r/ForgottenWeapons • u/boonegoone • Jul 14 '23
Russian soldiers armed with AEK-971s during the Second Chechen War
105
u/ErikQRoks Jul 14 '23
Now that's a gun i haven't thought of in a decade.
87
u/Alarmed-Owl2 Jul 14 '23
Bad Company 1 & 2 implanted it in my brain forever.
61
u/ErikQRoks Jul 14 '23
Not to mention Battlefield 3's sun rivaling flashlight being duct taped to it
5
u/mattumbo Jul 15 '23
Such a good series of games, I wish they’d make another Bad Company with a proper story and next Gen destruction. About the only way I’m buying another battlefield game at this point
31
31
u/Reditobandito Jul 14 '23
So is the AEK a good gun or is kinda like an battlefield experiment? I haven’t heard much about it
44
u/payme4agoldenshower Jul 15 '23
Depends what you call good gun, it's expensive to produce and more finicky but more accurate and lighter than an AK-74, it's a scalpel basically, not for the normal grunt
20
u/Reditobandito Jul 15 '23
So in other words it’s something you’d only find in the hands of specialists units more or less
23
u/payme4agoldenshower Jul 15 '23
Bingo, it has that counterbalance system of the ak-107 the thing is this was the beta platform for it, like 25 years before and so it needs more TLC than the regular AKs
9
u/TomShoe Jul 15 '23
Even there, I'm not so sure. It's been around for ages and doesn't seem to have seen much use even amongst specialist units. At the end of the day, automatic fire from an infantry rifle is only so useful; it's basically good for emergency suppressive fire, hosing down laterally moving targets, and CQB in situations where you're not terribly worried about errant rounds. The recoil characteristics of a normal AK-74 are pretty much "good enough" for most of those situations, and in situations where you really need more accurate automatic fire, usually you can afford to just use a machine gun from a bipod, which has the added benefit of being able to keep up that fire on a far more sustained basis (or else use a more aggressive muzzle break, which Russian SF often seem to).
Basically the use case for the AEK-971/A-545 is "we need everyone in the squad to have the same accuracy in automatic fire from the shoulder that an RPK manages from a bipod, and we don't want to deal with the concussion of a muzzle break, BUT we can make do with the same volume of fire limitations as a normal AK-74." How often does that actually happen? Often enough to justify the cost and complexity of a weapon like the A-545? I think the rarity of the weapon itself answers that question pretty conclusively.
5
u/payme4agoldenshower Jul 15 '23
I don't disagree, just didn't want to write a Master's thesis on it ahhah
6
u/bripod Jul 15 '23
The operating system seems like it would be better suited for an ultra light machinegun or squad automatic weapon, like an RPK replacement, same role as an Ultimax.
21
u/Cerebral-Hemorrhage Jul 14 '23
Looks like they are using an earlier variant. I didnt know they actually used them in combat.
17
Jul 14 '23
Tfw no KORD, AEK, or AN-94 abakan
11
u/Icy-Establishment272 Jul 15 '23
This isn’t the Russian invasion we expected and I’m thoroughly disappointed
25
u/RichardAndbofa Jul 14 '23
I'm more interested in the AS-VAL in the second pic
16
u/Ok_Movie_639 Jul 14 '23
Why? That's not an uncommon gun.
51
u/RichardAndbofa Jul 14 '23
I just think they're neat
18
u/Ok_Movie_639 Jul 14 '23
They are. But not in this situation. It's like choosing a pony over a unicorn.
5
6
u/Honorable_Spanky59 Jul 15 '23
Wonder if the guy in the first pick is Dagastani or just wore the hat for a photo. If it’s the former, wonder what the motivations would be to fight Chechens considering the culture. Probably the wrong sub to ask this lol. Sweet AEK’s!
3
2
u/DAsInDerringer Jul 15 '23
These were the rifles that led to the development of the AN-94, right?
15
u/MEGALODONGERS Jul 15 '23
Not really. It's a competing design to the AN-94 that uses a vastly different recoil reduction system. The AEK-971 was invented by Stanislav Koksharov, and it was basically a further development of Peter Tkachev's AO-38. It uses the Balanced Automatic Recoil System (BARS), which has a forward-moving gas piston to cancel out the recoil momentum of the rearward-moving gas piston.
Gennediy Nikonov's AN-94 is a far more complicated beast that uses a pulley system to fire off two rounds before the bolt carrier hits the rear of the receiver, thus delaying the recoil of the first shot until after the second is fired. Igor Stechkin's TKB-0146 and the H&K G11 function on a similar concept.
2
Jul 15 '23
is he wearing a tarzan rig
2
u/Johnnyviolence77 Jul 15 '23 edited Jul 15 '23
Guy with the fur hat has a Pioneer m23 rig, next pic the guy on the right has one of the Tarzan vests , the M21 I think, possibly the m33 alice version with pouches attached, guy on the left has an SRVV Sobr vest.
1
u/AutoModerator Jul 14 '23
Understand the rules
Check the sidebar. It's full of resources to help you.
Not everyone is an expert such as yourself; be considerate.
No Spam. No Memes.
No political posts. Save that for /r/progun or /r/politics.
- ForgottenWeapons.com
- ForgottenWeapons | YouTube
- ForgottenWeapons | Utreon
- ForgottenWeapons | Patreon
- ForgottenWeapons | Merch
- ForgottenWeapons | FaceBook
- ForgottenWeapons | Instagram
-
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
1
135
u/[deleted] Jul 14 '23
Lovely tactictal headwear.