AK-12. Requirements for a modern machine
To be honest, I tried to understand (well, yes, think of the 46th Research Institute or TsNIITOCHMASH, but what’s worse for me?), But what doesn’t suit all AKs, well, not counting the “smart” words that don’t speak to the specialist about the immoral obsolescence of the AK - a completely vague reason, and whether he needs this very replacement at all, well, at least now. I thought for myself, read the articles of my colleagues, talked to anyone, fortunately, intelligent specialists and non-specialists are not translated. Maybe their dust, huh? The result turned out to be frankly mournful, but as it is, I will not remain silent anyway. I will try to state all worthwhile, from my point of view, thoughts that I could scrape together. Moreover, they are still shamefully few.
Main claims against AK
If we omit the claims of athletes, civilian amateur shooters, couch experts, etc., it turns out that the target audience of users is generally satisfied with the AK assault rifle (not the AK-12). And even fighters of elite special forces, having the opportunity to choose almost any existing in the world weapons, for the most part, they choose AK, well, they “tune” it, of course. Therefore, based on my own experience (design, production, shooting) and impressions from getting to know various, including foreign, systems of this and not this class, I will try to make my own list of advantages, claims and wishes.
Ergonomics is a classic at its best, a mechanical sight, for me it is the main one - the best in the class, but adjusting the stock, at least in length, while maintaining its strength characteristics and folding it to the right side of the machine is very desirable. I'll skip the last one though. In addition, for me (height 189 cm) the handguard is uncritical, but still a bit short (preferably at least + 35 ... 50 mm). The regular fire control handle, although it looks “not cool”, is durable and absolutely comfortable, both for a bare hand and in any glove. The fuse, in accordance with modern trends, is desirable on both sides, under the thumb, not tight and not noisy.
The upper bar for mounting new standard and advanced sighting accessories is required. It is necessary to provide (or rather save) the possibility of installing an underbarrel grenade launcher and attaching a bayonet-knife. Well, a gun belt of modern design, but preferably from traditional materials (fire-resistant, non-reflective, etc.), although the latter (materials) is probably superfluous. And at the same time maintain reliability and ease of operation. And I would also like to increase the accuracy of fire and get a more suitable cartridge for modern conditions.
Increase accuracy of fire. But from this place, I, perhaps, will not restrain myself, I will not be able to briefly. Two points, in my opinion, are decisive here for the AK, and this is by no means only the design of the machine gun, although “untying” the relatively thin barrel and forend is still a very good idea, and if you also eliminate the DTK chatter and tighten up the ergonomics ... Cartridge and production conditions, from my point of view, are the main problems on the way to improving the “heap”.
The workmanship of the shaft cartridge has never been particularly thorough. Even the “needles” of one party sometimes give a decent spread, and the saddest thing is that in this matter we are outright losing to our sworn friends. Well, the accuracy of weapons cannot be better than the accuracy of ammunition, it can only be worse, and the whole question is how much worse. And here the design features of the sample and the quality of its factory production already play a role. The design of the AK is conventional for its time. So what's better than AR? Straight layout? So for the creators of AR, this is a forced step - they had to put a return somewhere (the return mechanism, which AR often calls a buffer). In general, hunting rifles have the best ergonomics, but have you come across a straight layout there?
If we talk about the toss of the barrel during automatic firing, yes, systems with a straightened layout have less of it, but the turning moment and the feeling of recoil perceived by the shooter are stronger. In addition, the increased height of the sighting line increases the most dangerous - the vertical projection of the shooter and, as a result, increases the likelihood of his being destroyed by return fire, and all of the above about the straightened layout has already set the teeth on edge - I don’t know for whom and why I repeat all this.
As for the quality of the factory-made machine gun and its effect on accuracy, I will give a couple of examples. In the 80s, it seems, a plant for the production of AKs was built in Libya (the Romanian version with a handle on the forearm and a folding butt), our specialists worked there, and German Fedorovich Mironov (bless his memory), my colleague, sent to Libya from SKB KMZ. He told:
“... we take machine guns of the same batch, accepted by the Quality Control Department. We shoot a bunch of short ones. One (automatic) stands like a glove, the other jumps like a louse. Why? I never understood.”
Although Mironov was a great test analyst and knew how to find reasons. One of the designers of my group, who served as an urgent machine gunner in Khankala in BAO (wounded, shell-shocked), said that the best and most desirable among the soldiers were AK and PKMy of the old years of production with a wooden forearm and butt. The designers leading the production of the Kord machine gun, a few years after the start of production:
"... the situation in the first production is getting worse, the quality of the product has fallen by a third."
I think, and I have heard a lot, that the drop in quality during manufacture is, again, a general trend that has not bypassed Izhmash either.
Unfortunately, the design process is almost always a compromise between hot and slippery. And the desire to fulfill the requirements for reliability also, as a rule, leads to a deterioration in accuracy. To ensure reliable operation of automation in difficult operating conditions (read - “to pass the test”), it is necessary, among other design tricks, to increase the gaps between the moving parts, increase the weight of the moving parts to the optimum and increase the speed of their movement, i.e. increase their inertia so that in any conditions simulated during the test, it is enough for the normal operation of automation.
All this leads to a deterioration in accuracy, both single and automatic fire. When fired, under the action of a recoil momentum, a shift and collision of all moving parts occurs until the springs settle down. On the "balance" version of AEK cal. 7,62 even had to strengthen the magazine spring. The cartridges, when fired under the action of recoil, settled down, and the regular spring did not have time to return them to the chambering line - it turned out to be a feed pass. The larger the gaps between the parts, the stronger and more unpredictable the vector effect of moving these parts on the weapon.
Therefore, for example, in self-loading sniper weapons, to increase accuracy, these gaps are reduced, the movement of moving parts is made as smooth as possible (US Army M21 self-loading sniper rifle - a modification of the M14 army rifle for smooth movement of moving parts was checked by tilting the barrel up and down by 30 degrees, with the in the return mechanism, the moving parts had to move under the action of their own weight from the extreme front to the extreme rear position and vice versa), but at the same time, the requirements for reliability in difficult operating conditions had to be relaxed (for example, drawing, which not everyone passes by AK, was generally removed from the test program for self-loading snipers).
An increase in the mass and speed of moving parts leads to an increase in the impact on the recoil pad (stock block) perceived by the shooter, and for weapons using a low-impulse cartridge (read - small-caliber weapons), this component of the recoil momentum is the main one, surpassing the recoil momentum from the shot itself. And if the recoil momentum from a shot can also be reduced by using DT or DTK, then only the use of a balanced automation scheme or an automation scheme with momentum accumulation in a weapon can save you from hitting the butt plate. Although there are no free cakes, these solutions have their own genetic problems, but I will talk about this a little later.
So, as for the AKM… AK-12 and not only. They, more precisely, their basic models, from which they are structurally and technologically almost the same, were developed in the USSR in the 40s of the last century and were calculated for mass production. To what extent do available manufacturing and even design technologies influence product design? At 99%. Stamping in combination with heat treatment and welding involves careful debugging of the technical process, even in the presence of competent and experienced (not the same) specialists - technologists and thermal specialists. I know from experience that there are unfortunately few such specialists left, however, there have always been few of them.
The situation with personnel, probably, can still be corrected if the management nevertheless takes care of the production for which it is responsible (just the responsibility should not be in words), and without waiting for the last experienced worker to move horses right at the workplace (it happens) , take care of his successor.
This also applies to blue-collar workers. Working dynasties, pride in the enterprise, responsibility for the task assigned, the desire not to let down fellow workers (comrades, not drinking buddies!), mentoring - in the current paradigm have sunk into the past, and attempts to revive all this have long been removed from the agenda. I remember that a class carver (chamber) before his retirement went to the management of the shop and offered to train someone to replace him, asked for a little extra payment for this, and called the amount ridiculous, for the sake of order.
He was answered in such a way that I had to attach him to the pilot production of the PKC as a locksmith. Then he was driven by order to his old place of work. The result of this attitude towards employees? In Soviet times, hundreds of barrels were made in this production. And in the 2010s, I witnessed how a special persuader crawled behind the military representative, persuading him to accept 5 defective (out of 8 made over the same period of time) barrels. Moreover, in Soviet times, all 8 would have been rejected. By the way, the quality of the manufacture of the barrel is one of the main components of the accuracy of fire. It's not mentoring, it's just saying.
