Ubiquity and fault tolerance.
The weapon is everywhere in the world and can fire under conditions that many rifles would not operate under.
It is not terribly accurate, but lots of people have died from them.
/johnny
“It is not terribly accurate, but lots of people have died from them.”
I recall reading an article in Soldier of Fortune magazine years ago about “rebels” in what was then Rhodesia and their use of the AK. The Rhodesian troops were always wondering why the rebels’ AK’s had a high rate of malfunctions during firefights and why they were so “inaccurate”.
Further investigation revealed that the rebels were using their AK’s as a makeshift stool resting the end of the magazine on the ground. That could not have been good for the reliability of the mag. When they examined captured AK’s they found that all of the rear sights were adjusted to the 900m setting. Seems some witch doctor had told these Einsteins that setting the sights like this would make the weapon more powerful.
No wonder Zimbabwe is in the shape its in.
I read a fascinating evaluation of the AK-47 by a USMC Major who was doing solitary duty somewhere in the horn of Africa (from the book “Imperial Grunts”) where he contrasted an AK47 and an M16.
In his demonstration to the author, he showed an M-16...now a good, reliable weapon, accurate and well maintained, made to conserve ammunition, and as he shot a magazine, he pressed a button, and the magazine smoothly ejected into the dirt and he was able to slap another one in effortlessly and continue shooting.
When he shot the AK47, he showed how comparatively inaccurate the weapon was, but stressed the advantage that it had when it came to being used by untrained personnel in bad conditions, where it could be used even when covered with grime and not being cleaned for extended periods of time. When he needed to change the magazine, he had to grasp the magazine and pull it out.
He said this was because the gun was made cheaply, to spray bullets, and to the regimes using it, the cost of losing magazines by dropping them into the dirt was considered more of a problem than losing the life of the person shooting the weapon who might not be able to change out a magazine as swiftly.
I thought that was an unusual and interesting analysis.
They say more people have died by AK’s than any other weapon known to man. I don’t. I would think swords would be up there but it might be true.
After watching the Czechs shoot theirs in a competition with my guys, we came to the conclusion that at 100m, if you stand still, you’re safe.
Part of the point was, if you get closer, accuracy (in terms of absolute miss distance) improves. When you are attacking, you fire gets more effective with the AK as you approach your objective.
Soviets emphasized offensive action in battle, and didn’t mind friendly casualties all that much. (lost 14.5 million military deaths in WWII, that includes over a million 2nd lieutenants)