Small arms الأسلحة الخفيفة
مرسل: الثلاثاء أكتوبر 12, 2010 12:14 am
A discussion of rifles, machine guns, pistols, RPGs etc... of the old Iraqi army.
Iraq had a flourishing arms industry throughout the 70's and 80's. Among others, they produced AKs under license and imported several. Among some of the licensed AKs they imported were East German ones, Mpi-KMs, which were, alongside the Polish and Egyptian AKs, almost identical to the Soviet ones, meaning they were among the highest quality ones. Notable features on the Mpi-KM were plastic furniture rather than wood, which made it lighter than most other AKs. It also had studs all over the furniture to prevent the weapon from slipping in the user's hand and keep it secure.
Iraq produced their own variant of the AK (designated Tabuk) as well as PKMs, RPG-7s and several Soviet small arms (as was the theme among many countries that mainly purchased Soviet arms). Most interesting however were some of Iraq's custom weapons and experiments. One that comes to mind for sure is the Tabuk Sniper Rifle, which was NOT a copy of the SVD, but practically an original design with a higher capacity than the SVD. It's a truly unique rifle to say the least.
