Was the RPD really so bad that it had to be phased out? eh seemd like a cool guy
I wonder sometimes, but it's partly because I hate the RPK>hey yevgeny, what if we made EVERYTHING an AK
The RPD was fine, it was just a doctrinal orphan. Like its a WW2 gun that showed up too late, it was expected to provide a base of fire for SMGs and mosins but by the time it got mass issued, it was being used alongside rifles in the same calibre who could lay down 90% of its fire in a package half the weight, leaving people reasonably asking what the point of it was. Hence the PK/PKM, which allowed the machine gunner to be a robust base of fire again, and the RPK offered the same firepower as the RPD (45 round sticks vs 100 round belts, but you can carry more sticks than drums and borrow ammo from others so it evens out) with near complete parts commonality with the rifles.
There's just something about a beltfed 7.62x39 that seems fucking awesome to me.
>>65144442the gun and ammo combination wasn't very good but it did find use in niche situations, for example SOF really liked to use them in Vietnam because up close in the jungle the range doesn't matter but a massive mag does.
>>65144466Because it is
>>65144472Another benefit of this is some type of plausible deniability by 7.62x39 cases being found but not 5.56. Maybe that's just boomerlore, but I can easily imagine it
>>65144442at 16lb, it was too just heavy to justify it's useif they shaved 6lb off of it though, it would have been a fantastic lmg, perfect for paratroopers and other light forces
>>65144490Thats absurd, its lighter than a SAW and dramatically lighter than the DP28 it replaced. Admittedly M249s are unnecessarily heavy for a 5.56, but nonetheless the RPD is perfectly within acceptable bounds for a machine gun.
>>65144491its not absurd if you consider that the weight is exemplified by the anemic cartridgeits acceptable, yes, but compared to just giving a few more magazines to your soldiers? not worth itits one of the reasons the PKM is so successful, its cartridge makes it worth carryingif they re-chambered the RPD in 7.62x54r (without any issues, that is), it would totally have been kept though
>>65144466Yes
>>65144490>if they shaved 6lb off of itThen there wouldn't be too much metal left, would there? Tell us all that you've never worked in manufacturing without explicitly saying so. Jesus Christ the retardation
>>65145237yeah, just like how the AKM doesn't fucking exist, right? shut the fuck up, retard
>>65144442It was just sort of an eh MG. Between an RPK and a PKM why would you pick an RPD? You're lugging nearly as much weight as a PKM without any of the punch and you lose out on easy interchangeability like an RPK. Yes you can carry more ammo for a given weight but that's really its only selling point and 7.62x39 isn't much lighter than 7.62x54R. It's not like the difference between 5.56 and 7.62 NATO
>>65144472>>65144480And you can chop the barrel and not see much loss in velocity with x39
>>65144442They couldn't make it anymore because the Space Shuttles used up all the aluminum alloys.
>>65144450>hating the best-looking AK variantShiggy diggy.
>>65144442I would guess anything worth shooting with 40 rounds of RPK is probably a situation where you want 100 rounds of RPD. But the damn bean counters....
