Well its not as bad as the question of why some idiot decided that the term APC should not apply to a troop carrier with slightly better armament and armor.
But wait the Russians did the same BTR and BMP oh well.
Actually the secret is in the name... a BTR is a troop transport with minor fire power for self defence if attacked.
BMP is a transport and support vehicle that delivers troops to positions on the battlefield but can also be used to support their attacks and retreats.
No the PKS is the tripod mounted medium machinegun used to complicate logistics the PKM is the LMG and the PKP is an improved PKM
The PKM can be mounted on a tripod mount for the medium machine gun... sustained fire role, it can also be carried at squad level as a LMG too, the PKP is a squad LMG intended to be used like a heavy calibre RPK... the RPK and PKP have fixed barrels too.
The reason the west uses SAWs is because thier soldiers are a bunch of usless panzies who cannot even comprehend the idea of using a fully automatic weapon chambered in a full power rifle round.
Full auto in a rifle is a bloody waste of time... when I fire 20 shots from my 1944 Mosin carbine the barrel becomes too hot to touch... if it was full auto instead of a bolt action you would have a glowing barrel in a minute or less.
My SLR is no better and while it shoots rather well... it pushes back rather than kicks violently, it would still be pretty useless in full auto anyway... the barrel is simply not heavy enough.
My AK on the other hand can fire quite a few rounds before there are problems... and the same with my M4 carbine...
The reason Russia uses RPKs is that it uses the same ammunition as the AK-74.
Most countries developed a heavier barrel version of their standard assault rifle to use in the light machine gun role... from the SA-80 to the M16 and the FN FAL... they all had heavy barrel models able to fire full auto... the difference is that the Soviet Union and Russia actually adopted them into service and used them.
I was watching a video last night testing the Ratnik soldier system and the troops testing it (a red force and a blue force) both had soldiers with RPK-74s amongst their number...
In a lot of units the RPK-74 was replaced with the heavier but also more powerful and longer ranged PKP.
Personally I think with proper optics the RPK-74 has plenty of potential and with the RPK-16 the choice of long or short barrel makes it rather interesting too.
I have heard the RPK-74 is rather accurate and might make a rather good small calibre designated marksman rifle...
Is Russia lacking proper sniper rifles?
What a terrible video... what is a semiautic rifle? The guy can't even pronounce semi automatic properly... WTF is he doing the voice over for videos for?
You might get the impression that the Russians don't have many sniper rifle options... they listed every weapon the US uses.
The fact is that the US had crap sniper rifles until the 2000s when they came up against enemies in Afghanistan and Iraq that fired at them from 800m plus.
Their bolt action rifles lacked fire power (rate and capacity of fire) and their 223 assault rifles lacked lethality and range so they were forced to adopt quite a few weapons in a hurry and put them at squad level.
The Soviets and Russians already had PKMs and SVDs at squad level and also RPK LMGs and so did not have the same problems... they could already reach targets in the 600m (RPK) 800m (SVD) and 1,500m (PKM) range.
Look at the dates of adoption... the SVD in 1963... all these super cool new US weapons in the last 20 years.
Don't bother with SV-98, they are not really being fielded at all.
The new models seem to be used in 7.62x54 and their new round based on the Lapua cartridge... I believe it is a 9 x 69mm round instead of the 8.6x70mm original.
They also adopted a few SSG rifles as well but I suspect they will be replaced by Russian alternatives soon enough.
They didn't even mention all of them... the full auto version of the SVD, the VS-121 bullpup version.
Except that the 12.7MM rifles seem to rather taken a back seat. Hopefully they change that with new development.
they have two in service... the semi auto folding model and the bullpup bolt action.
The SV-99 in .22lr, and of course the VKS in 12.7 x 55mm, and the new SVK, the bolt action MTs-116M, and the VSV-338 bolt action... honestly they are spoiled for choice.
They also have the SR-4, and I haven't even mentioned the old models they could still use the way this video kept bringing up ancient weapons like the M14 and M21.
Plus of course they have the brand new SVCh...
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