It seems to me that many people still get very confused when trying to follow the history of AK development. It is understanable - after all, they all look more or less the same and quite often the details are very subtle. In this article we will only cover Soviet and RusFed AK rifles, from mid 1940s when it was in development, until today's AK-12 rifles. We are not going to discuss any other producers of the AK rifles in this article.
The development - AK-46
The development process of AK as we know it today started well before the adoption. One can argue that it started even before the end of the Second World War with the AS-44 rifle, developed by Sudaev - man behind famous PPS-43 submachine gun. After his premature death, the development was carried further by other designers, including Kalashnikov.
The first iterations of AK were far from the weapon we know today. The receiver was made from two parts and the gas system was somewhat different to accommodate the stripper clips. At this stage the AK was on par with other competitors and it was not yet obvious that it will be adapted by the Soviet Army. Significant improvements were in order.
AK-47
Many people think that AK-47 is a fictional, Hollywood inspired designation. This is not true. This weapon existed, both in metal and on the pages of various official military manuals (funny enough, most are related to tank manuals).
AK-47 was not officially adopted rifle, instead it was a pre-production model. Still, it was produced in big enough numbers to actually go into the regiments and be used alongside the more usual AK.
The AK-47 is an exceptionally rare item, but some did end up at least on the deactivated weapons market. So it is a little bit more realistic to acquire one, than, let's say, AK-46 for which you will have to rob a museum.
AK
AK Type 1
After adopting the new family of weapons (AK-RPD-SKS), the name was changed to simple AK. But the production of the weapon was not as simple. Initially the production started with the stamped receiver AK, which is now designated as AK Type-1. This was a forward thinking project, with high hopes for mass production. Unfortunately for the industry, it turned out to be way more complicated than they thought.
AK Type 2
Many receivers were not coming out up to standards. A decision was made to redesign the weapon for cut receiver. This was a considerable change and required a lot of work, as there was still an upper limit for the weight of the weapon. Redesign of most parts of the gun was required to accommodate a heavier receiver. This weapon is now designated as AK Type 2.
AK Type 3
Later into the 1950s, another version of AK emerged. This time the idea was to make it a bit lighter and to make some small changes required by the Army. For example, the position of rear sling loop was moved to a different position. The weight of the rifle was also slightly reduced.
AKM
The pinnacle of AK development was the 7.62mm modernized version of it. Unlike different iterations of AK, the AKM had to go through the whole process of competing against other proposed rifles. And it won.
The differences with regular AK were significant, although not that obvious if you don't know where to look. Main change was the receiver - it was now stamped.
The modernisation of the trigger group and later introduction of the muzzle compensator made AKM arguably all round best rifle in the family.
The AKM is the most common rifle of them all around the glove, given both the numbers of AKMs produced around the world and copies made.
AK-74
Many people think that AK-74 was introduced to make up for the adaption of 5.56 NATO. And it is partially true - the new NATO round definitely sped things up. But in reality, Soviets already had a small caliber round well before. In 1955 the hunting grade 5.6x39mm round was introduced to the Soviet market. It was then evaluated by the Army and industry, and the work was going on to make it suitable for the military use.
Soviet engineers worked on the new low-caliber round throughout the 1960s. The ongoing War in Vietnam, as well as captured M-16 rifles delivered to the Soviet Union, gave some food for though, essentially ending in the adaption of AK-74.
The AK-74 quickly became the main rifle in the Soviet Army and continued to be that for biggest post-Soviet forces.
AK-74M
As we all know, there were two versions of AK-74, fixed stock and folding stock. It is not as well known that Soviets did think about holding on to just one model - with the folding stock. For better or worse, the bureaucratic machine did not allow it. The reason was comedic - Tula factory did not have tooling for folding stock mechanism. Which is ironic, as just in couple of years they will be the only factory producing a folding stock AKSU-74.
But the point is, the idea to have just one AK for all situations was going around military and industrial circles. This made a lot of sense for further standardization. By the later years of the Soviet Union this idea came to fruition in the form of AK-74M. It featured all plastic furniture, including now folding stock. Another forward thinking feature was the optics mount which was installed to every rifle made.
There were some little changes in the parts of AK-74M and some older AK(S)-74 rifles were also upgraded to AK-74M. This deserves an article of its own.
AK-12
Between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 2010s a number of different potential assault rifles were developed in the Russian Federation. None of them gained any significant orders from the Armed Forces or other branches. This was until 2018, when the AK-12 was adapted. This first one had a significant number of problems which became obvious after Russian attack on Ukraine in 2022. By many reviews, this weapon seemed like a downgrade from AK-74M - less reliable, more expensive, with shorter life span. It was later upgraded, so far twice - in 2021 and in 2023. These two versions were much better, essentially of the quality of the regular AK-74 rifle with some additional modifications making them more suitable for modern soldier.
Comentarios