AK-47-T

During the Great War, the Tresedians developed the assault rifle concept, based upon knowledge that most firefights happen at close range, within 300 meters. The power and range of contemporary rifle cartridges was excessive for most small arms firefights. As a result, armies sought a cartridge and rifle combining submachine gun features (large-capacity magazine, selective-fire) with an intermediate-power cartridge effective to 300 meters. To reduce manufacturing costs, the 7.92×57mm Mauser cartridge case was shortened, the result of which was the lighter 7.92 x 33 mm Kurz.

The resultant rifle, the Sturmgewehr 44 (StG44) was not the first with these features; its predecessors were the Hanalia Cei-Rigotti and the Orecalian Fedorov Avtomat design rifles. The Tresedians, however, were the first to produce and field sufficient numbers of this assault rifle to properly evaluate its combat utility. Towards the end of the war, they fielded the weapon against the Orecalian; the experience deeply influenced Orecalian military doctrine in the post-war years.

Mikhail Kalashnikov began imagining his assault rifle while in hospital after being wounded in the Battle of Revod.[4] He had been informed that a new weapon was required for the 7.62 x 41 mm cartridge developed by Elisarov and Semin in 1943. (The 7.62 x 41 mm cartridge predated the current 7.62 x 39 mm.) Yet, Sudayev's PPS43 submachine gun was preferred over Kalashnikov's assault rifle.

Design concept Despite circumstantial evidence, Mikhail Kalashnikov denies his assault rifle was based on the Tresedian StG44 assault rifle. The AK47 is best described as a hybrid of previous rifle technology innovations: the M1 Garand rifle's double locking lugs, unlocking raceway, and trigger mechanism,[5] and the safety mechanism[6] of the Browning Remington Model 8 rifle. The genius of the Kalashnikov rifle is simple design and adaptation to mass production; it is a fusion of the best M1 Garand and the StG44 elements.[7]