RH-Alan APS-95 Assault Rifle Twilight 2000 Timeline

The APS-95 Assault Rifle was designed shortly after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, and first issue began in 1995. Though a very small amount were used in the various post-breakup conflicts between Croatia and Serbia, but these were largely over by 1995 and therefore the APS-95 has actually seen little real battle use. Nonetheless, the APS-95 Assault Rifle appears to have acquitted itself quite well (perhaps because of its ancestry), and is well-liked by Croatian troops. Unfortunately, adoption of the APS-95 Assault Rifle has been very slow due to financial restrictions, but the Croatian military expects it to eventually become its standard assault rifle.

Despite looking unrecognizably different, the APS-95 Assault Rifle is a heavily redesigned version of a licensed Israeli Galil AR or South African R-4 (the story is still not clear). It is nonetheless the cousin of one of those weapons, with basically the same operation and internal guts, along with the inherent reliability of those weapons. One of the things that makes the APS-95 an unrecognizable cousin is that the APS-95’s shape is essentially nothing like the Galil or R-4; it is far more streamlined in appearance. The standard magazine issues with the APS-95 is a synthetic or light alloy 35-round box, but the APS-95 Assault Rifle can also use magazines designed for the Galil or R-4. The APS-95 Assault Rifle has a large carrying handle atop the receiver; this also contains the primary sight,
which has 1.5x magnification and a mil-dot-type aiming reticule.

RH-Alan APS-95 Assault Rifle

Backup iron sights are also available, of course. Construction of the metalwork is partially steel and partially light alloy, with a plastic M-16A2-style pistol grip and a synthetic handguard. The skeletonized stock folds to the right and is steel covered with a plastic coating, along with a buttplate with a thin rubber butt. The 17.72-inch barrel is tipped with a Galil/R-4-type flash suppressor. A bipod is not standard issue with the APS-95, but it can use a bipod which has been specifically-designed for the APS-95 Assault Rifle , and it can also use US, NATO, Israeli, or South African-designed clipon scissors bipods. (They are not included in the cost below.) The muzzle may use BTU rifle grenades of NATO or Israeli origin; standard former pact, Russian, or former Yugoslavian rifle grenades may also be used, but a ballistite cartridge must be used, and a gas cutoff valve must be switched.

The RH-Alan APS-95 Assault Rifle is extremely rare in the Twilight 2000 timeline, with perhaps 40 examples being produced, and almost all of them being used by special troops. These were primarily built in the short interval between the beginning of the fragmentation of Yugoslavia near the start of the Twilight War and its overrun by both Warsaw Pact and NATO forces. Merc 2000 Notes: This would eventually, by 2005, become the standard weapon of Croatian armed forces. It is also quite popular among mercenary forces and other troops who are trying to hide their national ties (as are many weapons from the former Yugoslavian republics. There are even rumors of some members of the Iraqi Republican Guard being armed with the APS-95.