#KalashnikovConcern

Russia’s Kalashnikov Concern have announced the delivery of another initial batch of improved AK-12s. The AK-12 Model 2023 has a number of small but significant changes including the removal of the earlier AK-12’s two-round burst function, a new stock with cheek riser, a new fixed muzzle device and small improvements to the rear sight. Kalashnikov Concern also note that it has some undisclosed internal improvements. Check out our earlier article on the Improved AK-12 for more.

Kalashnikov Concern first introduced the AK-19 rifle, the version of AK-12 chambered in 5.56x45mm NATO, during the ARMY 2020 exhibition. Three armies later, at ARMY 2023, the company revealed the shortened AK-19 Compact carbine. This version of the AK-19 was designed for submission to trials of an undisclosed foreign partner. Let’s take a closer look at the features of the new AK-19 Compact carbine.

Adopted by the Russian military in 2018, the AK-12 rifle has since gone through several revisions that resulted in some design changes such as the replacement of the AR15-style stock and the introduction of the one-piece polymer pistol grip/trigger guard. Kalashnikov Concern recently published information about the latest 2023 upgrades of the AK-12 rifle that were requested by the Russian military based on the feedback from the Russo-Ukrainian War. These design changes are apparently not significant enough to give the rifle a new model name, so it’s referred to as the AK-12 model of 2023.

Continuing the coverage of new firearms released at the ARMY 2022 exhibition, today we’ll take a look at the new SV-21 bolt action rifle introduced by the  Kalashnikov Concern. The SV-21 is offered in 7.62x54mmR and .308 Winchester calibers and its main feature is the quick barrel change system.

During the ARMY 2022 exhibition, Kalashnikov Concern unveiled a number of new firearms, both for the military/LE and civilian markets. Among the new guns are two rifles chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO / .308 Winchester – the AKV-721 and AK-308. Let’s take a look at each of these new firearms.

Kalashnikov Concern first showed the prototype of AKV-521 rifle in November 2020. During the ARMY-2021 exhibition, the company unveiled the final version of this rifle that has passed factory endurance testing and is ready for mass production. The main design difference from AK rifles is that AKV-521 utilizes a two-receiver layout.

During the ARMY-2021 exhibition, Kalashnikov Concern introduced two new versions of the AK-12 rifle designed to meet the requirements of Russian special forces. The new rifles are called AK-12SP (АК-12СП) and AK-12SPK (АК-12СПК). Let’s take a closer look and see what features have been added/changed in these rifles as well as what are the differences between the two models.

Kalashnikov Group posted some interesting photos on Facebook, which will be the subject for today’s Photo Of The Day. For details on the background of this new rifle please check  Hrachya’s article “ Kalashnikov Concern Shows The Prototype of Upcoming 500-Series AKs – The AKV-521 Rifle“.

Back in July, Hrachya reported on the newly modernized Vityaz 9x19mm submachine gun, the PPK-20. Now following the recent Army-2020 Expo in Moscow Kalashnikov have introduced a flurry of new weapons and shared some promotional videos of them in action. The latest is for the PPK-20.

MP-155 is one of the most popular semi-auto hunting shotguns in Russia thanks to its robust construction and affordable price. It’s available in a variety of hunting configurations and Kalashnikov Concern also offers a sort of a tactical AR-shaped shotgun ( TG1) based on the MP-155 action. At the ARMY 2020 exhibition, the company introduced another, rather futuristic iteration of this gun called MP-155 ULTIMA that looks more like a sci-fi movie prop. Actually, as mentioned on the Kalashnikov Concern’s social media pages, the appearance of this shotgun was inspired by video game guns.

During the  ARMY 2020 exhibition, Kalashnikov Concern has revealed the prototype of a new belt-fed 5.45x39mm light machine gun called RPL-20. Earlier, in an  interview given to RIA Novosti news agency, Dmitry Tarasov, the CEO of Kalashnikov Concern, said that that based on the field testing of RPK-16, the Russian military formed new requirements for an LMG which were the base of starting the development of RPL-20. This new LMG is however significantly different from the RPK-16 and the ammunition is probably the only thing these two guns share.

Hot on the heels of Kalashnikov Concern’s brand new 5.56x45mm-chambered AK-19, Russia’s leading small arms company have introduced a new and improved AK-12. The new rifle includes a number of slightly tweaked ergonomic features that were developed in light of feedback from Russian service personnel.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, the largest Russian annual arms exhibition, ARMY, was not canceled and started as scheduled. During this exhibition,  Kalashnikov Concern introduced several new small arms products including a new LMG, a smart shotgun and the AK-19, a 5.56×45 rifle based on the AK-12.

The news concerning the establishment of an AK-103 assembly line in Armenia has been reported by several Armenian and Russian sources within the past month, however, there was no official statement. Yesterday, this information was officially confirmed as the Government of the Republic of Armenia published a news release covering Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to the assembly facility which is set up on the premises of a local defense company called “Neutron GAM” CJSC.

Kalashnikov Concern has released the competition version of the PL-14/PL-15 Lebedev pistol. The new pistol is called SP1. It has some new features added to make it attractive for the competition shooters. The company markets it for use in Production or Production Optics divisions. Let’s take a closer look.