Russian Defense Ministry to receive 40,000 AK-12 assault rifles in 2020.

A batch of 5.45mm AK-12 assault rifles will be delivered to the Russian Defense Ministry in 2020, the Defense Ministry’s press office said. "In accordance with the state defense order, the defense contractor will hand over 40,000 firearms to the Defense Ministry," the press office said.

Kalashnikov AK-12 (Picture source: Army Recognition)

The AK-12 is chambered in 5.45×39mm. It is designed and manufactured by Kalashnikov Concern (formerly Izhmash) and is currently the latest of the Russian AK-Pattern series of assault rifles. Kalashnikov Concern also offers the rifle in 7.62×39mm cartridge, designated as the AK-15. Short-Barreled variants of the AK-12 and AK-15 have been announced, respectively the AK-12K and AK-15K.

The AK-12 project began in 2011 by the IZHMASH factory which became part of the Kalashnikov Concern as a private venture, in an attempt to participate in the "Ratnik" trials which were held by the Russian Army. It was further developed by Kalashnikov Concern, and throughout its development and evaluation stage, it has received multiple modifications to meet the Russian military's standard and to address the Russian Army's concerns regarding the cost and issues in fully automatic fire of the earlier prototype models. It went through several revisions in order to improve upon the "range of defects" that were discovered on the earlier prototype models that were derived from the AK-200. These were later abandoned in favor of the proven and improved AK-400, which became the finalized model of the AK-12.