As it became known the other day, the military department of Ukraine intends to carry out a large-scale rearmament of its formations. The AK-74 and AKM, which are the individual weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine militants, are to be replaced with Canadian-made assault rifles.
An agreement on the supply of 100,000 units of these weapons in the near future should be concluded between the Kiev authorities and a subsidiary of the American company Colt, the Canadian firm Diemaco / Colt Canada.
We are talking about the Canadian version of the American rifles M-16 - C-7, and carbines M-4 - C-8. They differ from the American prototype in a simplified version of the diopter sight. Canadians are extremely excited about the upcoming deal. These rifles have already been supplied to Denmark, the Netherlands, France, and Afghanistan. But the volumes were not at all the same. For example, 2,500 rifles were sold to Afghanistan in 2007.
Kiev propagandists are also very pleased with the upcoming deal, which, in their opinion, is a confirmation that the West supports the "struggle of Ukraine" and is expanding military-technical cooperation with it.
However, the enthusiasm and enthusiasm of the propagandists are not shared by Ukrainian experts, who are perplexed why this deal is needed at all. In particular, one of them, Dmitry Snegirev, sharply criticized her on the grounds that the production of NATO cartridges 5, 56x45, which are used in these rifles, is absent in Ukraine.
But if we consider that at the moment the only Ukrainian cartridge plant is located in Lugansk, then we can assume that Kiev does not have production and cartridges of Soviet standards. Of course, some of their reserves are available, although they are no longer unlimited.
Moreover, last autumn it was announced plans to create, again with the help of Canada, a joint venture for the production of Western standard ammunition in Ukraine. That is, the problem can be solved in the long term. The choice of weapon is much more perplexing. It must be admitted that assault rifles of the AR family, with all their undoubted advantages, somehow good balance, well-thought-out ergonomics, high accuracy, are considered by the Western military as outdated and exhausted the resource of modernization. It is no coincidence that in the United States since the end of the last century, the Pentagon and the USMC have announced several programs to replace the M-16 and M-4 rifles in service.
It is known that AR-ki, among other things, are not a model of reliability, and are demanding to care for. And it is obvious that the Ukrainian military, "indulged" in the Kalashnikov weapons, will not be easy with the "Canadians", at least at first.
And finally, the financial side of the issue. After all, the S-7 and S-8 rifles are by no means the cheapest. If Ukraine really needs to use the 5, 56x45 NATO cartridge, it could be much cheaper to buy Kalashnikov assault rifles of this caliber from Bulgaria. After all, the North Atlantic bloc standard applies only to the cartridge, and not to the weapon for it. However, in a number of countries that have recently joined NATO, small arms from the times of the ATS continue to be used, and ammunition is being released for it.
By the way, according to the Ukrainian resource zbroya.info, at the moment the Armed Forces have about a million AK-74 and RPK-74 assault rifles, and not about the same number of AK-47, AKM and RPK. With such an arsenal, Ukraine may not worry about rearming its military for a long time.
In Kiev, they say that they consider the presence of Soviet weapons in the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a relic of a dark past, from which it is necessary to get rid of as soon as possible. But, for example, the Finns fought the Winter and Second World War with Mosin rifles, greatly appreciating this "relic" of the Russian Empire. And then, after the war, they adopted their own modernization of the AK.
In the end, Ukrainian propagandists could simply declare that the AK design was actually stolen by "Muscovites" from any ingenious nugget that Ukraine is so rich in. Well, or even "find out" that Mikhail Timofeevich was in fact a Ukrainian Kalashenko, forced to hide his nationality from the NKVD.
But the most surprising thing is that in Ukraine there are already submachine guns being produced under the NATO small-caliber cartridge. We are talking about the Fort-221, a Ukrainian version of the Israeli Tavor TAR-21 assault rifle, produced under license, which is supplied in not too large quantities to the National Guard units.
Why not increase the production of these weapons, instead of buying rifles from Canada? Although the cost of manufacturing "Fort" in Ukraine is high and approaching world prices, it is still below the C-8.
But that's not all. Just over a year ago, Kiev proudly announced that it had received a license from the United States to manufacture M-4 carbines. In January 2017, Ukroboronprom announced that the enterprises of the state corporation, in cooperation with the American corporation Aeroscraft, would produce the M16 assault rifle (in reality, it was an M-4 carbine), which is an ultra-modern weapon that combines many years of production experience and use in combat conditions.
It was reported that "The start of production of the M16 in Ukraine is a step, albeit in many respects symbolic, towards Ukraine's parting with its Soviet past by abandoning Soviet weapons and, thus, towards rapprochement with NATO."
But what is surprising is that the Ukrainian M-4, named WAC47, was created not under the patronage of NATO, but under the Soviet M 43, that is, 7, 62x39! The authors of the project assured that later, when the fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine master the new device, when the production of NATO standard ammunition begins in the country, and Ukraine joins the alliance, the rifles produced can be remade under the cartridge 5, 56x45.
However, this idea was criticized by American experts who were not involved in the project. For example, Dakota Wood, a senior researcher at The Heritage Foundation's defense programs, said that converting to a different caliber "requires huge costs, so it is cheaper to buy new rifles designed for NATO cartridges."
And military expert Brian Summers noted that it will be necessary to replace not only the barrel and bolt, but also the store, as well as the lower part of the receiver, which is almost tantamount to creating a new rifle.
Skepticism was voiced by Ukrainian specialists as well. Sergei Zgurets, director of the Defense Express information and consulting company, said that he did not see any point in this project at all, since neither NATO cartridges nor old Soviet ammunition ensure reliable defeat of an enemy using new Russian body armor.
He was supported by the head of the Ukrainian Association of Weapons Owners Georgy Uchaikin, who noted: “In my opinion, the issue of small arms is not in the first place. It may be 10th or even 20th. We have much more significant problems, for example, with electronic warfare, drones."
He also expressed surprise that the choice of Ukroboronprom fell on a company that produces airships and has no experience in implementing projects in the field of small arms. “Why weren't such brands as, for example, Colt, Remington, Bushmaster, which are known all over the world and are involved in the supply of weapons for the armies of the whole world? They have technologies, successful experience in implementing such projects, their own production facilities,”the expert wondered.
Indeed, the American company Aeroscraft (aka Worldwide Eros Corporation, headquartered in Montebello, California) is completely unknown as a manufacturer of small arms, but specializes, according to information presented on its website, in the development of balloons, airships and related equipment (including observation and tethered masts). However, most of the balloon and airship projects of this company were not successful and still remain on paper.
It can be assumed that Aeroscraft, headed by US citizen Igor Pasternak, who emigrated to the US from Lviv in the early 1990s, was created for various financial scams, "air trade". What the name of the company seems to be hinting at.
At first, there was a lot of noise around the project, even "prototypes" were made (by the way, a civilian version of the M-4 chambered for the M43 cartridge is being produced in the USA), and tested at the National Guard training ground. Then the project gradually came to naught, and people stopped remembering about it.
How much money Mr. Pasternak and his Ukrainian partners have put into their pockets from the Ukrainian budget, history is silent.
Of course, Colt Canada, unlike the brainchild of Pasternak, is quite a respectable and well-known company, but the fact that even now the Kiev authorities intend to spend a lot of money on something that the Armed Forces of Ukraine does not need at all leads to some reflections. Actually, marketers of Western arms corporations, as recent scandals show, master the art of "kickbacks" masterfully.
