AK-47 'War-master' & the History of 'Cheap War'

[Marshal Murat]

I'm sure any, if not all posters are knowladgeable about the AK-47. I was inspired by an NPR program on it, and have decided to post an entire thread on the AK-47. I have dubbed it the 'War-master' just because I can.

AK-47
A-Avtomat
K-Kalashnikova
19'47'

History
During World War 1, trench warfare covered northern and western France. The infantry man who could deal one shot, one death with his portable rifle. Then there was the machine-gun, dealing the firepower of hundreds of infantry. The trenches were opened up later by the Germans, with storm-troopers. Wielding semi-portable machine-guns, flame-throwers, and grenades, these soldiers cleared entire sections of trench, leaving it open for those that who followed.
In response, nations began the creation of machine-guns or machine-pistols. Rapid firing, compact weapondry, they were designed to 'sweep trenches clean' with fire.
However, the war ended before then. During the inter-war years, the Germans perfected 'blitzkrieg' and the sudden shock of a armored attack, dealing fire-power and destruction, ripping the enemy apart. The war was characterized by the two opposite ends. The heavy support machine-guns (Bren, BAR), light rifles (M1A1 Carbine), rifles (Kar, Mosin-Nagant, Lee-Enfield), and light machine guns (Thompson, MP40, PPSH). The rifles and support weapons had the range, the light weapons the firepower. A sythensis of the two was achieved by the Germans with the StG-44. Anyone who has played CoD knows what I'm talking about.

After WW2, the Cold War began. The Russians and Americans needed the sythensis. The StG-44 was the answer. Deemed an 'assault rifle', it combined the magazine size and firepower of a machine gun with a range of about 300 meters, better than many machine guns.


Specifications
Weight:3.8kg unloaded, 4.3kg loaded
Length:870mm
Barrel Length:415mm
Cartridge:7.62 by 39mm
Action:Gas-operated rotating bolt
Rate of Fire:600 rounds a minute
Muzzle Velocity:710 m/s
Effective Range:300 meter
Feed:30 round banana cartridge or 75 round drum
Sighting:Iron sights


The AK-47 in Current Conflict
The AK-47 is the creator of 'Cheap War' as I like to term it. No war is cheap, and Human Lives are precious creation of God.
The AK-47 is often used by fighters, militia, and third-world armies for some basic reasons.
The AK-47 is reliable, simple to manufacture, easy to clean, and long-lasting. The rounds never jam in the chamber, and chromium plating improve the ruggedness of the weapon. Simple iron sights.
The AK-47 however doesn't have accuracy and penetration at ranges that the American M-16, or modern first-world weapondry.

The AK-47 allows a man, with a couple dollars or equivalent to purchase safety. The AK-47, since it is cheap to produce and available across the world, can provide rebels, insurgents, patriots, militia, pirates, and private security forces with firepower. The UN actually watches the black market on AK-47s, for when the price goes up, war is approaching.
The AK-47 allows men to enforce their will, intimidate, defend, and attack with ease. If something doesn't go your way, buy an AK-47 and force it to go that way.
The AK-47 has often been bought by rebels, who hope to guerilla their way into power and prominence. Many nations have produced variants, identical to the Soviet design.
Albania, Bulgaria, Germany, Egypt, Hungary, Iraq, North Korea, China, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia.

The United States, China, and Russia often provided client states, rebels, and others with an AK-47 and ammunition, training and repair kits for the AK-47. The AK-47 has provided men with the cheap and deadly weapondry that few could really afford before.

Mozambique has an AK-47 on their flag, Hezbollah has one on their flag, and Kalash has been used for African boys names.
The AK-47 has provided the means for cheap, reliable, and rugged firepower. It has lasted, and will contiune to last until it becomes useless.
In Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove, the South Africans actually provide the south with AK-47s for the war.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK-47

[yesdachi]

The military channels show, Top Ten: Combat Rifles listed the AK-47 as their #1 and I couldn’t agree more.

[Randarkmaan]

I think the AK-47 is built on the principle that in a REAL war you won't necessarily have the time or the resources to train the soldiers how to clean and maintain their weapons. Also it may also be based upon a theory the Russians had before and during and after WWII that (again) in a REAL war you will have to be able to re-produce your arsenal many times over in a short time.

[KrooK]

According to my information PPSH was just bad russian version of finnish machine pistol Suomi.

And I can't agree with theory that M16 is better than Kalashnikov.
1)If you throw M16 into sand, it rather stop working. Kalashnikov will be working well.
2)You can shot both in Desert and Noth Pole.
3)Some years ago I was into Central Police Lab and they told us that normal
bulletproof vest won't help against Kalashikov.
4)Kalashikov is better for non-trained soldiers. They can easy learn how to care about their gun and there is no risk that they gun stop working, cause they cleared it bad.
5)Notice that happy customers prefer Kalashikov than M16.

