MOSCOW. Nov 17 (Interfax-AVN) - The rating of the past century's most popular small arms by the Military Channel, based on the polls of U.S. and British experts and military, showed that the Kalashnikov assault rifle still ranks second to none.
"The weapons were assessed in five criteria, including accuracy, combat effectiveness, original design, easiness of maintenance and sustained fire capability. The AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle scored more points in all categories, except accuracy," the Washington ProFile international news agency says in its report received by Interfax-AVN on Friday.
It also notes that the U.S. M-16 rifle goes second (this one in service of U.S. and many NATO members since 1960s), and only then goes the British SMLE rifle (developed in 1916, and is still in use by some countries in Africa, and in Afghanistan).
The top ten list of weapons also includes the M1 Garand (4th), the Belgian FN FAL automatic rifle (5th), the Mauser 98K rifle (6th), the Steyr AUG automatic rifle (7th), the mod. 1903 Springfield U.S. rifle (8th), the German Stg44 assault rifle (9th) and the U.S. M-14 rifle.