9A-91

Designed by KBP Instrument Design Bureau in 1991 for close quarter urban based combats, 9A-91 was designed to be a cheaper and more versatile alternative to the AS Val family of firearms include VSS Vintorez and SR-3 Vihkr. Development of 9A-91 also aimed towards being able to fire other cartridges, but when the design finalized 9A-91 family of firearm was made to only chamber the 9x39mm calibre cartridge. 9A-91 served as an alternative to the Vihkr, derived weapons from 9A-91 such as the VSK-94 sniper rifle served as an alternative to the Vintorez, the A-91 bullpup carbine assault rifle was potentially made competing against the costly Groza-4. The conventional layout, carbine assault rifle 9A-91 is a gas actuated, rotating bolt weapon, actual operation of the gun utilizes a long stroke gas piston located above the barrel and a four lugs rotating bolt. Being one of the rifles derived from the Kalashnikov series, 9A-91 retain the right side charging handle/ejection port. The gun itself has many none-essential components (such as the fore end and pistol grip) made with polymer as possible, designed to reduce the total weight and reduce the manufacturing cost. 9A-91 is also known to be one of the most compact carbine designs in the world having a total length of 373mm with the gun stock folded and suppressor removed (574mm with the stock unfolded). Feeds from a 20 round magazine, 9A-91 is capable of firing at a rate of 700-900 rounds per minute. The primary servicing cartridge is the subsonic 9x39mm SP-6, combined with the short barrel 9A-91's effective combat range restricted to below 100 metres, hence the flip-up rear sights only have settings up to 200 metres. Usage of other optics such as the PKA-S or Kobra EKS can fit on the rails provided on the left side of the receiver. 9A-91 is currently in service with law enforcement units in Russia.