via FoxNews...
"The AK-47 is outdated because of it’s not an accurate weapon,” Scales said. “What I suspect is the Russian are looking for something that's a little bit more refined, a little bit more versatile, more accurate -- and their willing to sacrifice what the AK-47 brought in 1947."Interesting. The Russians have done good work with the AK-74 and its many derivatives so the call to possibly buy a foreign weapon is curious to me.
Scales says an accuracy target of 400 meters is not good enough for modern day warfare. The gold standard for weapons in the West is the American M-4, which is accurate to 600 meters and beyond.
I don't know whats going on inside Russia but something appears to be brewing.
First the buy of the Mistral...
Second the attempt to buy Israeli UAVs...
Third the idea of buying IVECO armored vehicles...
and now the idea is being floated of buying Western small arms!
What is going on inside there?
solomon:
ReplyDeleteNothing to do with this but you should write about the rescue operation done but the South Koreans http://onefaceinamillion.com/south-korea-rescues-stolen-ship/2614/
Guillermo
Solomon, if you've every played Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 (which takes place in 2016), the Russians use a lot of Israeli and European weapons in their invasion force of the US!
ReplyDeleteInteresting, isn't it?
Ah yes the legendary psychic powers of Activision have shown the way...
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness though it may simply be a slightly disorganized attempt to emulate China's method of absorbing foreign technology in small packets.
Buy a couple of Mistrals, a dozen drones, a few thousand G36's and voila! 21st century technology available for reproduction
Dunno... they should be able to reach the mechanics of a G36. And they probably can get enough in the black market, anyhow. I'm not sure they can mass-produce them, though.
ReplyDeleteAlso, aren't there other variants of the AK? Russia, I believe, has gone further than the 74, although I don't know how successfully, but Rosobonexport's catalogue --gotta love the Net-- lists 2 5.35: the AN-94 and the AEK-971 which don't seem to be simple AK variants. Also, they could buy Finnish [*], which kinda illustrates my point on manufacture vs. prototype.
Interesting, anyhow. Take care.
Ferran.
[*] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RK_62
so the Russians are following the Chinese model of reverse engineering Western products?
ReplyDeletewow.
during the first gulf war it has been written that French warplanes were not able to take part because they resembled aircraft that they sold to the Iraqi's...we could have whole fleets, armies and air forces that will have to sit out on the Western side if this trend continues...
remember, the EU is thinking about ending the arms embargo with China!
Well the politicians get all weak kneed when they think of China...mainly because all their donors love the idea of selling a billion products a year.
ReplyDeleteNo one seems to get their head around the fact that Commies have never and will never allow ANY western company to profit from the domestic market. Western companies continue to put faith in the Shangri La of their dreams, and their Commie puppeteers continue to fill their coffers with dollars and euros. 2012 can't come soon enough
'Russian uproar over AK-46 replacment talk.'
ReplyDeleteI'm sure there is, that is if the AK-47 hadn't been replaced in Russian service over 20 years ago...
The mainstream media seem to have had a collective brainfuck on this one.
I'd also observe that identifying the M-4 as accurate to 600m is also somewhat erroneous. The M-4 realistically in skilled hands is accurate to 300m, whilst past 500m the 5.56 round lacks the energy to produce terminal central mass injuries. But then the M-4 is a CQB carbine after all, and not as claimed designed for accuracy. If one was to point to a 'gold standard' for 5.56 accuracy than one would have to look to long-arm rifles such as the M-16, or more truthfully to some of the european bullpups, of which the SA80 is the most accurate. But then the SA80 was designed for the British Army, with its well known accuracy fetish, specifically to be the most accurate 5.56 service rifle - foresaking weight, reliability, ease of use, etc.
Or one could just not read Fox...
uh just a slight note of correction...the US Marine Corps also shares the 'fetish' of accuracy and maintains the M-16A4 in its inventory.
ReplyDeletei might also add that to my knowledge the most accurate bullup in service today is the Israeli Tavor and as far as ordinary rifles are concerned, the German G-36 i'm told is quite formidable!
There's already a fair few AK-based 5.56mm NATO (ammo is the real issue isn't it) rifles.
ReplyDeleteSig 550 series (swiss), FN FNCs variants (belgian and swede), Galil (israeli) ...