AK-47 maker aims at boats and drones
abu dhabi — It’s better known as the company that spawned one of the world’s most common assault rifles — the AK-47 — but Kalashnikov is now softening its tone and branching out into boats, drones and even quirky memorabilia.
Speaking on the sidelines of the International Defence Exhibition and Conference (Idex) in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Vladimir Dmitriev, Deputy CEO for Sales and Marketing at Kalashnikov, said the company has big plans to diversify its product range in the future, as it “cannot depend only on military weapons”.
On day 3 of the defence exhibition, Kalashnikov displayed one of its small surveillance drones — the 7.5kg Zala 42116E2 — that is hand launched and has a range of reaching up to 30 kilometres.
abu dhabi — Kalashnikov, the company that spawned the ubiquitous AK-47 rifle, is branching out into a diverse range of products including elegant hunting weapons, boats, and even drones.
On a video display at the company’s stand at the International Defence Exhibition (Idex), Kalashnikov displayed one of its small surveillance drones — the 7.5kg Zala 421-16E2 — that is hand launched and has a range of up to 30kilometres, The model competes with similar American and European drones for a rapidly growing market.
Also on offer are a number of boats built by a Kalashnikov subsidiary, Rybinsk Shipyard, which include patrol boats, hydrographic survey ships for the Arctic and assault landing craft designed to carry troops in combat.
Speaking at Idex, Vladimir Dmitriev, Deputy CEO for Sales and Marketing, noted that the expansion began when the company fell under new ownership.
In the future, Dmitriev said the company will continue to diversify and plans to capitalise on the company’s famous name by selling memorabilia and other items.
“We cannot depend only on military weapons, so we’ll continue to explore the civilian area,” he said. “We’re looking at the Kalashnikov Brand itself through items we couldn’t display at Idex, such as souvenirs and merchandise.”
“In the last couple of years, a private owner came to the company and we came under stakeholders, so the company got a push towards rapid and fast development,” he said. “While small arms is our traditional territory, we are now also working at sea and in the air.”
The company now has a subsidiary company, Zala Aero, which specialises in building unmanned aerial vehicles. “It’s the best Russian manufacturers of unmanned aerosystems,” Dmitriev said. “It’s a special territory for us, and it’s strategically important.”
Additionally, the company has moved into the civilian firearms market. At Idex, Kalashnikov displayed a number of shotguns and bolt-action hunting rifles designed for non-military usage, some of them made by another subsidiary, Baikal. “These are only civilian versions,” he said. “Hunting is native territory as well. We produce a wide range of hunting weapons, something like 400,000 a year.”
“In Russia we dominate (the civilian market), owning more than 85 per cent of the domestic market together with Baikal,” he said.
“But because of sanctions we’ve had to refrain from direct sales in the US, which is traditionally the biggest market for civilian weapons,” Dmitriev added. “Quoting Kalashnikov CEO Alexey Krivoruchko, Reuters reports that the sales have doubled in 2016, with the Middle East now accounting
We cannot depend only on military weapons, so we’ll continue to explore the civilian area.” Vladimir Dmitriev, Deputy CEO for Sales and Marketing, Kalashnikov
for the bulk of its exports. He added that the military products account for 80 per cent of sales, with civilian products constituting the other 20 per cent.
While Kalashnikov Concern — officially known as Izhevsk Mechanical Plant until 2013 — has been producing weapons since the early 1800s, it rose to worldwide recognition in the late 1940s, when the AK-47 design produced by a wounded young Red Army soldier, Mikhail Kalashnikov, was adopted by the Soviet Army. The weapon is so ubiquitous that it made the Guinness Book of World Records as the most widely used assault rifle on the planet, in service in more than 100 countries.