Design features of the AK-12
Continued, start here: AK-12 as a mirror of the status quo
.... I did not hold the AK-12 in my hands and can only judge by pictures and videos from the network. True, in our age of the Internet and information technology, it is paradoxical, but true, there is a lot of gossip, guesses of "geniuses", the chatter of "specialists" and "obsemznaek", but here quality and professional information, as they say, "a day with fire." Sometimes two people of opposing opinions search the web for information to confirm their views, and both find it, moreover, with an “iron” justification. In general, I noticed that the Internet disaccustoms many people not only to think, but to analyze information - it, as before, "...so they broadcast it on the radio" is taken as the last revelation from above. But in fact, they simply find a site to their liking, that is, one that meets their own views and misconceptions, and pass off these searches as their own in-depth analysis.
I remember how a budding (rare occurrence nowadays) graduate of the KGTA, a graduate student, praised the Zig-Sauer pistols - "... the most reliable pistols in the world - they do not have a fuse, only a safe trigger lever." I ask, what is the effect on reliability weapons renders a similar algorithm of the trigger mechanism? Oops. Confusion, an offended look, but I didn’t confuse him, in the next moment, an unconstrained and resolute disregard for any frivolous nonsense of someone who does not understand anything, and calm confidence in the future. From the word day, not the bottom. It seems to be.
But returning, finally, to the machine. What immediately attracts attention: improved ergonomics due to the butt adjustable in length, how much I dreamed about it, stuffing another lantern under the eye with the receiver cover, an abundance of Picatinny rails, including on the forearm and gas tube overlay, transferring the rear sight of a mechanical sight on the cover of the receiver as close to the eye as possible, the absence of a front sight in the usual place for AKs and its structural combination with a gas chamber, modeled on shorties of the "hundredth" series, and the absence of a ramrod under the barrel of the machine gun.
Mounting strips or Picatinny rails. It seems to be nowhere without them now. Back in 1998, during the period of work on the AEK-971, I insisted on their implementation, because in our country there was a stagnation in the development of weapons accessories, and not only accessories, there were no sanctions then, and in general, “the world is not full of fools." Then the proposal did not pass - "there is no such requirement of the customer."
Later, when I no longer participated in this work, this requirement appeared, and, judging by the works on other topics, even the length of the slats was stipulated, and in the fire order I had to not only stick on the slats, but completely change the design of the receiver and, abandoning it caps, to introduce a hinged trigger housing - by the way, it is finally very similar to the MP-44, well, to make a retractable buttstock with a swivel neck similar to the AEK-919K is not the best solution in terms of rigidity and ergonomic design for a full-size weapon, although it worked. Most likely, this decision will later be abandoned. I want to note that the fore-end almost escaped the innovative bullying and remained quite comfortable, the designers still had a sense of proportion.
The creators of the AK-12 were in a more difficult position - it was highly desirable for them to keep the production tooling, especially for stamp-welded parts (I'll try to tell you why below). Therefore, no radical exercises were allowed with the receiver, and the bar was fixed on the removable cover of the receiver along with the sight, taking care, probably, how to strengthen it and fix it on the weapon. True, the fact that it will not loosen during operation and will ensure the uniform position of the sights after assembly and disassembly ... Well, well.
However, observing the dreary process of removing the cover from the machine, you involuntarily think - what if, in combat conditions, you will have to eliminate the delay and separate this very cover from the machine, and, for example, a heavy expensive night light is also installed on it. The process of separation-installation is not so easy and fast, and it requires attention. In addition, in a stressful situation, the lid, along with all the aiming personal belongings, can not only be fatally dropped for these gizmos, but also lost altogether, and not only theoretically.
Without denying in general the usefulness of many well-made weapon accessories, I want to analyze only the method of attaching them to weapons for the time being. Early accessories, i.e. any optics designed for weapons with a removable or hinged receiver cover (read - AK, SVD), were mounted on a side rail located on the left side of the receiver. The bar was located in the shadow of the operational areas of the weapon and had a relatively smooth shape. Installing and removing the sight from this bar takes moments and is done with one hand movement. The positioning accuracy of the accessory on the side bar is certainly not inferior to Picatinny rails, because SVD optics are installed on such a bar, after all, ideologically and constructively, both mounts are very similar.
