The AK-47, officially known as the Avtomat Kalashnikova, is an assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, it is the originating firearm of the Kalashnikov family of rifles. After more than seven decades since its creation, the AK-47 model and its variants remain one of the most popular and widely used firearms in the world.
A carbine is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges.
The AK-74 is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974 as a successor to the AKM. While primarily associated with the Soviet Union, it has been used by many countries since the 1970s. It is chambered for the 5.45×39mm cartridge, which replaced the 7.62×39mm cartridge of Kalashnikov's earlier automatic weapons for the Soviet Armed Forces.
In the United States, assault weapon is a political term applied to different kinds of firearms. There is no clear, consistent definition. It can include semi-automatic firearms with a detachable magazine, a pistol grip, and sometimes other features, such as a vertical forward grip, flash suppressor, or barrel shroud. Certain firearms are specified by name in some laws that restrict assault weapons. When the now-defunct Federal Assault Weapons Ban was passed in 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice said, "In general, assault weapons are semiautomatic firearms with a large magazine of ammunition that were designed and configured for rapid fire and combat use." The commonly used definitions of assault weapons are under frequent debate, and have changed over time.
JSC Kalashnikov Concern, known until 2013 as the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant, is a Russian defense manufacturing concern and joint-stock company headquartered in the city of Izhevsk in the Republic of Udmurtia as well as the capital city of Moscow. The concern designs and produces a wide range of civilian and military weapons including assault rifles, sniper rifles, designated marksman rifles, machine guns, squad automatic weapons, hunting rifles, shotguns, guided artillery projectiles, and a wide range of other precision weapons including remote controlled weapon stations, unmanned vehicles and military robots.
The Type 56 is a Chinese 7.62×39mm automatic rifle, a licensed derivative of the Soviet-designed AK-47.
The RPK, sometimes retroactively termed the RPK-47, is a Soviet 7.62×39mm light machine gun that was developed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the early 1960s, in parallel with the AKM assault rifle. It was created to standardize the small arms inventory of the Soviet Army, where it replaced the 7.62×39mm RPD machine gun. The RPK continues to be used by the military of the post-Soviet states and certain African and Asian nations. The RPK is also manufactured in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Serbia.
The AK-103 is an assault rifle designed by Russian small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov.
The Type 81 is a Chinese-designed selective-fire, gas-operated 7.62×39mm assault rifle based on Kalashnikov and SKS actions adopted by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and has been in service since the mid-1980s. It was designed as a replacement to both the Type 56 assault rifle, as well as the Type 63 assault rifle, mostly being a further development and design improvement over the Type 63. Later, the Type 81 would be used under the designation Type 87 as testing for the PLA's new 5.8x42mm firearms, namely the QBZ-95.
The Saiga-12 is a shotgun available in a wide range of configurations, patterned after the Kalashnikov series of rifles and named after the Saiga antelope native to Russia. Like the Kalashnikov rifle variants, it is a rotating bolt, long-stroke gas piston operated firearm that feeds from a square magazine. All Saiga-12 configurations are recognizable as Kalashnikov-pattern guns by the large lever-safety on the right side of the receiver, the optic mounting rail on the left side of the receiver and the large top-mounted dust cover held in place by the rear of the recoil spring assembly. Saiga firearms are meant for civilian domestic sale in Russia, and export to international markets.
The AK-105 is a short barrel, carbine version of the AK-74M rifle, originally developed to replace the shorter barrelled AKS-74U. The AK-105 is chambered in 5.45×39mm ammunition and is used domestically by the Russian Army in contrast to other AK-100 series rifles.
The AEK-971 is a selective fire 5.45×39mm assault rifle that was developed at the Kovrov Mechanical Plant (KMZ) by chief designer Stanislav Ivanovich Koksharov, also known as Sergey Koksharov, in the late 1970s and 1980s.
The KSVK 12.7 or Degtyarev sniper rifle is a 12.7mm anti-materiel rifle developed in Russia for the purpose of counter sniping and penetrating thick walls, as well as light armored vehicles.
The TP-82 is an out-of-service triple-barreled Soviet combination gun carried by cosmonauts on space missions. It was intended as a survival aid to be used after landings and before recovery in the Siberian wilderness.
Kalashnikov rifles, also known as the AK platform, AK rifles or simply the AK, are a family of assault rifles based on Mikhail Kalashnikov's original design. They are officially known in Russian as avtomat Kalashnikova, and informally as "kalash" in Russian. They were originally manufactured in the Soviet Union, first by Izhmash and later by Kalashnikov Concern. Rifles similar to the Kalashnikov and its Soviet variants were later produced in many countries friendly to the Soviet Bloc, with rifles based on its design such as the Galil ACE and the INSAS also being produced. The Kalashnikov is one of the most widely used firearms in the world, with an estimated 72 million rifles in global circulation.
An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate-rifle cartridge and a detachable magazine. Assault rifles were first put into mass production and accepted into widespread service during World War II. The first assault rifle to see major usage was the German StG 44, a development of the earlier Mkb 42. While immediately after World War II, NATO countries were equipped with battle rifles, the development of the M16 rifle during the Vietnam War prompted the adoption of assault rifles by the rest of NATO. By the end of the 20th century, assault rifles had become the standard weapon in most of the world's armies, replacing full-powered rifles and submachine guns in most roles. The two most successful modern assault rifles are the AK-47 and the M16 designs and their derivatives.
The AK-12, "Avtomat Kalashnikova, 2012" is a Russian gas-operated assault rifle chambered in 5.45×39mm designed and manufactured by the Kalashnikov Concern, making it the fifth generation of Kalashnikov rifles.
The SIG MCX is a family of firearms designed and manufactured by SIG Sauer, produced in both selective fire and semi-automatic only models, and features a short-stroke gas piston system, which is inherited from the earlier SIG MPX submachine gun. The MCX is available in rifle, carbine, short-barreled rifle, and pistol configurations.
