The AKM is a Soviet Union-made assault rifle developed in 1959 as a new version of the AK-47 assault rifle. The rifle was exported to fellow Warsaw Pact and Eastern Bloc nations as well as to African and Middle Eastern allies, and it has seen use in various conflicts across the world, starting with the Vietnam War and ranging to the Yom Kippur War, Chadian-Libyan War, The Troubles, Soviet-Afghan War, Yugoslav Wars, Chechen Wars, Iraq War, Somali Civil War, Donbass War, and the Syrian Civil War.