Due to its complex design and expense, it failed to fill its intended role as a replacement for the AK-74, but it is in limited use as a special purpose weapon.

Gennadiy Nikonov and his engineers used the Russian term смещенный импульс свободного затвора (smeschennyi impuls svobodnogo zatvora) to describe the rifle's method of operation, meaning "recoil shifted pulse".

[5] When a round is fired, residual energy from the propellant charge in the cartridge acts upon the safely locked breech and bolt carrier.

The movement of the piston and its connecting rod acts upon the locking bolt, causing it to rotate and allow the breech to safely open.

Once this action has completed, the bolt and carrier group will stop and move back towards the front of the gun before it has hit the rear of the receiver.

[1] Production is estimated by Jonathan Ferguson Keeper of Firearms and Artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum to have been between two and two and half thousand guns.