AK-47s were actually hazardous to the Soviets, so the AKM quickly took it's place in 1959.

Hazardous?

AKMs, PKs, PKMs, RPKs, AK74s, RPK74s

Yes, those are Soviet machine gun patterns.

Yes, apparently there were quite a few flaws with the AK-47, that not many notice.

Heavy and inaccurate?

The milled receiver was bulky and the barrel would wobble when it fired.

Is that any worse than the M16A1’s stupidly delicate firing mechanism?

AK-47s broke apart after a few hundred rounds and most failed QC at the factory, they were replaced with AK-49s (Forged Receivers) and those proved unsatisfactory, and were replaced with what we call type 3 receivers.

Got it.

Damn, you really know your firearms.

I’m jealous that I’ve been out-trivia’ed.

Technical Specialist.

You’re a consultant?

I tought classes on this while I was in the Army

Got it.

The M16 was the epic fail of American rifles. The M16A1 was an improvement.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to challenge your expertise.

Wasn’t it the M16A2 that was the improvement in Vietnam?

no, M16A2 was in the late 70s early 80s

47s and its generation has been cycled out at this point though. Pretty sure there's a whole lot of them rusting in abandoned stockpiles now

The M16A1 was in service by 1968.

After NATO adopted the 5.56NATO

The A1 was the model that only had burst fire, right?

No, it had semi and full-auto.

A2 are burst, A1 full auto

Got it.

Weren’t automatic M1 Carbines also being used in Vietnam?

Yes.

Also used in Korea.

I’m a history major, so historical weaponry interests me.

M1s by then were upgraded to M2s but yes they were used by MAC-V and MAC-V supplied RoVA units

@Khanclansith If you don’t mind my asking, where did you serve while in the Army?

I was a headquarters monkey out at Shafter for 3 and half years, and I was in HHBN 10th Mountain Division.

Got it.

Even after the AK-74 (5.45X39mm) was in service, the AKM was still used until the late 80s, if I remember correctly.

In 1986, the AKS-74U carbine was made and was used by Russian tank crews and paratroopers and is still used today.

AKMs never completely left service, They were in the last lines of mobilization and remain so to this day in the Soviet sucessor states.

Well, I figured that I was wrong.

It is hard to translate Soviet moblization orders to US and NATO counterparts because everything was put in the MOs.

I bet.