Romanian AKM Type I picture

[Mr. B.]

I found this picture while doing some research. It's a picture of a fairly recent Romanian armed forces exercise. Note the the soldier in the middle is wearing an AKM Type I bayonet and scabbard mounted inverted in a newer style of Load Bearing Equipment, (LBE). The hanger is similar in function to the old leather wrap around hanger and secures the scabbard over the rubber insulator. However it is inverted and appears to be part of the LBE and made of web fabric and has snap fasteners.
Since the weapons pictured in this series are the newer Romanian AK74 rifles I would have thought that the bayonet and harness would be the newer AK74 Type II bayonets with the Type II scabbards. Mike

Current Romy bayonet (2).jpg (49.8 KiB) Viewed 13065 times

[Brian]

Good find.
Yes, my guys in Romania still say that they are using the Type 1 bayonet. Not sure why. Seems Paras get the transitional one sometimes. But mostly they are still using this one.

[pwcosol]

Hard to tell if that suspension is permanently part of the vest or not. If the latter then expect we will see one of these turn up eventually.

[Mr. B.]

I believe it is two separately permanently attached parts. In the top picture check out the soldier on the right. He has a bag attached through the two button loop for the scabbard. Also if you look closely at the soldier just to the left of center and you can see the side view of the same bayonet mounting as the one featured. All three rigs look the same. Mike

[ilian]

It's a part of the vest, look at the guy on the right, he attaches his helmet to the "frog".

[Brian]

Agree with Ilian.