by militants).

Alexander Perfilyev, of Chita, Siberia, has been handcrafting miniature fully functional gun replicas for over 30 years. He even goes as far as rifling the tiny barrels! RIA Novosti.ru have published a video (in English) about his hobby.

Zeljko Provic, an IPSC shooter from Pozarevac in Serbia, was 12 years old when this video was shot.

Earlier this month Serbian police discovered a weapons cache hidden inside a buried oil tank. The weapons were found outside a village that was a former stronghold of an ethnic Albanian militia. It is quite impressive how much hardware and ammunition can be packed away in a relatively small space!