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i am a professional. i always am true without firing a single rails full automatic. i know the fatigue no failure i take pride in my work but for one thing. the one who kills that distinction belongs to the nut who pulls my trachea. i am an assault rifle my name is. a group of elite soldiers from russia's interior ministry are amounts to start an exercise in the morning they line up information according to tradition they pay homage to past comrades who have died in the line of duty. this unit has taken part in many counterterrorist operations across russia. they have a variety of firearms at their disposal but their weapon of choice is still the kalashnikov assault rifle. it's known simply as.

there are here. these soldiers will enjoy a course of special training lasting for almost until. it's regular procedure but modifications to the kalashnikov assault rifle to be tested in such units it will be hard to imagine a tougher testing ground but in your gun. one rifle for every batch is thoroughly scrutinized before being sent to units in a field. in a scientific trial. the rifles design a new golf one that when he realized his first model was to be subjected to a severe test he looked away he couldn't bear to see it with his own eyes. testing a new variant of the kalashnikov goes through seven stages first the gun is placed into what's known as the dust chamber where the room is filled with sand.

sure does chambers filled with fine particles of silica sand the next stage will lead us to the sprinkler room it imitates a subtropical climate when u.s. commandos fought in the hot and humid conditions often prompted them to improvise with captured kalashnikovs rather than their own. sixteen rifles kalashnikovs were in such a climate. self-taught gunsmith mikhail kalashnikov came up with a prototype of his celebrated rifle at least age of twenty two he set about designing it off to he was wounded in action during the second world war recognition of his achievement came five and a half years later in one nine hundred forty seven when his model came first in a defense ministry firearm design contest the new weapon was designated bake

a forty seven. i took care to think over every single part to make them more technologically suitable for mass production. at the same time i needed to make sure that the gun was as reliable and durable as its design dictates that was not an easy task but in general any designer must be very careful with regard to every detail of the design the. vietnam war veterans frequent to this firing range in the u.s. state of virginia it was here in the one nine hundred ninety s. after the end of the cold war that the a k forty seven was designed as met their american m. sixteen counterparts following the gathering mikhail kalashnikov put his signature on one of the rifles belonging to the club and this is russian ammunition. so i'm sure it will work well. general kalashnikov autographed this piece so this is

quite a rare piece and when we shoot it i'm going to everybody want i want white gloves because we don't want to smear the signature of. a kalashnikov assault rifles are mainly assembled by hand people working with the machine building plant in the city of never say weapons or sold rifle they would do is simply a product some twenty very to be a case of being turned out he has in one thousand nine hundred forty seven people across the border instantly recognize the kalashnikov that is the most widespread firearm in the world today. the rifle is not only functional but it's also a handsome model. likes to say that it cries out to be touched most of the workers at the machine buildings loans women it's told they handle the mechanical operations requiring constant attention that of them and they know the rifle inside

and out even though the weapon is intended primarily from them so i often have to teach male workers not only the newcomers but also those who already know their job well when i watch films on t.v. i instantly recognize something made in our shop it gives me great joy to see our products on screen. the first batch of kalashnikovs made in nine hundred forty seven was kept secret so much so that the offices concealed the weapons in cases and collected used cartridges when the five point four five millimeter variant appeared in nine hundred seventy four the situation was quite different because brenda gained fame far beyond soviet borders off to the vietnam war. special forces were some of the first to appreciate the benefits of the five point four five millimeter version chaunge heightening had improved it was also much lighter and the world no complaints about harsh operating. disha it's. not that.

even though the kalashnikov rifle is much more reliable than the m sixteen it's designer and far less from his creation than his american counterpart eugene stone . they came from completely different socio economic and political backgrounds in russia kalashnikov was honored as a national hero a regional icon but receive no compensation stoner received a dollar a rifle for a royalty course they sold millions of them and so in the united states few people know who stoner is although he became wealthy from the us in russia many people know him but he didn't become wealthy for different approaches different societies different values. new recruits of russian military schools are required to learn how to strip down the kalashnikov in fifteen seconds then within the same time limit the gun must be reassembled and ready to fire and. miss

is a reliable weapon from it's a personal weapon that all students must have a good knowledge of down to the smallest part. sometimes they even have to take it apart and reassemble it and clean it while they're blindfolded. to death to have successfully passed initial tests take an oath of allegiance and the ritual goes back to the mid seventeenth century and since the one nine hundred fifty s. is featured full dress uniform and a kalashnikov. yes i. do hereby swear allegiance to my country after taking the oath today judy ballons to use that weapon to protect russia's interests. ah la county mumble means thank you in mozambique the words of the song sung by

these freedom fighters could just as easily be addressed to mr kalashnikov in the early one nine hundred sixty s. the soviet union thinks the portuguese colony spied for. the rebels quickly got a feel for the soviet rifle after their victory it became a national symbol. the sea in the middle of the. flag we have the star. and the book the who and. the book signifies advocation and the whole. culture foot and. the collaging quoth the stud before him but as you of all counts. and. that is true of these.

