AK-12 to be actively supplied to Russian Armed Forces

A first batch of the new AK-12 assault rifle amounting to 2,500 units was the biggest over the past 30 year. It was announced earlier today by Deputy Defence Minister Aleksey Krivoruchko when visiting the Kalashnikov Concern.

“The new assault rifle does have good prospects, it was upgraded as required. We planned this work several years ago, and now we have reached the stage of production., Alexey Krivoruchko explained.

Deputy Defence Minister also added that representatives of the Russian Defence Ministry were convinced in readiness of the Concern to launch serial production of the assault rifle.

According to him the rearmament programme provides for intensifying the supply of the new assault rifles.

The Deputy Minister noted that the decision on which troops will be the first to receive a new assault rifle will be made in the first quarter of 2019; meanwhile the assault rifles will be stored at the dumps of the Defence Ministry.

The Kalashnikov Concern noted that the Russian Defence Ministry is still the only customer of the AK-12, which will gradually replace the AK-74M in the troops.

The AK-12 was invented as part of the Ratnik program as an element of a promising set of equipment for servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces.