AEK-999

The AEK-999 Barsuk (Russian: Барсук, "badger") is a Russian machine gun chambered for the 7.62×54mmR round. It is a general-purpose machine gun, developed during the 1990s as a modernized version of the PKM to improve its capabilities in the LMG/SAW role. The AEK-999 was to be capable of sustained automatic fire without requiring a quick-change barrel, and better suited for assault operations where it could be fired from the hip or from the integral bipod. The AEK-999 was developed in the Kovrov Mechanical Plant for the Russian Armed Forces, but lost in military trials to the Pecheneg machine gun which was developed under the same requirements. Kovrov produced small batches of the AEK-999 for the Ministry of Internal Affairs to equip special forces units of the Internal Troops of Russia, but all military production ceased in 2006.