AEK-999 'Barsook' (Badger) (Russian : Барсук) is a Russian machine gun chambered for the 7.62x54mmR round. It is a modernized version of the PKM machine gun, developed during the 1990s in order to improve its capabilities in the LMG/SAW role. It was to be capable of sustained automatic fire without requiring a quick-change barrel, and better suited for assault operations where it could be fired from the hip or from the integral bipod. The AEK-999 was developed at the Kovrov Machinebuilding Plant, but lost in military trials to the Pecheneg machine gun, which was developed under same requirements at the TsNIITochMash research institute. In 2006 KMZ ceased all military production, but small batches of the AEK-999 were manufactured by KMZ before 2006 for Russian MVD troops.