Baijiahao: bulletproof vest will not save the Russian "king of machine guns" from a bulletThe Russian AK-47 is capable of causing such serious damage that it has been called a "weapon of mass destruction," writes user Baijiahao.
Reliable design, penetrating power and trouble-free operation in all conditions have provided the "king of automata" with great popularity.
The AK-47 assault rifle (full name: 7.62 mm Kalashnikov assault rifle built in 1947) was created by Soviet weapons designer Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov in 1947. This automatic rifle is famous for its strength and durability, high reliability and low cost. She gained worldwide fame after the Vietnam War, where the fighting was conducted in a humid, hot tropical forest, and the environment was very harsh. This was an incredible test for the operability of weapons on both sides.
It is rumored that in the Vietnamese jungle, M-16 assault rifles in the hands of the American military often failed due to humidity and other problems, so US soldiers resolutely abandoned their modern rifles and looked for durable and reliable AK-47s of the opposite side.
I'm going to show why the AK-47 is one of the most produced firearms in the world and what advantages have made it popular for half a century. Even today, AK-47s are used in hot spots. We all understand that if a weapon does not change for a long time and is not written off, then it must have undeniable advantages. The main advantage of the machine is its high reliability and the ability to use it in combat in various conditions, whether it is a wet jungle, an icy wasteland or a hot desert.
Of course, this plus is mainly due to a simple mechanical design. Compared to the American M-16 rifle, the Kalashnikov assault rifle is shorter and has a short range, but it is quite powerful and perfectly suited for close combat. In addition, its body is so reliable that even after continuous firing and dust and litter getting into the barrel of the AK-47 continues to function. Here is a simple example: one fan of weapons in the United States somehow buried a Kalashnikov assault rifle in the sand for a while, and then dug it up, and the weapon fired without problems. The sand even got into the shutter, but at the same time the machine gun fired normally! From this example, you can see that the AK-47 is very strong and durable, it can easily cope with any environment. This is what laid a solid foundation for his enduring popularity, so that he was still in service.
I said about reliability, let's turn to power. Due to its features, the AK-47 is more suitable for close combat tasks. If a bullet hits a person, it would not be an exaggeration to say that wherever it enters, it will pierce through the flesh. Even a good bulletproof vest will not save you completely — it will stop the bullet, but a powerful recoil will cause pain and internal damage. At the same time, the AK-47 can fire not only conventional, but also armor-piercing shells to defeat light armored vehicles. As we all know, in the 1940s, the thickness of the front steel sheet of an armored vehicle was usually about eight millimeters, and the thickness of the rear armor was about ten to twelve millimeters. The Kalashnikov assault rifle, equipped with armor-piercing bullets, can penetrate steel plates from 15 to 18 millimeters. In other words, if you shoot an AK-47 at the back of an armored vehicle, you can turn it into a sieve. Of course, there is no need to talk about the fate of those sitting inside. The characteristics show that the machine is actually very powerful — there is every reason to believe that its power exceeded the M-4 and M-16 assault rifles in the hands of the American military. I'll give you an example from a computer game: a Kalashnikov rifle pierces a helmet with one shot, and an M-4 assault rifle requires two volleys.
Games are far from reality, but they are not fundamentally divorced from it. Can the AK-47 be legendary only because of these two qualities? Of course not. I think the most important reason for its popularity is its simple design, ease of assembly and the fact that even an ordinary person can use it after a quick training. The Kalashnikov assault rifle is not so simple in design, but all the necessary spare parts are easy to manufacture. Most of the parts are manufactured using stamping technology, which allows it to be mass-produced and assembled in the shortest possible time. Soon after the creation of the AK-47, many small workshops for its production appeared around the world. The reason is that Kalashnikov, the creator of the machine gun, did not apply for a patent, so small workshops did not have to pay patent fees, they just had to copy the technology. This led to a sharp drop in prices for the AK-47, which means that the original manufacturer, Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant, suffered great losses. At the very beginning, many people made a lot of money on the AK-47, and the price of the gun at that time ranged between 300 and 800 dollars.
Later, when copies of the machine came to the market, the management of the Izhevsk plant quickly lowered the price to 150-300 dollars apiece. But it was still higher than the price of illegal copies, because they cost only a dozen dollars. Some experts have made calculations and made a very shocking conclusion that at least 100 million AK-47 automatic rifles have been sold in the world at the moment, of which only 10 million are original machine guns, and the rest are "pirated" goods. Izhevsk manufacturing plant struggled with counterfeit products for a long time and eventually, having existed until 2012, declared bankruptcy. After World War II, countries spent a lot of money on weapons, so the cheap and easy-to-use AK-47 quickly became the most popular firearm. <...> The AK-47 also has the terrifying title of a weapon of mass destruction. Since its creation, at least 10 million people could have died under bullets — a terrifying figure.
Having said so many words about the advantages, let's talk about the disadvantages of the AK-47. Most often, its "users" complain about accuracy. In fact, this is his main problem. Later, during the modernization, the military tried to solve this issue, but accuracy still remains the main flaw of the AK-47. Why is the sight of the Kalashnikov rifle so bad? The reason lies in its design.
Butts for assault rifles are of two types: straight and inclined. As the name implies, the design of a straight butt is that the barrel and butt are located on the same line so that the recoil created by the shots does not make the muzzle of the weapon bounce when firing. Simply put, the recoil is not that big, so it's easy to aim from such a firearm. And the inclined butt has a certain angle between the barrel and the butt, which is why the muzzle twitches seriously when fired, and it is not very convenient for the shooter to aim and control the recoil. The AK-47 just uses the second type. Although there are no problems with aiming during a single shot, when switching to the firing mode with a burst, the recoil force is too great and the accuracy cannot be controlled even with an optical sight. Some will ask: then why didn't the AK-47 use a straight butt? Of course, the designers thought about it. Later, the military improved the AK-47 and created an AKM (7.62 mm Kalashnikov assault rifle upgraded) on its basis. Although his butt is a little straighter than the AK-47, but the recoil still remained great. Since the muzzle shifts to the right and up when fired, the designers have specially developed a muzzle brake — a device that is mounted on a thread to balance the muzzle and increase shooting accuracy. This thing is also called a muzzle compensator. Do you think it worked? He really helped in controlling the shooting from an unstable position, but the actual effect was not too great.
In addition to accuracy, the weight of the AK-47 body is also a problem. The machine without cartridges weighs 4.3 kilograms. With the addition of the store, its weight increases to 6.5 kilograms. On the battlefield, such a load is a great test of the physical training of soldiers. In addition, the AK-47 takes only three seconds to empty a 30-round magazine in burst firing mode. Although the firepower is great, but for the military bullets are always a big question. Often they have only 20 magazines, designed for 600 shots, and even taking into account the reload time, it takes only 15 minutes to finish firing. So excessive rate of fire is another drawback of the Kalashnikov assault rifle. Some countries have even developed a special 100-round magazine for the AK-47. In fact, if you add a three-round firing mode to the firing mode of the machine gun, it would probably fix many shortcomings. At least it would help to control the accuracy. But, unfortunately, there is no such thing.
However, be that as it may, the disadvantages of the AK-47 are not so striking in comparison with its many advantages — after all, this assault rifle, cheap, durable, with a low percentage of breakdowns, safe and reliable, adapts well to the environment. It is these advantages that make the Kalashnikov assault rifle the most popular firearm in the world, firmly securing it in place of the "king of machine guns".