Actually, due to the well-established manufacturing process of stamped and welded parts, including a huge amount of expensive technological equipment, the introduction of any major changes in the design of the receiver of a mass product, what is the AK and what, in principle, should be the AK-12, designed and manufactured in fire order, and therefore with very controversial merits and, as a result, with an incomprehensible potential of manufacturing orders, it seems like a production adventure even to me.
But despite the amazing, well, of course, for its time, manufacturability of the design of the machine and the design and technological development of its production, the quality of its manufacture is highly dependent on the human factor. Editing of stamped and welded parts, sawing of the lugs of the bolt, cracker, parts of the trigger mechanism. These are very important operations. And their implementation directly depends on the availability of trained, responsible and sober, at least at the time of the operation, personnel, with a mandatory “bench”, which, by the way, requires an appropriate attitude from an equally competent leadership.
And this combination is becoming less and less common, and this, together with the wear and tear of production equipment and technological equipment, causes a drop in the quality of manufacturing products, which, in turn, forces designers to take measures so that products successfully pass periodic tests and, in particular, increase speed mobile, and this, as mentioned above, is a deterioration in accuracy.
Moreover, the introduction of new equipment and attempts to use new technologies change little, the design is optimized for completely different technologies. And there’s almost nothing to be done, in the West, and anywhere else, the same thing is happening, but a course has long been taken there (however, as in recent times with us) to eliminate the influence of the human factor on the quality of products by introducing new technologies and optimizing for them weapon designs.
A few years ago, I got into the hands of a Raffaello submachine gun in a gift version: engraving, polishing, impregnation, etc. Having disassembled it, I fell into a sediment - the flash was not removed from the plastic parts of the trigger. But everything worked. In the same place where a person cannot be dispensed with, they use, oddly enough, the Soviet experience (although what does the Soviet experience have to do with it, my grandmother told me that under the tsar this was always the case for normal owners) - labor dynasties, honor to good workers, fostering pride in being involved in the creation things, decent wages.
Summing up the above confusion. In order to improve the accuracy of fire from a machine gun and at the same time maintain its legendary reliability, it is necessary, first of all, to ensure the proper level of workmanship of the product in production. And for this, it is wider to introduce new technologies, while simultaneously optimizing the design of the machine for them. And we need to change something in industrial relations. That is, the approach should be comprehensive, and in deed, not in words.
But what about instead of AK?
In order to create something new to replace the icon, which undoubtedly is the AK, it is necessary to carefully calculate and predict the development of production technologies, progress in the development of personal armor protection, the possible appearance of new targets on the battlefield, the development of means of support (command control, various rifle accessories , the emergence of new ammunition and automation schemes), the financial component, i.e. a full-fledged research work is needed, only to at least develop a worthwhile technical specification, and not attempts to pass off as a new AK-47 with teeth of Picatinny rails all over the face.
By the way, I recall the requirements for the uniform of a soldier of the times of the USSR that accidentally fell into my hands: ... the minimum number of seams, the seams themselves are smooth, only internal or mortise pockets (not overhead) with valves - to make it easier to remove radioactive dust. This is me about the degree of thoughtfulness by the customer of technical requirements and the scrupulousness of working out the terms of reference, and, probably, this makes sense - they don’t fight those who are well prepared for war, but the main task of the Armed Forces in any normal state is protection from external threats, incl. h. from the threat of an attack, and not just the elimination of the consequences of this very attack.
But if you don’t swim deep into the future, but try to imagine the current machine gun of today, well, that is, what would be in demand by the army in the near future (well, laugh to your health, they play such games, but not everyone, and not just designers , and God himself ordered them), so you can try it.
1. Cartridge
Army weapons are created specifically for arming the army, and the main enemy of the army, for which, in fact, it is needed, is the regular army of the enemy. The fight against bandits, separatists, partisans and other informals is, of course, a necessary thing, and recently through the efforts of our "partners" it is the main thing, but the main task of the army remains the ability to resist the armed aggression of the regular armed forces of our partner countries (if this is not sarcasm, I will never understand it). What is the difference?
