Caliber: 5.45x39 mm
Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt with 2 lugs
Weight: 3,3 kg (with empty magazine without bayonet); 3,6 kg (with loaded magazine)
Length: 943 mm (AKS74 with folded butt 690 mm)
Barrel length: 415 mm
Magazine capacity: 30 rounds standard
Effective range: 500 meters
Rate of fire: 600 650 rounds per minute
The idea of the reduced caliber ammunition for military shoulder arms was played with
for a very long time. Each time the technology leaped forward, the standard calibers
were reduced from the 0.45 0.50 inch (11.4 12.7mm) of the mid1800 to the .30 of the
mid1900s. The idea of further reduction of the caliber down to 6.5 5.6 mm (.240 .220
inch) was also considered in many countries since the beginning of the XX century, but it
was not until the 1960s when the idea of the low impulse, smallcaliber, high velocity
round came up to something real. When US Army adopted the M16 rifle in the mid
1960s, everybody else eyed Americans with interest. And as soon as the idea of small
caliber rifle was found worthwhile, the total rearming began.
Soviet army started the development of its own smallcaliber ammunition in the late
1960s. After some years of development, a new round was created. This round featured
a bottlenecked, tapered case, slim bullet with nominal caliber of 5.45mm (actual bullet
diameter is 5.62 mm). The bullet featured a combined steel and lead core with the hollow
nose, muzzle velocity from the 415mm barrel was about 900 m/s. As soon as the new
ammunition was available and accepted by the Soviet Military, it was decided to develop
a new family of small arms around this cartridge. The fastest way to do so was to simply
adapt the existing 7.62mm AKM assault rifle and the RPK light machine gun for new
ammunition. This "new" arms would serve as an intermediate, temporary solution until
the new, more effective and modern arms would be developed. The task of adaptation of
the AKM/RPK family for the new round was relatively simple, since the new round was
designed with this conversion in mind (case length and the overall length of both 7.62mm
and 5.45mm cartridges are almost the same).
Basically, the smallcaliber Kalashnikov assault rifle, officially adopted by the Soviet
Army in 1974 as the "5.45mm Avtomat Kalashnikova, obraztsa 1974 goda (AK74)", was
no more than the older AKM, rechambered for a new round, with very minor
modifications. The most visible modification is the large and effective muzzle brake,
which further reduces already moderate recoil of the new round, and improves the
controllability of the rifle in the full automatic mode. Rear sight, while being of the same
old design, was accordingly recalibrated for the new cartridge with much flatter trajectory.
The wooden buttstock was slightly lightened by two oval cuts on both sides. The pistol
grip was made from plastic, and the forend initially was made from wood. The stamped
steel magazines were replaced by the plastic magazines of the very distinctive red
brown color. The airborne version of the new rifle, AKS74, also introduced a new pattern
of the folding butt. This was made from stamped steel, and folded to the left side of the
receiver instead of being folded down on the 7.62mm AKMS, and was of more
comfortable and robust construction. Otherwise the AK74 retained all features and
construction of the AKM/AKMS, and, surprisingly, the key deficiencies of the AKM were
not cured in this improved version. For example, AK74 retained the same less than ideal
safety selector lever, and the same crude sights. Like the AKM, the AK74 can be fitted
with special silencer (requires subsonic ammunition) or the 40mm underbarrel grenade
launcher GP25 or GP30 (improved and lightened model).
During the production AK74 was slightly improved. The mixed wooden and plastic
furniture were replaced with the black plastic furniture, and the redbrown magazines
were supplemented with the black plastic ones. The "Night" version AK74N had been
developed with the night IR scope rail added to the left side of the receiver. The latest
variation of the AK74 breed, that was introduced circa 1991 and consequently replaced
in production both AK74 and AKS74, is the AK74M. The AK74M externally differs from
the AK74 of late 1980s production by the sidefolding, solid black plastic buttstock and
by the scope rail,
mounted on the left
receiver as as a
standard. Some minor
improvements also
were made in the
production process and
external finish of the
new rifle. AK74M retained almost all advantages and disadvantages of the earlier
Kalashnikov designs, including reliability, simplicity of operations and maintenance, and
less than ideal "human engineering" and ergonomics. At the present time the AK74M,
along with earlier AK74/AKS74 is the standard shoulder arm of the Russian Army. The
plans of replacing it with the widely advertised Nikonov AN94 assault rifle were not
carried out to any significant extent the AN94 is (and most probably will be) issued only
to most elite units of the Russian Army, police and the Internal Affairs Ministry troops.
The AK74 type, 5.45mm assault rifles also were manufactured in the East German,
Bulgaria, Poland and Romania. Most of these designs after the dissolution of the
Warsaw Pact were converted to the 5.56mm NATO ammunition.