AO-46 (firearm)

The AO-46 was a gas-operated 5.45×39mm caliber, compact carbine/assault rifle prototype. It features a folding stock and the trigger is located just in front of the magazine, which doubles as pistol grip. In order to minimize the length of the gun, gas for automatic operation was collected not out of the barrel, but directly from the flash suppressor in the muzzle.^[1] Despite having the latter feature, the combination of a relative powerful cartridge and short barrel produced a flash comparable to that of a sawed-off shotgun.^[2]

The weapon was an unsolicited design by Peter Andreevich Tkachev working at TsNIITochMash. Although not accepted for service, this design, in combination with report of the US use of the XM-177 in Vietnam let the GRAU to start the competition known as Project Modern, which led to the adoption of AKS-74U for service.^[1][2]

Although the Soviet doctrine did not have an equivalent concept, the AO-46 design corresponds to the Western concept of personal defense weapon (PDW).^[3]

See also

• List of Russian weaponry
• Modern Sub Machine Carbine
• TKB-408
• TKB-059
• Uzi

References

Modern personal defense weapons (PDWs) and cartridges
Personal defense weapons	AO-46 AAC Honey Badger PDW ČZW-438 Floro PDW FN P90 GA Personal Defense Weapon Heckler & Koch MP7 Interdynamics MKR Knight's Armament Company PDW Magpul PDR MARS Interdynamics MKS Modern Sub Machine Carbine PP-2000 QCW-05 Saab Bofors Dynamics CBJ-MS SR-2 Veresk ST Kinetics CPW VBR-Belgium PDW
PDW-caliber pistols	FN Five-seven Glock-VBR 7.92 pistol SR-1 Vector Heckler & Koch UCP Pindad PS-01 QSW-06 QSZ-92 VBR-Belgium CQBW GSh-18
PDW cartridges	.224 Boz 4.38×30mm Libra 4.5×26mm MKR HK 4.6×30mm 5.56×21mm PINDAD 5.56×30mm MARS 5.56×30mm MINSAS FN 5.7×28mm 5.8×21mm DAP92 6×35mm KAC 6.5×25 CBJ-MS 7.92×24mm 9×19 mm 7N31 9×21mm Gyurza 9×39mm