AK-74
Sign in to saveThe AK-74 () is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974 as a successor to the AKM. It is chambered for the 5.45×39mm cartridge, which replaced the 7.62×39mm cartridge of Kalashnikov's earlier automatic weapons for the Soviet Armed Forces.
AI overview
The AK-74 is an assault rifle designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974 to replace the earlier AKM model in the Soviet military. It fires a smaller, different type of bullet (5.45×39mm instead of 7.62×39mm) than Kalashnikov's previous weapons.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Weapon.wars
- Soviet–Afghan War Lebanese Civil War Kurdish-Turkish conflict (1978–present) Lord's Resistance Army insurgency Sri Lankan Civil War Afghan Civil War (1989–1992) Persian Gulf War Yugoslav Wars Croatian War of Independence Georgian Civil War Transnistria War Afghan Civil War (1992–1996) Tajikistani Civil War East Prigorodny Conflict The Troubles Burundian Civil War First Chechen War Batken Conflict Second Chechen War War in Afghanistan Iraq War Russo-Georgian War Insurgency in the North Caucasus First Libyan Civil War Russo-Ukrainian War War in Donbas Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present) Syrian Civil War War in Iraq Yemeni Civil War Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen Saudi Arabian–Yemeni border conflict 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Islamic State insurgency in the North Caucasus Second Nagorno-Karabakh War 2021 Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan clashes 2022 Kyrgyzstan–Tajikistan clashes 2023 Azerbaijani offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh
- Weapon.designer
- Mikhail Kalashnikov
- Weapon.number
- 5,000,000+
- Weapon.width
- AK-74M:
- Weapon.height
- AK-74M:
- Weapon.action
- Gas-operated, long-stroke piston, closed rotating bolt
- Weapon.image_size
- 300
- Weapon.origin
- Soviet Union
- Weapon.is_ranged
Article
34 sectionsContents
- Design details
- Operating mechanism
- Barrel
- Sights
- Iron sights
- Optical sights
- New features
- 5.45×39mm cartridge
- Magazines
- Accessories
- Variants
- AKS-74
- AK-74M
- AK-74M Obves - UUK (Universal Upgrade Kit)
- AKS-74U
- AKS-74UB
- Foreign production
- Azerbaijian
- Bulgaria
- Romania
- North Korea
- East Germany
- Post AK-74M developments and successors
- AK-100 series
- AK-200 series
- AK-12
- Users
- Former users
- States with limited recognition
- Non-state users
- See also
- Notes
- References
- External links
The AK-74 () is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974 as a successor to the AKM. It is chambered for the 5.45×39mm cartridge, which replaced the 7.62×39mm cartridge of Kalashnikov's earlier automatic weapons for the Soviet Armed Forces.
The rifle first saw service with Soviet forces in the Soviet–Afghan War from 1979. The head of the Afghan bureau of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the intelligence agency of Pakistan, claimed that the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) paid $5,000 for the first AK-74 captured by the Afghan mujahideen during the war.