22-inch (5.56-mm) cartridge that propelled a lighter projectile at a much higher muzzle velocity of 3,000 feet (910 metres) per second. military researchers, dissatisfied with rifle-power ammunition, began to test a. Millions of these weapons were sold to many countries.Īfter the Korean War (1950–53), U.S. Most commonly, they were either the gas-operated Fusil Automatique Léger (FAL), introduced by the Belgian Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre in 1957, or the blowback-operated Gewehr 3 (G3), produced in West Germany by the firm Heckler & Koch, beginning in 1959. Other NATO armies adopted more satisfactory 7.62-mm rifles, although even these were employed as advanced self-loaders rather than automatics. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. As a self-loading rifle, the M14 performed well, but it was too heavy to be effective as a close-quarters weapon, and the extreme recoil generated by the NATO round caused it to be totally unmanageable as an automatic rifle. Rifle 7.62-mm M14, it replaced the M1, beginning in 1957. To fire this new round, the United States produced an improved version of the M1 rifle, featuring a 20-round detachable magazine and being capable of selective fire. As a result, in 1953 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) reluctantly agreed to standardize on a 7.62-mm cartridge that was a half-inch shorter than the M1 cartridge but of the same calibre and power. The development of Western small arms proceeded more slowly, mainly because the United States insisted upon maintaining a power level comparable to the M1. By the end of the century, some 100 million AKs had been produced, more than any other firearm in history. In many variants, they were adopted and made by countries all over the world. Kalashnikov’s assault rifles became the most significant infantry weapons of the post-World War II era. The receiver of the AKM version, introduced in 1959, was made of lighter sheet metal, reducing the weight to 8.3 pounds (3.8 kg), and the AK-74 version, following later trends in the West, switched to a 5.45-mm cartridge. The AK-47 was made of forged and milled steel, giving it a weight of 10.6 pounds (4.8 kg) with a loaded 30-round magazine. At the turn of a selector switch, the action could be changed from semiautomatic to fully automatic, firing at a rate of 600 rounds per minute. This drove a piston that forced the bolt back against its spring and cocked the hammer for the next round. Like the German weapon, the AK-47 (weapons in the AK family were suffixed with the year of their development) was operated by diverting some of the propellant gases into a cylinder above the barrel. In 1947 they adopted a weapon designed by Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, naming it the Avtomat Kalashnikova (“automatic Kalashnikov”). Historical evidence suggests that they were influenced by the Sturmgewehr, but to what extent remains uncertain. Late in the war the Soviets also began a search for a rifle to shoot their 7.62-mm intermediate cartridge, which produced a muzzle velocity of 2,330 feet (710 metres) per second.
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