Type 58 assault rifle (NVA) of North Vietnam forces between 1964 and 1975. It was used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the militia Basij of Iran against the Army and the Republican Guard of Iraq in the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88). In Nicaragua the Sandinista Popular Army used Type 58 weapons against the Contras in the Sandinista Revolution (1980–90). Type 58 assault rifle The Type 58 is an assault rifle made in North Korea derived from the Soviet AK-47 designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov. It uses a 7.62×39mm cartridge. It is the longest version of the rifle at 890 mm, while the AK-47
AK-47 So I designed one. I was a soldier, and I created a machine gun for a soldier. It was called an Avtomat Kalashnikova, the automatic weapon of Kalashnikov—AK—and it carried the date of its first manufacture, 1947." The AK-47 is best described as a hybrid of previous rifle technology innovations. "Kalashnikov decided to design an automatic rifle combining the best features of the American M1 and the German StG44." Kalashnikov's team had access to these weapons and had no need to "reinvent the wheel". Kalashnikov himself observed: "A lot of Russian Army soldiers ask me how one can become a