Russia RPK- 16

What fills the fire gap between automatic rifles and heavy machine guns? Light machine gun?

When it comes to light machine guns, we must always consider their uses. As far as the Soviet Union and Russia are concerned, their strategic thinking is offensive. From 1944, the Soviet Red Army mainly carried out offensive operations. To this end, infantry need light machine guns. The tried and tested DP-27 light machine gun (pictured) is not designed for this purpose, and it is not modern enough.

Therefore, we have just developed a brand-new light machine gun based on the newly finalized M43(7.62×39mm) medium-power ammunition, which has enough lethality and accuracy within the range of 800 meters. The winner is Jaygalev RD-44. After a small-scale test and trial by the army, the weapon was installed in the Soviet army under the name of "Jagalev Portable Machine Gun (RPD)" and became the main support firepower of the Soviet infantry unit.

In 1960s, the more advanced Kalashnikov light machine gun (RPK) and AKM replaced the shortage of digging together, which were called RPD and AK-47. Nevertheless, RPD remained in the Soviet reserve force. On the other hand, RPK series light machine guns have been equipped in many countries, including the Soviet Union, for a long time, and the reserve forces of many countries are still equipped with such light machine guns.

However, according to the actual combat experience gained by the armies and police of various countries in the war on terrorism, they need some new weapons. The best choice of "assault machine gun" is suitable for close range, street fighting and house fighting, providing fire support for assault troops or directly exchanging fire with snipers. This requires light weight, small volume, high firing rate and relatively strong ammunition power. At the beginning of 20 10, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs formulated the specifications of this assault machine gun, and finally chose the caliber of 5.45× 39 mm. At that time, Russia was equipped with RPK-74 light machine gun.

As the Russian Ministry of Defence also plans to develop a new class machine gun to replace RPK-74, which is part of the "Ratnik" project, it is decided to combine these two projects to develop a light machine gun with two kinds of barrels. The squad machine guns equipped by the army are equipped with standard length barrels, and the assault machine guns equipped by the police use short barrels. On the basis of AK- 12 rifle, Kalashnikov Group developed RPK- 16 light machine gun. This is the design of the gun, which is different from the regular equipment model. 20 1 1 The Russian Ministry of Interior announced the tender for "Toka", that is, an assault light machine gun with variable firing rate. When a long barrel is needed, the length of the gun is 900 mm; When a short barrel is needed, the length of the gun is 700mm and the empty gun weighs 6.5 kg. The new 60-round and 90-round magazines and standard magazines are used for ammunition supply. In order to adapt to various combat environments, it is planned to adopt two firing rates, the low firing rate is 550-650 rounds per minute and the high firing rate is 900- 1000 rounds. In 20 13, only Jaeger Galev factory in Kovrov provided the sample gun, but the test failed.

The bidding for Warrior 2 starts at 20 16. The biggest difference is the ammunition supply system: you can use 60 magazines, 100 magazines or 250 magazines. Jaeger-Galev factory participates again. Surprisingly, Kalashnikov Group is also interested in this, and Molot Factory seems to be interested, but it has not submitted a sample gun. In the end, Kalashnikov's RPK- 16 won the bid, and 16 means that the research and development started from 20 16. After testing, RPK- 16 started small-scale testing on February 20 19. In addition, it is also provided to Moscow Senior Military Command School and special forces.

Although it is based on AK- 12 rifle, RPK- 16 is more toxic and has a longer effective range. The long-stroke automatic mode of double locking tenon bolt machine and piston has not changed. Because most parts of RPK- 16 light machine gun and AK- 12 are common, any soldier who has received Kalashnikov rifle training can use this light machine gun immediately. Compared with the previous generation RPK-74, the barrel of RPK- 16 is not only thicker, but also replaceable. The bucket can be taken out or locked by operating the tenon on the side of the shell. However, this design can not meet the requirement of quick replacement to keep the barrel cool.

The two barrels are 370mm and 550mm respectively. The short tube can be used in urban warfare, and the long tube can be used in open areas. Another advantage is that soldiers can directly replace worn or damaged barrels without returning machine guns to the factory for repair. RPK- 16 is equipped with slotted muzzle device, which is mainly used to suppress flame rather than brake, and can quickly * * * * * *. Compared with AK- 12, the gearbox of RPK- 16 is stronger and bigger, and the gearbox cover has been redesigned with a thickness of 1.5mm and a fixing device.

The designer seems to have given up the conventional stock specially designed for light machine gun bipod prone shooting, which seems to be a noteworthy change. RPK- 16, like AK- 12, adopts a four-speed telescopic stock, which can be folded to the left side of the case. It is a part of the upgrade kit of KM-AK (6TSC63) Kalashnikov, and it belongs to the research and development achievement of "Obwes" project of Russian Ministry of Defense. This kind of stock adopts AR- 15 stock style, which significantly improves the ergonomic shooting of firearms. Contrary to the general belief that weapons specially designed for war do not need adjustable stock, this is precisely the advantage of RPK- 16.

Because the shooter can adjust the length of the stock according to various situations (wearing light summer clothes, wearing heavy winter clothes and bulletproof vests requires different lengths of stock).

Because there is no extra space for cleaning tools in the stock, it is put in the small grip, which is ergonomically designed and has finger grooves on it. The picture shows AK- 12 civil TR3 rifle. Most parts of AK- 12 and RPK- 16 are interchangeable.

RPK- 16 has a full-length picatinny guide rail at the top of the cover and protective cover, which can be used to install various optical sights and accessories. Although RPK- 16 mainly uses an optical sight, an arc gauge is fixed at the rear of the chassis cover to adjust the wind direction deflection by illuminating the door through the keyhole.

The standard sight of RPK- 16 light machine gun is 1P86- 1 (as shown in the figure), and the magnification is 1-4 times, which can be used for accurate aiming and shooting. Therefore, RPK- 16 can play the role of "precision shooter rifle" with a range of less than 500 meters.

The quasi-constellation moves backward and is integrated on the wind guide hoop. There are universal interfaces on both sides of the wooden guard board, and picatinny guide rail fittings can be installed optionally. There is also a section of picatinny rail at the bottom, on which a biped can be installed. RPK- 16 can use the usual 30-round and 45-round magazines or the 95-round drum specially developed for it. This large-capacity drum can also be used for AK- 12. RPK- 16 is more reliable, simpler to operate and faster to load, because it does not use a complicated chain ammunition supply system.

Engineers of Kalashnikov Group did not use the bullet chain ammunition supply system when designing the class light machine gun corresponding to FN Minimi, which means that some parts of AK- 12 rifles being installed by the Russian army can be used, thus achieving maximum versatility.

In fact, RPK- 16 is AK- 12, which is more suitable for continuous design. First of all, the Russian army attaches great importance to the universality of firearms, so that different types of firearms have the same design and operation methods, but some details are different. This simplifies the production, maintenance, repair and training of firearms.

Secondly, we can use various accessories developed by Kalashnikov Group for AK- 12, such as sights, drums, boxes, bipeds, gunstocks of vehicles and helicopters, and so on. If this level machine gun can adopt the basic design of AK- 12, then the related accessories can be used directly without improvement. However, it remains to be seen whether the 7.62×39mm RPK- 16 has a good international market.

Finally, a Russian company did not wait until RPK- 16 was equipped with Russian troops, but began to produce kits (pictured). It can transform AK- 12 air gun into RPK- 16, which shows confidence in this machine gun.