Project Abakan

Project Abakan was a Soviet/Russian advanced assault rifle programme in rival to the US Advanced Combat Rifle that took place between 1980 and 1994.

The 1960s ushered a new generation of assault rifles with the introduction of smaller calibers. U.S. military analysis of combat during the Second World War showed that a greater volume of fire at shorter ranges was more significant than long range accuracy. They decided that a smaller caliber would be more effective in most conditions, because the soldier could carry more ammunition. In 1963, United States adopted the M16 Rifle and the smaller 5.56×45mm cartridge to replace the M14 Rifle and larger 7.62×51mm. In 1980, NATO adopted the 5.56mm as the standard issue rifle cartridge.

In 1974, the Soviet Army also replaced the AKM with the AK-74 assault rifle chambered for the new smaller 5.45×39mm caliber. In spite of the smaller caliber and many other improvements the AK-74 failed to overcome the major shortcoming of its predecessor, which was the low accuracy of short bursts of fire.

Soviet analysts determined that modern battlefield tactics require short bursts of fire from shooting positions including standing, kneeling and prone (lying down). The requirement for more accurate bursts of fire was one of the most important aspects of the Required Operational Capability (ROC) specification for any replacement of the AK-74. Therefore, in 1981 the Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR in the military-industrial issued Required Operational Capability (ROC) number 280 27.08.81. Because of the expensive and time-consuming nature of manufacturing and adopting a new assault rifle this ROC specified that any new assault rifle had to be 1.5 to 2.0 times more "combat effective" than the AK-74.

The complexity of modern firearms design and manufacturing dictated that design bureaus with dedicated manufacturing facilities were enlisted to design and manufacture prototypes. The prototypes were produced after three years by TsKIB SOO (subsidiary of KBP Instrument Design Bureau), Kovrovskogo mechanical and Izhmash (Izhevsk Mechanical Works) plants under the general guidance of (Central Research Institute for Precision Machine Building).

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