Small Arms Is Big Business for Russia

The Kalashnikov Concern currently supplies about 95 percent of all small arms used by the Russian military, paramilitary, and police forces. It also exports to more than two dozen countries around the world.

While it shares its name with Mikhail Kalashnikov, the legendary Soviet arms designer who created the AK-47, the company now known as the Kalashnikov Concern has far deeper roots in Russian history. The company’s origins can be traced back to Tsar Alexander I of Russia, who founded it in 1807 as an Imperial Russian military arsenal. It remained under state control following the Russian Civil War, and until 2013 was actually known as the Izhevsk Machine-Building Plant.

In recent decades, the Kremlin has sought to replace its legacy Kalashnikov assault rifles—including the AK-47, the AKM, and even the more modern AK-74—with more cutting-edge firearms. However, many troops deployed to the ongoing war in Ukraine have carried those older firearms, with tens of thousands pulled from the Russian military’s vast stockpiles.

Along with destroyed tanks and aircraft, Moscow has struggled to maintain a supply of infantry weapons, and the Kalashnikov Concern stepped up production. A 2020 contract called for more than 40,000 AK-12 assault rifles to be handed over to the Russian military, and delivery was completed in early 2023. Since then, the Kremlin has sought additional assault rifles for the seemingly endless stream of troops sent off to the ongoing war.

The Origins of the AK-12 Assault Rifle

The AK-12 is a modernized version of the AK-74, itself an upgrade of the AK-47 of Cold War notoriety. The AK-12 is, in essence, the latest in the series of assault rifles that were developed by Mikhail Kalashnikov during the later stages of World War II, and finalized shortly after the end of the conflict.

The newly delivered weapons were of the AK-12K, the compact variant that was developed last year following “requests from assault and reconnaissance units of Russia’s Airborne Forces,” the TASS report added. As with the base model AK-12, the select-fire weapons are gas-operated with a long-stroke gas piston, chambered in 5.45 x 39mm, but have a barrel length of just 290mm (11.4 in), and an overall length with unfolded stock of 810mm (31.8 in) or 570mm (22.4 in) with the stock folded.

“AK-12K assault rifles fully meet stated requirements and are effective thanks to their enhanced precision and accuracy of fire and reliable use in urban warfare and trenches and close combat,” TASS explained, adding that the weapons have “received good feedback” from the Russian troops who have been issued with them.