AK-200 never existed. It was showpiece. That's what new head of Izhmash said.
It seems that Izhmash alone was working on at least 4 different rifle configurations, with the four driving ideas behind them being a modified AK-74 whose modification is not that drastic ie AK-200 with rails added and adjustable length stock, but standard AK controls, a radical change ie AK12 with new controls and almost everything changed to make it easier to use with commonality of same mags and bayonet and grenade launcher, but otherwise different.. though no balanced recoil mechanism, A more expensive and complicated option of a modified AK-107 with rails and balanced recoil mechanism... I would like to point out that the balanced mechanism is not new... there were balanced rifle mechanisms in the 1970s competition to replace the AK that resulted in the AK-74 winning on cost and ease of production and use. The fourth option was the cheapest and is often referred to as the AK-74M3 which is an AK-74M with rails and extendible stock added.
This means that from just one company they are offering a range of choices and capabilities and a range of prices and levels of complexity.
Many of the features of the AK-200 and the AK-74M3 can be achieved through the addition of after market parts so special forces are probably already using similar weapons.
Ak-12 is the real deal and new cal is likely to be developed. Still it's not guarantee that army gonna buy it.
The Russian Army has committed itself to having 70% new equipment by 2020. The AK-74 is not perfect, but it is also a very good weapon already. The features of the AK12 largely make it easier to use and easier to add and remove items to make it even better.
The main question is... is it worth the extra money... does it do what it claims on the box.
Is there a big chance that the russian infantry's cold war AK-74s will remain their main weapon for the next 2-3 decades and only a few spetsnaz brigades will be equipped with anything more modern?
No.
The Russian Army has its new Super Soldier program and it is looking for a weapon family to add to the suite. They will want an updated rifle to hand a thermal weapon sight upon.
In far past, during the 80's, I read military's magazine saying AK's familly's production is not far from 200 millions units.
Lots of numbers are bandied about, but even including clones I doubt 200 million as a figure.
In the 1980s it was closer to about 75 million, so I would doubt 200 now.
The AK-47'success story is mostly because, she was a very efficient anti-imperialist's weapon. For example during Vietnam's war, the AK-47 was very efficient against US GI's, and many were dead, if not completly handicaped -far from angelism, this war was triggered by US Imperialist agression, and it required resistance's response-.
The AK is a weapon and works in the hands of imperialist and nationalist alike. Simple and reliable and effective.
For that reason if you have a have an assault rifle that perfor the body armour -ceramic Bulletproof vest-, it must be helpfull. Because a shot in the chest, means at least a grave handicap for US soldiers.
The vast majority of casualties in war are not from aimed fire... most bullet wounds come from shots delivered by machineguns and directed "to whom it may concern" rather than with anyones name in particular. By far the greatest cause of casualties is from shrapnel, which is why they call them flak vests. Desert Storm was one of the first actions with NATO forces where 40mm grenade use exceeded 7.62 x 51mm use. I rather suspect in Afghanistan that might not be so true due to the increased use of DMR and GPMGs, but generally a group of enemy forces 1-1.5km away it is much more effective to fire a burst of 20-30 grenades than 40-50 rounds of small arms fire.
against professional remorless US soldiers serving the Imperialist ideal, in order to reduce all people in the world into pax america. Wall Street order.
Many US soldiers in the Vietnam war were conscripts...
Can't really bash the weapon as it's still under development but I really think Izhmash can do better.
They seem, in my opinion, to be covering all obvious upgrade options. The one we haven't seen of course is the from scratch total from a blank sheet of paper design... and that, I think, will really be the only thing that blocks the AK12 from entering service.
The problem is that such a design should take a while to develop and perfect... and ideally would use a new calibre to maximise its performance. It would preferably be a family of weapons to replace existing types, which means multi calibre too.
There is no clear answer, It might be that AK-74 will stay for a while or will be slowly phased out with new AK. Changes wont happen suddenly same with infamous deal with new uniforms.
True, but just like the new uniforms... it is only a matter of time before they get it right and put the new product into full production as the new standard rifle/uniform etc.
Since when Russians have to be worried about shooting US soldiers? Or what was the last time US soldier shot at Russian?
Very good questions. Russian soldiers should be protected from bullets it might encounter which includes its own. Protective vests should stop as much as possible without being to heavy. Bullets need to be effective.
Politics by both countries are very questionable and I dislike current US policies too even if I think that NATO is good for my country as we don't need to keep big army and we get some support.
The US has very high moral standards... it is just a shame it does not follow its own standards as much as it expects everyone else to.
