RPK-16 Archives - Ronin's Grips

At a tradeshow, a representative gives a brief overview of the RPK-16 light machine gun in 5.45×39. He highlights design features including the adjustable buttstock, full length Picatinny rail, 4 kilogram light weight, 96 round drum, ability to use AK magazines, free floating handguard, different barrel lengths and that the barrels can be changed in the field.

Man in a tan cap holding a camouflaged RPK-16 light machine gun with a scope and bipod. — The RPK-16 builds on the innovations developed for the AK-12.

RPK-16 light machine gun with a drum magazine, featuring a desert camouflage pattern. — The RPK-16 in 5.45×39 can use a 96-round drum or standard AK magazines.

Here’s The Video

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In 2017, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation held their annual international military-technical forum known as ARMY-2017 outside of Moscow. There were over 1,000 exhibitors and over 500,000 visitors. It was an ideal spot for the Kalashnikov Concern to show off their short AK-12K, AK-15K and RPK-16K weapons.

In the video, Vladimir Onokay, a technical consultant with the Kalashnikov Concern, does a great job showing the three weapons and giving an overview of each’s design points.

AK-12K in 5.45×39

Some things he pointed out were:

Free floating handguard
It has Picatinny Rails for mounting accessores
Front sight on the gas block and with the rear sight at the end of rail, the sight radius is longer than traditional AKs
The muzzle device is more for controlling flash during night operations
He showed the windowed magazine for quick round counts
The rear stock is adjustable

AK-15K in 7.62×39

The AK-15 is simply the AK-12 but chambered in 7.62×39. He does make the interesting comment that they found a sweet spot in weapons weight of 3.2-3.3 kilograms for controllable fire in 7.62×39. They try to make the weapons as similar as possible and this is really a family of weapons that can be made in different calibers.

The RPK-16K in 5.45×39

This light machine gun sports a 95 round drum and has swappable barrels. A short one for close quarters battle (CQB) that requires a shorter weapon and a longer barrel for other use.