The Zastava M21 is a series of 5.56×45mm NATO

rifle A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...

s developed and manufactured by

Zastava Arms Zastava Arms ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Застава oружје, Zastava oružje) is a Serbian manufacturer of firearms and artillery, based in Kragujevac, Serbia. It was founded in 1853 when it cast its first cannon. It is the leading producer of firear ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

Description

The M21 is based on the

Kalashnikov rifle A Kalashnikov (Калашников) rifle is any one of a series of automatic rifles based on the original design of Mikhail Kalashnikov. They are officially known in Russian as "Avtomát Kaláshnikova" ( rus, Автома́т Кала́шник� ...

, chambered in the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge. The current models use a 1.5mm thick stamped receiver. The M21 can incorporate

picatinny rails The Picatinny rail ( or ), or Pic rail for short, also known as a MIL-STD-1913 rail, 1913 rail or STANAG 2324 rail (cancelled), is a military standard rail interface system that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It was ...

for mounting accessories like optics, vertical grips, bipods, etc. The Zastava M21 is gas operated, long stroke piston with a rotating bolt locking system rifle. It features a hard chromium-plated, cold forged standard rifled or an optional polygonal rifled barrel, integrated 22mm flash hider grenade launcher, heavy-duty synthetic furniture with a polymer folding stock similarly to the

AK-74M The AK-74 ( Russian: , tr. ''Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974 goda'', lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1974) is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974. While primarily associated with the Soviet ...

, and side optics rail as standard (optional adapter base for cover mounted picatinny rail also available). The rifle can also mount a 40mm under-barrel grenade launcher. It has a magazine capacity of 30 rounds. The cyclic rate of fire is 680 rounds per minute, and the sustained rate of fire is 120 rounds/min. The Zastava M21 uses a conventional barrel, while the Zastava M21B uses a polygonal barrel. The regular barrel has six grooves with a right-hand twist. An octagonal polygonal version is also available and has four grooves with a right-hand twist (M21B). Barrels are also hard chrome plated to provide a longer service life. The rifle has conventional

iron sights Iron sights are a system of physical alignment markers (usually made of metallic material) used as a sighting device to assist the accurate aiming of ranged weapons (such as a firearm, airgun, crossbow or even compound bow), or less commonly ...

that consist of a front post and a flip-up rear sight with 300m and 500m apertures. A set of

picatinny rail The Picatinny rail ( or ), or Pic rail for short, also known as a MIL-STD-1913 rail, 1913 rail or STANAG 2324 rail (cancelled), is a military standard rail interface system that provides a mounting platform for firearm accessories. It was ...

s on the hand guard can mount various optoelectronic devices. The M21 is a modular weapon, with configuration dependent on the task and mission. Choices of optical sights include "TELEOPTIK" (ON M04) and "ZRAK" (ON M04A). Optoelectronic devices include a reflex sight ("MARS" M04), two bookmark target lasers ("AIM2000" M04A and "INFIZ" M04), two passive monoculars (M04 MINI N/SEAS and "MARS" M04+MINI N/SEAS), passive sight ("SOVA" PN 3x50).

Variants

The M21 comes in several assault rifle and

carbine A carbine ( or ) is a long gun that has a barrel shortened from its original length. Most modern carbines are rifles that are compact versions of a longer rifle or are rifles chambered for less powerful cartridges. The smaller size and lighte ...

variants: *M21 A – Standard baseline assault rifle. **M21 ABS – Built-in

system. *M21 S – Compact short barrel assault rifle. **M21 SBS – Built-in picatinny rail system. *M21 C – Carbine. **M21 BS – Built-in picatinny rail system.

Users

* – Used by special forces * – Used by special forces * – Used by federal (SIPA) and special police units. * – Used by National Police. * – Used by the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) * * * – 500 purchased in 2005. * * – standard service rifle of the

Serbian Armed Forces The Serbian Armed Forces ( sr, Војска Србије, Vojska Srbije) is the military of Serbia. The President of Serbia acts as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, while administration and defence policy is carried out by the Government ...

and Gendarmery. * - Used by G4S contractors.

References

External links

Zastava M21 at Zastava Arms
{{Zastava firearms 5.56 mm assault rifles M21 Kalashnikov derivatives Zastava Arms Weapons and ammunition introduced in 2004 Military Technical Institute Belgrade

Description

Variants

Users

See also

References

External links