Solomonson
Member
What if a brilliant and ultra-wealthy American (say someone like Edsel Ford I or Howard Hughes) had designed, tooled and produced in quantity (even if most were warehoused) what we now know as the AK-47 chambered for what we now know as the .223 Remington (including full lethality test data for the round, and a study of the average distance of lethal shots in WWI) by 1933? Let's say they did this outside and parallel to FoMoCo or Hughes Tool/Aircraft.
The reason I wonder about this is because from a technology and manufacturing standpoint, the US certainly had the capability to mass-produce the AK-47 and the .223 Remington round in 1933. Neither requires esoteric materials. This isn't a ridiculous fantasy -- it's not as if the transistor would first need to be invented and then miniaturized for this to have been realized for instance. Any resistance would have come more through politics than anything else.
The AK-47 would have been far easier and cheaper to produce than the Garand. Further, the M1 was still a few years away from being approved, although there was maneuvering going on between the existing 30-06 Springfield round, and the proposed .276 Pedersen.
There’s other, deeper issues too. What if the Axis got hold of a cheap/easy to produce design like the AK-47 when Lend/Lease began, near the beginning of the war? What would have been the impact to Allied losses? What would have been the real impact to ammo consumption? Would such a rifle best be released as a semi-auto and not a select auto?
This topic fascinates me. Thanks.
The reason I wonder about this is because from a technology and manufacturing standpoint, the US certainly had the capability to mass-produce the AK-47 and the .223 Remington round in 1933. Neither requires esoteric materials. This isn't a ridiculous fantasy -- it's not as if the transistor would first need to be invented and then miniaturized for this to have been realized for instance. Any resistance would have come more through politics than anything else.
The AK-47 would have been far easier and cheaper to produce than the Garand. Further, the M1 was still a few years away from being approved, although there was maneuvering going on between the existing 30-06 Springfield round, and the proposed .276 Pedersen.
There’s other, deeper issues too. What if the Axis got hold of a cheap/easy to produce design like the AK-47 when Lend/Lease began, near the beginning of the war? What would have been the impact to Allied losses? What would have been the real impact to ammo consumption? Would such a rifle best be released as a semi-auto and not a select auto?
This topic fascinates me. Thanks.
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