The RK 95 TP (), officially 7.62 RK 95 TP and commercially known as the M95, is a 7.62×39mm Finnish assault rifle adopted in relatively small numbers by the Finnish Defence Forces in the 1990s.
History
The rifle was developed in the late 1980s in response to a requirement to replace the 7.62mm RK 62 service rifle. Between 1988 and 1990, the SAKO company developed the M90 prototype, which was a substantially upgraded variant of the RK 62. Changes to the original design included the fire control and safety selector, whose lever was transferred to the left side of the receiver housing, the cocking handle cut-out in the bolt carrier assembly was covered with a strip of metal.
The cocking handle itself was placed at an upward angle (enhancing left-handed reloading), the rear sight assembly was installed on a sliding tangent with 150 and 300 m range adjustments and the rifle was equipped with a folding tubular stock with a latch modeled on the locking solution employed in the SIG SG 540 rifle. The M90 was also equipped with a multifunction muzzle device and manual gas valve, enabling the use of rifle grenades.
Some advertisements released in Finland in the 1990s suggested that SAKO was going to produce the M90 in 5.56 NATO caliber. However, this type was never produced.
Two prototypes were developed by SAKO, known as the RK 92, were delivered to the FDF for combat trials.
After undergoing further testing and implementing several changes (among them, the selector mechanism was reverted to the familiar RK 62 configuration) the rifle was introduced into service with the Finnish Army as the 7.62 RK 95 TP. Deliveries to the Finnish started in 1995 and ended at 1997 with further orders ceasing in 1998. The first RK 95 with the serial number 960,001 was presented by SAKO representatives to the Military Museum in Helsinki, which is on display.
On April 18, 2023, it was reported that Sako made several RK 95s in a gold finish for export to the UAE in the late 1990s for the Amiri Guard.
Design
Operating mechanism
The RK 95 TP is a select-fire, gas-operated firearm using the Kalashnikov-pattern operating system with a long stroke gas piston rod coupled to the bolt carrier as in the AK rifle. The rotating bolt locks into battery via two locking lugs.
Features
The weapon's spring extractor is installed inside the bolt head and enclosed in one of the locking lugs while the ejector is a fixed protrusion of the internal bolt carrier guide rail. The firearm uses a hammer-type firing mechanism and a trigger group that enables semi-automatic and fully automatic firing modes. The fire selector switch, which is also the manual safety toggle, can occupy one of three positions: the top "safe" setting (the trigger and bolt carrier are both disabled mechanically), the middle setting (marked with three dot symbols) produces continuous fire and the bottom setting (single dot) activates a disconnector for single fire mode. This was marketed to civilians, as well as for law enforcement sales. One way to tell this apart from the RK 95 TP is the absence of an automatic sear axis.
M95S
The M95S is a semi-auto variant of the RK 95 TP.
M95
An export variant of the rifle was also produced, modified to use the 5.56×45mm NATO cartridge with the SS109 bullet, fed from plastic 30-round curved magazines.