New Kalashnikov AK-12 Rifle Announced
Matt Korovesis 01.27.12
The Firearm Blog broke a story yesterday about the first public showing of the new AK-12 rifle.
According to the info in the post, the gun will feature:
- Ambidextrous forward charging handle.
- Smaller ejection port.
- New safety switch.
- New fire control switch with three modes of fire (single shot, 3 round burst and full auto).
- New hinged top cover. The cover is a lot more rigid that the previous AK rifles.
- Quad picatinny rails.
- Folding and length adjustable stock.
- Ergonomic pistol grip (with a decent radius between trigger guard and grip).
- New muzzle brake that attaches to standard NATO 22mm threading.
- Improved barrel rifling.
Izhmash (the industrial conglomerate that now controls Russian AK development and sales) has been hinting at a new generation of AK for some time now. From what I’ve read so far, it’s unclear whether the Light version in 5.45, 5.56 and 7.62x39mm will be one multicaliber gun with swappable parts or simply three different guns. There will also be a Heavy version chambered in 7.62x51mm.
It will probably be a long time before a version of this gun hits the American consumer market, if at all. Many of the features present in the new gun are already available in after market accessories in the US, however.
Special thanks to the Firearm Blog for their permission to use the info in this post.
I've been a history and gun enthusiast since I was a kid. I love to shoot just about anything, from silenced bolt-action .22s to fully automatic heavy machine guns, and I love even more when I get to write about them. My main interests are modern small arms and the military small arms of World War II and prior conflicts, with a particular focus on Russian and Finnish firearms. Reading about guns like the Mosin-Nagant rifle in books and on the internet got me interested in collecting, shooting, and writing about them, and I hope to do the same for others through my work.
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