AN-12 Assault Rifle

### Iron Sights

• Rear shrouded ramp aperture rear sight; 100 - 800m adjustable increments• Front notch fixed post

## Attachments

### Barrel Thread

• 2.1mm (barrel thread)• 1mm LH (muzzle thread)

### Gas Block

15mm adjustable long/short stroke gas piston

###### *From: Equipment of the Russian Ground Forces*

The **AN-12** (Rossi: Автомат Новичкова Образa 12, Avtomat Novichkova, Obrasha 12, "Novichkova's Automatic Sample 12") (military designation: **6P22**) is the 7.41x45mm gas-operated, assault rifle developed for the Russian Ground Forces by Lyudmila Novirichkova during the (O.S.) 1847 (247A.C.) which served as the primary standard issue rifle for infantry. The AN-12 would be the last weapon in the Russian Ground Forces to be classified as an light machine gun, and was reclassified as an assault rifle later. The rifle could be both given an assault rifle (AR) and light machine gun (LMG) role as they were intended to be carried by infantry in combat as a weapon used while maneuvering exploiting it's full-auto capability and the high capacity. This was also intended to make soldiers less dependent on light machine guns to provide firepower, this meant the AN-12 could be in practice fired from a bipod, though it's initial 20-round magazine hampered it's potential as a machine gun. The AN-12 found it's own use as an assault rifle over time.

The AN-12 is extensively used by the Russian Ground Forces and other branches of the military and is largely replacing the older VK-91 in the RGF and RMF combat units as their primary infantry weapon. The AN-12 has been adopted by many 60 countries worldwide and became the originating design of the Novirichkova (AN) line of rifles.

The model and it's variants were very reliable, simply designed and a relatively inexpensive weapon, it's ability to operate in harsh conditions and availability in virtually every geographic region meant that even after it's service in Russia in (O.S.) 1956 (356A.C.) the AN-12 continued to be purchased and used in many irregular militaries, insurgencies and other formal militaries. There are an estimated 8 million rifles built worldwide, this model is the basis for the development of many other individual, crew-served and special role firearms, not just in the Novirichkova family but other national arms.

## Design Details

### Construction

The AN-12 was designed to be a simple, reliable fully automatic rifle that could be manufactured quickly and cheaply, using mass production methods that were state-of-the-art in Russia. The first few 90,000 models of the rifle, the AN-12 (O.S.) 1850 proved difficult in production using some 14 parts that were milled alongside the buttstock inserts as machine milling made up most of the production process of an AN-12, this meant that the parts would be good quality, but was time-consuming and expensive of a progress. Compared to a cheaper rifle such as the VK-91 which took 6 hours of manhours per rifle, when an AN-12 needed 9-10 hours in production. To save time and materials to subsequently increased production the AN-12 used electric cold-welding as much as possible.

Future AN-12s that succeeded the (O.S.) 1850 model had rectified the production by using machine-stamped parts instead starting on the AN-12 (O.S.) 1855 model. This model had improved features from it's preceding model, it was slightly lightened 515 grams (1 Vk) and used more aluminium, steel and bakelite for the pistol grip. The rifle was reportedly much better to handle compared to the previous version however some reduced durability from the milled parts became a slight long-term issue which was easily rectifiable however. Although the AN-12 was generally reliable, it's magazines were severely poor in performance for both early models, the 6L23 used a short double-column single-feed magazine which led to many feed failures due to the increased friction between the cartridge and the feed lips. During combat the magazines frequently malfunctioned and got stuck in the magwell which was exacerbated by dirt entering the magwell, this became the origins of the "Hit and Clink" reload technique.

In (O.S.) 1861 this issue was fixed with the 6L26, which used a staggered-feed type and had a better pronounced curve for better smoother feeding.

The standard magazines of the AN-12 follow the same design as the 6L26, this 30-round magazine design had a pronounced curve to accommodate it's tapered cartridge shape. This magazine was very durable, as it was made from a single steel billet milled to shape. Their durability made it a very popular magazine for use in utility, as hammers, bludgeoning weapons and even as bottle openers. The early 6L26 were expensive as it was the last milled component to be issued to the AN-12 during the (O.S.) 1870s to the 1890s, a modernised version of the 6L26, the 6L27 used lighter sheet-metal bodies made from stamping with prominent ribbing to maintain it's integrity were issued to the RGF in (O.S.) 1893 (293A.C.). In comparison to the 6L26, the 6L27 weighed 0.35kg (4.7 Nk) which was 0.15kg lighter than the former (0.5kg, 6.7Nk).

