The AO-46 was a gas-operated
5.45×39mm
The 5.45×39mm Cartridge (firearms), cartridge is a Rim (firearms), rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge. It was introduced into service in 1974 by the Soviet Union for use with the new AK-74. The 5.45×39mm gradually supplemented and then ...
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 a 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.
[
] 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.
The weapon was an unsolicited design by
Peter Andreevich Tkachev
Peter Andreevich Tkachev was a Russian weapons engineer for TsNIITochMash. He is known to have worked on and modified various weapons such as the AO-38, AO-46, AO-62 and AO-63 assault rifles as well as developing the Balanced Automatics Recoil ...
working at
TsNIITochMash
TsNIITochMash (russian: ЦНИИТОЧМАШ) is a Russian industrial design bureau which is a major designer and producer of weapons for the Russian military and MVD National Guard. The name is an initialism for Central Scientific - Research Ins ...
. Although not accepted for service, this design, in combination with report of the US use of the
XM-177 in Vietnam led the
GRAU
The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated Russian acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the ...
to start the competition known as
Project Modern, which led to the adoption of
AKS-74U for service.
["Солдат удачи" номер 9 (72) 2000 Д.Ширяев "Кто изобрел автомат Калашникова?"]
Although the Soviet doctrine did not have an equivalent concept, the AO-46 design corresponds to the Western concept of
personal defense weapon (PDW).
AO-46
at weaponland.ru. Retrieved 2013-4-7
See also
* List of Russian weaponry
The following is a list of modern Russian small arms and light weapons which were in service in 2016:
Handguns
Revolvers
Pistols
Special purpose
Submachine guns
Special purpose
Shotguns
Rifles
Bolt-action
Semi-a ...
* Modern Sub Machine Carbine
The Joint Venture Protective Carbine (JVPC), also known as Modern Sub Machine Carbine (MSMC) until 2014, is a gas-operated, magazine-fed, select fire submachine gun designed to chamber the 5.56×30mm MINSAS cartridge. It was designed by the Armam ...
* TKB-408
* TKB-059
TKB-059 (ТКБ-059) was a Soviet three-barrel bullpup assault rifle, capable of fully automatic fire, chambered for the 7.62×39mm round and manufactured by Tula Arms Plant in 1966. It was based on the Pribor 3B (Прибор 3Б), an earlier e ...
References
5.45×39mm assault rifles
Personal defense weapons
Kalashnikov derivatives
Assault rifles of the Soviet Union
Trial and research firearms of the Soviet Union
TsNIITochMash products
{{Rifle-stub