Thanks for that Austin....

With the clearer view, note in the bottom right corner where it compares the AK-12 with the AK-74M it has a section comparing weights of magazines and it has for the AK-74M a 30 round mag, but for the AK-12 a 30 round mag, a 60 round mag, and a 95 round mag!

I presume the latter is a flat horizontal drum design they have been working on. It doesn't protrude down as far as the 30 round mag so you can get down lower and if using and RPK-74 with a bipod it doesn't keep hitting the ground so much.

Other figures of interest show the new rifle is slightly longer overall at 945mm, compared to 943mm, and with the stock folded the 725mm of the AK-12 is longer than the 700mm of the older rifle, but what I find interesting is the rate of fire is given as 600 rpm for both rifles but 1,000rpm also for the AK-12.

Perhaps it fires its 3 round burst at the higher rate of 1,000rpm???

Or is that range... with the 1,000m for the 7.62 x 51mm calibre model?

I don't really know...

I think it is 600 and 1,000 rpm.

Also on the poster there what appears to be an oval button on the side of the piece behind the magazine on the magazine release mechanism and after looking up the label the quick and dirty translation said "Stop shutter", which I assume means bolt hold open button... which hasn't been mentioned so far.

Sorry, I can't find a photo of the 95 round drum... I had one of a 90 round experimental drum they have showed in the past.

If you think of a standard drum shape like that used with a PPSh-41 SMG and then lay it flat so from the side it looks like a rectangle and from above it looks like a disk.

Then take a short 5 round AK mag and attach it to the top of the drum so the drum itself is still horizontal with the rounds pointing forward directly below the mag well, but pointing towards the centre of the drum all the way around.

The result is that the drum can hold lots of rounds but does not stick down below the weapon as far as a standard 30 round mag.
It protrudes forward and to the sides like a drum, but allows a lower firing position than even the 30 round mag while carrying in this case more than 3 times the number of rounds (95).

Quite clever.

Of course it is also possible that the 95 round mag is just a quad stack 45 round mag with slightly more capacity than double, but it would be a very long mag that would run the risk of monopoding while firing.

this thing is a f**** farce

revolutionary my ass, moded litghtly rebuild AK-74M with picatinny rails

Who said it was going to be revolutionary?

This is not the rifle equivalent of Armata or PAK FA or PAK DA.

This is an extreme upgrade of the existing system designed to take care of all its obvious flaws and problems to make the best of what they have without a complete redesign from scratch.

This is a T-90AM or Su-35/Mig-35 or a Tu-22M3M/Tu-160M/Tu-95MS16M.

It has not turned into an AR, but it has taken some western features that make it more useful, but kept the things that made the AK what it is.

Complaints about the AK have been short iron sight base, lack of a peep iron sight, difficult to fit optics to, no bolt hold open option, controls on the wrong side of the gun and not ambidextrous, folding stock not adjustible in length for when wearing body armour, hard to put tacticrap on...

Not only have they fixed all that but they also added rifle grenade launcher capability and compatibility with all existing NATO standard rifle grenades, they have added a three round burst capability, they have looked at soldiers in the field taping two 30 round mags together and they have developed a 60 round quad stack mag that is no longer than the existing 30 round mag but they don't have to turn it around after 30 shots fired.
They have rails for all sorts of tacticrap but without ruining the front grip for holding the weapon.

They have altered the rifling of the weapon to improve accuracy.

I would say this rifle is now better than an M4 or M16.

It retains the reliability advantage by keeping the mechanism, but adds all the user friendly features of the western rifles with the added advantage of a better placed cocking handle you don't need to take your cheek off the stock to operate.
Safety and fire controls are conveniently located and the peep sight base is much longer than either US weapon.

More importantly the round this rifle fires retains its lethality at any impact velocity so it is not range limited to about 200m like the 5.56mm.

Of course this is one entry, and the military has not even committed to a new rifle yet and might wait for the new designs created from scratch that will represent modular construction and may have calibre kits so a light rifle can have extra barrels and bolts and magazines in light calibres... or perhaps they might take it a step further and have a base rear end with a range of light and heavy uppers so you can have everything from a SMG to a belt fed machine gun and everything in between...

These from scratch rifles will probably start appearing after 2015, so the AK-12 from Kalashnikov... and possibly a similar rifle based on the AK-107 with a balanced recoil mechanism so the Army can choose between the two... to see if they think the complication and extra cost is worth it.

They will also have the ADS from KBP and no doubt a rifle from Kovrov (AEK) and also likely Nikonov has not been sleeping all this time either, so an improvement on the An-94 can be expected too.

From the thread on the VDV reequipping it seems the VDV are getting new underwater rifles and that means ADS. If they have accepted it into service then we can assume the Russian Naval Infantry will be adopting it too.

The question is, will they adopt it as their standard rifle, or just as a specialist weapon?

In 5.45mm standard ammo it is supposed to be effective out to 600m, which is very impressive if true.

Considering there is a new entire family of weapons on the way I doubt this new rifle, if adopted will replace the existing stock of AKs.

I think it will be very much like the AN-94 that will be introduced to special teams in the Army and in other units, to test its performance in real situations.

I think they will probably buy 20-30,000 rifles and test them... I also think perhaps the 5.56mm and 7.62 x 51mm rifles might interest former eastern european countries and a few other countries besides, especially being able to fit NATO standard sights and rifle grenades and equipment to them.

I actually think they would sell very well in the US on the civilian market, where the shooters will appreciate the easier to use controls, and being the guy on the shooting range not carrying an M4 or M16...

