Lessons of the AK-47

Larry Kahaner is the author of the just-published AK-47: The Weapon That Changed the Face of War. This is his first post for Defense Tech.

In our quest for the latest and most sophisticated weaponry we sometimes tend to overlook a major success in low-tech arms. But there's a lot we can learn from them – especially the AK-47 assault rifle.

The AK-47 is the world's most popular military weapon. At last count, there may be as many as 100 million of these uncomplicated but deadly rifles in use. That's one AK for every 60 people. It is used by about 50 legitimate armies as well as terrorists – Osama Bin Laden calls it the terrorist's most important weapon – insurgents, drug cartels, paramilitary groups and guerrillas.

The rifle, first produced in 1947 – hence the name AK-47 for Automatic Kalashnikov 1947 – has undergone very few changes since it was first produced by Soviet soldier Mikhail Kalashnikov. The furniture has been replaced with low weight plastics, and a few other mods here and there depending upon which of the 19 countries produced it, but it is essentially the same weapon it was 60 years ago.

What accounts for its success? Quite simply: it works. Despite its low price (as little as $10 and as much as $300) and often shoddy workmanship, this rifle rarely jams, is almost indestructible, and is easy to fire with no training. Overnight, it can transform paramilitary forces, thugs and street gangs into formidable armies.

It is not very accurate but can fire about 700 rounds per minute. Many western military experts consider it a piece of junk, but it's perfect for poorly-trained soldiers because they can 'spray and pray.' And indeed, it is a piece of junk compared to the M-16A2 now used in Iraq or the shorter barreled version M-4. These rifles are well built, accurate and engineered to close tolerances. They are technological things of beauty. The AK, on the other hand has loose tolerances, feels like it will shake apart (but doesn't) and won't make any friends at the marksmen club. These loose tolerances are the open secret to the AK's almost jam-free history. It's also why you can drag it through mud, leave it buried in the sand and take it out a year later, kick it with your boot, and it will fire like it was cleaned that morning. Again, because of its imprecision, the AK can fire poorly produced ammunition as well as ammo that has been sitting and deteriorating in the jungle or desert.

When the Defense Department offered M-16s to the Iraqi police and army, they refused. They wanted AKs which had to be bought from Jordan (the weapons actually were made in Germany). Indeed, like their brethren in Vietnam, many US soldiers are using AKs in Iraq despite official sanctions against the practice.

As the Pentagon planers ponder what's next for infantry firearms, they need to think in terms of simple instead of complex and practical instead of sophisticated. There's no reason why soldiers should be using M-4s that overheat or place condoms over their gun barrels to keep out the desert sands.

The solution has not come for lack of trying. From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, the Army was developing a new assault rifle known as the XM8 project an outgrowth of the Objective Individual Combat Weapon program, which was to produce a new type of battle rifle. The main goal of the XM8 program was to find a replacement for the M-16 and M4.

However, by late 2005, the XM8 was scrapped partially because of politics; Congress was reluctant to spend billions to outfit soldiers with new rifles while the Iraq war was draining the treasury.

The real problem may be that as the program progressed, military planners kept adding bells and whistles to the rifle system -- even including an electronic bullet counter -- and it became too complex, heavy and unwieldy. Designers would have done better to simply aim for a new infantry rifle that works as well as the AK-47 and be just as simple.

The AK may not be the best rifle for the US but designers can learn from Kalashnikov's experience in building the AK-47. He often found himself guided by the words of arms designer Georgy Shpagin, who developed the successful PPSh41 submachine gun: "Complexity is easy; simplicity is difficult."

-- Larry Kahaner

BRAINS BEHIND GUNSHOT SPOTTER

Who knew? A few weeks back, we mentioned that Chicago was setting up a series of listening posts, to keep an ear out for gunshots. Well, it turns out that the system, called SENTRI, is based on the way peoples' neurons fire.

SENTRI is an acronym for "Smart Sensor Enabled Neural Threat Recognition and Identification." The "neural" in the title refers directly to [USC Center for Neural Engineering director Theodore] Berger's work, which was based on analysis of the "language" nerve cells, or neurons, use to convey information, and specifically on his modeling of the way the brain forms memories of sounds.

The neurons' only way of distinguishing signals is to fire repeatedly, either faster or slower, in different temporal patterns. "It is the time difference between pulses that carries the information," Berger said. "This is a coding completely unlike that used by computers, which are collections of ones and zeros, changing to the beat of a constant clock."

Working with computer specialists, however, Berger has created neural-like computer systems that can model the neural time coding and make distinctions the way nerves do.

Four years ago, he and a colleague used the technique to demonstrate the first speech recognition system that could pick words out of ambient noise as well as humans can. While work continues on speech-recognition applications, the systems need training to learn individual signals. For language, this is very time consuming because the system has to learn each individual word.

"But for alarm signals," Berger said, "you start with a relatively small number of sounds you have to distinguish with high accuracy - gunshots, for example, or diesel engines for border patrol crossings or oil pipeline thieves, or chainsaws to listen for outlaw loggers. This vocabulary is quite manageable."

(thanks RC for the tip)

CHICAGO LISTENS UP FOR GUNS

"Gang members in Chicago who fire off a few rounds at their rivals [could] find cops on the scene in minutes, thanks to new gunshot-detection devices being installed in 80 locations around the city before the end of the year," Wired News reports.

The devices, mounted on telephone poles in specific neighborhoods, listen for the distinctive sound of a gunshot and immediately alert a police dispatcher when one is detected. A video camera in the device allows the dispatcher to keep an eye on the scene until officers arrive.

The system is similar to those being used to decrease gunshot-related injuries and deaths in a half dozen other cities in the United States, including Redwood City, California; Glendale, Arizona; and Charleston, South Carolina.

Here's how the systems work: Police mount the detection devices, which include microphones and sound-analysis hardware, on telephone poles and other locations in neighborhoods where gunfire is a problem. The devices are connected to a control center where dispatchers wait to receive alerts via their computers.

Chicago authorities have been getting increasingly worked up about using distributed technology to keep tabs on their less-than-friendly residents. In September, Mayor Daley announced a proposal to network together 2,000 surveillance cameras around the city.

Chicago's gunshot detectors sound a whole lot like Darpa's "Boomerang," sniper-finder system, which G.I.s have been mounting on their Humvees since early in the year. More info on the project's next stage --designed to fight off RPG attacks, as well -- is here.

NET HUNTING TAKES AIM

Ah, progress. A Texas company, Live-Shot , is planning to let hunters use a webcam and an Internet-controlled rifle to shoot down deer, mouflon sheep, antelopes and wild pigs as they roam a 54-acre ranch, according to the BBC.

John Underwood got the idea a year ago when he was watching deer via a webcam on another net site, "We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that'. A little light bulb went off in my head..."

Each remote hunting session will cost $150 with additional fees for meat processing and taxidermy work.

Already the Live-Shot site lets people shoot 10 rounds at paper and silhouette targets for $5.95 for each 20-minute shooting session. For further fees, users can get the target they shot and a DVD recording of their session.

Handlers oversee each shooting session and can stop the gun being fired if it is being aimed off-range or at something it should not be...

Mike Berger, wildlife director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said current hunting statutes did not cover net or remote hunting. Besides, the law only covers "regulated animals" and there's thus nothing to stop Mr Underwood letting people hunt "unregulated" imported animals. (via The Near Near Future).

CONCEALED WEAPONS

Camouflage doesn't do you a whole lot of good, if your gun sticks out like a Rabbi at a yacht club. MilitaryPhotos.net has a slew of guns, painted to blend in.

NEW RIFLE GETS LOVE

"You will have to excuse me for a moment whilst I take a moment and slobber," Rob Cherry pants.

The object of his liquid affection: the Army's new XM8 rifle, which is winning rave reviews at Ft. Bragg and from the Army Times.

"With attachments, it can go from a compact rifle with a 9-inch barrel for close combat shooting to a sharpshooter rifle with a 20-inch barrel for 600-meter range," the Fayetteville Observer notes. "It costs less than an M-4, is lighter and is capable of firing 20,000 rounds without malfunctions."

It also won't jam if it's clogged full of dirt. "Jose Gordon of Heckler & Koch USA, the gun's maker, demonstrated this last fact when he buried an XM-8 in Fort Bragg's red dust and then fired it."