AK-74M
The AK-74M is the modernized Soviet-era 5.45 mm assault rifle that served as the Russian Federation's standard infantry weapon from 1991, bridging the gap from the AK-74 to the AK-12 with a side-folding polymer stock and dovetail optics rail.
Russia's modernized 5.45×39 mm Kalashnikov assault rifle — the standard-issue individual weapon of the Russian Federation from 1991, refined with a side-folding polymer stock and dovetail optics rail, and the direct predecessor of the AK-12.
Overview
The AK-74M (GRAU index 6P34) is the modernized version of the Soviet 5.45 mm AK-74 assault rifle, adopted in 1991 as the Russian Federation’s standard infantry rifle. Built on the long-stroke gas piston action that defines the Kalashnikov lineage, it chambered the 5.45×39 mm cartridge and introduced a lightweight polymer side-folding stock, a black synthetic handguard, and a universal side-rail for optics. The AK-74M remained the primary service rifle of the Russian Ground Forces through the Chechen wars, the Russo-Georgian War, the Syrian intervention, and the early phase of the Russia–Ukraine war, and though it is being supplemented in front-line units by the AK-12, it continues to serve in second-line formations, national guard, and internal security units, and remains widely exported or transferred across former Soviet and allied states.
Development
The AK-74M was developed in the final years of the Soviet Union at the Izhmash plant (now Kalashnikov Concern) as an evolutionary upgrade of the AK-74 rifle that had entered service in 1974. According to Army Technology, the modernization focused on replacing the laminated wood furniture of the earlier AK-74 with a black polymer stock, handguard, and pistol grip, and adding a standard side-rail bracket for the attachment of optical or night sights. The folding stock was redesigned as a side-folding polymer component that provided a more comfortable cheek weld and better ergonomics than the earlier metal triangular stock of the AKS-74. The rifle was formally accepted by the Russian Federation’s military in 1991 and began replacing the AK-74 and AK-74M variants on the production lines at a time when the Soviet Union collapsed, making it the first standard rifle of the new Russian state.
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