Russians may move away from 5.45x39

And for those who don't speak Russian:

The Russian army might abandon the 5.45 mm caliber cartridges

Moscow, 5 Feb — RIA Novosti. Army considering abandon rounds of 5.45 millimeter, write the authors of the book "Rocket-artillery maintenance and technical support of the armed forces of the Russian Federation-2018".
The article reported that such a decision may result from insufficient breakdown action bullets on medium and high range.

As an analogue of experts from 3-rd CENTRAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE of the Ministry of Defense offered to consider the possibility of modernizing the ammunition and weapons of a calibre 7.62 millimeter.
At the moment Russian army uses two types of gun calibers-5.45 and 7.62 mm.
5.45 x 39 mm cartridge entered service in the seventies of last century, it was under he designed the AK-74. This cartridge weighs less than 7.62 millimeter caliber bullets that allows the arrow to increase the carried ammunition.
In addition, it has a higher trajectory, nastilnostju and small recoil impulse, that allows you to shoot more aptly.

Pitfalls
Some experts emphasize that refraining from rounds of 5.45 millimeter is only assumption authors published. For example, a Russian specialist in the field of small arms by Maxim Popenker considered such a scenario unlikely.
"I have great doubts about the fact that weapons of this caliber fully refuse our ground forces," he said.
Popenker noted that this decision carries "a lot of pitfalls."
 
So, it looks like they're thinking about some vague upgraded cartridge for 7.62 bullets?

They're too invested and don't have the money to re-equip their entire army with new weapons, magazines, and ammo. Don't see this happening any time soon.
 
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I honestly think this is the Cyrillic equivalent of "fake news." Sure they may be past due for a modern upgrade to the 70+ year old 7.62x39 design, but no way are the Russians going to just dump 5.45x39. They've spent so much time, energy, and resources refining the caliber and upgrading the arms, accessories, and optics that run it.

They also have a reputation for going back and forth with integration of AK-based gun designs, so it wouldn't surprise me at all if in a year from now, we see another roughly translated English language article proudly proclaiming "5.45x39 = master race after all."
 
Agreed. Most countries have a heavy investment in existing calibers, Russia especially due to the huge stockpiles of Soviet hardware. It is just too expensive to switch. Money can be more effectively spent on more lethal items that involve sending high explosives at far away enemies via rockets, artillery or aircraft. There is also the issue of trading a proven system for an untried one that will certainly have some teething troubles.

By way of illustration the Yarygin/MP-443 was slated to replace the Makarov, but issues seem to have caused some delays. Concern Kalashnikov's new 9x19, the 9x19 Arsenal and now the 9x21 UDAV have all been announced as the Makarov's replacement. Who knows? One way or another the Makarov, or PM for short, is going to be carried by reservists and a lot of police for years to come.

If you want to see the 5.45x39 in action on AK-74 rifles check out the large number of somewhat saddening videos on You-Tube related to the War in Ukraine/Donbass.

Maxim Popenker has a web site, www.world.guns.ru, that is worth seeing. Regards, Henry
 
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Supposedly they're looking at a 6.8 based cart just like we are. But, it'd be for special forces. They're running into the same thing we are, more urban combat and better body armor. As far as mainline troops, I doubt they'd move away from 5.45 anytime soon, really would depend on if they get any big export contracts or not. They were hoping for a big sale to the Indians and that fell through, right now no one is really running 5.45 except Russia, China, NK. The majority of 3rd world and middle east is 7.62x39 and 7.62x54r hungry. There's no real big incentive for them to tool up for mass production of a new cart. Right now their solution to the urban combat and body armor problem is just to bring in more PKMs into the squad level and using RPGs heavier as improvised artillery.
 
Agreed myst173. I will note that in the Middle East there is one 5.45x39 Kalashnikov that seems to have a following. The AKS74U is the preferred weapon of someone who has "arrived" at a position of leadership or political influence. I believe the nickname used for it is the "Osama" for obvious reasons. Cheers, Henry
 
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