Weapons in the Red Dawn Remake
 

As some of you may already know, there is a remake of Red Dawn currently being filmed in and around Detroit. What's interesting is that while the Chinese and Russian militaries are the antagonists this time, it seems from set photos that the enemy soldiers will all be armed with AK-103 style rifles:
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/408...wnuniform2.jpg
Neither Russia or China use the AK-103 in general service, so could the choice to use AK-103s be due to practical reasons (such as the near impossibility of acquiring actual QBZ-95s) or would it be more due to the Kalashnikov being such a recognizable weapon? I'd like to hear what others think.

If they did this in Canada, they could have got themselves imported QBZs. If this remake is supposed to take place in modern times, I guess it's harder to get the current standard Chinese or Russian weapons, but I don't get how it's even possible storywise for such a thing to happen, unless in the movie, the cold war never ended and now the Chinese decided to come along. Russia and China weren't that friendly during the cold war.

It could be the 103s are standing in for 74Ms. Both are externally similar.

Wouldn't it be easier to get AK-74Ms instead of AK-103s?

Those aren't genuine AK-103s. If you look closely, you can see that they have the AKM-style front sight, gas tube, and ribbed receiver cover. They're probably AKMs (Egyptian, most likely) fitted with Bulgarian plastic furniture and AK100-style flash hiders.

Anyway, the reason why they're using these is probably because American armorers have more difficulty getting ahold of the latest Russian and Chinese weapons, so they often use other weapons as stand-ins. Canadian and British armorers, however, do seem to have much easier access to the newest weaponry. As Excalibur has pointed out, "Stargate: Atlantis" has featured some QBZ-97s, because it seems that one of the Canadian armories has managed to purchase some of those from Norinco. I imagine it'd be much harder for American armories to do the same.

But then again, I haven't had the chance to visit any of the American armories (yet), so maybe they have acquired new stuff.

No. If an American armorer wanted to simulate the AK-74M, I imagine what they would do is take the Chinese Type 84 (which was sold in the U.S., and very often stands in for the AK-74 in our movies), give it plastic furniture and a fake AK-74 flash hider, and then pass that off as an AK-74M.

BTW, I realize it's kind of hearsay to say it, but...the very idea of this movie is laughable. I know this scenario is the fantasy of American gun owners everywhere, but face the facts, guys: America is China's biggest export customer, and China is America's biggest creditor. It would be economic and political suicide for China to invade the U.S. because their internal stability basically hinges on their economic relationship with us. All of China's crackpot Third World "allies" (from North Korea to Iran) put together could never take our place in their economy.

And of course, everyone knows that China is not a communist country anymore (except in name), so the "Red" in the title is irrelevant. If the title were going to reflect what China really is today, it should be something more like "Confucian/Han Pride Dawn", but I guess that wouldn't be politically correct. Anyway, Marxism (and socialism in general) is pretty much dead all around the world, and has been for the better part of 20 years, so y'all might as well accept that a "Red Dawn" is never going to happen, ever. A "Green Dawn", on the other hand...

Also, if you ever want to know how China might REALLY try to conquer us, read up on their tactics in cyber-warfare.

That seems to be a fairly plausible reason since IIRC the ban on Norinco products in the U.S is still in effect, although I'm curious as to why the armorers couldn't have modified a bullpup style weapon like the Century Arms AK to look like a QBZ 95.

Good point. An even better option might have been the Ruger Mini-14 with the Muzzlelite stock. American armorers used to love those in the 1990s because they could make sci-fi firearms with them (i.e. the Moritas from "Starship Troopers"). I imagine that'd be a possible QBZ stand-in.

It might also be, however, that the director (who makes the final choices on weapons) decided that he wanted the Chinese soldiers to use AKs because those are universally associated with "Reds".

I always love it when guys say "Gee why don't you spend tens of thousands of dollars on obscure weapons that will rent once and never again. That's an smart use of your financial resources. :)" That's the primary reason American armorers don't use the newest stuff. Sure, if it will be rented many times, then of course. Also don't expect REAL versions of any of the recent Russian AKs, they will most likely all be build ups from receivers we already have in country.
:confused:

Actually, the Norinco Type-97 is even sold commercially here. Both standard and shorty versions. Not my cup of tea, but I've heard good thing.