SKS in the original countries of production
The SKS-45 rifle, never totally out of production since 1949, continues be see use around the world. Once a cold war staple of the Soviet Union and Communist China it was also at a time produced in Yugoslavia, North Vietnam, North Korea, East Germany, Rumania and Albania. Production today is continued for sporting use by the State Arsenals of the Peoples Republic of China for limited export as well as by the former producer of the “Yugo” SKS, Zastava Arms in Serbia. A cottage industry has erupted in the United States for new parts such as replacement stocks, magazines, optics and muzzle breaks for the estimated one million imported SKS rifles brought into that country from overseas. Thus modified, the SKS is often carried in the trunks of many small-town US law enforcement agencies patrol cars as economical patrol carbines.
The SKS in the third world
In most of the former Warsaw pact and Soviet-bloc countries of the world the SKS remains held in some sort of reserve status where it is used as an honor guard weapons. It is consistently seen in the arms of Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, and Chinese honor guards. The weapon was given away as aide to almost any country with a gripe against the West during the cold war and these old soldiers continue to soldier on in Cambodia, Mongolia, Algeria, Lebanon, and the Congo. Even governments without strong connections to the former Soviet empire now use the weapon as it is reliable, easy to use, fires one of the most readily available cartridges in the world and is above all- cheap. The SKS has been photographed in the arms of paramilitary police and security forces in the impoverished countries of Bangladesh, Uganda, Yemen and Mali within the past year.
The SKS in the Global War on Terrorism
Finally in the fringes of the Global War on Terrorism the SKS is being encountered on a daily basis. In Afghanistan and the Pakistani border areas the rifle is seen in the hands of many. The US government bought large stocks of vintage Soviet SKSs’s in storage in Russia and shipped them to Afghanistan for local police use. In Somalia and the Horn of Africa the SKS is encountered often in the hands of pirates, outlaw groups, Islamic militias and warlord gangs. In Iraq the weapon was bought by the army of Saddam Hussein on the global market along with everything else he could get his hands on in the 1980s to arm Bathist troops. They are found in the hands of insurgents as well as still issued to the new government’s own security forces. These Iraqi weapons are often modified with inexpensive optic sights purchased commercially abroad.
Sources
Department of the US Army The SKS RIFLE (Training Circular 9-56, SIMONOV TYPE 56) US Government Printing 1969
Fuller, Wyant and Stephen compliers Editors Lamont SIMONOV SKS-45 TYPE CARBINES (Paperback - 1988)
Gebhart, James F Official SKS Manual of the U.S.S.R. Army (Paperback - Jan 1997)
Gun Guides SKS Rifle Disassembly & Reassembly Gun-guide (Ring-bound - 2006)
Kehaya, Steve and Poyer, Joe The SKS Carbine, 4th Revised and Expanded Edition Biotechniques Books, 2008
Long, Duncan The SKS Type 45 Carbines 1992
Sweeney, Patrick The Gun Digest Book Of The AK & SKS: A Complete Guide to Guns, Gear and Ammunition Gun Digest 2009
carbinecollectors.com/sks.htm Maintained by RK Smith & Dan Reynolds, accessed June 2009. For collectors information about various models.
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