A brief history of the creation and destruction of the Kalashnikov assault rifle
The creator of the first automatic machine in Russia, Vladimir Grigorievich Fedorov, in the final part of his work "The Evolution of Small Arms" (1939) came to the conclusion that further development should lead to the creation of a new type of automatic rifle (KANT) chambered for a smaller cartridge and at the same time with improved ballistics.
At the same time, it was noted: “… in our time, for the first time, a theoretical basis for the design of automatic weapons has been summed up: there is a fundamental work of a professor at the Artillery Academy named after V. I. F. Dzerzhinsky A. A. Blagonravov, with the publication of which a new era began in the matter of more correct, based on scientific data, the development of auto weapons.
Based on the teachings of Fedorov-Blagonravov, it can be concluded that the creation of a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle chambered for 7.62x39 mm cartridge (sample 1943) was the beginning of an era of transition to small arms of the KANT type according to the following postulates.
1. Its appearance is determined by the reloading cycle, which includes the preparation of the firing mechanism (USM) for a second shot, that is, ensuring the return of the trigger to its original position before firing with the aim of:
1.1. Full automation of reloading (that is, reloading), in which it is enough to aim and pull the trigger to fire a shot.
1.2. Fixed a historical error of Western gunsmiths, who, instead of automating the trigger, created a weapon for firing bursts of indirect shots.
1.3. The ability to conduct intensive fire with a series of single shots by continuously pressing the cyclically returning trigger (under the responsibility of the shooter for each unintended shot and for each spent cartridge).
2. All ballistic properties of small arms are taken into account by the firing power formula, which includes the rate of fire, the energy of the bullet at the target and the probability of hitting.
3. It is necessary to distinguish between the theoretical rate of fire, called the rate of fire, and the practical, which takes into account the number of targets hit per unit of time, and indicates the constant urgency of increasing this characteristic.
4. The AK-47 self-firing automatic rifle can be converted into a self-loading Kalashnikov carbine (SKK), which corresponds to postulate 1 and sets a precedent for replacing all obsolete small arms with incomplete reloading automation.
However, with the creation of the AK-47, attempts began to improve accuracy and accuracy by reducing the firing power. The era of the following conceptual mistakes has arrived:
1. The requirement to increase accuracy and accuracy, the parameters of which cannot be the tactical and technical characteristics of small arms by definition.
2. An attempt to increase accuracy and accuracy by reducing the recoil of the weapon, the effect of which on the probability of hitting bullets is eliminated by bringing to normal combat. It should be noted that, as a result of bringing to normal combat, the accuracy and accuracy of single shots from the AK-47 and AK-74 correspond to the unified standards specified in the Manuals on Small Arms (NSD).
3. Adoption of machine guns, which, according to the NSD, are not subject to normal combat when firing in bursts and do not have appropriate standards.
4. Approval of GOST 28653-90 “Small arms. Terms and definitions , which creates the appearance of the existence of a weapon with full automation of reloading (term 7), that is, hiding the presence of a manual operation in the operation of the trigger, contrary to postulates 1 and 1.1.
5. Introduction to the NSD of the term "combat rate of fire", which has no meaning and hides the urgency of increasing the practical rate of fire, contrary to postulate 3.
6. Decrease in the firing power of the AK-74 assault rifle, inferior to the AK-47 in rate of fire, range of lethal action, bullet penetration and the value of its ballistic coefficient, which characterizes the ability to maintain the speed and direction of flight.
7. The choice of the AK-74 as a prototype for the creation of an assault rifle designed by V. V. Zlobin AK-12, in which, to the disadvantages of the AK-74, a device for cutting off a queue of three shots is added, which complicates the design and accelerates the consumption of the wearable stock of cartridges.
8. Withdrawal from the Ministry of Defense warehouses for exchange in the ratio of three AK-47s to one AK-12, supposedly superior to the AK-47 in burst firing accuracy, but in fact inferior to it in terms of the combination of properties that characterize the degree of protection of a soldier.
It should be noted that the choice in favor of cartridge 5, 45x39 with a muzzle energy of 1328 joules was made, despite the fact that a new model of an American rifle was created for our cartridge 7, 62x39 with a muzzle energy of 2010 joules, as it became known from the following message: CMMG released the MK47 Mutant rifle. It is a completely new platform based on the AR-15 series with the increased power and unmatched reliability of the legendary AK-47 assault rifle.”
Obviously, if Postulate 4 is implemented by the creators of Mutant (or another competitor of the Russian Federation) under the international legal protection of the priority of a new industrial property object, then there will be no place on the arms market for Russian small arms of the SKK type.
