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AKM

Last Updated on Tuesday, 21 July 2009 15:35 Written by Administrator Thursday, 02 July 2009 16:30

The AKM is an upgraded version of the AK-47. It was designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in the 1950s and was adopted by the Red Army in 1959. The AKM is one of most widely used assault rifles. Many Warsaw Pact countries and other countries in Asia and Africa field the AKM rifle. The rifle is manufactured at Izhevsk Mechanical Works and Tula Arsenal.

When compared with the AK-47, the AKM has several enhancements. The AK-47 has a stamped steel receiver which makes it very cheap to manufacture. However, this creates reliability problems. To answer this problem, prototypes were created with machined received. However this made production costs higher and so it was decided to switch back to stamped steel receivers albeit with higher quality requirements. This resulted in the AKM.

In addition, the AKM also had a redesigned muzzle that acts a crude muzzle brake. Some of the escaping gas is deflected upwards which stabilizes the gun during fire. The AKM is designed to fire the same round as the AK-47—the 7.62x39mm.

The AKM can be distinguished easily from the AK-47 by a recess above the magazine housing.