The Soviet AO-29 Lightweight GPMG

Summary

The article details the Soviet experimental AO-29 lightweight General-Purpose Machine Gun, developed in the early 1960s under A.I. Shilin and P.A. Tkachev, which aimed to reduce the weight of the PK GPMG (19.8 lbs/9 kg) to approximately 14.7 lbs (6.7 kg). Despite innovations like forward ejection and a 25.8% weight reduction, the AO-29 was withdrawn from state trials in 1964, with the modernized PKM ultimately adopted on May 27, 1969.