7.62 × 39 mm

under United States of America.). Soviet development of an intermediate rifle cartridge had begun in the late 1930s, parallel with similar work in Finland , Germany and Switzerland, but was dropped in 1939. Probably spurred by the appearance of the German 7.92 × 33 mm 'Kurz' cartridge in late 1941, development was restarted in 1943. A design, attributed to N M Elizarov and B V Semin, was approved in late 1943 and applied to an experimental carbine by Simonov which later became the SKS. However, the major adoption of the cartridge came with the AK-47 Kalashnikov rifle, after which it became the standard rifle and light machine gun round for the Warsaw Pact and was widely adopted by other countries obtaining arms from the Soviet Union. Despite the introduction of the 5.45 × 39 mm cartridge by the Soviet military in 1974, newly designed assault rifles in 7.62 × 39 mm continue in use with Russian special operations units. Moreover, the cartridge continues to be the choice of some units of Russian special operations forces. The cartridge thus will remain in Russian military service for the foreseeable future. Recent developments include subsonic ammunition with heavy bullets for use by unspecified military and law enforcement agencies. Applications include chinese Type 56 carbine, Type 56 and 56-1 rifles, Type 68 rifle, Types 75 and 81 light machine guns; Colt Model 6830 Lightweight Rifle; Finnish M60 , M62 , M76 and M90 rifles, M78 heavy barrel rifle and M62 machine gun; Hungarian AMD-65 rifle; North Korean Type 68 rifle; Polish PMK , PMK-DGN and PMKM rifles; Soviet AK-47 , AKM , SKS rifles, RPD and RPK machine guns; Ruger Mini-Thirty rifle; Yugoslavian M59/66A1 , M70B1 , M70AB2 rifles and M72 , M72AB1 machine guns. Recently developed and fielded Russian weapons such as the A-91M and Ots-14 Groza.