In recent years, the Russian defense industry has faced a rather nontrivial problem. Suddenly (!) It became clear that the bins of the Motherland are full of small arms of varying degrees of antiquity. Against this background, in 2011, the military simply stopped purchasing new AK-74M assault rifles, and the Izhevsk gunsmiths could not offer the military at that time a fundamentally new development. Reportedly, at present, about 16 million barrels of various small arms have accumulated in the warehouses of the Russian Ministry of Defense, most of which are Kalashnikov assault rifles. At the same time, almost 6, 5 million of them have already exhausted their entire resource.
Analysts say that there is no need for Russia to have such a huge amount of small arms. In case of war, the Ministry of Defense will have enough 3-4 million barrels in warehouses, the rest of the specimens must either be sold for export, or modernized, or disposed of. Konstantin Makienko, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, notes that Russia simply physically does not have so many people who are ready to pick up more than 3 million submachine guns in case of war. In addition, all modern conflicts presuppose the presence of a stake on the use of precision weapons and professional military personnel; the massive use of mobilization reserves is simply not expected.
According to Oleg Bochkarev, deputy chairman of the Military-Industrial Commission (MIC) under the Russian government, stocks of small arms accumulated in the warehouses of the Russian Defense Ministry are holding back new orders. And this is despite the fact that a program for the disposal of obsolete weapons has been implemented in Russia for about 10 years. So the problem with the samples of small arms accumulated in warehouses, most of which are AK, is quite acute in our country.
Possible ways out of this situation were announced on September 18, 2013 in Izhevsk. In particular, Russian President Vladimir Putin supported the proposal, according to which the state corporation "Rostekhnologii" is going to provide the Russian Defense Ministry with 1 new AK-12 assault rifle in exchange for 3 assault rifles belonging to the old generations, which will be withdrawn from military warehouses. Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Dmitry Rogozin told reporters that the Russian president supported the proposal of Sergei Chemezov (the head of Rotsekhnologii).
The President of Russia and Dmitry Rogozin on September 18 in the capital of Udmurtia took part in a meeting on the implementation of the state armaments program in terms of equipping the country's ground forces with new weapons. At the same time, Dmitry Rogozin reminded reporters that the AK-12 has not yet passed the stage of state tests, but the Deputy Prime Minister expressed confidence that the new Russian machine gun will be tested in the near future. Upon completion of the state test program, a decision will be made on the scale of possible purchases that the RF Ministry of Defense and other Russian power structures will go to, Dmitry Rogozin noted.
According to Oleg Bochkarev, the new AK-12 Kalashnikov assault rifles are expected to enter service with the Russian army in 2014. According to the official, there are two models that will differ in caliber (7, 62 and 5, 45). The development of the AK-12 assault rifle, which belongs to the 5th generation, has been carried out in Izhevsk under the direction of Izhmash chief designer Vladimir Zlobin since mid-2011. The new machine gun for the Russian army and law enforcement agencies retained the classic layout, but at the same time received a number of significant design improvements. So, in particular, the AK-12 has a much better accuracy of fire when firing in bursts and less recoil when firing. In addition, the machine should be equipped with Picatinny rails, which can be used to install various additional equipment on it (scopes, target designators, flashlights, and so on), a double-sided reloading handle and an adjustable butt.
Talking about the possibilities of using the previous series of Kalashnikov assault rifles, Dmitry Rogozin said that they could be used as spare parts. Also, in his opinion, old machines could be used to create civilian weapons on their basis. On the basis of the Kalashnikov assault rifle, an excellent competitive position was once created - the Saiga 12-gauge self-loading carbine. Today, this weapon is very popular on the American market, including among police units, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
Thus, according to Dmitry Rogozin, there is an opportunity to earn money by selling military weapons on foreign markets, which have been converted into civilian weapons. In addition, the Deputy Prime Minister recalled that, on behalf of the military-industrial complex, a program to modernize the existing combat potential of small arms, which has accumulated in the warehouses of the Russian Ministry of Defense, has been working for 6 months, that is, work is underway to raise the class of weapons and replace its individual parts.
Dmitry Rogozin also stressed that at present Russia is receiving quite a lot of proposals for the provision of military-technical assistance with small arms from foreign states. This assistance could be provided at the expense of the reserves of the Russian Ministry of Defense, that is, without producing new machine guns at the plant in Kovrov or Izhevsk. It is quite possible for foreign partners to transfer machines stored in Russian warehouses. Speaking about MTC supplies, Rogozin did not specify the states to which Russian small arms could be sent, confining himself to the message that a huge number of applications were received.
