Zastava M70 Assault Rifle

The Zastava M70 is a 7.62 by 39 millimeter assault rifle developed in Yugoslavia by Zastava Arms and introduced in 1970. Because Yugoslavia had refused to join the Warsaw Pact, its engineers reverse engineered the design from captured Soviet AK-47 rifles, specifically the Type 3 variant, rather than building it under license. The rifle was adapted to fire rifle grenades through a thicker receiver, a redesigned dust cover latch that would not jar loose during a grenade launch, and a folding grenade sight bracket. It served in limited numbers from 1970 and became Yugoslavia's standard service rifle from 1982 onward, with about four million produced. The M70 remains in production today in both military configurations and commercial semi automatic versions exported as part of the Zastava PAP series.