vampyr bhau what surprised me most is, porkshitstainis literally inducted chinese AKs and SKSes much earlier than us, as evident from '71 war surrender photos and videos, they laid it down in surrender grounds...meanwhile for us Kalashnikov pattern rifles remained a 'special forces' thing for most part till at least IPKF things - so they're much more experienced with the platform and also locally manufacture Type-56 there, AND YET they're going after a belarussian AK/RPK fork just to match our AK-203i here?
a reminder, they even predated us for good 10 years at least when it comes to upgrading existing AK stocks with aftermarket parts kits, i mean i remember seeing their upgraded Type-56s with top rails and railed handguards and front grip and bipod grips and all things back in 2010 times of Pee Dee Eff while our guys only got it in 2015 onwards at least
there are some other things that kinda amuses me, like, aren't these porkshitstainis churning out Kalashnikov copies in calibres that perhaps even russians themselves didn't make at their side in sweatshops of khyber ghat? ranging from 7.62x25mm to .222, 7.62 NATO / .308, even .30-06 and 12-gauge Saiga analogues - and YET...
then they also have churned out H&K's roller delayed blowback system aka G3/MP5 forks in lots of different calibres (some of them were made by H&K guys themselves but didn't see success) and configurations - including in 7.62x39mm (CW-39); they literally made a fork of PSG-1 one of the best semi auto DMR out there, to denote their mastery over the platform, and their POF made MP5s are already a standard issue SMG there, nowadays they're making modernised iteration of G3 itself with some prototype taking SR-25 pattern AR mags (BW-20) and some other prototype that externally looks like AR-10 but feeds from G3 magazine (BW-21), both taking AR pattern trigger groups with standard G3 ejector blade lever - and YET...
but anyways, since focus of this thread is small arms, let's try to evaluate it all with that focus and neutral overview
so, VKS-100-3 does seem to have screwed sections of rails on 3 and 9 positions on sides of lower handguards, for attaching lights and lasers etc, then that AK-203-ish hinged top railed cover BUT here they didn't provide a separate locking lever that's on AK-203? are they relying on that 'higher quality recoil spring' thing like typical AK? then there are some chances of top mounted optics and stuff loosing some zero after taking it apart again and again, i think, then no tactical tabbed fire selector?
i also believe that training plays a role in making any weapon effective, i personally like vietnamese approach on Kalashnikov a lot, where they would spray-and-pray at enemies up closer ranges but at some distance they'd go 'finger tapping' i.e. taking two-round controlled bursts on full auto setting;
is this the way these porkshitstainis are also going to use it in actual combat zone ? then perhaps yes this kind of setup may work 'just good enough' - but going full auto on this, while not properly weighing on it with proper posture as well as maintaining muzzle climb by gripping it properly, will only make it go bang-bang-up-in-the-sky as evident from videos...even if you discount controllability on full auto, a muzzle device would've vented the gases more properly around a firing muzzle and keeping muzzle blast away from a shooter's aim...but...yeah
But those videos seems more or less from endurance testing where they're dumping ammo after ammo, and given that it's RPK based rifle with thicker barrel profile it may survive those things just fine, perhaps more videos by actual military shooters where it's actually tested for accuracy on single shot and controlled burst and showing what kind of spread/groupings it forms on targets would give us a chance to make a better opinion in this regard - for now it seems average
i think on semi auto, this slightly longer and heavier profile barrel here would give it some edge, they mentioned slightly higher muzzle velocity there, heck they even put RPK style windage adjustable rear iron sight there, but nothing that other modern AKs can't compete with here; rather I think putting suppressors here would be a little challenging in practice as this is already overgassed AK thing here and putting a suppressor would further blow more gasses towards the piston, perhaps that 'higher quality recoil spring' is intended with those stuffs in mind ? but even without suppressors it's already cycling faster
well their standard issue AK that locally manufactured Type-56 copy itself is a design that lacks AKM features - no muzzle device, no hammer retarder to control full auto rate and so...so this 'upgraded' AK is more or less similar in basic handling and operations, except now it's got a thicker profile barrel plus railed handguards on top to mount some optical sight; so they really don't seem to expecting much here just a newer AK to supplement or replace older ones they know so well, so overall a fine deal
the most 'practical' aspect of this deal is, they're getting a brand new rifle with necessary rails here there for same price of upgrading existing Type-56 with aftermarket parts kits, something that matches our AK-203i even for looks, rest i'm not sure if they're really expecting anything significant here
