Vietnam debuts new assault rifle STL-1B
At the Indo Defence 2018 exhibition held in Indonesia, Vietnam introduced for the first time its own domestically produced STL-1B assault rifle.
In the past, Vietnam produced Galil ACE 32 assault rifles under license from the Israeli IMI Group, but there have been many improvement plans for optimization.
The advantage of the Galil ACE 32 is that it has a modern design, with a higher rate of fire than the AK-47 (700 rounds/minute compared to 600 rounds/minute). On the gun body, there are picatinny rails that allow the integration of many additional accessories such as sights, flashlights, handles...
However, the Galil ACE 32 has the disadvantage of not having a bullet path as good as the AK-47 or AKM because the barrel is actually only 380 mm long, causing the 7.62 x 39 mm bullet to only reach a velocity of 680 m/s, much less than the 715 m/s of the AKM.
When the speed is reduced, of course the bullet path will not be as tight and accurate, besides the kinetic energy of the bullet is also significantly reduced, this is an index that cannot be ignored.
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| Modern infantry guns displayed by Vietnam at Indo Defence Exhibition 2018 |
A temporary solution that was once proposed was for Vietnam to improve the AKM into the STL-1A with some implanted components in the style of the Russian KM-AK Obevs equipment kit, making the AKM look like the first generation AK-103, but fundamentally this is still not the optimal solution.
Meanwhile, a better solution has been proposed, which is that Vietnam will apply the technology of the Galil ACE 32 gun to the STL-1A to completely improve the gun's technical and tactical features such as integrating the picatinny rail or the Galil gun's locking mechanism.
However, when the new image appeared at the Indo Defence Exhibition 2018, Vietnam's approach was even more creative when we "assembled" the barrel of the AKM into the body of the Galil ACE 32 to create an assault rifle model that is typical of Vietnam and has never been seen before in the world.
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| New generation assault rifle STL-1B researched and manufactured by Vietnam |
According to some initial information, the designation of the new gun model is STL-1B, thanks to the combination of the advantages of both Galil ACE 32 and AKM into one design, it possesses technical and tactical features that far surpass both originals.
With the Galil ACE 32 body and 415mm barrel and gas stroke of the AKM, it can be predicted that the STL-1B will have a rate of fire of 700 rounds/minute while still maintaining a muzzle velocity of 715 m/s for the bullet.