20-30,000 rifles sounds like a lot, but these weapons will be put through their paces by as many different soldiers in as many different conditions as possible, and will be used by non military personel as well like FSB and MVD/border control in addition to special forces in the air force, army, and navy.

AKMs fire underwater, so I suspect this rifle would also fire underwater too, and with the new standard 5.45mm ammo developed for the ADS then perhaps this rifle could be used underwater too... with the right sabot ammo.

The Cubans visited the new rifle and ammo factories in Venezuela built for them by the Russians and were impressed enough to give the Russians a contract to upgrade one of their ammo factories to the new standard.

There were rumours that this might lead to contracts to upgrade other Cuban ammo factories, and also possibly a rifle making factory to build AK-103s.

Now I suspect perhaps the Cubans might look at the new AK-12 before deciding what sort of rifle factory to build... an AK-12 in 7.62 x 39mm might be interesting... especially if it is based on the AK-107 balanced recoil mechanism too... they might decide the expense and complication is worth it.

Of course they might equally decide the AK-103 is good enough.

Also a factor to take into account is that one of the accuracy issues with the 7.62 x 39mm is that it has a fairly steep trajectory fall off beyond about 300m or so, so while you could likely hit targets out to about 600m and still hit them hard enough to be effective in terms of lethality, the problem is range estimation, which requires a lot of practise to get any good at.

The thing is that with the new scopes with built in laser rangefinders and ballistic computers then this range estimation problem is suddenly and effectively eliminated.

A good quality 7.62 x 39mm rifle would greatly benefit from such a scope, and like it or loath it, a 7.62 x 39mm projectile at 500m will do rather more damage than a 5.56mm projectile simply because if its larger calibre. Both will likely punch straight through unprotected targets, but the larger calibre round will of course make the bigger hole.

Here is ASh-12 (not AK-12) and some friends:

A high resolution/large size original here: http://talks.guns.ru/forums/icons/forum_pictures/005710/5710493.jpg

Nice photo... thanks for posting.

BTW I guess it is the forum software, but I could only see a fraction of the actual picture you posted.

A PC shortcut to resize your screen is to press Ctrl + the 0/Ins button on your numeric keypad and it will resize the text and photos so the full photo is visible... though in higher resolutions the text does get quite small.

This picture you have posted is very interesting for several reasons...

First of all from left to right on the table part of an AK-74M, then perhaps two versions of the ASh-12, or perhaps with the small mag of the first rifle it is a designated marksman/sniper type rifle while the next rifle is the ASh-12 with a larger capacity magazine... perhaps with the former rifle firing the subsonic 12.7 x 55mm and the latter rifle firing higher velocity 12.7 x 55mm ammo. The underbarrel attachments are different and unusual on both rifles.

The next rifle, which has yet another under barrel attachment that looks very much like the old 30mm suppressed BS-1 "Tishina" grenade launcher formerly fitted to AKS-74U. The rifle itself is a Groza, but I think it is in a 9 x 21mm calibre rather than 9 x 39mm of the standard Groza and up against the wall is a 9mm round and two grenades that look rather slimmer than the grenade at the front of the table, which leads me to think they are 30mm calibre. The double length grenade is interesting... perhaps trading range for a heavier payload.
The four weapons at the end of the table are grenade launchers with the pump action weapon being the GM-94 which is a 43mm calibre weapon with the grenade at the front of the table one example of the ammo it fires. Note the weapon is largely made up of two tubes with the lower tube the barrel and the upper tube is a magazine holding 3 rounds.

The next weapon on the table is the 6 shot revolver 6G30 grenade launcher that uses the same standard underbarrel 40mm grenades as the two underbarrel grenade launchers below it. The two grenade under barrel launchers bottom right on the table are likely either the GP-25, GP-30, or GP-34... they are muzzle loaded and have no shell case so the grenades are very much like little mortar shells. They can only be fired while attached to a rifle and will clip straight on to an AK, an AKM, or AK-74 and other related weapons using a bayonet like attachment. (note if you look closely at a high resolution photo of an AK-74 it seems to have two bayonet lugs as the original position on the AKM that was used for the under barrel grenade launcher was too far back on the AK-74 because of the new muzzle brake so rather than have different grenade launchers for different rifles they simply gave the AK-74 a forward bayonet lug and a rear mounted grenade launcher lug.

Finally leaning against the wall is the ADS, which is being adopted by the VDV. It has special sabot ammo that can be fired underwater, while still using standard AK-74 magazines and 5.45mm ammo.

Thanks for posting.

Actually now that i think about it the silver tipped gray 30mm grenades against the wall to the right side of the photo... the original 30mm grenades had shaped charge warheads for anti armour use.

I guess it is possible that the double grenade might have two separate warheads to penetrate ERA or to increase penetration.

The low velocity means the grenades have a fairly steep trajectory so would be useful against thin top armour.

Accuracy would be a problem, but with a group of soldiers firing a volley of grenades the chances of a hit are increased.

If they have fragmentation effects they can also damage aerials and optics even if they don't penetrate the vehicle and they would have an anti personel effect too.

Rogozin visited an arms plant in Tula (KBP).

Mts-116 sniper rifle


Other firearms designed by KBP

Video of AK-12.

http://www.vesti.ru/only_video.html?vid=396726

Kalashnikov 5: Brand-new AK-12 rifle unveiled (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

Video of AK-12.

Nice. Thanks for posting.

Didn't understand what they were saying, but the tests at -50 degrees C show this gun is able to operate in Russian conditions.

Thanks for posting guys.

Does it has balance recoil mechanism because i saw the tip of barrel moving back and forth slightly while firing.