The AN94 "Abakan"

Hi !

Today I'm going to tell you about AN94 "Abakan"

History of project:

At the Beginning of -80s Gławnoje Rakietno-Artilerijskoje Uprawlenjie of USSR's ministry of defence announced a contest for a new assault rifle, that would replace the old, good AK74. This contest was called "Project Abakan". Weapon designers had to double their rifle effectivnes in battle. Constructors were working on it for about 10 years. There were a lot of prototypes but only few were worth attention. First secret field tests took place in 1987. In 1993 the contest had been finished , and "Awtomat Nikonowa" also know as AN94 won it. In 1994 "IZHMASH" had orders to prepare for the serial production of this rifle of the future.

Some techincal stuff:

Types of fire : Semi ,Series of 2 shots , Automatic

Shots per minute: 1800 (Series) , 600 (automatic)

Weight: 3,85 kg

Lenght: 943mm (With extended stock) , 728mm (Stock folded)

Round caliber : 5,45x39mm

Magazines capacity: 30 rounds , 45 rounds , 60 rounds

Technical issues:

Difficult to use

If you want to clean it up you have to divide it into 13 parts , instead of 6 (AK74)

The production process was much longer than AK74

Training in use of AN94 was much longer than  AK74

Even SPECNAZ (Russian spec-ops) operators said that AN94 is just a good toy , but they will never go on the mission with it , but with AK74 for sure !

The production of AN94 has ended up in 2005 , but it's used by some military formations to this day.

And while I was editing this post , I found pretty interesting clip on youtube , so here it is :

I think it;s enough for today.

See you in my next post !

//The Typical Loner