Today, September 19, on the Day of the Russian gunsmith, the official presentation of the new Russian concern Kalashnikov will take place in Izhevsk. Day of the gunsmith in Russia is celebrated for the second time. Mikhail Kalashnikov asked about the establishment of this holiday at a meeting with Vladimir Putin in 2010, and already in 2011, by presidential decree, this holiday appeared in the Russian calendar of professional dates. Last year, the holiday was widely celebrated in Tula. In 2013, it is hosted by the capital of Udmurtia, which is rightfully the arms capital of our Motherland. The main festive event of the day is the official presentation of the new Russian arms concern Kalashnikov.
The grand opening of the concern will be attended by the first persons of Russia, as well as representatives of the domestic defense-industrial complex (MIC). The initiative to create the Kalashnikov concern belonged to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, a little less than a month ago, the concern has already received official registration. At the same time, the legendary Russian arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov donated the right to use his name to the new concern.
On Wednesday, September 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a business visit to Izhevsk, who personally visited Mikhail Kalashnikov at his home. The creator of the most common weapon on the planet recently suffered an illness, so the meeting took place at home. Kalashnikov himself has been at the plant less and less lately, but the entire plant and the city are primarily personified with his name. Kalashnikov assault rifles of various series have been produced in Izhevsk for more than 60 years and the demand for them is invariably high.
From Kalashnikov, Vladimir Putin went to the Izhmash plant, where he personally examined samples of new small arms. He took Yarygin's pistol in his hands, pulled the bolt. Vladimir Putin was particularly interested in a new set of military equipment called "Warrior". The equipment was shown to the president here in the workshops of the plant. True, it was not the military who had to put on it, but civilian specialists - engineers who are engaged in the design of modern weapons.
As Vladimir Putin was explained, the "Warrior" kit includes ammunition for members of an efficient group - a detachment commander, a sniper, a scout, an infantryman. Moreover, each of them has its own special function, as well as special weapons. For example, a special display is built into the commander's equipment, which displays the actions of all his subordinates. "Warrior" is a modern military equipment, which is also called the equipment of the soldier of the future. Such a set of equipment combines a complex of modern personal protective equipment for a serviceman, weapons and ammunition for him, communication equipment.
As the President of the country emphasized at a meeting in Izhevsk, modern weapons should be produced at modern enterprises. Today, at Izhmash, you can still find old machines, after using which the parts have to be manually processed in the old-fashioned way, while the most modern equipment can also be found next to them. Therefore, the plant was included in the federal target program for the modernization of defense industry enterprises.
Concern "Kalashnikov" will unite all the leading arms enterprises of the country, so that very soon new domestic developments will be able to become famous in the same way as the legendary AK did in its time. In the new AK-12, the features of the world-famous AK-47 are still guessed, but this is an assault rifle of a completely different generation. Work on the world's first self-loading carbine with balanced automatics began at Izhmash, but the Kalashnikov concern will be releasing the novelty. It is reported that the Russian military will begin to receive new AK-12 assault rifles already in 2014.
Increased accuracy of fire, comfortable ergonomics, traditionally high reliability in operation - all this distinguishes the new AK-12. The fifth-generation assault rifle is currently undergoing state testing. Currently in Russia there are enough novelties of small arms that have just come out or are about to leave test stands, but the path from a prototype to a serial product can sometimes take several years. This time could be shortened by adjusting the structure of the entire Russian arms industry.
Concern "Kalashnikov", which is a vertically integrated structure, was created, among other things, for this. The new Russian arms concern will produce everything from a bullet to a submachine gun, while applying unique scientific and design experience. Konstantin Busygin, General Director of OJSC Concern Kalashnikov, noted that: “First, this will be the largest design bureau in Russia, that is, all the best minds of small arms manufacturers will be gathered in one place. We have the necessary production base, if we have our own cartridge production, and we have already received a license for this, then we will have everything ready. We will be able to completely close the cycle - from receiving an order to loading it into wagons”.
