3 March 2019
Press-release
March 3, 2019 PM of India Narendra Modi opened a plant for production of 200-series Kalashnikov assault rifles, in Corva, Uttar Pradesh.
The founders of the JV Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited for production of Kalashnikov assault rifles in India are India's Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Russia's Rosoboronexport and Kalashnikov Group parented by Rostec.
“The commissioning of the JV for production of the AK203 is by all means a milestone in our partnership under the Make in India initiative. The plant in Corva is one of the most advanced OFB's small arms enterprises already in operation. With production of 750 thousand pieces approved, major components for them will come mostly from India. Nobody has offered India such deep and thorough localization opportunity with a rather high production quantity involved and it is unlikely that somebody will in the near future. The capacity of the plant is sufficient to arm the personnel of all security agencies in India. Should it become necessary, the parties will be able to ratchet up the production output and upgrade the facility to manufacture future models based on Kalashnikov's unique design,” says Alexander Mikheev, Rosoboronexport's CEO.
All operations of Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited are consistent with India’s laws and regulations. Major milestones enroute to the JV include a Government-to-Government Agreement, shareholders’ agreement, approval of the JV Charter, as well as registration of the enterprise in India.
The 200-series Kalashnikovs were unveiled abroad in 2019. The weapons made their debut at IDEX 2019 in the UAE and Aero India 2019 in India’s Bengaluru.
The new Kalashnikov inherited all advantages of the conventional AKs, reliability, durability, and maintainability. At the same time, they are fully consistent with modern SA requirements in terms of ergonomics and compatibility with hi-tech accessories.
“India is the first country to have launched production of the 200-series of the world-famous Kalashnikov brand. We sincerely congratulate our Indian colleagues and citizens of Uttar Pradesh on this remarkable occasion, stressing a high level of trust and unquestionable strategic partnership between India and Russia in the defense and security domain,” notes Alexander Mikheev.
Rosoboronexport is the only state-owned arms trade company in the Russian Federation authorized to export the full range of military and dual-purpose products, technologies and services. It is a subsidiary of the Rostec Corporation. Founded on 4 November, 2000, now Rosoboronexport is one of the leading world arms exporters to the international market. Its share in Russia's military exports exceeds 85 percent. Rosoboronexport cooperates with more than 700 enterprises and organizations in the Russian defence industrial complex. Russia maintains military technical cooperation with more than 100 countries around the world.
Rostecis a Russian State Corporation that was established in 2007 to facilitate the development, production and export of high-tech industrial products designed for civilian and military applications. The Corporation comprises over 700 organizations in 60 constituent entities of the Russian Federation that are currently part of 15 holding companies and 80 directly managed organizations specializing in manufacturing military-industrial, civilian and dual-purpose products. Rostec's portfolio includes well-known brands such as AVTOVAZ, KAMAZ, Concern Kalashnikov, Russian Helicopters, UralVagonZavod, etc. In 2017 the consolidated revenue of Rostec reached 1 trillion 589 million rubles, while the consolidated net income and EBITDA amounted to 121 and 305 billion rubles respectively. According to Rostec strategy, the main objective of the Corporation is to ensure that Russia has a technological advantage in highly competitive global markets. Rostec's key objectives include the introduction of a new techno-economic paradigm and digitalization of Russian economy.
