This is coolbert: The development of the AK-47 was the culmination an evolutionary cycle of weapons development that had it's beginnings when armies throughout the world began to adopt what the Defense in the National Interest [DNI] group would categorize as "second generation warfare". This concept of second generation warfare was based upon the idea of fire and movement. And the basic unit for fire and movement was the infantry squad. Usually a ten man unit, the squad was furthermore divided into two teams of five men each. And the basic weapon for the infantryman in a squad was the bolt action long rifle. Could be a Springfield A3-03 if the infantryman was an American, or an Enfield if the infantryman was a Britisher. A bolt action weapon requiring manual operation each and every time a round was fired. And each long rifle would hold say from five to ten rounds each, the caliber being usually a thirty caliber hi-power long round. And a high degree of proficiency could be achieved if the shooter was firing at paper targets on a controlled range, even at ranges of up to 400 yards.

However, observers were quick to note that when the concept of fire and movement was used by combatants in both World War One [WW1] and later in World War Two [WW2] even more so, a squad equipped with just long rifles had obvious deficiencies. The long rifles, even when used by trained marksmen, could not maintain a volume of heavy fire that allowed for efficient fire and movement. To remedy this situation, each squad was then equipped with some sort of automatic weapon, usually a light machine gun, and in the case of the American Army, the Browning Automatic Rifle [BAR]. This automatic weapon became the base of the squad's fire power, the long rifles supporting and supplementing the automatic weapon. Automatic weapons such as the BAR or light machineguns in turn also had serious deficiencies, such as heaviness, and excessive expediture of ammunition. In a nutshell, in the German experience:

"For much of the pre-WWII period the German army had relied on the machine gun as the primary infantry weapon, with rifles as a support weapon only. However in close combat both weapons proved largely ineffective, the machine guns being too heavy and powerful to move in "snapshot" situations while walking, and the rifles having far too slow a rate of fire to put up any effective supression on quickly dodging targets."

In response to the weaknesses of the bolt action rifle as a squad weapon for the individual rifleman, various nations throughout the world, in the years prior to and during World War Two [WW2], developed semi-automatic long rifles, such as the M1 Garand, the Russian Tokarev, and the German GEW-41 to replace the bolt action long rifle, the U.S. Army being the only country in WW2 to equip each and every soldier with such a weapon. These semi-auto long rifles were only an expedient solution, and then only a marginally at that, the automatic weapon still remaining as the base for a squad's firepower. A better solution other than the semi-automatic M1 Garand long rifle and a squad automatic weapon had to be found. [the trend to design semi-auto long rifles continued long after the end of WW2. Such new designs as the FAL and the M-14 were issued to troops in the 1960's, long after the observation was made that even semi-auto long rifles were inadequate for the task of providing the volume of fire desired for the rifle squad.] Semi-auto long rifle drawbacks were:

"long rifles (uncomfortable to shoot, and difficult to control on full-automatic)."

Various combatants in WW2 also attempted to solve the long rifle/squad automatic weapon problem by adopting submachine guns as the individual weapon for squad members. The Soviets in particular were keen on this idea. At the end of the war, in 1945, Soviet assault troops were equipped with the Shpagin submachine gun, firing a 7.62 mm pistol round. Each Shpagin was equipped with a seventy round magazine. This allowed for massive close range firepower. And that was the problem, close range firepower. The submachinegun firing the 7.62 mm pistol round had poor stopping power, was useful at ranges only up to 100 yards or so, and the expenditure of ammunition was great. Submachine guns were not the answer!

Before we go further, it should be noted and intuitively understood that marksmanship on the battlefield is not even close to what it is on the firing range in training. Those carefully aimed shots with a long rifle on the training range in practice where the marksman hits the target repeatedly at ranges of say 250 yards and up are just not possible on the battlefield. Most riflemen, it has been found, almost never engage targets beyond a range of 200 yards. In Vietnam, the average firefight occurred at a range of 20 yards or less!? To equip the average infantryman with a long rifle that has the capability to hit targets at 400 yards is to equip the soldier with a weapon that will in all probability will never be used in that circumstance!

"Statistical studies of real battles performed by the U.S. Army indicated that combat beyond 200 yds is rare. Russians saw no reason to make a rifle that shoots beyond a rifleman's ability to aim."

What was required was a weapon that was not a long rifle, but not a submachine gun either. An intermediate weapon.

"The answer was a weapon half-way between the sub-machine gun and rifle, one that was fully automatic but used a less powerful round to control recoil."

Studying carefully the German WW2 Sturmgewehr design [read further about the Sturmgewehr by clicking here], Kalashnikov, a self-taught weapons designer, incorporated positive features of the Sturmgewehr with his own unique design concepts to develop the AK [Avtomat Kalashnikov]. One decision that Kalashnikov made early in the game was to adopt the 7.62 mm short rifle round. Not as potent as the normal thirty caliber long rifle round, but potent nonetheless. This weapon was the first weapon that can truly claim the title of "assault rifle". The Kalashnikov possessed all the traits of the modern assault rifle, semi-auto or auto mode of fire, large capacity magazine, pistol grip stock, etc. Allowed an infantry squad to maintain a high rate of sustained fire during fire and movement without all the drawbacks present in previous weapons designs. And such a success too! First design was completed in 1947 [hence the 47 suffix]. And has been built in prodigious numbers and variants. This assault rifle has become the weapon of choice all over the world, used by all manner of militaries and "revolutionary" groups. Read further about the Kalashnikov by clicking here.

coolbert.