The result, AEK prototype did not stand out, and AN was picked as the winner for its single shor accuancy seems to be this trend in the community that AN-94 is for the pros and skilled, AEK-971 is for scrubs and is inaccurate at distance. And AK74M, oh well... nobody gives a damn about it at all...
But the fact is, AK74M is the main service rifle in Russia... not AN, so I couldn't resist but to do a little research.. :p
Project Abakan
The birth of these rifles dates back to 1980s, when Soviet realized the newly adopted AK74, although improved in recoil over AKM, still lacked accuracy at long burst and full auto, which had been proven in the 1979 Afghanistan War where troops had to fire quick while moving against guerrillas.
So they demanded a new standard rifle that is more accurate, but still reliable as AK74. A contest called Project Abakan was then held. The rifles that made it to the finals included the prototypes of AN-94, AEK-971.
The result, AEK prototype didn't stand out, and AN was picked as the winner for its single shot accuracy. But instead of making it the new standard, the Russian decided that AK74M would be what soldiers have in their hands.
As mentioned above, AK74M, the modernized version of AK74, became the general issue rifle in Russia. The logic behind was quite simple - Rather than adopting a new type of rifle, retraining troops to adapt, it's more economic and efficient to just improve the original. So you get to use AK74M in BF3 as Russian assault by default, not AN-94.
Though had won in the contest, and given the name Abakan, AN-94 never replaced AK74M, and only a limited amount have served in Russian military, mainly Spetsnaz, rest are security related, like police SWAT, GRU agency units.
The main reason is because of its structural complexity for the rifle to perform accurate 2 round bursts, which not only makes maintenance a tough job, but also makes it expensive to build.
Another reason being, aside from its accuracy at 2 shot bursts, it still can't outperform AK74 at full-auto and long burst, not to say it's harder to operate when doing so, making it more special units oriented.
After Abakan, AEK was taken to revision and got simplified, and began to produce in small batches in the 90s. It didn't compete with other prototypes in Abakan in regards of safety and accuracy. So one of the later modifications was to tone down its hyper-fast rate of fire from 1,500rpm to 800-900, and replace its muzzle brake for safety reason.
The result was a new rifle that outperforms AN-94 at full auto and long burst, and competes at short bursts. It's light yet accurate with very little recoil, thanks to the balanced action, and is much cheaper to build and maintain. It has been adopted by some police forces, but never got into military.
In 2006, the company decided to leave military market for civilian, all related packages were passed on to another factory. Since then the production has stopped, as there are no orders large enough to afford a new production line.
So AK74M's Won, Now What?
Though it remains as the standard rifle in Russian Army today, AK74M didn't improve much from the orignal AK74 in terms of accuracy. The NATO designs from the same period, such as AR15 family (M16), although have higher recoil and less durability, have already proven to be much more accurate and efficient for modern combat, to a degree that even rifles like AN-94 can't compete when it comes to general accuracy.
So the story hasn't ended. Russian military still needs a better rifle to balance out from those of the western designs such as FN SCAR, ACR.
This time, old competitors like AEK, AN, and other outclassed like AL-7, now AK-107, will all show up again. Also, new competitors like AK-12, the latest revision of AK74M, will be on the guest list too.
The Next Iconic Rifle
Even though AK74M will be there for at least another 10 years in Russian army, we should see more and more troops equipped with new types of weapons in near future.
AK-12, with NATO like rails
The most possible winner, in my opinion, would be the AK-12, it's not about performance though, but more about cost-effectiveness. Just like how AK74M won among all awesome rivals above, AK12 being its successor, descendent of the AK family, would be most likely to stand out.
The next possible winner would be AEK-971/AK-107, as they're both all round rifles and are accurate at full auto / long burst with little recoil.
The AN-94, though with amazing short burst ability, would have a hard time to win, just like it did in Project Abakan. And its short burst ability isn't much needed in todays conflicts, as with the DMR's role becoming more and more important, assault rifles would have to depend more on long burst and full auto.
But still in BF3, AN-94 owns :)
