Tag: AK

The Yat-Thai rifles of Shan State, Myanmar

Miles Vining With a shortage of conventionally produced small arms in Shan State, Eastern Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), craft-produced and locally assembled weapons have proven important to the Shan State Army (SSA). A locally assembled AK-type self-loading rifle, known as the Yat-Thai in the Shan language, is amongst the most common of these. Built from

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Weapons used by Sinaloa Cartel sicarios in Culiacán, Mexico

The ARES Team Editor’s Note: Readers should be aware that an unusually large number of false posts have been associated with the incident in Culiacán. These include images and video from movies, TV shows, and various other incidents in Mexico and elsewhere around the world, presented as being from this incident. Numerous sources have also presented images

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Pakistani AK-style bolt-action rifle

This post accompanies the twenty-first in a series of collaborative videos produced with ARES Researcher Ian McCollum, who also runs the Forgotten Weapons blog and YouTube channel. Using access to unique collections facilitated by ARES, this series of videos will examine a range of interesting weapons over the coming months. Each video will be accompanied by a blog

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AK-103 self-loading rifle recovered from bandits in NW Nigeria

Miles Vining Elements of the Nigerian 223rd Infantry Battalion, 1st Nigerian Army Division based out of Kaduna recently responded to an attack by criminal elements in the Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara Sate (northwestern Nigeria). The incident was characterised as an attack targeting members of the Nigerian Federal Road Safety Corps, one of whom was killed before the

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Small Arms Survey releases Working Paper 25 “Global Development and Production of Self-loading Service Rifles”

ARES Director N.R. Jenzen-Jones has authored a new Working Paper released by the Small Arms Survey, tracing the history and development of the self-loading rifle in military service. In addition to describing the evolution of the self-leading rifle and discussing the turn toward so-called ‘modular’ designs, the Paper provides a definition of these weapons, estimates

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‘AK-22’ sub-machine guns used in Dhaka attack

ImproGuns On 1 July 2016, five gunman attacked Holey Artisan Bakery in Gulshan Thana, Bangladesh, resulting in 29 deaths (20 patrons, two staff members, two police officers and all five of the attackers). Alongside clubs, knives and crude improvised hand greandes, the five gunmen were armed with locally craft-produced sub-machine guns (SMG) known to criminal groups as

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Russian AK-103 self-loading rifle for sale in Iraq via social media

N.R. Jenzen-Jones ARES continues to conduct significant data collection and analysis pertaining to the illicit sale of arms and munitions via social media and communications platforms in conflict and post-conflict zones. From time to time, we will be featuring items of interest uncovered during our research, here on The Hoplite. In late July, ARES recorded

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Maritime Arms Seizures Point to Iran

N.R. Jenzen-Jones US, Australian, and French naval forces operating in the northern Indian Ocean have seized thousands of small arms and light weapons in 2016, likely bound for Yemen. Whilst initial reports indicated the first two seizures were believed to be headed for Somalia, the types of weapons seized indicate that the vessels almost certainly

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AK-103 self-loading rifle in Nigeria

The ARES Team Update 29/6/16: The image appears to be lightly distorted, however the steel magazine second from left in the top row, appears to be a Chinese 5.56 x 45 mm magazine. This may further support the possibility the weapon is an AK-101 (adopted in limited numbers elsewhere in Africa), however an AK-103 remains the most likely identification.

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Differential identification of AK-12 and earlier Russian AK rifles

Jonathan Ferguson Note: The design of the AK-12 has since moved away from the more distinctive model described herein. The newer iteration is more conventional in design and appearance.  The Hoplite recently covered a distinctive personalised AK-74M self-loading rifle captured in Syria by Islamic State forces from a Russian special operator. The plethora of accessories fitted to the weapon

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