But when the 68-year reign of the Soviet Union ended officially in 1991, it did not mean that the service life of AK-74 ended, too. Like the descendants of the M16 that continue to arm military ...

Each was part of a new class of weapons – the “assault rifle” – and fired an intermediate cartridge that was smaller than the traditional rounds used in a main battle rifle, but larger ...

"The M16 project was conceived some time ago ... According to arms experts, Ukraine currently has about 1 million AK-74 assault rifles and RPK-74 light machine guns in service.

But they’re hard to shoot down and Russian soldiers are trying everything, including custom buckshot rounds for the AK-74 assault rifle. The DIY AK-74 buckshot started appearing on Russian ...