Armanent of russian anti-terrorist units. Part 1

With the news of Strike One having failed the tests, I desided to give an inside look to the handguns of the russian antiterror. Well, actually I desided to make a cycle, reviewing the armanent, most frequently seen in use by the antiterror units, starting with handguans, which are actually my favorite topic.
Russian special forces tend to use both, the russian-made guns and the guns, bought abroad. The favour tends for foreign weaponry. Specifically, in favour are Glock-17 and SIG P226.
The #1 favourite are the Glocks, favoured for the maximum complex of positive characteristcs like the weight, accuracy, capacity, ergonomics and stopping power. Actually, Strike One was intented to make up for the shortage of Glocks. As the operatives said: "There aren't enough Glocks for all of us, so we want something like the Glock, but russian". Good news is that they are manufactured by the Orsis company, but the shortage is still rather serious.

The second favourite gun is the P226. The same good accuracy, capacity and lighter recoil. It perfectly meets the demands of the special forces. Although, the shortage is as felt as the shortage of Glocks.

CZ-75 was noticed as well, as seen on the photo. Some sporting version.

With tha latest news of AK-12 being accepted as one of the weapons of choice for russian army, it would be good to list a few differences from the AK-74M.
First of all and most notable is the improvement in ergonomics. It is possible to perform most manipulations with tha gun with a single hand. Notable is the ambidextrous fire selector(with burst fire added), which is easy to use with a thumb, absolutely new to AK series, and a new magazine release. It is now possible to drop the mag with the help of a single finger. Also AK features new ventilated handguard and a foldable telescopic stock. As for the other notable improvements, AK-12 features a new compensator and a new receiver cover.
A couple words abouth the cover. It is far more hard and got rid of the backlash problem, which is usual for any AK. Moreover, it features a picatinny rail, and new sights, with a longer sight line, that should considerably increase iron sight fire accuracy.
The system is left classic, with a couple improvements to the manufacturing process. The parts are made with far more precision.
The price, voiced by IZhMASh, is $1000. The gun should be availible by spring-summer 2015.

Heckler und Koch desided to show a little love to civillians and finally make a civillian legal G36, that looked like G36.
At IWA 2014 the legal G36 was finally showcased, as the HK-243.
It comes in two variants- the baseline S-SAR "Sporter Basic" and the tactical S-TAR "Sporter Professional". Both are semi-auto .223 Remington (5.56x45mm) rifles, showing fixed iron sights with M1913 Picatinny rail. The difference between the basic and professional version lies in the furniture. The basic version has standart G36 folding stock and ventilated handguard. The professional version, on the other hand, has the folding, adjustable buttstock and an aluminium railed handguard, developed by the German Army and HK for the IdZ(Infantierst der Zukunft). Although, the furniture can further be bought and installed on the basic model.
Although the prices are unknown, for now, HK's hatred for civillian market couldn't decrease too much, so they are expected to be high, unreasonably high.

Russian wannabee Glock obviously failed.
It seems as though after the invention of Makarov pistol, Russia has had obvious problems with handguns. PMM has feed problems, because of the magazine(It has 15, unlike the first Makarov pistol, which had 8). GSh-18 is not resourceful and requires serious rework. The Grach is simply very raw, unergonomical and has regular malfunctions.
And now, a hopeful project, Strike One, designed by Arsenal Firearms, failed the government tests.
Citating the head of the tests, Dmitry Semizorov,: "The test of "Strike One" pistol began and ended right away. The handgun showed its insolvency as to be presented to our military". Nothing more was detailed.
In 2012 russian vice prime minister Dmitry Rogozin stated, that Strike One surpasses Glock and will be adopted by the Ministry of Defence to replace the Makarov pistol.
Well, Dmitry, not today. Not anywhere soon.

Ukrainian company "Fort" widens it's interaction with the Israeli IWI adopting 3 new designs: Fort-227, Fort-228 and Fort-229. Each one is based on the Israeli-designed Galil ACE, the evolution of an AK rifle.

Fort-227 is the 5.56 design, with the barrell length of 332 mm. Fort-228 is designed for 7.62x39 ammo, and has the barrell length of 215 mm. Fort-229, in its turn, has the barrell length of 400 mm and is designed for  7.62 NATO ammo.
Ukraine adopted Fort-227 and Fort-228 for the Army, as well, as it has adopted the Fort-made Tavor rifle for the National guard.
Nevertheless, not too many soldiers have used these rifles in the battlefield. Moreover, the profit of these guns is arguable, as Ukraine has no factories to massively produce 5.56 ammo, nor to rearrange the existing ones, as Lugansk ammo factory is in separatists' control

Every part of the russian gear for the "future soldier", Ratnik, is picked. Except the main thing. The gun itself.
That was until the state test, which was suposed to show the #1 among the contenders. Two opponents were the new AK-12 of the "Kalashnikov" concern and the A-545 made by Degtyarev factory. And both passed the test. Both rifles meet the demands of the russian Ministry of Defence.

It seems, that Russia will be adopting both guns, but arming different departments, as the guns have different characterstics, despite the similarities.

A-545 has better automatic fire accuracy, because of innovative balanced automatics. On the other hand, the AK-12 is easier to manipulate and easier to maintain, because of quite simpler build.

Reminding, that the use of "Ratnik" will start at march of 2015 and until that time, the guns will be picked