This guy's really following the Adolf Hitler playbook closely...

"Umm. They are making their own AKs now, is what I have read."

Yeah, I know. A nearly 60-year-old rifle design.

Cutting edge to say the least.
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They're going to be building AK-103s, the same revision he just ordered from Russia.

I personally own an AK-101 (5.56) outfitted with a folding stock, chromelined 16" barrel, modern ergonomic grip, and tactical rails. Put an EOtech on it, and how is that different than a new AR, apart from the slight weight difference, the ability to fold up the stock on the AK, and the AK's significantly more reliable will-fire-no-matter-how-dirty gas piston design? I think a lot of people rightly think of a wooden-stocked old sort being waved around by a jihadist when they hear "AK", but a current-production one is likely to be all composite furniture and be outfitted with a birdcage flash hider, rail grips, laser, or KOBRA holographic sight that works just like our EOtech.

Comparing something like an AK-103 or the Bulgarian Arsenal SLR series to an original AK-47 is rather like comparing a current M-16 or AR-15 to a first-run M16A1 from the 60's, triangular handguard and all. Is that really fair?
 
"Comparing something like an AK-103 or the Bulgarian Arsenal SLR series to an original AK-47 is rather like comparing a current M-16 or AR-15 to a first-run M16A1 from the 60's, triangular handguard and all. Is that really fair?"

Yes. Becuase the overall manufacturing process and effort that goes to produce the rifles are very similar.

In fact, producing the AK-103 might well be even easier than the original AK-47 depending on how it was redesigned.
 
Oh, that I knew, I just meant in terms of the fact that it's not as if the design is "outmoded" just because the basic design is 60 years old. That, and the modern revisions make it more accurate of a rifle.

That with a good receiver, better furniture ergonomics, good ammo and one of those KOBRA holosights, a newly-made AK, in trained hands, is not a secondrate rifle. It's also probably ideal for use in a very large South American country, climatewise.

But yeah, they are still easy to manufacture. The receiver itself can be just stamped, bent and heat-treated metal, after all. There are more lousy AK copies in the world made than good, since they don't need to be particularly accurate. In this case, since the factory is to be licensed directly by the Russian manufacturers, I suspect it'll lean more towards quality, with properly made and lined barrels and all for accuracy.

In other words, my point, is that Chavez will not be cranking out reliable, but bullet-aerosol AKs for his troops, he'll be able to manufacture modern, extremely accurate ones. And that is, to me, worrying. Especially if we ever get involved against him, or if he starts selling to our enemies.
 
Venezuela has gone downhill since Chavez took office. The poor class has increased greatly, the middle class has all but vanished, and the upper class has been greatly restricted. The anti-Chavez sentiment has been in Venezuela all along, but it was never allowed to be displayed. NOW, that sentiment is starting to increase greatly, and even the "thugs" in the military and police agencies are beginning to question Chavez' motives.
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Replace Venezuela with the US and Chavez with Bush... makes for a funny read. Obviously not a mirror, but funny.


BTW, boycotting a single brand of gasoline is not going to affect anything as they all share pipelines and refineries. Basically, if Citgo didn't sell to you at the pump, it would sell to shell or exxon at the back end before they add in their unique detergents/etc.
 
I was not saying that the gun was outmoded.

I was saying that the PRODUCTION PROCESS by which the gun is produced is NOT the cutting edge of technology.

It doesn't require large, precise CNC machinery.

It doesn't require angstrom-level accuracy determined by laser measuring devices.

It doesn't require space age composits, polymers, or alloys.
 
I was not saying that the gun was outmoded.

I was saying that the PRODUCTION PROCESS by which the gun is produced is NOT the cutting edge of technology.

It doesn't require large, precise CNC machinery.

It doesn't require angstrom-level accuracy determined by laser measuring devices.

It doesn't require space age composits, polymers, or alloys.
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Oh, well, yeah, I agree there. That's all true. :)
 
Soon enough there will be plenty of AK-103s floating around and no food in Venezuela. Interesting thing about hardcore Socialist government: Shortages of food always seem to follow right behind, but there are always plenty of guns in the hands of police to keep everyone safe from capitalist pigs.

Chavez already has stripped large landowners of their property. Much of that land has gone fallow since the urban poor sent out to farm it have no idea how to grow food.

Chavez is busy stripping foreign oil companies of their investments. Bye bye investments in modern equipment and expertise. So much for buying food with oil. Also, bye bye all other foreign direct investment.

Of course, Chavez has to get the radio and TV stations too, otherwise people will find out that everyone else also knows that Chavez is making life miserable.

So is Chavez the next Hitler? Nah, he's just the latest incarnation of Stalin.
 
Chavez is destined to be the Robert Mugabe of South America, in terms of mismanaging the overall economy of Venezuela. The only thing going right now is the oil fields and that will come under pressure with time (as in Mexico) as the state oil company is politicized further and raided for money to stir the pot in other countries in SA, among other things. He is not blessed with very good quality oil reserves, mostly very heavy and dirty. Without significant expertise and investment, production will fall due to lack of exploration and maintenance. Look at Pemex. He will also have so many pals skimming off the top his piggy bank will shrink, less playtime for fat Hugo.

