The world-famous Russian Kalashnikov Concern stole the show at the Army-2016 forum in the Moscow Region unveiling a new string of its deadly weapons including the RPK-16 machine gun, the AK12 and the AK15 assault rifles. A Sputnik reporter visited the Alabino shooting range to see the demonstration of the arms' capabilities with his own eyes.

The RPK-16 is a 5.45mm brand new light machine gun which is expected to take over the role of its predecessor, the RPK-74, in the Russian Armed Forces thanks to its groundbreaking features.

© Sputnik / Evgeny Biyatov A visitor examines the RPK-16 machine of the Kalashnikov concern at the Army 2016 International military and technical forum.

What striking first and foremost is that this machine gun is equipped with a sniper sight and abarrel silencer and is capable of firing single shots, which is absolutely surprising for the type of a weapon known for strong recoil and meant for firing long bursts.

This is exactly what makes the RPK-16 different from analogues. A fine combination of ergonomic decisions such as the changeable length of the club and a pistol-like grip considerably minimize recoil whereas a Picatinny rail is used to mount extra devices such as a scope sight, a collimating sight, a heat imaging sight, or a tac-lite system.

During the dynamic demonstration, a shooter armed with an RPK-16 equally easily eliminated targets with both long bursts and single shots, using the record-light 4kg-machinegun as a sniper rifle in the latter case. The engineers created a truly cross-functional weapon, Andrei Kirisenko, an adviser