The competitive struggle of Kovrov machines with Izhevsk ended in loss
As previously reported, “Military Outlook”, the Ministry of Defense ordered 150 thousands of Kalashnikov AK-12 and AK-15 assault rifles, while almost nothing was reported about the supply of Kovrov automatons. But everything could have been completely different, and instead of AK machine guns, the Russian army could have armed with AEK machine guns.
Competition for the new machine for the Russian army as part of the development of new combat equipment "Warrior" the Russian Ministry of Defense announced in 2012 year. Kovrov gunsmiths put up models from the AEK-971 family, which were developed from the end of the 70s of the last century, and Izhevsk - a completely new AK-12 model of the 5,45 mm caliber, developed from scratch in the framework of the "Warrior" competition, and in the category 7,62 mm proposed for the contest AK-103-3.
According to the results of the first preliminary tests, the Kovrov automata won, and the Izhevsk ones dropped out of the competition altogether and in the future Kalashnikov could participate in the competition only in an initiative manner.
- stated in the final conclusion of the commission on the results of tests issued in 2015 year.
Among the reasons for the failure of the Izhevsk project were called not only the technical shortcomings of the machine, made from scratch, but also not adapted to the technical processes of the enterprise. Unification with previous Kalashnikov models was no more than 10%, and this increased the cost of an automatic machine in 5-6 compared to AK-74М.
After the departure from the competition, Sergey Urzhumtsev was invited to the position of Kalashnikov’s General Designer;Weapon". Under his leadership, it was decided to abandon the previous project and create a new machine based on the deep modernization of AK-74. As a result, another AK-12, unified with previous AK models by 54%, was obtained.
Having taken part in the further competition on an initiative basis, the new AK-12 and AK-15 submachine guns did not exceed the Kovrov 6P67 and 6P68 models, the differences in combat effectiveness were extremely insignificant. All decided the cost of further production. As it turned out, the production of new Izhevsk machines only slightly exceeded the cost of production of AK-74, while the production of Kovrov machines would cost 10 times more expensive.
Thus, for mass procurement in the interests of the Russian army, the Russian Defense Ministry chose Izhevsk models AK-12 5,45 mm caliber and AK-15 mm 7,62 caliber. Kovrov’s AEK-971 caliber 5,45 mm and AEK-973 caliber 7,62 mm were also put into service, but because of their cost they went into service with special forces.
As previously reported in the Kalashnikov concern, currently, work is underway to improve the new Kalashnikov assault rifles, and work has begun on creating a promising new platform based on the ideas of Yevgeny Dragunovich.
Earlier it was reported that the Ministry of Defense of Russia allows a complete rejection of the caliber 5,45 mm and the transition to the caliber 7,62 mm. The reason for the possible rejection of the 5,45 cartridge, mm, in the Main Rocket and Artillery Directorate (GRAU) is the lack of penetration of bullets of this caliber at medium and long distances in the strength of the enemy in personal protective equipment. According to experts from the 3-th Central Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense, efforts should be focused on upgrading and improving the characteristics of cartridges and weapons caliber 7,62 millimeter.
The caliber cartridge 5,45X39 mm was adopted in the 1974 year, as the main cartridge for AK-74 created under it. He weighed 6 grams less than the 7,62 cartridge, which allowed the shooter to carry increased ammunition. Among the main advantages of the new cartridge was called lower recoil, greater accuracy of shooting, a more flat trajectory of the bullet, which increased the distance of the direct shot.
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