It's just like Dragunov - American keep telling that US sniper guns is better, but despite that CIA gave 10.000.000$ for each Dragunov. :)

[Kääpäkorven Konsuli]

If Kalashnikova would have born in west, he would have been a millionaire.

[Marshal Murat]

The M-16, and most modern Army arsenal weapons are for the highly-trained, modern American soldier. One shot, one kill. Every bullet is used for a purpose. While it will jam (from what I've heard, quite often), you can hit a soldier 500 meters away, while the AK-47 can get a good shot at 300 meters, if he doesn't spray the weapon.
Kalashnikov is a cheap, effective, rugged weapon that is meant for irregular, low-tech, inexperianced soldiers.
M-16 is for the high-tech, first world soldier.

The Suomi and PPSH are pretty much identical twins.

Um, also what was the point of the post? You pretty much added to or restated my main post.

Also, Kalashnikov made no money from the actual design since it was for his 'Motherland' and all that. At least, not in the beginning.

[Beirut]

The M-16, and most modern Army arsenal weapons are for the highly-trained, modern American soldier. One shot, one kill. Every bullet is used for a purpose. While it will jam (from what I've heard, quite often), you can hit a soldier 500 meters away, while the AK-47 can get a good shot at 300 meters, if he doesn't spray the weapon.
Kalashnikov is a cheap, effective, rugged weapon that is meant for irregular, low-tech, inexperianced soldiers.
M-16 is for the high-tech, first world soldier.

Debatable, sir.

Any regular soldier who can hit a man sized target, under stress, at 500 yards with a single shot from an iron sighted M16 (I assume you refer to at least the A2 version), is not a regular soldier. He's an irregularly fine shot. If not outstandingly fine.

Any regular soldier who can hit a man sized target at 500 meters, under stress, with a single shot from 4x scope mounted M16A2 is still an irregularly fine shot.

Any regular soldier who can hit a man sized target ay 500 meters, under stress, with a single round from any version of the M16A3 model with the short barrel is probably owed a favour from the Almighty.

There is no more likelihood of spraying with an AK-47 than there is with any model of the M16. The weapon operator either choses to fire full auto or he does not.

In modern urban combat, in the hands of a highly trained soldier, there is truly not a big difference between the two weapons.

[Randarkmaan]

According to my information PPSH was just bad russian version of finnish machine pistol Suomi.

The PPSh was an easy to produce version of the Finnish Suomi SMG, it also had a higher rate of fire and was as said really easy to manufacture, it could be made quicker than the Sten gun. Also a very large number of German soldiers on the eastern front looted PPSh's from dead Russians (whole batallions of soldiers were armed with them in the Red Army) as it supposedly never jammed and was a hell of a lot better in most respects when compared to the German MP40.

If you want to compared the Suomi to the PPSh, then I have a book from the time I was really interested in WWII armies...

Konepistooli M31 'Suomi'
Type: Submachine gun
Calibre: 9mm Parabellum
Length: 87 cm
Length of barrel: 31,75 cm
Weight: 4,86kg (without magazine)
Muzzle velocity: 400m per second
Feed: 20-, 50-, and 71-round box or drum magazine
Rate of Fire: 450 rounds per minute

Pistolet-Pulemet Schpagina obrazets 1941 'PPSh41'
Type: Submachine gun
Calibre: 7,62mm
Length: 84 cm
Lenght of barrel: 26,9 cm
Weight: 3,5kg
Muzzle velocity: 490m per second
Feed: 35-round box or 71-drum
Rate of Fire: 900-1000 rounds per minute

The M-16, and most modern Army arsenal weapons are for the highly-trained, modern American soldier. One shot, one kill. Every bullet is used for a purpose. While it will jam (from what I've heard, quite often), you can hit a soldier 500 meters away, while the AK-47 can get a good shot at 300 meters, if he doesn't spray the weapon.
Kalashnikov is a cheap, effective, rugged weapon that is meant for irregular, low-tech, inexperianced soldiers.
M-16 is for the high-tech, first world soldier.

The AK-47s have many times been used by professional well-trained soldiers... Israeli special forces for an example continued to use AKs rather than the new Galils and the M16s, though some use them. And I don't think I would call the Soviet army an inexperienced irregular army. Also think about it, in a real slugging match between two roughly equal armies the ability to equip soldiers with a weapon that they are able to use with very little training is priceless. Though now in modern times what matters more is your ability to just carpet-bomb the enemy position with planes and missiles, rather than shooting him with a rifle.

[Sarmatian]

I also heard that M-16 didn't respond very well to humidity, and that american soldiers in vietnam often discarded their weapons for AK-47's.
Number #1 rifle of all times, IMHO.

[Ice]

3)Some years ago I was into Central Police Lab and they told us that normal
bulletproof vest won't help against Kalashikov

.

Well yeah, of course a standard police vest won't stop an AK round.

