Kalashnikov reduces labor intensity of manufacturing AK-12 assault rifle.

With the existing growth in production volumes and a limited human resource, the Kalashnikov consortium has introduced a number of important technological processes that will significantly reduce the labor intensity of manufacturing the AK-12 assault rifle.
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Kalashnikov AK-12 (Picture source: Rostec)

In terms of automatic weapons, the main product at the plant today is the AK-12. It accounts for more than half of the entire weapons production of the enterprise. Until the end of 2023, the concern will have to fulfill the state defense order for this product in a record volume. The plan for 2024 provides for further growth in its production.

The need to modernize the machine, identified during the CBO, required designers and technologists to search for new solutions in the field of improving and modifying the product. To this end, the department of the chief technologist and the design and technology center has developed and implemented a number of new processes in production.

“The task of fulfilling the state defense order, taking into account the modernization of the assault rifle and increasing its efficiency, will be completed on time,” Andrey Baryshnikov, managing director of the Kalashnikov concern, commented on the results of work for the first half of the year.

The AK-12, "Avtomat Kalashnikova, 2012" (GRAU index 6P70) is an assault rifle chambered in 5.45×39mm of the fifth generation of Kalashnikov rifles. Kalashnikov also offers a variant of the AK-12 chambered in 7.62×39mm, known as the AK-15 (GRAU index 6P71) due to the request of the Russian military. A variant chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO was later unveiled, known as the AK-19 upon the request of international clients. Compact variants of the AK-12 and AK-15 are also under development, respectively the AK-12K and AK-15K, which features a shorter barrel.

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 the Kalashnikov Concern, 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 the fully automatic fire of the earlier prototype models.

It went through three different prototypes in order to improve upon the "range of defects" that were discovered on the prototype models from 2012 to 2015. These were later abandoned in favour of the proven and improved AK-400, which became the finalised model of the AK-12.

Defense News August 2023