The Kalashnikov Concern AMB-17 (, awaiting

GRAU The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of ...

designation), is an integrally suppressed compact

assault rifle An assault rifle is a select fire rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge, intermediate-rifle cartridge and a Magazine (firearms), detachable magazine.C. Taylor, ''The Fighting Rifle: A Complete Study of the Rifle in Combat'', F.A. Moyer '' ...

, chambered in subsonic

9×39mm The 9×39mm is a Soviet rifle cartridge. The cartridge yields increased performance in shorter barrels and effective subsonic performance. History and design The 9×39 is based on the Soviet 7.62×39mm case but with the neck expanded to fit a ...

SP5 cartridge and armour-piercing SP6 cartridge. It was developed and manufactured alongside the

Kalashnikov Concern AM-17 The Kalashnikov Concern AM-17 (, GRAU index 6P74) is a compact assault rifle that is chambered in 5.45×39mm intermediate cartridge. History The AM-17 was first unveiled in the Russian Army Expo 2017 alongside the integrally suppressed AMB-17, ...

, which was based on the Yevgeny Dragunov MA compact assault rifle. Both the AM-17 and AMB-17 were unveiled by

Kalashnikov Concern JSC Kalashnikov Concern (; ), known until 2013 as the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant (; ), is a Russian Arms industry, defense manufacturing Concern (business), concern and joint-stock company headquartered in the city of Izhevsk in the Republic ...

at the Russian Army Expo 2017. The AMB-17 is designed for covert close quarters operations, primarily for special units of the

Russian Interior Ministry The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD; , ''Ministerstvo vnutrennikh del'') is the interior ministry of Russia. The MVD is responsible for law enforcement in Russia through its agencies the Police of Russia, Migrati ...

and the

Russian Army The Russian Ground Forces (), also known as the Russian Army in English, are the Army, land forces of the Russian Armed Forces. The primary responsibilities of the Russian Ground Forces are the protection of the state borders, combat on land, ...

intended as a potential replacement for the

AS Val The AS Val "Shaft" (Russian: АС «Вал»; Автома́т Специа́льный, Romanization of Russian, romanized: ''Avtomát Spetsiálny "Val"'', Literal translation, lit. 'Special Automatic') and VSS Vintorez "Thread Cutter" (Russi ...

and

VSS Vintorez The AS Val "Shaft" (Russian: АС «Вал»; Автома́т Специа́льный, romanized: ''Avtomát Spetsiálny "Val"'', lit. 'Special Automatic') and VSS Vintorez "Thread Cutter" (Russian: ВСС «Винторе́з» Винто ...

Design details

The AMB-17 has an integral

suppressor A silencer, also known as a sound suppressor, suppressor, or sound moderator, is a gun barrel#Muzzle, muzzle device that suppresses the muzzle blast, blast created when a gun (firearm or airgun) is discharged, thereby reducing the sound inten ...

mounted on the front of the upper receiver which wraps around the barrel. In order for the suppressor to be integrated, the AMB-17 employs a wider opening within its handguard as compared to the AM-17, along with the front of the upper receiver which also allows for an integrated handguard half-length MIL-STD/1913 Picatinny rail. The integrated upper also includes a full-length MIL-STD/1913 Picatinny railing, polymer side-folding and adjustable (telescoping) shoulder stock, and longitudinal slots in the walls of the upper receiver allowing for ambidextrous controls in both the fire selector and charging handle. The AMB-17 is chambered in a subsonic 9×39 mm cartridge, which does not produce a

sonic boom A sonic boom is a sound associated with shock waves created when an object travels through the air faster than the speed of sound. Sonic booms generate enormous amounts of sound energy, sounding similar to an explosion or a thunderclap to ...

when fired. It uses the detachable box magazines compatible with the AS Val, VSS Vintorez, and SR3 Vikhr (SR3M, SR3MP).

Operating mechanism

The AMB-17, unlike previous firearms in current use with the Russian military, differentiates itself by employing two receivers that connect on a hinge instead of a single stamped receiver with a lid. To do this, the upper receiver itself is made from polymer and steel reinforcements, while the lower receiver along with its magazine housing is made entirely from polymer, and connected to the upper receiver by two captive take down cross-pins, reducing the weight of the firearm significantly and allowing for easier access into the internal operation. The gas operated action uses a short stroke gas piston and rotary bolt which locks with three radial lugs on the bolt head, similar to previous 9×39mm compact assault rifles, such as the

VSK-94 The VSK-94 (, GRAU index 6В8) is a 9×39mm sniper rifle variant of the 9A-91 assault rifle, designed in 1995 in the KBP Instrument Design Bureau by Vasily Gryazev and manufactured by Tula Arms Plant. The VSK-94 was meant to be a cheaper alternat ...

. The bolt carrier within the upper receiver is almost streamline by design raising it towards the bolt group reducing both bolt friction and felt user recoil.

Ammunition

Additionally, the

cartridge is very effective at penetrating

body armor Body armour, personal armour (also spelled ''armor''), armoured suit (''armored'') or coat of armour, among others, is armour for human body, a person's body: protective clothing or close-fitting hands-free shields designed to absorb or deflect ...

. It is equipped with a hardened

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

tungsten Tungsten (also called wolfram) is a chemical element; it has symbol W and atomic number 74. It is a metal found naturally on Earth almost exclusively in compounds with other elements. It was identified as a distinct element in 1781 and first ...

tip and can penetrate a high-density steel plate at 100 m; a steel plate or a standard army helmet can be fully penetrated at 500 m; however, its effective range is under 400 m.

Users

* : The AMB-17 is in limited use with FSB and FSO specifically for firearms testing and has yet to complete acceptance trials.

References

Citations

External links

Larry Vickers shooting AM-17 assault rifle

АМБ-17: ТТХ
{{Commons category, Kalashnikov AMB-17 Silenced firearms 9×39mm firearms Assault rifles of Russia Kalashnikov Concern products