Have you seen an informal in a bulletproof vest and a protective helmet? Have you seen a NATO serviceman without personal armor-SIB? The chance of seeing this (he, she, it) without underwear is an order of magnitude higher. Plus unarmored, lightly or partially armored vehicles, including various robots. Plus, the new tactics of the same informals to increase the distance of fire contact and countermeasures taken by NATO, i.e., attempts to increase the effective range of the fire impact of NATO units. And the 5,45x39 cartridge, which the GRAU attempted from Afghanistan.
Sad. Moreover, the improvement of the NIB continues, and the cartridge is small, and for a long time, and the potential for increasing its capabilities has always been, to put it mildly, small. The development by NATO, or rather in the USA, of 6,5x39 Grendel cartridges (originally as sports cartridges) based on a 7,62x39 cartridge case, model 1943, and 6,8x43 SPC Rem. on sleeve 223 Rem. indicates the presence of such problems even for the armed forces of countries using the relatively more powerful 5,56x45 cartridge. The development and greater success of the 6,8x43 cartridge compared to the 6,5x39 cartridge (although it is somewhat worse in ballistics) are explained by the difficulties of adapting ammunition based on the cartridge case of the model 1943 of the year to the AR platform, despite the large number of attempts of this kind, to create a full-fledged a reliable working sample has not yet been possible.
The relevance of work in this direction is evidenced by the adoption by some countries of the 6,8x43 cartridge. Although this did not happen in the United States (the decision was postponed), due, I think, to the cessation of active hostilities. Well, everything is like ours: there is a war going on, we need this, this and that. OKRs are opening urgently, work is in full swing, everything is going on. The war ends - other people make their way into the leadership, funding is cut, etc., etc. From my point of view, the military version of the 6,5x39 Grendel cartridge produced in Russia would be the ideal ammunition for the Russian army machine gun.
Its advantages are excellent ballistics, the caliber is sufficient to create effective special ammunition, there is no capillarity characteristic of smaller calibers, plus a slight increase in barrel survivability with the same thickness of the bullet shell, and at the same time it is actually mastered in production, the production of barrels and civilian variants of the AK. That is, there is a base for testing combat options for the cartridge. AK cal stores are used. 7,62x39. And this means that weapons created for this cartridge, with minimal changes, can be produced for other ammunition created on the basis of this cartridge case and 9,3x39 and 7,62x39.
There are calls to revive the 6x49 cartridge, i.e. BC3. As a person who has worked a lot with these ammunition (BCS, BC3, BC6 and again BC3, and recently 6,7x49), I want to say - no need. 720 mm - barrel length to get close to the required V25. There is no tenacity at the trunk, despite the polygonal (life forced) cutting. The phenomenon of capillarity, again. And there is no production of components, and there are no imported analogues, and there are no civilian ones either, and this is both an export potential and just money. And machine gunners do not work at 1 meters. And the fighter wants to take more ammunition, and it is desirable that they be smaller and lighter. Yes, and the sleeves of the remnants of the needles have recently been re-pressed under 000x6,7 since that time, burned during the tests and calmed down.
No, I vote for the 6,5x39 Grendel, more precisely, for its Russian military version, and even if it is inferior to imported counterparts (technology, what to do), it will most likely meet the requirements for a promising ammunition for an army machine gun.
2. Scheme of automation
No, at this stage I will not impose a balanced automation scheme. The 6P38 assault rifle, recently adopted by special forces, with the exception of its “semi-breaking” receiver design, is structurally the same AEK that participated in the competition on the Abakan theme. Then the Nikonov machine gun won, whose great life ended before it even began. He was appointed the winner in order to justify the huge costs of work on the topic, since his performance characteristics, especially in terms of accuracy, were closest to those specified in the TOR, and at the same time, it was clear to any specialist, and even a non-specialist - “not a tenant”, and therefore, nothing threatened the hegemony of the AK.
The purpose of the work on the "Abakan" was the desire to get a machine gun for arming poorly trained (three rounds) conscript soldiers, and by no means special forces. The idea was that when firing from unstable positions (read - without a stop), the weapon would provide high accuracy when firing short 3, later - 2 ... 3, burst shots, almost regardless of the level of training of the shooter. That is, it was enough to teach a soldier to aim and shoot single shots.