I didn't know that. I thought otherwise. Infact in our army we employ 3 calibres for 3 rifles. 7.62×39, 7.62×51 and 5.56×45 and had chance to shoot all of them but I have no real idea about penetration. I always thought that 5.45 has better penetration than it's predecessor.
Well it has and it hasn't. The light high velocity rounds have better penetration on paper (ie they will penetrate more armour) but can be easily deflected by layers or other objects on the way to the target. Think in terms of hitting a windshield... a 5.45mm will penetrate easily, but its path might be deflected so much the bullet might not hit the target behind the glass. The 7.62 x 39mm has a much heavier bullet that tends to continue straight after penetration, as does the 7.62 x 51mm... only obviously more so with the much more powerful round. Also after penetration at reduced velocities the larger calibre heavier bullets retain more energy than the smaller calibre rounds which rely on velocity for most of their effect.
I think it's almost certain they will keep using AK-74's for at least 10-15 years. The Russians have said a lot of AK-74's are still in good working order. The AK-74 is only slightly inferior, if not on par with most modern assault rifles, so there's not much reason to change. The most that will happen is an upgrade for the AK-74 and AK-74M with rails to make it more suitable for modern acessories and optics. Yeah, Spetsnaz might get the newer rifles.
The special forces seem to have been consulted on the development of the AK12 so I suspect they will be the first users whether the Russian Army adopts them or not.
I think new rifles will enter service over the next 5 years, simply to update the inventory and to get optics into service more rapidly as part of their future soldier programme.
Is the Ak-74 even equivalent in accuracy to the FAMAS or L85? If not then how can it be on par with the new belgian and german bullpup assault rifles. Reliability is only one aspect of the performance of an assault rifle and russians have been focusing on. Being a few % less likely to jam isnt a huge advantage. IMO having good rate of fire and accuracy are lot more important thatn being able to fire after being kicked and rinsed in mud.
Would suggest you take a more realistic look at weapon design practicalities. Having some super accurate sniper rifle for an assault rifle costs extra money... money that is wasted when the bullet it fires is not lethal beyond about 400m or so. Being able to hit a fly at 200m is a waste of energy and ammo as most soldiers in real combat will not be capable of seeing such small targets at such ranges let alone aiming at them.
Enemy soldiers will be wearing camouflage which breaks up their shape, they will be moving as fast as they can from cover to cover... and most importantly they will be firing back and you will most likely be tired and hungry. There is no point in handing that soldier a rifle that can kill at 900m if you don't also give them the match quality ammo they will need and the high power optics and bipod and laser rangefinder to actually hit the target. Very high power optics would be needed just to make sure you can correctly identify targets at such ranges so you don't start killing civilians or your own guys.
They claim that the AK-74M surpassed the M16 even in accuracy with a test Izmash did recently. So I guess it would be equivalent to the Famas and L85 in accuracy. If the test was fair or not, I don't know.
Peter K Kolikas, editor of SOF mag said the AK-100 series rifle he tested in the 1990s was as accurate as any out of the box M16 rifle he had ever fired.
US army is already choosing new rifle. Same like with Russian army we mortals never know why competitions are over and no guns where chosen.
US Army has been "choosing" a new rifle since the 1970s. It has spent enormous amounts of money and had lots of competitions but the results so far have not been significant enough to warrant the purchase of a new rifle... could say the same about the AK as the AK-74 is just a new calibre AKM.
You need to decide what you want... a reliable effective rifle and is easy to use and easy to attach equipment to... you could claim that is the AK12, but then you could easily claim that is also the AK-74M3, or Ak-107M.
The bullpup layout gives you a compact rifle design without cutting down the barrel.
With modern small calibres relying on velocity for effect on target a long barrel is critical, but to make the rifle short and handy the bullpup layout maximises barrel length while still getting a compact design.
The three rifles I am most interested in currently are the AK12 and AK-107M, and the ADS... the latter has been adopted by the VDV and presumably the Russian Naval Infantry will adopt it too as it can be used underwater. Its bullpup design results in a small compact weapon with a reported effective range of 600m.
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Famas is outdated design with loads of flaws. It's about to be replaced. Flaws are so big that you can even forget about talking about accuracy. L85 after being fixed by Hekler Koch wasn't that bad, but is far away from being called super modern or super accurate, as they had to fix god damn thing to make it up to date. Belgian rifles You say? F2000 unproven and vulnerable design, FN Scar on other hand is reasonable platform and truly something built with sense as far as I've read about it. 
