"Russian tradition. Israeli innovation. ” It is under this advertising slogan that weapons enter the international market, in particular, they will be sold in the United States. The official manufacturer of the new product is Kalashnikov-Israel, a subsidiary of CAA. Earlier in the 2016, the AK Alfa was already on display at major arms exhibitions in Las Vegas and Nuremberg. Today, the Israeli assault rifle is available in two calibres - 5,56 mm and 7,62 mm.
CAA was founded by the Özami brothers 12 years ago: Moshe, Dudi, and Eldad. Until the establishment of the company, they all served in various special units of the Israeli police and army. Originally, the CAA specialized in creating various attachments to known types of firearms. The first product was a console designed for firing standing from the roof of a car. It was quite easily fitted to almost any type of firearm. The prefix quickly gained popularity in the international market; at present it has been adopted by the special forces of several states.
The next invention of CAA was a counter showing the number of cartridges remaining in the machine gun shop when firing. One of the most famous products of this Israeli company for a long time remained a set of upgrades to pistols called “Roni” (named after the company's co-owner and its inventor Moshe Uza), which significantly increased the accuracy of shooting and reduced recoil when fired.
Currently, CAA is based in Kiryat Gat and has a branch in Florida (USA), considered a relatively small company by Israeli standards - its production is about 50 million dollars a year (total production of the military-industrial complex Israel - 10 billion dollars a year). The development of an updated version of AK (AK Alfa), which would meet all modern requirements, was started back in 2011 year, after meeting Moshe Oz with representatives of the Russian military industrial complex, who were concerned about the fact that the market for sales of the Kalashnikov assault rifle narrowed exclusively to African and some Asian States. A large CAA enterprise is currently being completed in Kiryat Gat, where it will be possible to carry out the full production cycle of the AK Alfa assault rifle.
The Israeli military and before were well acquainted with the AK, which were armed and Palestinian terrorists, and the army of the Arab states. They have an idea not only about the advantages of the legendary weapon, but also about its problems. The main one is that since 1947, that is, almost from the moment of its creation, the machine gun has almost not improved, having ceased to meet the requirements of time at some point in time: it is almost impossible to install night vision devices, optical sights and other useful devices on conventional versions. accessories, without which today can not imagine modern weapons. Having received permission to carry out AK modernization and promote a new model on the world market, the CAA company created a Kalashnikov-Israel division, which included almost 250 highly qualified specialists. Up to 90,% of all employees were repatriates from the former Soviet Union, which made it possible to maintain the continuity of the development of the new version of the machine.
According to Anton Kolomiets, the marketing director of CAA, today they are the only company outside the Russian Federation that has the legal right to use the Kalashnikov logo. The Israeli company is struggling to match the confidence in it. The main developer of the AK Alfa assault rifle at CAA is that Mikhail Binorin was born in the USSR, possessing three fundamental entities, including the Soviet one. This man has a very big combat experience, he is a lieutenant colonel of the Israeli army in reserve. It was Michael who wrote the concept of a new weapon, creating it, as they say, for themselves. He compiled a list of what he considered to be the shortcomings of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, and took up the reworking of the product for the selected positions.
The basic idea of the Israeli project AK Alfa is revealed as follows. Israel believes that AK was and remains relevant. It will be used in any wars for 200 years. At the time of its creation, the machine fully met the requirements of the time and the tasks assigned to the designers. However, over the past decades, the situation on the battlefield has managed to change dramatically. End-users began to place more demands on the ability to adapt small arms directly to themselves. The CAA company believes that having large stocks of Kalashnikov assault rifles in storage, they can always be used as donors to create modern types of automatic weapons. And we are talking about samples that will be comparable in their fighting qualities, for example, with the Belgian assault rifle FN SCAR. By bringing the stock to the level of the bolt group, hanging the barrel and using the new muzzle brake compensator, the Israelis were able to achieve a significant improvement in accuracy and accuracy of fire. The machine gun combines the reliability of the legendary AK and the comfortable ergonomics of modern Western models of small arms.
