AKM

The AKM (Avtomat Kalashnikova modernizirovannyy, "modernized Kalashnikov assault rifle") was introduced in 1959 as a lighter, cheaper successor to the AK-47. Designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov, it replaced the AK-47's machined steel receiver with a U-shaped stamping riveted to forward and rear trunnions, a change that had defeated Soviet industry a decade earlier when the first stamped AK receivers proved impossible to produce reliably. The result cut roughly 1 kg from the weapon, improved accuracy in automatic fire and simplified mass production. Soviet manufacture at Izhmash and the Tula Arms Plant ran from 1959 to 1977, with some 10.3 million rifles built; licensed and unlicensed production continues elsewhere. The AKM became the most widely produced member of the Kalashnikov family and the standard service rifle of the Soviet Army and Warsaw Pact states until the AK-74 displaced it in front-line units during the 1970s.

The AKM is a selective-fire, gas-operated rifle chambered for the 7.62x39mm intermediate cartridge, using a long-stroke gas piston permanently attached to the bolt carrier and a rotating bolt locking into the barrel extension. Cyclic rate is around 600 rounds per minute. The barrel retains the chrome-lined bore of the AK-47 with four right-hand grooves at a 240 mm twist rate, but is pinned into the forward trunnion rather than screwed into a one-piece receiver. Most AKMs carry a slant-cut muzzle compensator that redirects propellant gases upward and to the right to counter muzzle rise during bursts. Furniture is birch plywood laminate; the buttstock is hollowed to save weight and houses the cleaning kit. The rear tangent sight is graduated from 100 to 1,000 m over a 378 mm sight radius, and the rifle feeds from 30-round curved box magazines, with 40-round magazines and 75-round RPK drums also compatible.

Principal variants include:

• The AKMS, with an under-folding steel stock and a reinforcement plate beneath the pistol grip

• The AKMP, fitted with tritium-illuminated iron sights for low-light shooting

• The AKML and AKMN, with a receiver-mounted side rail for night vision sights, a slotted flash suppressor and an optional bipod

• The AKMSN and AKMSNP, folding-stock equivalents of the night-sight models

Foreign production was extensive. Romania built the PM md. 63 (exported as the AIM), Hungary the AK-63, East Germany the MPi-KM and MPi-KMS-72, Egypt the Maadi, and North Korea the Type 68. Poland developed a handguard variant to mount the wz. 1974 Pallad grenade launcher, and Vietnam's Z111 Factory has rebuilt service rifles as the STL-1A and STL-1B.

The AKM remains in service across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and the former Soviet Union, in many armies alongside or in place of more modern rifles. It has been used in the Vietnam War, the Soviet-Afghan War, the Iran-Iraq War, the Yugoslav Wars, the Iraq War, the Syrian civil war and the Russo-Ukrainian War, and is one of the most widely circulated weapons in the illicit arms trade. Russia and Ukraine both retain stocks in secondary and reserve roles, valued for the heavier 7.62x39mm round's ability to penetrate cover in urban fighting.