As a result of the research, it turned out that for this it is necessary to increase the rate of fire of the weapon to such an extent that the inertia of the rest mass works (the mass of the weapon plus the reduced mass of the shooter), and the weapon does not have time to leave the aiming line during the shooting of 2 ... 3 needles. At the same time, the required calculated rate of fire was highly dependent on the recoil momentum and amounted to 4 ... 000 rds / min. for a 6-mm assault rifle of the classical design, in which the recoil impulse acted on the shooter, both from the shot and from the impact of moving parts on the butt plate of the weapon receiver.
The slowest rate was required for an automatic machine with “accumulated momentum” automatics; the shooter perceived the return only after the end of the queue. A machine gun with balanced automatics had an intermediate result - the shooter perceived recoil only from a shot. This scheme works best when using a low-impulse cartridge, when the recoil momentum from hitting the moving parts in the butt plate of the weapon is a significant part of the total recoil momentum. With an increase in the power of the ammunition, the effect of using this solution decreases.
In addition, in weapons with gas-operated automatics, the recoil momentum from a shot increases somewhat, because the effectiveness of the action of powder gases on the front wall of the gas chamber decreases or disappears, which not weakly reduces the recoil from a shot. The use of powerful DTCs is not a panacea, since the compensating moment for different positions of the shooter when firing requires a different compensation direction.
There was even a modification of the AEK with the so-called. "trombone" - DTK with a large number of compensation holes, which could be selectively blocked by a special switch that had 3 positions: "standing from the hand", "lying from the hand" and, in my opinion, "from the knee". The sample showed excellent results in design tests, but they shot at Rzhevka "like in battle", that is, by mixing up the switch positions. No more experimenting.
And another problem of the left shoulder - the DTK is designed to compensate for the drift of the barrel when firing from the right shoulder. If we analyze the advantages and disadvantages of a balanced automation scheme in comparison with the classics, we get the following picture. I deliberately talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the scheme, and not specific types of weapons made using one or another automation scheme. It makes sense to compare samples of weapons of different schemes only if they are made at the same design, technological and production level, and I'm talking about the genetics of schemes.
Advantages: high accuracy of automatic fire when firing from unstable positions in general (both short and long bursts, and continuous fire), which compares favorably even with a scheme with accumulated recoil momentum. all.
Moreover, shooting from the “standing with the hand” position is most often carried out towards the target, not so much to defeat, but to suppress enemy fire (oh, sorry, our “partner”).
Disadvantages:
- the worst accuracy of a single fire, due to the greater relative mass of moving parts and the greater number of parts moving relative to each other;
- a decrease in the effectiveness of the application of the scheme when using relatively powerful ammunition;
- the need to ensure a high rate of fire and, as a result, the need to use a cut-off mechanism for the length of the burst in the trigger mechanism;
– the desirability of using powerful DTCs;
– more complex, expensive to manufacture and, therefore, potentially less reliable in operation design;
- the worst weight and size characteristics;
- greater effort on the reloading handle and greater noise of this process.
And further. According to TSNIITOCHMASH - the worst accuracy of automatic fire in the prone position, although I don’t understand why, this information needs to be verified, which I am unable to perform (perhaps I confuse something).
At the same time, speaking specifically about the 6P38, structurally it is still an excellent machine, and after curing the inevitable when setting up the production of overlays - childhood diseases, it will probably become the best weapon in its class and calibers, if it does not fail the financial issue, and it will be possible to provide and maintain the quality of workmanship. In addition, this very “half-breaking” design of the receiver appeared within a very short period of time (in a fire order), as a result of an unexpected requirement for the creators of the machine gun to ensure the installation of a “picatinny rail” of a given length.
And to their credit, they didn’t blurt it out on the removable receiver cover - a good design school worked, but due to lack of time to develop and manufacture a sample, the existing solution is most likely not optimal and will most likely be finalized or changed in the process of serial production. And if, on the basis of this automaton, an automaton of the classical scheme is created ...
Although it's probably too late. But the unique developments in the balanced scheme of automation must be preserved and studied its capabilities and features of operation. Technology does not stand still. Perhaps, for example, at a new technological level, interest in ammunition with an arrow-shaped submunition will revive. And they have potentially very low recoil momentum.
Well, in general, I wanted to say that at this stage in the machine under the 6,5x39 cartridge I chose, I would prefer the classic automation scheme.
Dear reader, the most interesting thing that I could remember and write about, in general, is over. But there will be another final part, just now I have chosen a volume limit.
- 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