The idea of the AK Alfa assault rifle is simple and original at the same time - the barrel with a gas tube and receiver, the trigger mechanism and the bolt group were borrowed from the Saiga carbine (the civilian version of the Kalashnikov machine gun) and placed in a plastic case. The option of using Saiga parts at this point in time seems to be more cost-effective for CAA. The transition to heat-resistant and shock-resistant polymers is a global trend in the small arms market today. The frame of Glock's extremely popular today pistols is made of polymer, and they are also widely used in the construction of the Belgian rifle FN SCAR. Thanks to the plastic case, the Israeli modernization has received not only a modern and ergonomic design, but also a number of new design features. First of all, the telescopic butt that develops on the left side of the receiver, which resembles the butt of the Belgian FN SCAR assault rifle, draws attention to itself. The butt has a retractable butt pad as well as a height-adjustable lug. Additionally, the shooter can change the length of the butt by replacing liners between the butt and the butt pad.
Pistol grip with grooves for fingers and ribbing very conveniently fits in your hand. Moreover, the shooter can change the front and rear walls of the handle in accordance with the size of his own palm. This is another fashionable and very rational solution, which was previously widely used in modern pistols, and today it is increasingly common in serious automatic weapons. In this case, the handle was made hollow, it contains a case for spare batteries (for example, for sights). The Israelis have also modified the descent, which now has a shorter course. Radical changes have undergone a fuse, which has now become two-sided, and the shooter can control it without interrupting the hand from the pistol grip.
In general, all the basic elements of the weapon control were performed bilaterally, which makes the assault rifle equally convenient for right-handers and left-handers. The Alfa AK assault rifle bolt handle can be installed on both the right and left sides, at the request of the owner. At the same time, CAA also provides the opportunity to choose the shape of the handle itself (interchangeable covers are available), which the shooter can choose according to his taste. Also on the machine appeared a two-way dump of the store and the same grip of fire control. The design of the Alfa AK assault rifle involves the use of the MIL-STD-1913 modular Picatinny rail, which allows you to install various standardized sights on the weapon, as well as a tactical body kit, including an additional fire control grip.
The trunk of AK Alfa was made free-hanging (two types of barrel are used - 314 and 415 mm). The assault rifle also received a modified nadulny device that combines a slit flame arrester and a muzzle brake. The store latch has also undergone some changes, becoming more ergonomic, thanks to this, the replacement of the store began to be carried out faster and easier. The stores themselves received windows and tags that allow the shooter to easily control the consumption of ammunition when firing. The store reset lever has been increased, which makes it easier to handle weapons in gloves. With the version of the 7,62-caliber caliber, regular AK stores are compatible, and with the 5,56 mm caliber version, the Israeli Galil assault rifle is compatible.
The end user receives the AK Alfa rifle in the form of a finished product, he does not need to collect something. But he has a kind of bonus. The package includes some items designed for tuning weapons - lining the fire control handle, handles, reload handles of different sizes, lining the butt of different widths. But the main highlight lies in the fact that practically any stuffing can be infused into the body of AK Alpha - from any AK for all types of ammunition and with any barrel length, to a machine gun pistol under the popular 9x19 mm cartridge (CAA previously stated that they are working on a similar option ). All versions are available with a plastic case in three colors: black, sand and olive.
AK Alfa exists today only in automatic mode, but the plans of the Israeli company means the creation of a civil and self-loading version. So far, the Israeli company CAA gives 10-year warranty on their offspring. According to the resource all4shooters.com, the cost of new items today is about 1800 euro. The company CAA noted that the weapons have already been evaluated in foreign markets. Currently, an account of the units sold is already in thousands of copies. In particular, Anton Kolomiets confirmed that the presidential guard and special forces of the Republic of the Congo purchased about 3-x thousand AK Alfa.
Tactical and technical characteristics of AK Alfa:
Caliber - 7,62 and 5,56 mm.
Cartridges - 7,62x39 mm and 5,56x45 mm.
The length of the weapon is 849 / 950 mm (with the butt unfolded) and 584 / 685 mm (with the butt folded).
Barrel length - 314 / 415 mm.
Weight - 3,2 / 3,5 kg.
Magazine capacity - 30 cartridges (for 5,56 mm - the type of stores GALIL, for 7,62 mm - AK).
Information sources:
https://www.all4shooters.com/ru/strelba/ruzhya/ARMS-Hunting-2016-CAA-AK-Alfa-prezentatsiya-shturmovoy-vintovki
http://world.guns.ru/assault/isr/ak-alfa-r.html
https://riafan.ru/560543-izrailskii-kalashnikov-i-rossiiskie-soratniki-novinki-arms-hunting-2016
http://mnenia.zahav.ru/Articles/7829/kalashnikov_israel_new_version
https://www.caagearup.com (фото)