The Kalashnikov hand-held machine gun (RPK) is a 7.62 mm Soviet-made light machine gun that was developed in 1961 to replace the RPD as the Soviet Army's main LMG. It was developed at the same time as the AKM assault rifle, and the weapon saw use in the Soviet Army and its Third World and Warsaw Pact allies for decades to come. It saw action in the Vietnam War in the 1960s-70s, Soviet-Afghan War in the 1980s, Chechen Wars in the 1990s, the Iraq War and Afghanistan War in the 2000s, and the Libyan Civil War, Syrian Civil War, and Donbass War in the 2010s.