Mr. T (MrT4) said:

Issues with buttstock cracking in the cold from firing under barrel grenade launcher

Hmmm, thats interesting because some of the other AK-12's I've seen had the 'AR-stye' buffer tube stock, which I had thought was selected because of its strength.

mpopenker said:

In fact the 12M1 is a quite reasonable upgrade the 2rd burst is redundant when your cyclic ROF is below 700 rpm the new diopter is 3-position (200-400-600) the new fixed flash hider/comp is designed so the suppressor can be mounted right onto it, without the need to detach anything

Those do sound like reasonable upgrades.

With the flash hider, is it welded/rivitted to the barrel? Or just secured with a rockset/locktite like compound? 

The advantage with being removable would seem to be the ability to use cheap/DIY suppressors, such as some of the 'solvent trap' types from Aliexpress, or the scratch built ones we've seen on AK74's in Ukraine.

I think the flash hider is screwed on and then pinned to the barrel

as for suppressors, there are at least three major private makers here in Russia and probably close to a dozen of smaller ones, that produce anything from cheap steel cans worth about 200 Euro and up to the high end, 3D-printed designs made of stainless steel or titanium that worth close to a thousand of Euros.

I have a Holosun 512 on one of my AUG's, so this was pretty cool for me to see the 512 out in the wild. 

**edit** 

Another 512c + 3x from earlier in the war:

Somewhat crude JDAMSKI  GPS guided extended range glide kit for cast iron. Will be refined once its proven to work.

Given the previous projects were very refined in comparison, one has to wonder who the developer of the 'erzatz' kit is , i would think it not one of the main buros.

rocked boosted extended range Grom glide bomb

Something i haven't seen before grenade dropping drones doing CAS for troops asaulting the trenches , typicaly most of the drone footage is akin to WW2 night withches , harrasing fires not real CAS

In this case RED , Donbas militia troops assaulting a Ukrainian trench and drones literally flushing out the opposing force.

There was a video about a month or two ago of another drone CAS mission in trench warfare in Bakmut. It was like super close air support, attacking maybe 25yd ahead of the attacking forces raiding a trench. 

This sort of 'micro air support' is quite the development. 

More 'Ukraine Effect' defense spending:

https://soldiersystems.net/2023/01/06/rheinmetall-wins-triple-digit-million-euro-contract-for-explosives-factory-in-varpalota-hungary/

Rheinmetall has done a bunch of expansion this year it seems.

From the "This will always be science fiction" files!

Farmplinker said:

From the "This will always be science fiction" files!

During the last Eurosatory, I was chatting with a powder manufacturer when a guy from an ammo company interrupted us, asking if he could buy 1500 metric tons of propellant for 2022 and 2500 tons for 2023. The answer from the powder manufacturer was "I could find 50 tons for you this year, and maybe 150 tons next year".