Armor Level Protects Against
Type I
(.22 LR; .380 ACP) This armor protects against .22 caliber Long Rifle Lead Round Nose (LR LRN) bullets, with nominal masses of 2.6 g (40 gr) at a reference velocity of 329 m/s (1080 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and .380 ACP Full Metal Jacketed Round Nose (FMJ RN) bullets, with nominal masses of 6.2 g (95 gr) at a reference velocity of 322 m/s (1055 ft/s ± 30 ft/s).

Type IIA
(9 mm; .40 S&W) This armor protects against 9 mm Full Metal Jacketed Round Nose (FMJ RN) bullets, with nominal masses of 8.0 g (124 gr) at a reference velocity of 341 m/s (1120 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and .40 S&W caliber Full Metal Jacketed (FMJ) bullets, with nominal masses of 11.7 g (180 gr) at a reference velocity of 322 m/s (1055 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). It also provides protection against the threats mentioned in [Type I].

Type II
(9 mm; .357 Magnum) This armor protects against 9 mm Full Metal Jacketed Round Nose (FMJ RN) bullets, with nominal masses of 8.0 g (124 gr) at a reference velocity of 367 m/s (1205 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and 357 Magnum Jacketed Soft Point (JSP) bullets, with nominal masses of 10.2 g (158 gr) at a reference velocity of 436 m/s (1430 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). It also provides protection against the threats mentioned in [Types I and IIA].
Type IIIA
(High Velocity 9 mm; .44 Magnum) This armor protects against 9 mm Full Metal Jacketed Round Nose (FMJ RN) bullets, with nominal masses of 8.0 g (124 gr) at a reference velocity of 436 m/s (1430 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) and .44 Magnum Semi Jacketed Hollow Point (SJHP) bullets, with nominal masses of 15.6 g (240 gr) at a reference velocity of 436 m/s (1430 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). It also provides protection against most handgun threats, as well as the threats mentioned in [Types I, IIA, and II].

Type III
(Rifles) This armor protects against 7.62 mm Full Metal Jacketed (FMJ) bullets (U.S. Military designation M80), with nominal masses of 9.6 g (148 gr) at a reference velocity of 847 m/s (2780 ft/s ± 30 ft/s) or less. It also provides protection against the threats mentioned in [Types I, IIA, II, and IIIA].

Type IV
(Armor Piercing Rifle) This armor protects against .30 caliber armor piercing (AP) bullets (U.S. Military designation M2 AP), with nominal masses of 10.8 g (166 gr) at a reference velocity of 878 m/s (2880 ft/s ± 30 ft/s). It also provides at least single hit protection against the threats mentioned in [Types I, IIA, II, IIIA, and III].

Regular officers would most likely wear II or IIA which aren't designed to stop rifle bullets. Soldiers, on the other hand, would probably wear type III or even type IV.

[Kagemusha]

In the case troopers are waring a west that can hold of 7.62 shot,thay will turn in to turtles tat will be very easy pickings to a snper that knows his job,

[Fragony]

The military channels show, Top Ten: Combat Rifles listed the AK-47 as their #1 and I couldn’t agree more.

Isn't this an AK74 he is holding?

[The Wizard]

Now that's a gun I'd love to have.

[yesdachi]

Isn't this an AK74 he is holding?

The caption from the photo indicates that it may be.

Russian designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, the creator of the world's most famous assault rifle, the AK-47, aims a current version of his weapon design at a shooting range outside the Russian city of Izhevsk in December 2003.

[Fragony]

That would be pretty sloppy, AK74 fires a different round, not the same weapon then.

[AggonyDuck]

To counter the American M-16, Kalashnikov created his AK-47.

I don't think this is true, especially when the AK-47 predates the M16.

[KrooK]

Actually I don't think that you can shot M16 and hit target from 500 metres in normal conditions without scope :) Same with AK-47.
Let's compare typical situations:)
We shouldn't compare that guns into perfect situation because on war situation is hardly any perfect.

BTW there is a joke about American army basic training.
"Our instructors were telling us into USA that M16 is 10 times better than AK47. Then they went to Iraq to check if they are right. When they got back, they learnt how to spell Kalashnikov.

[Marshal Murat]

Ah, AK-47 was created because Kalashnikov knew what the Americans were making!

Also, the Suomi had 9mm so that you could use pistol ammunition in them (that's what i've heard)

[AggonyDuck]

Ah, AK-47 was created because Kalashnikov knew what the Americans were making!

Well the American contemporary for the AK-47 would be the M14, not the M16.

[KrooK]

As someon reminded earlier, we shouldn't compare AK47 (early version) with M16 last version. Let's compare AK 47 early version with first version of M16.
Latest version of M16 should be compared with latest version of Kalashnikov (if I'm sure its AK47 2 - Specnaz Edition) or with modified versions (like polish Beryl). There is absolutely no difference.
According to theory that American special forces are best in the world, please check what Americans were telling about polish special forces after mission on Haiti :) American Delta Force is quite big and good, but there is many units that can be compare with it like GROM, SAS, GSG 9 and maybe with Commando Alfa (but this very brave unit sucked into some missions).