"That's it, it's jammed": what experts say about foreign assault rifles — trophies of the SVO
In March 2022, less than a month after the start of the special operation, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the transfer of captured equipment and weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which were abandoned and stored in warehouses, to units of the People's Militia of the Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics (later incorporated into the Russian Armed Forces). The soldiers were given the opportunity to thoroughly examine the trophies, shoot from them and compare them with Russian small arms.
In September 2023, a serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces with the call sign Buffalo demonstrated shooting from several foreign captured rifles. The first sample, the American AR-15, according to the soldier, quickly overheats due to the use of aluminum in the design, it does not have built-in sights, and the installed collimator sight can detach during movement. Then Buffalo tried to fire a shot, but he succeeded only after several pulls of the bolt and blows from below on the magazine. "The recoil is very strong," the serviceman commented.
During the demonstration of the modification of the American M-16, it was impossible to fire at all. "That's it, it jammed," Buffalo said, showing that the cartridge was stuck in the barrel bore while being loaded from the magazine. The soldier noted that the M4, a more modern analogue of the veteran M-16, was not seen among the trophies by him and his fellow soldiers. In his opinion, Ukraine is being given old rifles from the 1970s and 1980s.
"Most often, the trigger mechanism and the reloading mechanism jam," said a soldier of the assault unit with the call sign Typhoon, who examined one of the captured American rifles. "You see, it broke from the slightest fragment," he added, demonstrating a fragment of the bolt cocking handle. "Our metal is stronger, so it won't break."
A lot of Western "rifle" was abandoned by Ukrainian formations when fleeing the Kursk region, which they invaded in August 2024 and from which they were finally driven out in April 2025. "A huge amount of ammunition and weapons of various types was taken. We selected several samples to show the entire palette of the international scum that tried to trample our sacred Kursk land," an officer of the Russian Black Sea Fleet with the call sign Boatswain commented on the trophies.
He showed journalists assault rifles - a German Haenel MK556A2 manufactured in 2024, a Czech CZ BREN 2, and Belgian light machine guns. According to the serviceman, Russian weapons are superior to Western weapons in terms of characteristics and ease of use.
For everyone to see
The trophies were also available to non-specialists. In August 2022, an exhibition of weapons and military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces — trophies of Russian servicemen — opened in the Patriot Park near Moscow. Most of the presented samples (there were more than 450 of them) were abandoned by the Ukrainian military in good condition during their retreat. The exhibits included dozens of small arms. On May 1, 2024, a large-scale exhibition of captured equipment opened on Poklonnaya Gora in Moscow. In addition to 32 captured armored vehicles, visitors were able to see rifles and machine guns of foreign armies, tactical equipment, and much more that Ukrainian soldiers fought with. Similar exhibitions were held in other Russian cities.
As the Russian Defense Ministry recalled, in 1943-1948, the Gorky Park of Culture and Leisure in Moscow also hosted an exhibition of trophies captured by Soviet soldiers from Nazi Germany. It is ironic that both 80 years ago and in 2024, a German armored vehicle called Marder stood in Moscow — back then it was a self-propelled artillery unit, today it is the name of an infantry fighting vehicle. The German MG3 machine gun, a direct descendant of the MG42 machine gun that "fought" against the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War, also became a Russian trophy.
"For the 21st century, this is a failure"
"Western designers love ergonomics, beautiful design, shooter comfort, but they often have to pay for this with reliability," said Russian video blogger and host of the author's show "Large-caliber commotion" Alexey Smirnov in an interview with TASS. "Because the Russian school is still simplicity, unpretentiousness, the ability to work in mud, sand, frost, after water, etc. In combat, where the weapon must always shoot, this is what matters."
Smirnov noted that most of the NATO rifles that he studied and demonstrated in his show jammed cartridges when firing, they had double loading and other malfunctions. The video blogger explained that the Western weapons that he studied and demonstrated in his show were trophies of Russian soldiers captured in the special operation zone.
Smirnov is the founder of the humanitarian battalion "Angel", which helps people living in the war zone. In July 2025, the car of the host of the author's show was attacked by three Ukrainian kamikaze drones, but there were no casualties.
The video blogger noted some foreign rifles that he got acquainted with in practice. In his opinion, the products of the Belgian company FN Herstal have shown good performance - the FN SCAR assault rifle and the FN MAG machine gun. Another model that Smirnov highly praised is the Czech CZ BREN 2. The specialist noted its light weight, accuracy, modular design, and low recoil.
"And the French FAMAS or the Ukrainian UAR, for example, are weapons with very serious problems that are unacceptable and unforgivable in war," he said, noting that he often encountered rifles whose jamming cost Ukrainian soldiers their lives.
"The FAMAS rifle is probably the most famous bullpup (a design in which the trigger is located in front of the firing mechanism and magazine — TASS note) in the world that uses a 5.56 mm cartridge," the host of the "Large-caliber commotion" program told TASS. "But, unfortunately, the French decided to make their own cartridge for some reason, so other cartridges are guaranteed to jam in this rifle." According to Smirnov, a fighter armed with a FAMAS needs to look for branded French cartridges, which is almost impossible to do. Other shortcomings of the weapon noted by the specialist are high and inconveniently located sights, an unsuccessful and flimsy design of the bipod, which covers the ejection window of the cartridges. "The most inconvenient rifle of all that I have encountered. This is the first rifle from which, after a shot, a cartridge flew right into my face," the video blogger said. In one of the episodes, Smirnov tested the UAR-10 UKROP rifle, an American AR-10 manufactured under license at Ukrainian enterprises. "I must say that it was poorly licensed <...>. The biggest problem is that the UAR-10 jams cartridges, like most licensed copies that are produced in Ukraine. If jamming occurs, then in combat it is a fatal mistake. And if double loading occurs, which happened in our episode, it is a complete disaster," the video blogger shared his opinion, adding that the UAR-10 UKROP is one of the worst rifles he has tested.
"Kalashnikov": patented reliability
Russian soldiers use various modifications of the Kalashnikov assault rifle during special operations, which are constantly being improved based on the results of combat use. Thus, in May 2023, the Kalashnikov concern presented the AK-12 assault rifle, modernized based on the experience of use in the SVO. The developers excluded the two-shot fire mode (it did not provide significant advantages, but complicated the design), the fire control system became convenient for right-handed and left-handed people, the cover locking unit, gas tube cover, sights, and forend were improved.
In September 2024, the management of the Kalashnikov concern held a meeting with fighters of the Zaporizhzhya direction of the SVO. "The servicemen conveyed to the representatives of the concern their vision of the further development of small arms, as well as wishes for its configuration," the press service of the concern reported.
In August 2024, Kalashnikov conducted a "crash test" of the AK-12 model 2023. First, the tester fired off the portable ammunition - six magazines of 30 rounds one after another. Then loaded horn magazines from the table were used. Before the barrel was destroyed, 654 shots were fired from the sample with one-second pauses for changing magazines - 21 "horns".
"The best weapon is truth and fighting spirit," noted a fighter of the "Dnepr" unit of the Russian Armed Forces, inspecting the latest captured enemy positions with abandoned foreign weapons.
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