However, due to the fact that all foreign companies whose products could be purchased before the imposition of sanctions, and now Russian developers and manufacturers of accessories, are guided by world (read - NATO) standards, now everything is being developed for installation on Picatinny rail. Judging by the recommendations of TsNIITOCHMASH, it seems to have already been standardized with us. On the one hand, this is not bad, because it not only increases the export potential of weapons and newly developed accessories, but also expands (theoretically) the possibilities of completing standard weapons.
But the desire to blindly follow the gun fashion, which to a very large extent depends on purely marketing decisions, and to ensure the use of everything and everything from the very and not very necessary, sometimes turn the weapon into something similar to a careless bunch of chainsaws due to the abundance of these very strips. But the deterioration of ergonomics due to Picatinny rails on a plastic fore-end is not leveled by any accessories. The value of the plastic strips themselves is also in question. Reminds me of an old joke. What do a female programmer and a guinea pig have in common? The fact that a guinea pig, firstly, is not a guinea pig, and secondly, it is not a pig.
The use of various removable elements that allow you to hide unused straps and give the forearm and gas tube overlay more or less convenient shapes for holding the machine gun is unlikely, including for economic reasons. I once developed a multi-caliber magazine sniper rifle, while focusing on the design of the PGN Mini-Hecate. Then the guys from my group (2008, or something) were present at the sniper competitions in Chechnya and showed the participants a photograph of a prototype of our product.
The main remarks on the design of the eternally warring (and this is true) comrades were: if possible, remove all pockets, holes, slots and other “relief details” from the rifle, which we were so proud of (fashionably), because they collect and cut off along the path of the sniper pair, foliage, branches and other debris leave a trail and at the same time make noise. This is what I want to convey the idea of the need to make weapons as streamlined as possible, despite the existing “brick with teeth” fashion.
More about planks. If the accessories developed in the Soviet era and intended for installation on the side rails had a mount that provides for quick installation and removal, then for reasons completely incomprehensible to me, such a mount for Picatinny rails is absent in principle and, apparently, is not even stipulated in the TOR for the development of accessories . True, something similar was brought from BelOMO for review, developed at the request of officers of local special services practicing concealed carrying of weapons, but then I did not like this design - it is inconvenient to use and does not provide a rigid fastening of accessories.
The use of rails with the length of the working part specified in the TOR forced the creators of both the AK-12 and the “balance” to move the rear sights of mechanical sights back. The location of the rear sights close to the eye (according to ergonomic requirements - no closer, it seems, 500 mm from the back of the butt - I forgot already) also will not add joy to anyone except near-arms aesthetes. That's how much they wrote and argued about this, however, I don't remember who, when and where, but I will still speak out again. You will have to reduce the width of the slot or the diameter of the hole in the rear sight (this is not a diopter, completely different laws of optics work there, and diopter sights are not used in military weapons, and the fact that they are often called diopter sights in the literature is a mistake of the authors of the texts), which means - a priori, they will have to be carefully protected from pollution or keep some kind of device (well, at least a match) on hand for prompt cleaning.
In addition, it becomes more difficult to aim in conditions of poor visibility and low light. Yes. Because less light hits the retina. Well, the clarity with which the shooter sees the front sight and the rear sight at the same time is deteriorating, which is also important (there is a recommendation for pistol shooters: the gaze must be focused so as to clearly see the sights, the target may have blurry outlines, and statements like “the whole world shoots and does not complain” does not cancel anything from the above.
However, let us recall the purpose of the automaton. Question: what accessories, in the best case, “shine” for shooters, senior shooters, grenade launchers, assistant machine gunners and grenade launchers, etc., etc. And, by the way, one must take into account such a factor - any, the most necessary, a perfect, etc. accessory requires additional training of personnel, getting used to it and developing a certain skill in operation and combat use, without which it will simply interfere, and in a combat situation it will be thrown out at best, at worst - they will not be in time. Well, yes, the army is striving to become professional, but I have some doubts that shooting training will reach such a very high level, rather, some necessary, and well, if sufficient, minimum will be determined for each category of military personnel. Still, the population of our country as a whole does not yet have the proper level of weapons culture.
- Night or day-night sights. Yes, they are. They come in the form of independent devices or attachments for daytime optics, but in fact, devices of the second type have not yet been used on Russian machine guns, due to the lack of this very daytime optics.