He and Algore both are really packing on the weight. Coincidence? Their egos have inflated at about the same rate...

Chavez already has two proteges, Evo Morales in Bolivia and Correa (sp?) in Ecuador. Morales is dumber than a post and relies totally on Venezuelan and Cuban technocrats to tell him what to do. Correa is smarter but no less committed to setting himself up in a Marxist state for life. Hugo has Argentina on a short leash with cheap energy deals that Nestor's (another Marxist boob) own economic mismanagement are covering up for the moment. Danny Ortega (Nicaragua's new caudillo) is a failed Chavez and has Hugo's support. Figure he will try to rerun the Sandinista (Marxist) game plan from before.

Chavez has $29B in his central bank, but the circus cannot continue forever.

Don't forget Hugo has ordered IIRC about 16 Su-30-class strike fighters from Russia, with no visible military threat extant. So he is getting more sophisticated stuff. He also has relationships with Iran, China and likely thereby North Korea, which could give him access to sophisticated weapons and related stuff, up to and including at some time, nukes.

Citgo has rebranded themselves as Petro Express. Easy way to avoid them, buy from a name brand or inquire where the fuel is coming from. You might not find out, but the less oil/products Chavez can sell here, the better for a lot of people.
 
Chavez is destined to be the Robert Mugabe of South America
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My dad just got back from Zimbawe on a plains game safari and said it was a mess there. Almost zero tourism and no real infastructure. Mugabe is running that country right into the ground.
 
Zimbabwe was formerly the breadbasket of southern Africa.

Mugabe now presides over widespread famine, lack of medical supplies, a GDP that has contracted by more than 30% in two years and raging inflation.

He, and his buds, however, never miss a meal, go out of country for medical care and have their assets denominated in hard currencies like the dollar and Swiss franc.

Typical result for typical Marxists. Change the names, lyrics and music, but the end is always the same...
 
Chavez is a clown. Mugabe is a clown. That bearded buffoon running Iran is a clown. Castro is a clown. Life goes on. Folks get what they want. No one is powerless.

WildvoteemoutorAlaska
 
I was saying that the PRODUCTION PROCESS by which the gun is produced is NOT the cutting edge of technology.

It doesn't require large, precise CNC machinery.

It doesn't require angstrom-level accuracy determined by laser measuring devices.

It doesn't require space age composits, polymers, or alloys.
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I still say these are benefits in actual wartime. Building "cutting edge" equipment is great...when the time and money is there to do it and service it. "X" months into a major conflict (not this sandlot fight we are in now) "cutting edge" becomes a liability if your entire fighting force has to rely on it. Pumping out vast numbers of functioning low tech weapons that remain effective is better than trying to fix high tech that costs many times more and takes longer to make, let alone repair(not to mention the issue of field service itself).

Anyway, one crucial thing Chavez lacks, so far as I can see, is the kind of charisma and almost hypnotizing speaking ability Hitler rode till the end. People, I don't think, will follow him like they did Hitler even if he could create and marginalize a scapegoat to the same level.
 
"I still say these are benefits in actual wartime."

Did I say they weren't?

"Pumping out vast numbers of functioning low tech weapons that remain effective is better..."

Not always.

That's only a good thing IF you have the people to man all those low-tech weapons. In the Soviet Union, China, or India, say, that tactic can work well because the available manpower levels are so huge.

In a smaller nation, one whose manpower base is far more finite, greater technological expertise can often be a leveling factor against that manpower disadvantage.

Stalin is the poster child for "Quantity has a quality all its own."

Far too many people seize on that as an indication that the Soviets during WW II produced only inferior weapons but in such massive quantities that they couldn't be overcome.

Bull.

By 1943/1944 the Soviets were beginning to field domestically designed weapons that were technologically on par with weapons being fielded in the west.
 
Well, while we are in WWII, let us recall that the US used overwhelming numbers to defeat Nazi Germany. Our tanks were not as good as the German panzers as I recall. The US, after the war, adopted the "blitzkrieg" strategy of the Germans. We renamed it "Combined Arms", air, land, sea battle. The Russians took our example in WWII into their strategies. The primary problem that the Germans had in fighting the Allies was their lack of resources and man power. So it begs the question. Why would one believe that the US is unbeatable, seeing as we are suffering from a lack of resources, factories, and manpower to fight and win a global war? I know that this doesn't apply to Venezuela, as we are not at war with them and, even in our weakened state, are more than a match for them. Let's just hope that Russia isn't interested in reawakening the cold war or getting involved in this fiasco in Venezuela. Maybe the people of Venezuela will take care of this internal problem that they have.
 
Why would one believe that the US is unbeatable, seeing as we are suffering from a lack of resources, factories, and manpower to fight and win a global war?
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We also haven't "fully mobilized" since WWII.

If we were directly attacked in a world war scenario, if the draft was restarted, if the car factories filled with robots were turned to producing humvees and strikers and M1s, the massive airliner plants to warplane and helicopter manufacture...

And we have such strong, industrially capable business partner allies now that there's a lot of stuff we don't NEED to build ourselves. Mile-long transports could be cranked out of Daewoo and other shipyards at the filing of a purchase request.
 
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