The AK-12 is a stupendous design. The same principles that made the original Kalashnikov design immortal, notions of utility and efficiency, were passed onto a new era. The combat zone will continue to blur as time goes on, and the ideas who enemy is will continue to degrade. The future will see complete shifts in how we live and how we enact our emotions - passions - to hurt others. We must also bring into the future a change in how we kill. The AK-12 is a reply to future conflicts.
The Kalashnikov had always been more than just a weapon. It has been a symbol since its inception. It's been the tool of tyrants, the voice of revolutionaries, and carried the vindication of entire cultures and nations. The Kalashnikov is immortal because it is the absolute harbinger of war, neutral and unflinching. It works, and until the day we dry the earth of its metals and its minerals, there will be bullets to fire and there will be Kalashnikovs to fire them with. But for some reason, most fans and proponents of the Kalashnikov weapon family see it as a "vintage" weapon. But it has always been changing, from the AK-74 introducing a new round to the AK-100 series introducing new forms of the same basic system. Outside of Russia even, its design has influenced guns in Belgium and Israel and Italy and Switzerland and Romania and Finland and South Africa and Yugoslavia and Bulgaria and Singapore and China and Iraq and every single time they prove something true: the Kalashnikov is not just a gun, but a mold of modern firearms.
The AK-12's modular system allows a soldier to vary roles in his squad, just the change of a barrel and suddenly their 5.45x39 rifle effective against flesh but not so much obstruction can become a 7.62x539 to obliterate the target's cover and the target. They built the AK-12 thinking globally, it can fire NATO rounds, grenades, and even other intermediate calibers such as the 6.5mm Grendel. Both the AK-12's new four-position fire selector (automatic, semiautomatic, burst fire, and safe) and its cocking handle are now ambidextrous; this accommodation complements its new ergonomic pistol grip, adjustable stock that can be folded to either side, significantly muted recoil, smaller ejection port, and a magazine release able to be used with the trigger finger for a more fluid motion. Even more, experimental self-lubricating coating is being tested on the AK-12 rifles.
As the weapon prepares for the civilian market, is tested by police officials, and with no official military adoption yet, it would seem the AK-12 will belong first to the public. The AK-12 is a hint of what is to come. Most newer rifle designs are opting for modularity and interchangeability rather than simplicity. Picatinny rails and synthetic furniture are replacing propriety sights and the refined wood of older weapons. This is not a shift away from golden times, but a step toward to a new age.
Underneath a jungle of neon lights and megalithic buildings is where many armed fighters may find themselves rather than wild forest brush. Between the thinning walls of apartments and urban centers in metropolises will be where the AK-12 may find itself in the heat of history, rather than the rustic villages or the mountainous terrain of its predecessors.
The only thing I know for sure is the AK-12 is sexy. It's a grand design, and I want it very much.