– Collimator and optical sights. Everything is not easy here, and for me it is not always clear. I will try to turn to the experience of other countries, because we did not have such a luxury to the linear parts. If we talk about built-in sights, then there are not so many samples of assault rifles that have been put into service as, relatively speaking, the main infantry weapon, are regularly equipped with removable or built-in optics. AUG 77th "Steyer", bullpup - built-in optical sight, L85 - English bullpup - built-in optical sight. The same sight is standardly installed on the latest Australian modification of the same AUG 77th Steyer, but already as a removable one (although I could be wrong here). G36 - a combined sight of optical and collimator devices. Well, maybe something else on the little things - I can't remember.
As you can see, these are mostly bullpups, on which it is almost impossible to provide an acceptable length of aiming line for a mechanical sight. In addition, after the adoption of the L85, someone from our army management liked its sight, and there was even a topic to develop something similar for the SA. True, the idea, in accordance with the TOR, degenerated into the creation of the cheapest optical tube (there were almost no fools: everyone understood how long the optics would live in the hands of a conscript soldier in the process of combat training, and even more so in combined arms combat) and a bracket for it mounting on a weapon with mechanisms for setting aiming angles and alignment when zeroing in on a weapon. From that work, I have a memory - an author's certificate of invention for a variant of the bracket design. But the possibility of installing optics and collimators is provided for on all modern systems.
And, perhaps, such sights, albeit in limited quantities, but will be adopted and even "reach the soldier", and he (the soldier) will be taught to use them correctly.
And here lies a small, but well-organized ambush. Well, this device flew out of him, yet optics are optics. You don’t have to drop anything, hit, scratch, slap, etc. - just splashes of dirty water with fractions of fuel and lubricants on the lens of the lens, it became necessary to switch to mechanics, and for this it is necessary to remove the optics from the bar, and this is a certain hemorrhoids for Picatinny. The same operation for the standard side bar is much easier and faster. It is significant that even the aforementioned rifles with built-in optics (except for the G36, but it has 2 sights) have rudimentary mechanical sights with the ability to use them without removing the optics.
– Combat lights and LCC. Unlikely. Although the lights, from my point of view, are needed. Some samples are placed on a Picatinny rail, some are attached to the barrel, but these interfere with the installation of underbarrel grenade launchers.
- Bipod and assault handles in the variants of something with something. Don't make fun of my horseshoes. Very, very unlikely, and not necessary.
And summing up the results, blah blah blah we have: you need a Picatinny rail to install a “night light” or optics and something to install a flashlight. Desirable easily removable and versatile. And best of all, for the role of such a device in AK-family assault rifles with a removable receiver cover, from my point of view, an adapter bracket is suitable, which is installed on the standard side rail of the weapon and has two Picatinny rails: the top one for sights and the side one for the flashlight.
And after all, for sure, such a bar is part of some kind of modernization kit. The inclusion of such an accessory in the delivery set makes it unnecessary to install Picatinny rails and all the changes in the design of the AK assault rifle associated with their introduction. It sounds blasphemous in modern times, but it still seems to work out better (at least in terms of cost-effectiveness) with something that was born under the name AK-12. Oops ... But I just wanted to touch on the topic of slats a little ....
No. More about the slats (that's attached). If you carefully study the samples of Western army weapons, it turns out that, as a rule, they have one or two built-in straps, and the rest are removable, and the ability to install them is usually used by either civilian, well, very cool shooters, or marketers when demonstrating the capabilities of the samples, well, sometimes fighters of various kinds of special forces units.
The design of the muzzle of the machine has undergone major changes. DTK - the muzzle brake-compensator is now attached not to the tide of the front sight (the album name, it seems, is the “front sight block”), but is installed on a separate part, which structurally represents the same front sight block cut off in the upper part (let's conditionally call it the DTK block ). The front sight itself is installed in a part that combines the front sight block and the gas chamber. This design of the muzzle of the weapon is standard for NATO assault rifles.
But there it is due to the need to fulfill the requirements to ensure the possibility of using rifle grenades standardized within NATO - “tromblons” with an inner diameter of the stabilizer tube of about 22 mm (they are still popular in the armed forces of some countries). Therefore, they have the same outer diameter of flame arresters and other muzzle devices - DU (22 mm), which are screwed directly onto the barrel until it stops with a certain tightening torque. Separate devices - remote control latches, I did not come across. If a certain position of the remote control is required along the angular coordinate, the position is selected either with a set of rings - spacers, or with a locknut, I have never studied this issue specifically, but I have never noticed the rocking of the remote control on the barrel of an imported weapon.
