Vepr

The Vepr (Ukrainian: Вепр, wild boar) was announced in 2003 as the first indigenous Ukrainian assault rifle, designed by the State Space Agency of Ukraine. It is one of several bullpup conversions of the conventional AKM design, along with the Polish Kbk wz. 2005 Jantar, the Chinese Norinco Type 86S, the Russian OTs-14 Groza, the Finnish Valmet M82 and the South African Vektor CR-21. The first Vepr rifle was shown on 28 August 2003, only ten Veprs were made until 9 October 2004. In addition, one test prototype Malyuk (Ukrainian: Малюк, "Baby") was made in 2005. However, since the political tides in Ukraine are moving towards a NATO and possibly a European Union membership, and since 2009 a well-launched Ukrainian gun manufacturer (RPC Fort) is offering on the Ukrainian market firearms in "western" calibers such as the Israeli Tavor assault rifle, Negev light machinegun and Galil sniper rifle, the future of this weapon in Ukrainian service may be in jeopardy. As of 2019, most Ukrainian personnel still use AK-74s. In March 2019, it was announced that the National Police of Ukraine would replace Kalashnikov assault rifles with HK MP5 submachine guns. Currently only small number of Veprs are in service with Ukrainian special forces. Although the Vepr has been proclaimed as a revolutionary upgrade to the AK-74, it is, in fact, an interesting yet fairly simple modification of the basic AK-74 system in a bullpup design, with the following modifications: -The standard gas-operated, rotating-bolt AK-74 mechanism is removed from its furniture and a new butt plate is mounted directly on the rear of the receiver. -A polymer cheek rest is fitted to the receiver cover. -The trigger and pistol grip are placed in front of the magazine. -The cocking handle is removed from the bolt carrier and a new cocking handle arrangement is placed on the left side of the forearm.