In the course of the merger, the chief managers of the new concern expect to distribute the work among all the enterprises under its wing. Today, the enterprises that are part of the Kalashnikov concern produce similar samples of military and sporting, hunting and civilian weapons. Therefore, we expect to build a single product line and want to specialize enterprises more narrowly, depending on the level of development of technologies and production used in a particular production. For example, Izhmeh has always been distinguished by precision casting - it is there that it is planned to further develop this direction. It is planned to leave the production of high-quality barrels that meet all the requirements of modern production on the basis of the former Izhmash and so on, the deputy general director of the Kalashnikov concern told reporters.
At present, the Kalashnikov concern has already included 2 largest Russian enterprises in the industry, and in the future, Kalashnikov is ready to conquer foreign sales markets and open joint ventures with foreign partners. Another new direction is precision weapons. Concern "Kalashnikov" will be engaged in its development together with the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant (Izhmekh), which also became part of the holding. Almost immediately, the enterprise received a very large order from the RF Ministry of Defense. We are talking about anti-tank guided missiles "Whirlwind", which are planned to load the capacity of the enterprise until 2015, specifically for this, the plant has already announced a competition to open 300 new vacancies at once.
It is with the formation of the Kalashnikov concern that they expect further development in the domestic pistol production, as 4 new Russian developments have already been launched into the line. Gunsmith designer Vladimir Yarygin admits that AK is a real legend, while our new pistol, I hope, will also live a very long life. The first batch of products, which will be produced under the Kalashnikov brand, will be shipped to customers by the end of 2013, and by the beginning of 2014, another symbol of the beginning of a new era in the history of the famous Izhevsk enterprise, the St. Great Martyr Catherine, who is the patroness of armourers from the capital of Udmurtia.
Concern "Kalashnikov" will unite NPO "Izhmash", Izhevsk Mechanical Plant, Design Bureau of Automatic Lines. L. N. Koshkina (Klimovsk), Vyatsko-Polyanskiy machine-building plant "Molot", as well as NITI "Progress" (Izhevsk). To date, these enterprises produce a total of 95% of Russian small arms, ammunition, and equipment designed for the release and disposal of cartridges. The plans of the new concern also include the creation of a separate plant that would produce high-precision weapons systems.
The plans to create such an enterprise are reported in the materials for the meeting on the state defense order, which took place on September 18 in Izhevsk. The new plant, which will also become part of the concern, will have to focus on the production of high-precision weapons systems, which include Kitolov-2M and Krasnopol artillery shells, as well as Vikhr guided missiles and S-13 and S unguided aircraft missiles. -eight. It is also planned to assemble the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system, units and blocks of the Gran 'mortar complex. As you know, the first defense order in this direction has already been received. In July 2013, the enterprise was declared the winner of the competition of the Russian Ministry of Defense for the production of guided missiles "Vikhr-1".
According to the results of the first half of 2013, the Kalashnikov Concern's sales revenue amounted to almost 900 million rubles (891.2 million rubles). The share of military products was 48%. In the structure of production, civilian small arms accounted for 30%, military weapons - 21%, licensed production - 14%, production of repair and maintenance equipment - 10%, aircraft guns - 8%, tools and machine tools - 3%. other directions - 14%.
At the same time, the company notes that the demand for products today is 2-3 times higher than the capabilities of the existing production, and the company itself is waiting for technical re-equipment. “For this, Kalashnikov plans to take part in the federal target program for the modernization of defense industry enterprises. The project provides for the modernization of production and the purchase of new equipment for a total amount of 1.85 billion rubles.
Concern "Kalashnikov" is today the largest Russian manufacturer of automatic and sniper weapons, guided artillery shells, as well as a fairly large range of civilian products - sporting rifles, hunting rifles, tools and machine tools. The company was founded in 1807. Today Izhmash products are supplied to 27 countries of the world, including the USA, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Canada, Kazakhstan and Thailand.