The use of such an arrangement for the AK-12 is most likely due to the need to provide access to the gas chamber for cleaning it and, as I suspect, still a subconscious look back at "the latest world achievements in the field of weapons design over the past ... decades." Farewell to the most famous and recognizable silhouette in the world. This is not pathos. This is sadness. At the same time, due to the reduction in the length of the sighting line, there was no alternative to the “rear” placement of the rear sight of the mechanics.
And one more personal memory. During the period of work on installing daytime optics on the PCM (the same optical tube - there was such a topic), it turned out that the positive effect of its use is noticeable only when the barrel is slightly heated. With more or less noticeable heating, the barrel "leads", especially the muzzle, but when using a regular mechanical sight with a front sight located close to the muzzle of the barrel, the removal of the STP is significantly less than with optics located in the receiver area - there is generally aimed shooting did not work.
On the AK-12, the DTK is attached with a bayonet connection. It used to be threaded, but the thread "burned" mainly because, contrary to the requirement of the "Instructions on Shooting", this assembly was very rarely disassembled and cleaned. Since the user's mentality does not change with the change of weapon model, it will be interesting to see how the new technical solution will show itself in operation. The fixation of the DTC along the angular coordinate is carried out by a spring-loaded yoke located in the block of the DTC, nothing has changed here. In addition, a tide is located on the DTK block for fixing a bayonet-knife.
But, if the information that the DTK body is made using a progressive cast billet (or powder?) Is correct, the question arises why the DTK block was needed at all. After all, this is in itself a difficult to manufacture part with an exact (tight or press) fit on the barrel on which it is pinned, and, in accordance with the recommendations of TSNIITOCHMASH, at a distance of less than 50 mm from the muzzle of the barrel (for small and normal calibers) it is desirable generally refrain from using pins, because they degrade the accuracy of the barrel. As a last resort, their symmetrical installation was recommended. As confirmation of the importance of this recommendation, I can say that in Germany the working length of the caliber for controlling the straightness of the bore and other basic parameters is 50 mm from the muzzle.
If it were possible to abandon the DTK block by placing an emphasis for the bayonet-knife and a latch in terms of the angle of rotation directly on the DTK (plus a hole or a small groove on the barrel for interacting with the latch, well, let's say, with a yoke or rocker arm), this would not only simplify and reduced the cost of the design of the machine, but would also give some effect of improving accuracy, in any case, no less than from a “posted” barrel with carefully preserved “vibrations”. Of course, for this you will have to be smart with the design of the DTK, due to a decrease in the landing diameter in the muzzle of the barrel of the machine gun, caused by the need to maintain some external dimensions of the gas chamber, to ensure, in turn, the possibility of installing an underbarrel grenade launcher. Although, of course, I didn’t work all this out, but it’s easy to fantasize.
O! About sore. Even while working on the AEK-971, I was infuriated by the need to ensure the compatibility of all newly developed products with accessories designed exclusively for AK: grenade launcher, bayonet, nightlights, and loopholes for armored vehicles. All these personal belongings were developed purely for the AK without any oncoming movement from the machine manufacturer (well, what is mass production and military acceptance, I remember something and am not surprised), so they turned out to be extremely inconvenient for use somewhere else, and in some, and even to a large extent, hindering the development of the automaton itself.
Well, with sights and some accessories designed for installation on a Picatinny rail, the issue seems to be resolved, subject to the mandatory development and implementation of a device for quickly removing and installing the accessory and optimizing the design of the machine for installing these rails. I think that other accessories, especially grenade launchers, need to be developed taking into account the possibility of their installation on Picatinny rails. At the same time, they can be installed on existing systems using adapters.
The AK-12 uses a rigidly fixed gas tube and a gas chamber, closed from the front with an easily removable (in theory, not yet burnt) plug-plug. By the way, if you lose it (the plug - it is small), the machine will turn into a magazine (non-automatic) carbine. Changes in the design of the gas tube and gas chamber are apparently caused by the desire to fulfill the requirements of the technical specifications for the length of the upper Picatinny rail (judging by the fact that the “balance” has an identical length rail, and according to the requirements for products on the Alatau theme, he led the development of an assault rifle , such a requirement existed), which is partially made on a plastic lining rigidly fixed to the gas tube.