times to be a shift machine building around the clock in a big old cold internationalism. the employees just because every one of the plant was like robots if they were ever to find another job even at a factory making meat grinders feeding products would still be a kalashnikov. that was going to get. closed. in a week they have regular jobs but it weekends these people change this stuff the officers scrub battle dress. to kalashnikovs but these weapons a loaded with plastic bowls instead of bullets for clunkers know making a kalashnikov with a difference some call them fake because they kill everything else about these non-lethal rifles remains true to the original. design and appearance. everyone can

feel like a real soldier. it's not a fake but rather a genuine kalashnikov basically this is the first attempt to use an electric mechanism to adapt the combat weapon to a game of airsoft. this thing is assembled from the same materials the same production lines as regular kalashnikov assault rifles. this game played by people fed up with the routine of everyday life. but in fact the purpose of each round of soft is to achieve real tactical go. in the future as a cost effective method of tactical training close quarters combat. for the. men and women alike are only just beginning to get. the iconic. i'm not very strong because i am a young woman when i first began doing it my hands. but now i feel they have been

getting stronger with training exercise i find that. there is another side to the popularity of the. as one war comes to an end. profits by buying up used kalashnikovs and selling them in. for example after the soviet union out of. a single rifle cost a mere fifteen dollars a day the price for a functional kalashnikov in the middle east is around thousands of dollars. we use this rifle as the main weapon of our struggle because it never misses targets. what. has proven its reputation in combat and demonstrated its complex condition. in the 1980's the cia supplied the afghan mujahideen with thousands of chinese made kalashnikovs. it

was the first time that soviet designed with ns were used against soviet soldiers in the twenty first century though those same firearms have now been turned against the united states many i'll tell you the government by nato forces using the very rifles that the us both told them so long ago. absent a russian military schools are undergoing weapons training on a tank range missile kalashnikov himself began his military service in russia's division before the a k forty seven his first inventions were related to vehicles but they could not be implemented because of the onset of world war two. miraculously survived after being wounded when his tank called fire as a result he couldn't resume active service and so he devoted his efforts to designing small arms.

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phone. which brightened. someone from feinstein. whose friends don't talk t.v. dot com. the first assault rifle models designed by. going to popularity because they will waterproof and later version was made for cartridges smaller than the seven point six two millimeter were the day of the gun jammed. received no for an engineering either before or after that time it didn't take him long to resolve a problem that many of his colleagues would be unable to cope with the result was the case seventy four variant which used five point four five millimeter cartridges

just like a brother is to was meant to prove. today critics often claim to the is outdated but professionals know that any changes to make it more fashionable modern looking would inevitably affect its most important feature reliability yeah yeah. you know what. good news these soldiers are all set for another exercise that could earn them the rights to wear the crimson berry distinguishing sign that marks them out as soldiers below into any leaf squad as they like to joke that if it were possible to train men to be as tough as the kalashnikov they would be the world's best. special forces units. after the decision was made to select this weapon as the new soviet assault rifle the russians immediately began improvements on it even before it was issued. and they kept improving it working on

every feature of the rifle to optimize performance. the difference in that story is when the united states selected the m. sixteen rifle from colt they forced. the rifle to be issued for combat use before adequate testing the united states government literally did nothing for fifteen to twenty years after world war two to get serious about a lightweight semi automatic rifle. and then put the safety back on the impact and we were shooting it twenty five yards the bullet is not fast but it's a heavy pounding bullet very effective. and is a specialist in ballistics. he is skeptical of the superiority of the iconic brand even claims that somebody other than kalashnikov designed. he

alleges that kalashnikov borrowed the concept from a german design. as the end of the war designed to be a fairly effective t.g. forty four assault rifle and it is true that kalashnikov design does resemble the german variant. and other german specialists contributed to the development of the new product the germans and some soviet inventors worked on it together claiming that it was made by some ordinary sergeant. since nine hundred forty nine he and his colleagues have. claims that the young designers took advice from. so many times they think the debate is pointless. this place is awash with rumors it's no secret that the german designers worked in

this building after the war i've seen an article on the internet claiming that he gave casual advice to the young mikhail kalashnikov just in passing it sounds ludicrous. work was a carefully guarded secret obviously hero schmeiser had no access to it. with a kalashnikov still to be carried through these men and ready to face the. special squad of being trained to handle standard weapons the. model will be tried for the same condition. police with. kalashnikovs was asked about his wife is designed he made no secret of the fact that he had indeed borrowed many ideas but they had come from his soviet colleagues from hugo. kalashnikov who was able to integrate various solutions with one

