Shortly after World War II, the Soviets developed the AK-47 assault rifle, which would quickly replace the SKS in Soviet service. The Soviets soon developed the 7.62×39mm M43 cartridge, the semi-automatic SKS carbine and the RPD light machine gun. The Soviets were impressed with the weapon and immediately set about developing an intermediate caliber fully automatic rifle of their own, to replace the PPSh-41 submachine guns and outdated Mosin–Nagant bolt-action rifles that armed most of the Soviet Army. On 15 July 1943, an earlier model of the Sturmgewehr was demonstrated before the People's Commissariat of Arms of the USSR. The select-fire rifle was chambered for a new intermediate cartridge, the 7.92×33mm Kurz, and combined the firepower of a submachine gun with the range and accuracy of a rifle. ĭuring World War II, the Sturmgewehr 44assault rifle used by German forces made a deep impression on their Soviet counterparts. As of 2004, 'Of the estimated 500 million firearms worldwide, approximately 100 million belong to the Kalashnikov family, three-quarters of which are AK-47s'. The AK-47 has been manufactured in many countries and has seen service with armed forces as well as irregular forces and insurgencies worldwide, and was the basis for developing many other types of individual, crew-served and specialised firearms. In early 1949, the AK-47 was officially accepted by the Soviet Armed Forces and used by the majority of the member states of the Warsaw Pact.Įven after seven decades, the model and its variants remain the most popular and widely used assault rifles in the world because of its reliability under harsh conditions, low production costs compared to contemporary Western weapons, availability in virtually every geographic region, and ease of use. An early development of the design was the AKS (S- Skladnoy or 'folding'), which was equipped with an underfolding metal shoulder stock. In 1946, the AK-47 was presented for official military trials, and in 1948, the fixed-stock version was introduced into active service with selected units of the Soviet Army. It is the originating firearm of the Kalashnikov rifle (or 'AK') family.ĭesign work on the AK-47 began in 1945. Kalashnikov’s automatic device also known as the Kalashnikov and AK), is a gas-operated, 7.62×39mmassault rifle, developed in the Soviet Union by Mikhail Kalashnikov. The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova (Russian: Автома́т Кала́шникова, tr. There are also 5- 10-, 20- and 40-round box and 75- and 100-round drummagazines available ≈ 75 million AK-47s, 100 million Kalashnikov-family weapons. Kalashnikov Concern and various others including Norinco
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