IndianTiger
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Chebarkul, Russia: Russia has
abandoned new purchases of
its popular AK-74 automatic
rifle, its top general said on
Tuesday, dismantling another
symbol of Soviet military might as the army pushes
through painful reforms. Russia plans on spending some
20 trillion roubles ($617 billion)
by 2020 in order to modernize
its armed forces, refurbishing
its armaments with new guns
and rockets, submarines and aircraft. Based on the more prevalent
AK-47, the AK-74 was used
by servicemen in the Soviet
Union's decade-long war in
Afghanistan, which killed
15,000 Soviet troops fighting mujahideen insurgents before
Moscow's dispirited exit in
1989. The AK-74, designed in the
early 1970s by Mikhail
Kalashnikov, is still in use in
Russia and many other
former Soviet countries. "We are designing new
firearms, and we currently
have 10 million Kalashnikovs
for our army of one million
servicemen," said General
Nikolai Makarov, chief of the armed forces general staff. "So the reserves we have will
be more or less enough," he
told Reuters in Chebarkul,
some 1,700 km (1,000 miles)
east of Moscow where the
Russian military was carrying out exercises. Russia is the world's second
largest arms exporter,
supplying post-Soviet allies
and markets that shy away
from the US domination of
the defense market. But weapon design has slid
into decline since the fall of
the Soviet Union due to lack
of funding, corruption and
neglect. Now arms makers have been
charged with redesigning the
country's portfolio, and
weapons firm Izhmash will
try to present Russia's armed
forces with a new machine gun by the end of this year,
Izvestiya newspaper
reported. Makarov told Izvestiya on
Tuesday that there were no
Russian orders for the AK-74
in 2011 and that none were
planned in the coming years. Mikhail Kalashnikov, 91, was
honored as a Hero of Russia
by President Dmitry
Medvedev on his 90th
birthday for the creation of
what has been termed the most dangerous weapon in
the world, based on the sheer
numbers of deaths.
abandoned new purchases of
its popular AK-74 automatic
rifle, its top general said on
Tuesday, dismantling another
symbol of Soviet military might as the army pushes
through painful reforms. Russia plans on spending some
20 trillion roubles ($617 billion)
by 2020 in order to modernize
its armed forces, refurbishing
its armaments with new guns
and rockets, submarines and aircraft. Based on the more prevalent
AK-47, the AK-74 was used
by servicemen in the Soviet
Union's decade-long war in
Afghanistan, which killed
15,000 Soviet troops fighting mujahideen insurgents before
Moscow's dispirited exit in
1989. The AK-74, designed in the
early 1970s by Mikhail
Kalashnikov, is still in use in
Russia and many other
former Soviet countries. "We are designing new
firearms, and we currently
have 10 million Kalashnikovs
for our army of one million
servicemen," said General
Nikolai Makarov, chief of the armed forces general staff. "So the reserves we have will
be more or less enough," he
told Reuters in Chebarkul,
some 1,700 km (1,000 miles)
east of Moscow where the
Russian military was carrying out exercises. Russia is the world's second
largest arms exporter,
supplying post-Soviet allies
and markets that shy away
from the US domination of
the defense market. But weapon design has slid
into decline since the fall of
the Soviet Union due to lack
of funding, corruption and
neglect. Now arms makers have been
charged with redesigning the
country's portfolio, and
weapons firm Izhmash will
try to present Russia's armed
forces with a new machine gun by the end of this year,
Izvestiya newspaper
reported. Makarov told Izvestiya on
Tuesday that there were no
Russian orders for the AK-74
in 2011 and that none were
planned in the coming years. Mikhail Kalashnikov, 91, was
honored as a Hero of Russia
by President Dmitry
Medvedev on his 90th
birthday for the creation of
what has been termed the most dangerous weapon in
the world, based on the sheer
numbers of deaths.