designed to best advantage. the new assault rifle it was much more sturdy than its rivals. whenever a kalashnikov ran out of ammunition it was still very useful in fighting. fire and could resume about cleaning lubricating the gun in battle. operate. basically. and under all conditions they had a documentary history channel. for. the afghans. and they had no concept of cleaned it why would you do that. and so they said they finally taught him to take their shoelaces time in a not dip it in motor oil and pull that shoestring through the board said there was

cleaners with clean enough. made his weapon in nine hundred forty seven the soviet army desperately needed a modern assault rifle. was a timely solution over time kalashnikov created a wide variety of rifles and machine guns. formulated by one person is built all these items their design is based on a single principle the parts are interchangeable the fact that this broad range of weapons has been designed by one person that makes them very convenient. in the early one nine hundred ninety s. mikhail kalashnikov had his first opportunity to attend international small firearms exhibitions. changed. billion weapons for hunting and sporting purposes with being developed based on his rifle.

personally tested the new models as he had always done his products. as semi automatic shotguns based on the. takes less than a couple of seconds to be ready to fire the united states potential adverse or it has been one of the most active customers for the russian made. americans of compared therefore. i got twelve design of the guns based on the kalashnikov assault rifle as it turns out twelve is a more attractive weapon is more powerful capable of more effective a rapid fire. wall of the. croyde earlier this year a plant signed contracts with the americans for thousands of so i got twelve units

to be supplied to the police force but he but that's the. whole collection of models are assembled in the same shop and goes through the same quality control tests before being shipped to a customer towards the shop we're entering the freezer now to pick up the assault rifle. it's been exposed to temperatures of up to minus fifty degrees celsius for nearly an hour. my mother but in my experience the kalashnikov has never had any problems working in freezing conditions there was not once has a jammed this gun is very general. one of the final tests is quite possibly the toughest the assault rifle is dropped on to a concrete slab from a height of two in the hole for me to. wear at the same firing range where mr kalashnikov and stoner met in may of one nine hundred ninety they were talking

about dura billet e of the weapons and what kind of tests they had to go through to make sure they were durable enough to withstand battlefield conditions and one of the things that stoner said was that he was required to drop this weapon from eleven feet and drop on concrete and be able to pick up the weapon and fire it and at that point kalashnikov started laughing and they asked him what he was laughing about and he said well the way we do it in russia is if the weapon doesn't prove function properly they take the designer and they drop him from eleven feet onto a concrete floor.

yes another key feature of the kalashnikov is that almost anyone can use it allowing it to hold its ground for more than sixty years. it's equally suited both to novices who have only just laid hands on it and professionals dealing with specific tasks. needs only a short time to acquaintance up with a rifle veteran kalashnikov uses such as special forces can modify their weapons of choice depending on the mission. when we get a kalashnikov assault rifle from the depo we fitted out with a site. this is a sample chewed up for a marksman that features a retractable stalk for ease of use i can change the length of the stock by fixed a pistol grip onto it to make it more comfortable. the magazine holds sixty cartridges more than the standard. as a special interior ministry squad training exercise each fighter must make sure

that their weapon is still ready for battle after such extreme conditions. meanwhile the work machine building plant is drawing to a close what's left is the final trial for the new rifle. for special video cameras set up next to a kalashnikov that has just gone through a rigorous series of tests. in slow motion every one of the kalashnikovs moving. the gun saves the lives of soldiers on assignment. that's what it's supposed to do and it always functions to the best of its abilities whether covered in mud or frost. is now ninety three years old he's outlived most of his

friends and rivals. creator of the u.s. army's m sixteen died in nine hundred ninety seven. in recent years kalashnikov has become increasingly unhappy about his rifles reputation each year an average of a quarter of a million people were killed by bullets fired from one of his weapons. i didn't want to design a weapon that was going to be used in wide scale fratricidal war and they very year . i only wanted to help protect my country's borders three you are teaches about well and that's what i would wish for everybody as well as myself. i have gone through every try the tribulation and i'm ready to go on working there are some one hundred million like me in the world they say i have yet to outlive my usefulness. will be around for several decades more. easily

replaced everything is changing but i'm still as i have always been an assault rifle. is kalashnikov. resistance is not of politics but a culture. is couldn't speak against. its own. cultures of resistance on marching.

to me speak your language. programs in documentaries in arabic in school here on all t.v. reporting from the world's hot spots stuffy ip interviews intriguing story for you . been trying all te arabic to find out more visit arabic don't all teeth don't call. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.