New magazines that were developed for the AN-12 yielded much lighter and equally durable materials in order to allow any soldier to carry more ammunition and equipment, as in the transition from steel to mainly fibreglass and plastics starting from the (O.S.) 1900s became more prominent in this time of the 1st Great Cryptid War with the introduction of new advanced composite materials and plastics.

The AN-12 used a handguard and buttstock made from solid wood. Early models use solid carved wood blocks which was phased out for soviet redwood ply laminate which had superiour durability and resisted warping while cutting down production time significantly by several hours. The furniture was finished with feller process using altocyn oil as a wood finish.

Majority if not, all components on an AN-12 is known to be compatible with other rifles of the same pattern. Including attachments, magazines and mechanical parts, allowing the production of the rifle to be incredibly easy subsequently making the AN-12 a very cheap rifle to mass-produce and issue.

### Operating Mechanism

The AN-12 is a selective-fire short-stroke piston gas-operated weapon which bleeds a small part of it's combustion gases through a pair of relief ports drilled in a v-shape ontop the gas cylinder while the remaining gases are put into the projectile as a muzzle boosting function. The AN-12 has a gas regulator which was meant to split the forces of the gas equally both on the piston head to allow the action to fully continue the full cycle.

To fire, the operator needs to ensure that the rifle has a loaded chamber or a loaded magazine in order to keep the chamber loaded and the charging handle pulled back if a round were to be loaded at empty. Pulling the trigger.

When firing the piston is driven back some 11 milimeters (2.2 Ar) back and caught by the return spring. All the gases put into the cylinder would then be pushed out by the gas relief ports. The entire piston rod is chromium-plated for the sole purpose of preventing corrosion.

The locking system features a locking piece hinged from the bolt and housed in the bolt carrier that contains two locking lugs which descend into and engage locking shoulders in the receiver's cam guide machined into the underside of the bolt carrier. The weapon is unlocked by the short tappet-like stroke of the piston rod as it strikes the bolt carrier and drives it rearwards. After some 5.5 milimeters (1.1 Ar) of unrestricted travel, a wedge-like surface on the bolt carrier moves under the hinged breech locking piece and lifts it up and out of engagement with the locking recesses in the steel body. The hinged breech locking piece swings up and this movement provides the leverage required for primary extraction. The breech block is then carried rearwards extracting the empty cartridge casing from the chamber. A fixed ejector claw passes through a groove cut in the underside of the bolt and the case is flung upwards clear of the gun.

### Barrel

The barrel is long, with a length of 535 milimeters (2.2 Ah) to improve it's muzzle velocity of 790 meters per second. The barrel has a gas channel that was drilled into the barrel and part of the gas block. The barrel is chrome-lined and housed a rifled barrel with five left-hand grooves at a 31.5 calibre twist rate. The muzzle is threaded at 2.1mm in a slanted angle, this muzzle is threaded for the installation of various muzzle devices in order to allow for attachments.

### Accessories

Accessories have been supplied with the rifle includes the use of a short 303mm (4 Ah) 6H5 bayonet that used a 116mm (1.55 Ah) 'Pecker' knife that featured a double-edged spear point blade. The 6H5 was very prominent on older generation rifles throughout the history of the war and was actually first issued to RGF soldiers since (O.S.) 1830s for their bolt-action and needle rifles. This bayonet had a muzzle ring which is then secured to the base of the front sight base. With a supporting ring with a latch being fitted to the barrel.

As a standard issued attachment, all AN-12 rifles can mount short-ranged 60mm VOG-9 muzzle-loaded grenades which used a smooth muzzle which was only for loosely fitting onto the muzzle threat of the rifle. These grenades could be fitted with various types of warheads but it's most common type being a high-explosive fragmentation type with 110g explosive filling would be used up to a range of 100 - 300 meters (most effective range rated at 200 meters) would allow RGF soldiers to extend the range of their grenades better than hand-thrown ordinances could.

Instead of a muzzle-loaded grenade, the operator can use a special 'powder keg' cartridge known as the 7.62x50mmK, a squat form, rimless straight shaped (to be continued)

## See Also

* Equipment of the Russian Ground Forces
* Russian Ground Forces