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Karbala 2004 progress on weapons

  • Written by JdB
  • Published in news
  • Read 2925 times
krzychuzokecia of the Karbala 2004 mod, which focuses mainly on the Polish forces that fought in Iraq, has sent us pictures and information about the weapons of the Polish and Bulgarian armies that they are working on.

The AKMS carbine is a complete work of Vilas. It's not original Izhmash variant but last Polish licensed copy.

Beryl Mk96 and Mk04/Mk96B carbines, 5.56 NATO cal. They're made upon original Vilas' model, but went through improving process. Thanks to it our Beryls now have modeled tritium sights for night firing and proper gas block (instead of AKM one in Vilas model). Beryl carbine was issued in 1996 as a standard weapon of Polish Army. It replaced 5.45 cal Tantal Mk89 and some of 7.62 AKs.



PKM and UKM-2000P (also known as Rod Mk04 - for rhodium chemical element) GPMGs which are modified WW4 mod weapons. When Poland was entering the NATO almost everything had to be changed in the army. Visible sign of changes was adopting new types of weapons - WIST Mk94 pistol chambered for 9mm Para, PM-84P Glauberyt machine pistol in the same caliber or Beryl carbine. The same story was with PKM GPMG which was going to be replaced by new weapon for 7.62 NATO rifle cartridge. First such weapon was PKM-N (N for NATO). It was a complete failure, and it's biggest problem was using NATO ammunition but with Soviet type ammo belt! New weapon - UKM-2000 was made by Tarnow Metal Works and designers at Warsaw Military Technical Academy. Although visually resembling PKM, new design is internally completely different.



Karbala 2004 Mod will also contain aforementioned WIST pistol and Wanad Mk83 pistol which was used by Polish Military Contingent in Iraq when WIST was found to be unreliable in desert conditions. There will also be Arsenal AR-1, AR-1M and AR-M1 Bulgarian clones of AK (with milled receiver) and Arsenal GPMG series used by Bulgarian soldiers, who were also fighting in 2004 Battle of Karbala, but these weapons are in very early stage of development.