AKS-74U

The AKS-74u is a Carbine that was developed in the late 1970's from the AKS-74 Assault Rifle firing the 5.45x39mm M43 cartrige. The "U" in AKs-74u means Ukorochennyj, or shortened, in Russian. The weapon was intended to be used as a PDW, or Personal Defence Weapon, for tank, gun, helicopter, and other vehicle crews. It was also created for use among Special Operations Forces, which required a compact, powerful weapon. The AKS-74u was the mix of both the Sub-Machine Gun and the Assault Rifle; It had the effective range and high ROF (Rate Of Fire) of a Sub-Machine Gun, but had the stopping power and penetration of an Assault Rifle.

Appearances in Battlefield Series
The AKS-74u appears in Battlefield 2, Battlefield: Bad Company and Battlefield: Bad Company 2..

Battlefield 2
The AKS-74u in Battlefield 2 is the standard primary weapon for the Special Forces kit on the MEC team. It will come with a Kobra Red Dot Sight attached to it. It will also sport desert camoflauge. It has the highest stopping power of all the standard Special Forces kit weapons. When compared to it's American counterpart, the M4A1 Carbine, it has far better power, at the cost of lower accuracy and the low magnification reflex sight.

Battlefield: Bad Company
In singleplayer, it can be found off of dead Russian Spetsnaz Commandos. Like all the specialist weapons, it comes with a permanently attached scilencer.

In multiplayer, it is the default Compact Assault Rifle issued to the Russian Specialist kit. It has a 60 round magazine, a good fire rate and can kill in around 15-20 shots.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
In singleplayer, it can be found easily in the final mission: Airborne. It is the first gun the player receives in the mission and can be found normally, or equipped with a Red Dot Sight.

In multiplayer, the AKS-74u can be unlocked by gaining 16000 points for the engineer class, if the player had pre-ordered from GameStop or BartSmit, it is immediately unlocked for the Engineer class after redeeming the pre-order code. It has a 30 round magazine and is equipped with a suppressor. Arguably it is one of the best automatic weapons in multiplayer (not just in the engineer kit) due to its moderately low recoil, decent stopping power, and high rate of fire.

Trivia
The AKS-74u technicaly isn't a sub-mashine gun. It's a Carbine for the AK-74, much like the M4 and the M16.