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+--- Thread: Izhmash Bankrupt (/showthread.php?tid=2711)
Izhmash Bankrupt - rasp65 - 04-23-2012
I read this today on the firearms blog http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2012/04/23/izhmash-officially-bankrupt/
Izhmash Bankrupt - txgunner00 - 04-23-2012
Interesting. With the firearms market the way it is now, its hard to imagine an established company can go t.u. Must have been horribly managed as the article alluded.
Izhmash Bankrupt - bwaites - 04-23-2012
Lots of interesting things happening, but you are talking about a communist era company with old tooling and processes. It didn't help that the Russian government canceled orders of hundreds of thousands of AK74's.
Izhmash Bankrupt - LRRPF52 - 04-23-2012
The biggest problem any company will have in Russia is corruption first, followed by recruting, screening, hiring, training, and retaining a viable workforce, especially as the younger-age population shrinks, while substance abuse and emigration increaseson against the backdrop of an aging retirement-age population who are at the end of their working lives, and totally reliant on gubm't subsistence.
With so many countries knocking off the AK, there isn't a large export market for them, and has not been for about 50 years, since the Soviet Union spread the manufacturing base of Warsaw Pact weapons throughout the member states, creating the diversified production market of AK variants in Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yuogoslavia. In addition, the Soviets exported the tooling for manufacturing AKM's to Egypt and other Middle Eastern Countries, who have cranked them out on their own for decades without any further major support from Russia.
China also knocked off the AK with the Type 56, but hasn't produced an AK for home military use since the 1970's, and is already on their 2nd assault rifle design since dumping the AK in the 70's.
Scores of nations have been purchasing US-based weapons, mainly M4's, due to the vast superiority of the M4/M16 family over the out-dated AK, which still uses ideas from the first decade of the 20th Century, with nothing really later than 1930's technology in its operating system.
What I have personally witnessed is a default preference for the M4, especially among the Light Infantry and Special Operations units of former Warsaw pact Nations that have finally escaped the Russian sphere of direct influence, but are preparing as Russia is back in a posture of resurgence and control over its satellite neighbors. You out an M4 in the hands of a guy who has used AK's all his military life, and he wants nothing to do with the AK anymore 9 times out of 10.
Izhmash Bankrupt - hm2 clark - 04-26-2012
I dont think that that its fair here in the 2nd decade of the 21 century to critise the the AK for being old, and embelish the AR for being new tech. The AR is 1950s tech after all. Part of the whole Grendel thing is trying to move really OLD rifle rifle ideas into somthing like the modern area. If I like the the AK its partaly because (like the 1911) it is old and still does the job. If I like the AR, its for the same reasons.
Izhmash Bankrupt - txgunner00 - 04-26-2012
hm2 clark Wrote:I dont think that that its fair here in the 2nd decade of the 21 century to critise the the AK for being old, and embelish the AR for being new tech. The AR is 1950s tech after all. Part of the whole Grendel thing is trying to move really OLD rifle rifle ideas into somthing like the modern area. If I like the the AK its partaly because (like the 1911) it is old and still does the job. If I like the AR, its for the same reasons.
I agree with what you are saying but the AK47 wasn't designed with ergonomics high on the list, at least not as high as economics. That's why, in my poinion, as AR based designs improve and proliferate, AK based designs are loosing favor. I have had several AK's myself and love shooting them, but I would still go to battle with an AR over an AK given the choice.