What ever happened to the Russian AN-94 (Abakan)?
I remember reading that it won some Russian army competition to replace the AK series, but then it just seemed to drop off the face of the earth.
Did they run out of money?
The same thing that happened to the XM-8, probably. Money.
M_P
From what I heard it is very difficult to maintain. The ergos suck compared to the AK-74. It’s about 5 times as costly to produce. And is only being adopted by Russia’s elite.
Is that the one with the barrel that reciprocated and fired really rapid 2-shot bursts or something?
And what is going on with that muzzle device? Interesting.
Yes, the first two shots are practically on top of each other…
The thing at the end of the barrel is a muzzle brake that used… ummm, like whistle chambers to reduce (through modification) the sound.
ETA: Vid of firing
A combination of things, but mainly money.
The Russians have hundreds of thousands of perfectly good AK-74’s, AKS-74’s, and AK-74M’s, they can’t afford to just adopt another rifle, just for the sake of getting something with a high CDI factor.
Actually, the AKM is making a comeback among their more elite units who appreciate the bigger, heavier bullet of the 7.62x39mm.
Very interesting. I wish I could see video from work but Websense is the devil…
It looks like the tub under the barrel is fixed, and the barrel travels on a small linear rail-type setup. If so I can see where that could be a major sticking point for debris in the field. How does the action operate? Recoil? I don’t see how the gas could be vented from the barrel to operate any piston.
I need to watch the vid, all I can picture now is the muzzle brake emitting a high-pitched tweet with each shot.
I know how you feel.
They are a bunch of fascist bastards.
Just ask the IRA. They got a couple dozen or so.
The IRA got some AN-94’s?
[cough]bullshit[/cough]
The IRA got a lot of stuff from the USA (Armalite AR-18’s, Colt AR-15’s, Ruger Mini-14’s), and a lot of Warsaw Pact stuff from middlemen (Libya), and after the fall of Communism in Europe, the Warsaw Pact had a going out of business sale with a lot of stuff coming in, but no AN-94’s.
Mostly the IRA used captured Brit equipment and home made ordnance. When I was in Belfast in 1999, things had calmed down tremendously, but the guys I talked to said that the majority of stuff they used came from the USA.
Video isn´t available anymore. Someone saved it?
Actually more like what happened to the HK G11. Everything was ready to go for it to be the “new” gun and then communism failed and suddenly nobody had money for anything. And the fact that there were no foreign consumers ready to buy it meant it went nowhere.
Three things happened.
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The Soviet Union collapsed and all their cash (in a Communist Society of all things) went out the door. Their armed forces went broke along with everything else. No rubles to pay their troops with let alone to pay arm factory workers and the companies that would make those rifles. They have millions of AK-74s in service and will not be replacing them anytime soon. They are doing upgrades to them with new stocks, etc… but the AK-74 is there to stay for a LONG TIME.
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The market was flooded with cheap AKMs and AK-74s. The wonders of free market capitalism. No foreign government wanted to buy the new rifle when they could get a ton of AKs for cheap. That’s what the Russians get for handing out AKs to anyone that claimed to be a Socialist and hate the USA. Also it has destroyed their foreign market for the AK-10x series of rifles.
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It’s a piece of crap and makes AK ergonomics looks nice. Russian Special Forces and their Ministry of Internal Affairs troops have hated it. They have gone to the AK-10x series in either 5.45x39mm and some have gone to those chambered in 7.62x39mm for a better punch in CQB environments.
In fairness, the M-16 didn’t have a stellar debut. And it was eventually refined into one of the best small arms we have ever seen. The 94 was certainly an interesting idea.
The ak200 is there newest variant. remember reading a defense review article about it. supposed to us a quadrupole stack 60rd mag similar to the surefire.
The problem is even though the AR-15 had a hiccup in it’s launch it was a damn nice little rifle and was a step forward; lighter weight, smaller caliber, higher capacity, simple design, etc… The AN-94 is a step back for the Russians. If they want something to replace the AK series the AN-94 isn’t it. I think further refinement of the AK series is the future for the Russian Armed Forces and I think the next big breakthrough for all of us is caseless ammunition.
Every major advancement in firearms has been because of ammunition and the feeding devices for it.
That mag design has been around for a loooonnnng time. The Spectre M4 (Cold War), Hafdasa C-4 (Pre-WWII), Suomi KP/-31 (Pre-WWII), and the newest the Chinese QCW-05 all use the casket design magazine.
The Soviets had casket mags back in the 1980s.
There is a long-stroke piston, and part of the receiver recoils, as well. A picture is worth a thousand words:
http://operatorchan.org/k/arch/src/k263359_An-94%20Akaban%20cutaway.jpg
The thing looks like it has more parts than an Ural. Besides the cost, it doesn’t seem to fit with the typical Russian small arms design philosophy.
I realize its nothing new but seems to be a small step in the right direction for assault rifles. There is only so much modernization that can be done to the ak without a complete overhaul of the design which is probability not cost effective. Even the ak 200 looks like they smacked a picatinny rail on a ak74 and called it a “modern” assault rifle. I think the Russians ot to take a hard look at the urgonamics of the ak platform and go from there.