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To: archy; templar
From what I recall, the ability to be manufactured cheaply under Third World conditions was a deliberate design feature of the AK series, in that the Russians wanted to be able to keep making them even if war had demolished most of their higher-tech manufacturing facilities. There was no need for it to be all that accurate, because their riflemen would be marginally-trained conscripts. Anybody who actually had any marksmanship ability would be issued a Draganov
33 posted on 03/04/2004 2:36:21 PM PST by SauronOfMordor (No anchovies!)
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To: SauronOfMordor
From what I recall, the ability to be manufactured cheaply under Third World conditions was a deliberate design feature of the AK series, in that the Russians wanted to be able to keep making them even if war had demolished most of their higher-tech manufacturing facilities. There was no need for it to be all that accurate, because their riflemen would be marginally-trained conscripts. Anybody who actually had any marksmanship ability would be issued a Draganov

Pretty much, though considerations for suppressed weapons, such support weapons as the RPD and followon RPK, and the use of obsolete/obscelescent or captured equipment have also been a hallmark of first Soviet military planning, and now Russian.

So long as the supplies of SVD/ Dragonov rifles lasts, and more particularly, their optical equipment, then they'd be issued as you describe; following that the older gear and substitutes come out, or captured equipment gets used. Most people don't realize that the Russians equipped entire divisions with captured German equipment during WWII- that was one little item their propaganda machine didn't glorify- as well as the Lend-Lease material sent to them from the US and elsewhere.

There's a line of thought that it's actually easier to manufacture an AKM that to bring one out of the well-pickled preservation packing process the Eastern Europeans use, and that's almost certainly true of the cheaper versions of the Sten gun, whose 7 issued magazines cost more to manufacture than the guns themselves, as little as $9.00 each in some late war versions.

39 posted on 03/04/2004 3:40:12 PM PST by archy (Concrete shoes, cyanide, TNT! Done dirt cheap! Neckties, contracts, high voltage...Done dirt cheap!)
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