Own army has priority
Weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov reports record sales
09/29/2022, 7:12 p.m
The Kalashnikov assault rifle is the most produced weapon in the world. Around 100,000 copies are exported annually. According to the company, it is currently geared towards supplying the Russian army. Everything is subordinate to that.
After seven months of war in Ukraine, the Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov is already talking about a 20-year record in sales of its legendary assault rifle. The sale of Kalashnikovs has increased by 40 percent, said group president Alan Luschnikov. He gave no absolute sales figures for the most widely used weapon in the world.
Luzhnikov emphasized that the Russian Ministry of Defense gave priority to its own army. “Ensuring the country’s defense capability, especially under the current conditions, is the task that all departments of the company are aimed at, without exception.” The Kalashnikovs are also used in the war in Ukraine.
According to Luschnikov, the increase in sales is also due to exports. Already in September it exceeded the total exports of the previous year. “Our production capacities are being used quite intensively this year,” he said.
According to earlier reports, India will receive 70,000 AK-103 Kalashnikovs. The Russian arms export group Rosoboronexport had announced that it was now selling more than 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles of various models abroad each year.
The automatic Kalashnikov (AK) is the most common – and often replicated without a Russian license – assault rifle in the world. In August last year, the Kalashnikov Group announced that it had signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry for hundreds of thousands of new AK-12 assault rifles. The renewal of the army’s equipment was planned for years, it said.