K-3 Assault Rifle Replace Ak-47 Bullpup Armenian Rifle

 Though the K-3 Assault Rifle (also known as the AK-3) was first revealed in 1996, by 2000 only about 40 had been built, and the Armenian government had not yet authorized series production. (In fact, little has been heard about the K-3 Assault Rifle since it was shown at an arms show in 1996; it has apparently been demonstrated to a few "unnamed parties," but its exact status, and whether it will ever be mass-produced, is unknown.) Though similar in appearance to the British L-85, the K-3 Assault Rifle is based on the tried-and-true Kalashnikov action. As a rather simple bullpup conversion of the AK-74 Rifle, it is considerably more compact than the standard AK-74 Assault Rifle, but the rather simple conversion also presents a number of problems.

K-3 Assault Rifle

The biggest is perhaps that the K-3 may be fired only by right-handed shooters, as the ejection port would be buried in the shoulder pocket of a left-handed shooter and the K-3 Assault Rifle might easily jam. The second is that the selector lever is still the standard AK-74-type Assault Rifle selector; this is awkward for a shooter to manipulate from the shoulder. The third is that the charging handle is still connected to the bolt and reciprocates with it during firing, and it can hit the face of the shooter when he fires the K-3 Rifle. The fourth is that the sights had to be put on top of risers, since the bullpup layout raised the sight line, but the AK-74’s sights were still used for the K-3 Rifle.

The K-3 Assault Rifle may is normally used with iron sights, but may be fitted with the PSO-1 4x sight of the SVD sniper rifle. Like the AK-74 Assault Rifl, metalwork is largely of stamped steel; the pistol grip, trigger guard and short ribbed fore-end are of dark green plastic. The muzzle brake is different than that of the AK-74; it allows the use of rifle grenades without having to have a special version for rifle grenade launching. The Armenians have also modified the standard AK-74 magazines so that the shell is entirely polymer, instead of the steel magazines within a polymer shell of the AK-74. (The K-3 can also use standard AK-74 magazines, however).

Seeing the writing on the wall, the Armenian government authorized production of the K-3 in early 1996,
though many more resources were placed into domestic AK-74 and AKM production. The K-3 was primarily used by Armenia’s fledgling special operations units.