SKS  The SKS is a Soviet semi-automatic carbine chambered for the 7.62×39mm round, designed in 1943 by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov. Its complete designation, SKS-45, is an initialism for Samozaryadny Karabin sistemy Simonova, 1945 (, 1945; Self-loading Carbine of (the) Simonov system, 1945). The SKS was an extremely reliable, simply constructed weapon with two unique distinguishing characteristics: a permanently attached folding bayonet, and a hinged non-detachable magazine. However, it was incapable of fully automatic fire and limited by its ten round magazine capacity, and was rendered obsolescent by the introduction of the AK-47 in the 1950s. The SKS was only briefly a standard infantry weapon in front-line units of the Soviet Armed Forces before being replaced by the AK-47. The SKS was manufactured at Tula Arsenal from 1945 to 1958, and at the Izhevsk Arsenal from 1953 to 1954, resulting in a total Soviet production of about 2.7 million carbines. Throughout the Cold War, millions of SKS carbines were also manufactured under license in China, Yugoslavia, and a number of countries friendly to the Soviet bloc. The SKS remains popular on the civilian market as a hunting and marksmanship arm in many countries, including the United States and Canada. The SKS has a conventional layout, with a wooden stock and rifle grip. It is a gas-operated rifle that has a spring-loaded bolt carrier and a gas piston operating rod that work to unlock and cycle the action via gas pressure exerting pressure against them. The bolt is locked to contain the pressure of ignition at the moment of firing by tilting downwards at its rear and being held by a lug milled into the receiver. At the moment of firing, the bolt carrier is pushed rearwards, which causes it to lift the bolt, unlocking it, and allowing it to be carried rearwards against a spring. This allows the fired case to be ejected and a new round from the magazine to be carried into the chamber. The SKS represents an intermediate step in the process towards the development of true assault rifles, being shorter and less powerful than the semi-automatic rifles that preceded it, such as the Soviet SVT-40, but being longer (10 cm or 4in) than AK-series rifles which replaced it. As a result, it has a slightly higher muzzle velocity than those arms that replaced it.