NATO AK's, Romania's new AK

Last summer I have seen a company of soldiers marching through Timisoara; that is when I've first seen the new AK's with the reshaped 30 round clip, which seems to resemble the AK-74M one, except it was not the ugly red plastic, but the black steel ones. ThThe rifle also had the large AK-74 muzzle break attached.
There are plenty of pictures of these guns on the internet.
My big question is: is this weapon in 5.56x45(.223) or in the Russian 5.45x39?

They were in 5.45x39, I think that because there are big quantities of 5.45x39 and 7,62x39 the change to 5.56x45 is not rentable at this point but I think when the AK 74 will worn out the new weapon will be in the 5.56x45.

Also I have heard the there was an intention to introduce the 7.62x39 or 5.45x39 as NATO assault rifle cartridge along with the 5.56x45 because there are many eastern countries using it.

The plastic magazine is used to reduce the weight.

Sorry to post so late on this issue, but I became aware of this forum only three days ago.


Well, it’s not a 5.56 version of the less known (lesser then the ’47) AK 74 nor the original one.
It’s a Romanian made upgrade of it (a slightly forced expression).
About the 5.45 romanian assault rifle used by the Romanian Army.
First, it's not a genuine AK 74.
It’s an improved version of it, only seen in service with the Romanian Army. The improvements are 100% romanian origin. The differences (more exactly the improvements) are:
- side folding stock (steel made), off-set to the right, easier to bare when stock folded and a more comfortable shoulder position when fired (stock unfolded) ;
- different muzzle brake ( longer and thinner ), with off-set exhaust side holes , hence a smaller recoil and lesser barrel deviance when fired.
- lower handguard with foregrip built in, resulting in better control of the weapon in automatic mode ( except the case of those fitted with grenade launcher);
- last but not least, and, by far, the most important characteristic of these assault rifles, not seen on any other AK 74 model or foreign manufactured clone of it, is the three round fire mode (burst). Easier to understand, it could be fired in three modes: semi (single shot), auto (automatic fire) and burst (three rounds), when the original AK 74 has only the first two of them.
General evaluation:
Pros:
- a better assault rifle then the genuine one, due to folding stock, foregrip and the extra fire mode (burst);
- it keeps the well known and most appreciated AK design characteristics- reliability and easiness in maintenance;
- it’s domestic made (and the ammo also), hence no foreign currency spent buying it and the certainty of having it available even in the worst case scenario (war times), situation when a foreign made assault rifle would be out of rich.
Cons:
- it keeps the less precise AK sighting system , hence less accuracy.

About the plastic magazines :
- you won’t see even one of them used by the Romanian Army- those in use are steel made (stamped steel). Maybe you’ll find some used by the Ministry of Interior or other services (like SPP, SRI, etc-but I doubt about that, it’s an assault rifle, not a submachine gun, a weapon of choice among them).

About the 5.45 mm cartridge:
In my opinion it’s better than its NATO counterpart, the 5.56, for its better ballistic and fatality potential (higher due to its slender shape, hence the “thumbling behavior” inside soft tissue after impact).

I often get the chance to train different nationalities of soldiers, and recently, I've seen Polish AKs equipped with sight rails and EOTech sights. As the Romanian-built AKs in the US come equipped with a side-mount for sight rails, do the Romanian forces intend to incorporate these?


We had Romanian troops here in December, but I didn't get a chance to play with their weapons.

The Pm md. 86 (Romanian modified AK 74) with side rails, in Romanian Army service, is an exception, being issued in small amounts, mainly to Army personnel deployed abroad and some mountain troops.
The side rail is bolted, not attached to a rail mount.
It’s purpose is to fit an optic sight device, not a scope (for an assault rifle, regarding the usual combat distance, maximum 300 meters, a scope would be unproductive).
As far as I know, there is no intention to introduce side rail fitted Pm’s as a standard weapon in the Romanian Army. In my opinion it’s a lost opportunity, sighting system being from the beginning the main drawback regarding AK assault rifles, not to say a major one when come in discussion a design as good as the one mentioned in this thread, losing points on it’s main advantage-the superior ballistic of the 5.45 mm cartridge.

The bullpup version presented to Expomil

Wow Nogras, the information about the Romanian Pm Md 86 is awesome.

I would however like to ask if the Romanians are using the 5.56 at any large scale; has it been introduced into service yet, or it's just for export or show?

Two things about that bullpup. 1. Without an optical sight, that has to be worthless. It has a pistol-length sight radius way too high above the barrel to be useful. But with an optical sight (non-magnified) that might be "interesting".

2. I've heard the trigger on those are awful. The linkage from trigger to hammer release is too long and flexible to be useful. I've not shot one, though....

And one more thing: changing magazines on that must be very inefficient. And it could use an adjustable buttstock to accomodate body armor, too.

This post has been edited by 120mm on March 02, 2007 10:44 am