AK-15 Russian 5.45mm Assault Rifle

The AK-15 is a new Russian assault rifle. It was developed under the Ratnik future infantrymen programme. This weapon was first publicly revealed in 2016. The AK-15 is mainly aimed at elite units of the Russian military and law enforcement forces, as well as possible export customers. It is planned that the AK-15 will replace in production an AK-103 assault rifle. The AK-15 is essentially a version of the AK-12, chambered for a 7.62x39 mm ammunition. This ammunition has superior penetration and stopping power comparing with the Soviet 5.45x39 mm ammunition, or standard NATO 5.56x45 mm ammunition. The 7.62x39 mm ammunition is still used by the Russian military and law enforcement forces and is widely used around the world. Some operators prefer this caliber. There were also plans to chamber the AK-15 for a standard NATO 7.62x51 mm ammunition. Also the new weapon is better balanced and has improved ergonomics. The AK-15 is a gas operated, selective fire weapon. Internally it follows the lines of the traditional Kalashnikov design. Several changes were made to the gas tube, foregrip, magazine well. It looks like this weapon has got a new barrel. It is expected to be simple, rugged and reliable weapon as its predecessors. However it is not a cutting-edge weapon in any way. The AK-15 has a cyclic rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute, which is 50 rounds faster than that of the AK-74M. A combined safety / fire mode selector lever is similar to that used on the AK-74 and earlier Kalashnikov assault rifles. It has three positions for "safe", "semi-automatic", and "fully-automatic". However it uncomfortable to use and is not ambidextrous. Early prototypes of the AK-12 assault rifle had a new ambidextrous safety / fire mode selector switch, that could be operated by a thumb. However for some reason on later prototypes this arrangement was dropped in favor to traditional simple, reliable, but awkward fire mode selector. This weapon is fed from 30-round capacity magazines. It is compatible with the standard 30-round magazines, of AK-103 and AKM, as well as 40-round box and 75-round drum magazines of the RPK light machine gun. This assault rifle has a telescopic buttstock, which resembles that of the US M4 carbine. The buttstock can be adjusted for length. A new pistol grip is ergonomically-shaped. This Russian assault rifle comes as standard with simple iron sights. It also has a full-length Picatinny-type scope rail and can mount various scopes, red dot sights and night vision sights. Range of effective fire is around 500 meters. Maximum range is 800 meters. Even though the AK-15 has improved accuracy over the AKM and AK-103, it is not as accurate as the latest Western assault rifles. The AK-15 has an accessory rail on the foregrip and can mount vertical foregrip, tactical flashlight, laser pointer or other accessories. The assault rifle can also mount a knife-bayonet, silencer or GP-25/GP-34 40 mm underbarrel grenade launcher. The AK-15 was revealed alongside some other Russian weapons, developed by Kalashnikov Concer, such as a new compact assault rifle, that is a proposed replacement for the AKS-74U and RPK-16 light machine gun, a proposed replacement for the RPK-74 light machine gun.