#RussianArmy

Photo Of The Day – TFB is now on our 7th year of bringing you high-quality photographs from the world of firearms. Today we have a photo report from the Russian Army around the Moscow area. There are several pictures for those who like the muzzle flash.

Russian state news service TASS has reported that 35,000 new 5.45x39mm AK-12s have been delivered to the Russian army. With deliveries continuing apace this indicates that Kalashnikov Group are on track to meet their target of delivering over 110,000 rifles by 2021.

After conventional methods failed Russian troops deployed an unusual and rather spectacular tactic to deal with an oil well fire that had been raging since 30 May at a remote Siberian field operated by the Irkutsk Oil Company (IKC).

A year ago we reported that the Russian Federation’s army had adopted the 5.45x39mm RPK-16 Light Machine Gun. Reports from Russia’s MoD’s official newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda (or Red Star), confirm that the RPK-16 has begun operational testing with Russian forces.

Earlier this week news began to filter onto English language defence news sites from Russian media sources that the Russian Military may be considering a move away from 5.45×39 back to 7.62×39. This is not the case.

Russia’s National Guard, the Rosgvardia, has placed orders with Kalashnikov Concern for several hundred of the company’s new AK-200 rifles and AK-205 carbines. The AK-200 and AK-205 are 5.45x39mm variants of the new improved AK-200 series of rifles.

Warhead.su, a Russian defence website, recently reported that the Russian Army is having quality issues with its ammunition. The issues range from primer misalignment to powder quality and quantity inconsistencies.

During the Army 2015 International Military-Technical Forum in June of this year, Kalashnikov showed off their products, including the AK-12, AK-15, and the new PL-14 pistol. Also present was the new upgrade kit for the AK-74 rifle, but what was missed by almost all Western outlets at the time was that, according to PredatorBDU.com, the Russian Army had already accepted orders of the kits for their rifle fleet:

Kalashnikov Concern has introduced a new pistol for the Russian Army, called the PL-14 “Lebedev” at the recent Army-2015 Expo. Guns.com has more on the new handgun:

The AK-12 rifle, slated to be adopted by the Russian Army in some capacity late this year, has been delayed in production until 2016. According to Russian news media sources, the rifle will undergo a series of improvements of an unspecified type. From military-informant.com: