AKS-74U
assault rifle
The AKS-74U (Russian: Автомат Калашникова складной 1974 года укороченный, romanized: Avtomat Kalashnikova skladnoy 1974 goda ukorochenny, lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle folding 1974 shortened') is the compact carbine variant of the Soviet AK-74 rifle. The carbine fulfills the same role as similarly sized submachine guns.
History
In 1973, a design competition (codenamed "Modern"; Russian: Модерн) was started for the adoption of a fully automatic carbine.
Soviet planners drew from the unsolicited design AO-46 built in 1969 by Peter Andreevich Tkachev, which weighed only 1.9 kg.
The TTT specifications required a weight no greater than 2.2 kg (4.9 lb), a length of 75 cm (29.5 in)/45 cm (17.7 in) with the stock unfolded/folded, and an effective firing range of 500 m (547 yd).
The competition was joined by designs of Mikhail Kalashnikov (PP1), Igor Stechkin (TKB-0116), S. G. Simonov (AG-043), A. S. Konstantinov (AEK-958), and Yevgeny Dragunov (who called his model "MA"). Kalashnikov also presented an additional design (A1-75) which differed from PP1 by having a modified muzzle for flash and noise suppression.
In 1977, the GRAU decided to adopt Kalashnikov's model, which was largely a shortened AKS-74, because its performance was no worse than the competition, and promised significant production cost savings by utilizing existing equipment for the AK-74 line.
A final round of large scale testing with Kalashnikov's model was performed by airborne divisions in the Transcaucasian Military District in March 1977.
The AKS-74U ("U"—Russian: укороченный; Ukorochenniy, or "shortened") was officially adopted in 1979, and given the official, but seldom used GRAU designation 6P26.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “AKS-74U” is assault rifle. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through AKS-74U, assault and rifle, not as a finished interpretation.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q909728. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1974, 1973, 1969 and 1977.
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This entry incorporates text from “AKS-74U” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.