Apparently, the use of collimators installed in the area of the forearm, or still optics with night nozzles, is envisaged. At the same time, the forearm on the AK-12 does not come into contact with the barrel, which almost completely eliminates the influence of the shooter or the emphasis on the barrel during firing. However, the introduction of a plug into the design of the gas chamber can increase the number of gaps through which powder gases will leak. I don’t know how sensitive the machine gun is to such things, but judging by the increased rate of fire, the speed of the moving parts was added just in case, which is unlikely to add accuracy to the machine gun when firing automatic fire.
I remember that in the process of working on the AEK-971, I decided to improve the manufacturability of the gas chamber rack and placed the pins fixing it not from below, in the tides of the rack, but from above, from the side of the gas outlet in the barrel. The tightness in the connection of the barrel - the rack was 2 ... 3 weave, but the speed of the moving in the rearmost position fell by more than 1 m / s. The wall of the chamber was pushed away from the barrel by pins, and powder gases siphoned through this microscopic gap.
And finally, a ramrod. Traditionally, samples of Soviet and Russian small arms are regularly equipped with a metal ramrod. It can be collapsible, it can be located on a weapon or in a pouch, but it is always there, unlike the weapons of our sworn friends, who usually have a ramrod of a soft design - a bow on a string.
The metal ramrod is an important accessory that increases the operational reliability of the weapon. Without it, for example, the delay "non-extraction of the spent cartridge case" becomes almost unavoidable. Traditionally, on assault rifles of the AK family, the ramrod was located under the barrel. This arrangement allows you to conveniently place a fairly long non-separable structure, and therefore it is convenient and durable to use, well, if you don’t lose it, of course, the ramrod, provide convenient and quick access to it and, among other things, protect the barrel in some situations when shooting from the stop. The disadvantage of this placement is some deterioration in the accuracy of fire.
In general, a huge number of factors affect the accuracy of fire of an assault rifle, but the main ones are the quality of manufacture of the barrel and the ammunition used, the bumpiness and design of the remote control, the impact force of the moving parts in the rearmost position, and some more, but such as “freedom to vibrations of the posted barrel” and the location of the ramrod under the barrel, against the general background, and especially against the background of the first two factors, the accuracy of a single, and even more so automatic fire, is very weakly affected.
When designing the AEK-971, there was also a problem with the placement of the ramrod. Due to the design features of the machine with balanced automation, it has practically no recoil-reducing effect of powder gases on the front wall of the gas chamber, which is not weak for a small caliber. This required the use of a more efficient and, as a result, larger DTK, and even with a mount that reduces DTK chatter on the barrel.
Due to the increase in the dimensions of the DTK, it was not possible to place the ramrod under the barrel, and it was decided to make it collapsible with two knees with one knee in the butt, and use the return mechanism rod as the second. The solution is beautiful from an engineering point of view, but if it is necessary to quickly assemble the machine, when repelling a sudden attack while cleaning it, for example, the speed of this assembly is not weakly slowing down.
I watched a video demonstrating the location and manipulation of the AK-12 accessory, which includes a prefabricated ramrod. What can I say - just a gadget lover's dream. The predecessors were smarter - more convenient and cheaper.
In general, apart from the idea of a stock adjustable in length, I did not find any big advantages in the AK-12 over the AK-74M, for example. From my point of view, there are actually more disadvantages. There is a feeling of some sort of not quite hack-work, but precocity, attempts to quickly make something fashionable, not very similar to AK, essentially without changing anything in the AK design (although this is still that design task), and then push it into service, using the strong influence of the Kalashnikov concern. And if this becomes a habit, or rather, if this habit is not eliminated, the Soviet (or Russian?) school of weapon design will die completely. And this is a brick not only in the direction of QC - its managers, to the best of their ability, find the best, from their point of view, ways to solve the pressing problems of their enterprise, they are paid for this, but also all participants in this most ordinary stories.
- Zavarykin Igor
- AK-12 as a mirror of the status quo
Design features of the AK-12
AK-12. Requirements for a modern machine
AK-12. The layout and features of a modern machine
Information