by David Crane david@defensereview.com DefenseReview has been interested in the Nikonov AN-94 "Abakan" assault rifle for a pretty long time, now. I believe I first read about it in 1994 or 1995. Designed by Russian small arms designer Gennadiy Nikonov, the AN-94 is an interesting rifle, as it enjoys one of the same (major) advantages as the Ultimax 100 Mk3 …

The new Fall issue of "Special Weapons for Military and Police" has an article on Russia’s Nikonov An-94 Abakan rifle, written by Charlie Cutshaw. The AN-94 may replace the AK-74 as Russia’s primary service rifle. Along with the AEK-971 and AK-107/108, it’s one of the leading contenders in that race. CLICK HERE to go to the AN-94 page on Valery …

By David Crane  defrev (at) gmail (dot) com October 1, 2011 A recent article in the The Voice of Russia titled "New rifle to replace Kalashnikov" claims that the Russian "Izmash" company "plans to present its new rifle to the Russian army before the end of this year," a rifle that can go head-to-head with the most modern western military …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Ocober 28, 2004 Military Police System, out of Piney Flats, Tennessee, has come out with a unique select-fire 12-gauge combat/tactical shotgun called the "Auto Assault 12 Automatic Shotgun", or "AA12 Automatic Shotgun". The full-auto-only Auto Assault 12 Automatic Shotgun fires at a relatively slow rate of 300 rpm (rounds-per-minute) and employs the "Constant-Recoil" principle, which is a recoil attenuation/mitigation …

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Military.com has a feature on their site that I recently discovered while I was searching the web for links I could include with my recent article on the Nikonov AN-94 "Abakan" assault rifle, titled "Nikonov AN-94 ‘Abakan’ Assault Rifle: Advanced Russian Small Arms Tech". The feature I discovered is called "SoldierTech: Military Gear and Gadgets". It …

The Russians have been doing some very interesting things for the last number of years with assault rifles while our own infantry soldiers are still saddled with a rifle that’s now over 40 years old(yes, the M16). The Russians’ focus seems to be in the area of higher hit probability, promulgated by some rather ingenious recoil-reduction mechanisms. DefRev has already …

The Sako M95, standard rifle of the Finnish armed forces, might just be the best assault rifle in the world(besides the Russian AN-94, AK-107, and AK-108, which are all not yet really in production). Available in both 7.62x39mm and 5.56x45mm, the M95 is basically an updated Kalashnikov, or rather, a Kalashnikov taken to its ultimate conclusion. Preceded by the M90 …