In the vast information space of the vast Fatherland, a fierce debate has been going on for several years about which cartridge would be better for a Kalashnikov assault rifle - "old-fashioned" 7.62 mm or "newfangled" low-impulse ammunition of caliber 5.45 mm. It's time to figure out why the adoption of a smaller caliber cartridge was not at all a miscalculation or some kind of conspiracy, despite the fact that Mikhail Timofeevich himself at one time was against replacing caliber.
In fact, arguing about such things without proper engineering education is stupid and useless. It is much better to turn to specialists for help and ask their authoritative opinion. It seems that the information and entertainment portal of the domestic concern Kalashnikov is a worthy source of information. There you can find, among other things, a simple, as well as an understandable explanation of why modern assault rifles use low-impulse 5.45 and 5.56 mm ammunition.
It is interesting that the Americans were the first to introduce an intermediate cartridge for machine guns, having developed their famous 5.56 mm in the middle of the last century (the actual diameter is 5.7 mm). The first Soviet developments in this area were a response to American successes in the area. So an experienced 5.45 mm appeared in the USSR (with an actual caliber of 5.6 mm). But why did the two leading powers at the time of the middle of the 20th century decide to begin to reduce the calibers for the main army weapons? A joke about the famous Mosin three-line and the Geneva Convention would have been appropriate here, however, they began to reduce calibers not at all for reasons of humanity, but strange as it may seem - quite the opposite.
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Firstly, the new intermediate calibers proved to be much lighter than their predecessors. The Soviet 5.45 mm cartridge weighs 10 grams, against 16 grams for the Soviet rifle 7.62x39 mm model 1943. To some, the difference may seem insignificant, but in fact it is colossal. With the same number of cartridges, the carried ammunition mass can be increased by 1/3. Secondly, 5.45 mm creates a much lower impulse during a shot, which means that the weapon has less recoil and, naturally, the accuracy of firing is higher, both in single and in bursts. Finally, thirdly, 5.45 and 5.56 mm cartridges have a higher initial velocity, which provides better flatness of fire, range of a direct shot and significantly increases the probability of hitting a target.
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It should be understood that 7.62 mm calibers still remain in the armies of the whole world as rifle and machine-gun calibers. They do not lose their relevance in a number of areas on the battlefield. In particular, 7.62 mm weapons show themselves much better when working with a silencer than 5-ki assault rifles.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about why are there so many crosshairs on a sniper scope, and which one to target.
A source: https://novate.ru/blogs/190620/54966/