SKS-45 Carbine

The SKS-45 Carbine is a primary weapon of the North Vietnamese. It is a semi-automatic, Russian-made carbine used by the Rifleman class of the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) and the National Liberation Front (NLF). It uses 10-round stripper clips and is chambered in 7.62x39mm. The gun comes with 12, 10-round stripper clips. The weapon features a foldable bayonet which can be used during close-quarters combat while sacrificing aim stability. Its iron sights are adjustable with ranges starting from 100m to 1000m, with each sight adjustment going up in increments of 100m.

The SKS-45 is a challenging weapon to use as its slow reload time paired with a low ammo capacity makes it hard to suppress an enemy when compared to the AK-47. However, it is somewhat more accurate than the AK, thus making the SKS more suitable for mid to long-range engagements.

Historically, the Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945 (Self-loading Carbine, Simonov System 1945) was developed soon after World War II by the Soviet Union. Firing an intermediate cartridge more powerful than pistol cartridges used by submachine guns but without the high recoil from firing a fully-fledged rifle cartridge, the SKS was designed to be the primary weapon of Soviet infantrymen. However, the development of the AK-47 (which was capable of fully-automatic fire, something very attractive to the Soviet military and impossible for the SKS) soon after the SKS's adoption rendered the weapon obsolete in the eyes of the Soviets, and so it was withdrawn from frontline use in the Soviet Army. Nevertheless, the SKS found a long service life in Soviet-aligned countries as the USSR exported many of its older/captured weaponry to its ideological allies, such as the other nations of the Eastern Bloc, the People's Republic of China, and the nascent People's Republic of Vietnam. The SKS also saw use with insurgency and guerilla groups across the world, such as the North Vietnamese-backed and supplied National Liberation Front (the Vietcong), although it was not used as heavily as the AK systems. The SKS can still be found in use today, and it is a popular civilian firearm in the former Soviet Union and in the West. The nations of the former Soviet Union, as well as China, Vietnam, and other Communist countries, still use the SKS as ceremony weapons, much like the M14 in the United States.