I suppose the joke is that AK's number actually decreased?
imagine they did it western style, then after AK-1947 would come AK-1974 and AK-2012 (Like the M1911, where the number as well gives the year it entered service)
imagine they did it western style, then after AK-1947 would come AK-1974 and AK-2012 (Like the M1911, where the number as well gives the year it entered service)
Yeh more or less-ish, iirc at least when mikhail was alive the official designation scheme was the later 2 digits of the year when the weapon was designed, if it was the year when it entered service then the ak-47 would had been ak-49, then you got the special designations like the akm (ak-47 type 4, which solves all the issues from kalashnikov's original stamped reciever) and the rpk (a modified akm reciever and barrel to handle the light machine gun role) but those are a different can of worms.