Arsenal AD

Arsenal AD

Company type	Private
Industry	Defense
Founded	1878; 147 years ago (1878)
Headquarters	Kazanlak, Bulgaria
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Nikolai Ibushev (President)
Products	Firearms Air defense equipment Artillery Munitions Explosives ED devices Industrial machinery
Net income	€ 190,000,000 (2021)^[1]
Number of employees	10,500 (2022)^[2] (2010)
Website	arsenal-bg.com

Company type

Private

Industry

Defense

Founded

1878; 147 years ago

Headquarters

Kazanlak, Bulgaria

Area served

Worldwide

Key people

Nikolai Ibushev (President)

Products

Firearms
Air defense equipment
Artillery
Munitions
Explosives
ED devices
Industrial machinery

Net income

€ 190,000,000 (2021)^[1]

Number of employees

10,500 (2022)^[2] (2010)

Website

arsenal-bg.com

History

Summarize

Perspective

The company's history can be traced back to 1878 with the first armory in the country - the Ruse Artillery Arsenal. Due to strategic concerns, it was relocated to Sofia in 1891. After the nation's defeat in the Second Balkan War and World War I, in 1924 the company and all of its equipment were relocated to Kazanlak, a town situated in central Bulgaria. The armory was given the name Darzhavna voenna fabrika ("State Military Factory").

Initially producing only artillery gun components and ammunition, the factory later began to manufacture gas masks (1920s), nitroglycerin (1930s), machine tools (1940s) and finally assault rifles, optic sights and B-10 recoilless rifles (1950s). The first assault rifle, a direct copy of the Soviet AK-47, was produced in 1958. By the 1960s, a total of seven factories were under the company's jurisdiction. Until the Fall of Communism in 1989-1990, the company was named Mashinostroitelen kombinat Fridrih Engels ("Friedrich Engels Machinery Works") to conceal its activities as a military enterprise. As part of this strategy, it adopted the manufacture of various civilian products, including automobiles such as the then-popular Bulgarrenault-8. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Arsenal began cooperation with companies from Japan, Sweden, Ukraine and Germany.

Currently, Arsenal AD is a private company conducting international arms trade, although it also expands its civilian exports, now including high-precision metalworking machinery, mobile robot manipulators and synthetic diamonds.

Current military production

Pistols

Arsenal Compact

Submachine guns

Shipka SMG (9×18mm Makarov / 9×19mm Parabellum)

Assault rifles

AR-M1 / AR-M1F - improved AK-47 type 3 including a flash suppressor, black polymer stock set, luminous spots on the iron sights and a rail for mounting optics. The -F model features a folding stock. Chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×39mm.
AR-M2 / AR-M2F - improved AK-47 like the AR-M1/AR-M1F, but with a shortened barrel, AKS-74U-like front sight base and muzzle booster/flash suppressor hybrid.
AR-M4SF - extremely short development of the AKS-74 with red dot sight, provision to mount a night vision or laser sight and features a thumb-operable fire selector. Chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×39mm.
AR-M7F - improved AK-47 like the AR-M1, but with an AK-101-style folding stock.
AR-M9 / AR-M9F - improved AK-47 like the AR-M1/AR-M1F, features a thumb-operable fire selector and a different style polymer stock set. The AR-M9F uses a NATO length right side folding tubular stock, unlike most AK folding variants that have left side folding stocks. The advantages a right side folder has over a left allows the optic mount to remain on the weapon when folded. Instead of having to remove the optic mount to latch the stock. The AR-M9F can still be fired from a folded position as the reciprocating charging handle clears the stock. The selector lever can also still be used since the left side incorporates the thumb selector lever on left side of the grip. The AR-M9F's civilian base rifle counterpart in semi-automatic is the SAR-M9F (modified and sold as SAM7SF-84 in the US market to meet import restrictions).
AR-SF - based on AKS-74U,^{[citation needed]} with optional laser aim indicator. Chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×39mm.

Light Machine Guns

LMG/LMG-F - RPK variants in 7.62×39mm, 5.45×39mm or 5.56×45mm NATO chambering

General Purpose Machine Guns

MG-M1/1M/M1S/1MS/1MS/1MV- Licensed PK machine gun chambered in 7.62×54mmR.
MG-M2/M2S/ - PK machine gun modification chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO. The M2S variant has a tripod.

Grenade launchers

Lavina - 40mm semi-automatic revolver-type grenade launcher;^[3]
Arsenal MSGL - 40×46mm multi-shot grenade launcher; somewhat similar to the Milkor MGL
UBGL series - underbarrel grenade launchers for all AR and AK series of assault rifles, the Bushmaster M4 Type Carbine, M4 carbine and M16 rifles
ATGL-L - a lighter RPG-7 version with a more powerful warhead and a red dot sight;
ATGL-H - a heavier SPG-9 copy with a higher muzzle velocity;
AGL-30M - a heavier, more durable variant of the AGS-17 Plamya

Mortars

M60MA - 60mm mortar
M60CMA - 60mm commando mortar (handheld)
M81MA - 81mm mortar
M82MA - 82mm mortar

Air Defense Systems

ADS - ZU-23-2 variant with advanced sights and a computerized fire control system
ADS-N - Navy version

Other firearms and products

BARR series - bolt-action hunting rifles, based on AK series;
SAR series - semi-automatic hunting rifles
HE-FRAG and flash bang grenades