AK 47s Replacement AN 94! ! ! (vid @ bottom)

[Roach]

The AN-94 (sometimes called the "Abakan") is an advanced Russian assault rifle. The initials stand for Avtomat Nikonova (after chief designer Gennadiy Nikonov) Model of 1994.

The Russian Government formally declared the AN-94 to be the successor and replacement to the Kalashnikov series of rifles following the Project Abakan

advanced assault rifle trials in the USSR throughout the 1980s.

Gennadiy Nikonov's system reportedly outperformed its many remarkable

rivals significantly, proving better than the AEK-971 and the AKB-1 (predecessor of the AK-107). The Nikonov AN-94 was commissioned for general issue to the Soviet

(now Russian) armed forces, with mass production scheduled at the

traditional home of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, the historic Izhmash state factories.

The stated great advantage of the AN-94 system is its ability to

delay the recoil force until the fired round/s have left the barrel,

much like the AO-62. This, it is claimed, enables more 'hits' on target under the most adverse combat conditions.

The AN-94 offers a unique two-shot burst function at a stated 1800

rounds per minute rate of fire. The Nikonov mechanism fires the second

shot in the burst fast enough that it escapes before the recoil of the

first shot is felt, thus potentially allowing the two shots to hit the

same point, for example to aid in piercing body armour.

The most conspicuous identifying feature of the AN-94 is its magazine

which is canted several degrees to the right of center (when viewed

from a firing position). This is a necessary design function to

accommodate the unique ammunition feed mechanism. The AN-94 is chambered

in the same 5.45x39mm M74 cartridge as the AK-74, and it utilizes a rotating bolt to lock the action. Gennadiy Nikonov and his engineers used the Russian term смещенный импульс свободного затвора (smeshchonnyy impuls svobodnovo zatvora) to describe the rifle's method of operation, meaning "blowback shifted pulse."

When a round is fired, residual energy from the propellant charge in

the cartridge acts upon the safely locked breech and bolt carrier.

Simultaneously, a quantity of powder gases driving the bullet through

the barrel is tapped and acts upon the piston in the gas tube located

above and parallel to the barrel. The movement of the piston and its

connecting rod acts upon the locking bolt, causing it to rotate and

allow the breech to safely open. This initiates the extraction and

ejection cycle for the spent round of ammunition.

Unique to the AN-94, the barrel, gas tube, receiver, and bolt carrier

all exist as a single component group moving back and forth along an

axis parallel to the bore, suspended within what the Russian

manufacturers call an Effect-Envelopethe external composite

fibre/polymer stock. Simply, this function separates the events inside

the rifle from what the person operating the weapon actually experiences

(i.e. low recoil).

The motion described is also employed by design to drive the unique

rotary conveyor mechanism that performs the separate ammunition

pre-feeding cycle that is key to the extremely rapid two round burst

function that defines the AN-94 system. This high rate of fire (1,800

rounds/min) also offers two initial shots on selected fully automatic

fire, with following rounds cycling down to 600 rounds/min. This offers

the operator the unique tactical advantage of trigger-controlled fire

selection.

 

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c52_1319814147

 

I wonder if they'll chamber it for 7.62 ?

Edited October 28, 2011 by Roach