JSC Arsenal AD ( bg, Арсенал АД) is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

n joint-stock company based in

Kazanlak Kazanlak ( bg, Казанлък , Thracian and Greek Σευθόπολις (''Seuthopolis''), tr, Kazanlık) is a Bulgarian town in Stara Zagora Province, located in the middle of the plain of the same name, at the foot of the Balkan mountai ...

, engaged primarily in the manufacture of firearms and military equipment. It is

's oldest arms supplier.

History

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 Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

in 1891. After the nation's defeat in the

Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 ( O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies r ...

and

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in 1924 the company and all of its equipment were relocated in

, a town situated in central

. The armory was given the name ("State Military Factory"). Initially producing only artillery gun components and ammunition, the factory later began to manufacture gas masks (1920s), nitroglycerin (1930s),

machine tool A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All ...

s (1940s) and finally assault rifles, optic sights and

B-10 recoilless rifle The B-10 recoilless rifle (''Bezotkatnojie orudie-10'', known as the RG82 in East Germany) is a Soviet 82 mm smoothbore recoilless gun. It could be carried on the rear of a BTR-50 armoured personnel carrier. It was a development of the earli ...

s (1950s). The first assault rifle, a direct copy of the Soviet

AK-47 The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms d ...

, was produced in 1958. By the 1960s, a total of seven factories were under the company's jurisdiction. Until the

Fall of Communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

in 1989-1990, the company was named ''Mashinostroitelen kombinat Fridrikh Engels'' ("

Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Bulgarrenault Bulgarrenault (or Bulgar Renault) was an automobile produced in the city of Plovdiv, Bulgaria, and the result of a collaboration between Metalhim (a Bulgarian defence firm) and Bulet (a Bulgarian export trade organisation). Production lasted for f ...

-8. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Arsenal began cooperation with companies from Japan, Sweden,

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. 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 diamond Lab-grown diamond (LGD; also called laboratory-grown, laboratory-created, man-made, artisan-created, artificial, synthetic, or cultured diamond) is diamond that is produced in a controlled technological process (in contrast to naturally formed ...

Military production

Pistols

* Arsenal Compact

Submachine guns

* Shipka SMG (

9×18mm Makarov The 9×18mm Makarov (designated 9mm Makarov by the C.I.P. and often called 9×18mm PM) is a Soviet pistol and submachine gun cartridge. During the latter half of the 20th century it was a standard military pistol cartridge of the Soviet Union an ...

/ 9×19mm Parabellum)

Assault rifles

* AR-M1 / AR-M1F - improved

copy with an

AK-74 The AK-74 ( Russian: , tr. ''Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974 goda'', lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1974) is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974. While primarily associated with the Soviet ...

front sight base,

flash suppressor A flash suppressor, also known as a flash guard, flash eliminator, flash hider, or flash cone, is a muzzle device attached to the muzzle (firearms), muzzle of a rifle that reduces its visible signature while firing by cooling or dispersing the b ...

, black polymer stock set, luminous spots on the iron sights and a rail for mounting

optics Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...

. The -F model features a folding stock. Chambered in

5.56×45mm NATO The 5.56×45mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 5.56 NATO, but often pronounced "five-five-six") is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge family developed in the late 1970s in Belgium by FN Herstal. It consists of the SS109, L110, an ...

and

7.62×39mm The 7.62×39mm (aka 7.62 Soviet, formerly .30 Russian Short) round is a rimless bottlenecked intermediate cartridge of Soviet origin. The cartridge is widely used due to the worldwide proliferation of Russian SKS and AK-47 pattern rifles, as ...

. * AR-M2 / AR-M2F - improved AK-47 copy like the AR-M1/AR-M1F, but with a shortened barrel,

AKS-74U The AK-74 (Russian: , tr. ''Avtomat Kalashnikova obraztsa 1974 goda'', lit. 'Kalashnikov assault rifle model 1974) is an assault rifle designed by small arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1974. While primarily associated with the Soviet ...

front sight base and

muzzle booster A muzzle booster or recoil booster is a device fixed to the muzzle of a firearm, intended to harness the energy of the escaping propellant to augment the force of recoil on portions of the firearm. In spite of its name, a muzzle booster does not ...

/flash suppressor hybrid. * AR-M4SF - extremely short development of the AKS-74 with

red dot sight A red dot sight is a common classification for a type of non- magnifying reflector (or reflex) sight for firearms, and other devices that require aiming, that gives the user a point of aim in the form of an illuminated red dot. A standard desig ...

, provision to mount a night vision or laser sight. Chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×39mm. * AR-M7F - improved AK-47 copy like the AR-M1, but with an

AK-101 The AK-101 is an assault rifle of the Kalashnikov series. It's marketed at those looking for a weapon that combines the logistical compatibility and familiarity of the 5.56×45mm NATO round with the reliability of a Kalashnikov. The design of t ...

-style folding stock. * AR-M9 / AR-M9F - improved AK-47 copy like the AR-M1/AR-M1F, features a thumb-operable fire selector and a different style polymer stock set. 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 grip. AR-M9F civilian base rifle counterpart in semiautomatic is the SAR-M9F (modified and sold as SAM7SF-84 in the US market to meet import restrictions). * AR-1 / AR-1F - improved

copies with black polymer lining and luminous sights. * AR-SF - based on

with laser aim indicator. Chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×39mm.

Light Machine Guns

* LMG/ LMG-F -

RPK The RPK (russian: Ручной пулемёт Калашникова/РПК, Ruchnoy Pulemyot Kalashnikova, link=no, English: "Kalashnikov hand-held machine gun"), sometimes retroactively termed the RPK-47, is a Soviet 7.62×39mm light machine ...

variants in 7.62×39mm, 5.45×39mm or 5.56×45mm NATO chambering

General Purpose Machine Guns

* Arsenal MG series - different versions of the PK machine gun, all with polymer lining and slightly higher muzzle velocity;

Grenade launchers

* Lavina - 40mm semi-automatic revolver-type grenade launcher; * Arsenal MSGL - 40×46mm multi-shot grenade launcher; somewhat similar to the

Milkor MGL The Milkor MGL (Multiple Grenade Launcher) is a lightweight 40 mm six-shot revolver-type grenade launcher (variations also fire 37/38mm) developed and manufactured in South Africa by Milkor (Pty) Ltd. The MGL was demonstrated as a concept to the ...

* UBGL series - underbarrel grenade launchers for all AR and AK series of assault rifles, the Bushmaster M4 Type Carbine,

M4 carbine The M4 carbine (officially Carbine, Caliber 5.56 mm, M4) is a 5.56×45mm NATO, gas-operated, magazine-fed carbine developed in the United States during the 1980s. It is a shortened version of the M16A2 assault rifle. The M4 is extensively ...

and

M16 rifle The M16 rifle (officially designated Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16) is a family of military rifles adapted from the ArmaLite AR-15 rifle for the United States military. The original M16 rifle was a 5.56×45mm automatic rifle with a 20-ro ...

s * ATGL-L - a lighter RPG-7 version with a more powerful warhead and a

; * 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 The ZU-23-2, also known as ZU-23, is a Soviet towed 23×152mm anti-aircraft twin-barreled autocannon. ZU stands for ''Zenitnaya Ustanovka'' (Russian: Зенитная Установка) – anti-aircraft mount. The GRAU index is 2A13. Developm ...

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

Munitions

* Small arms ammunitions - 9x18, 9x19, 5.56x45, 7.62x39, 7.62x51, 7.62x54 * Artillery rounds - 23x115, 23x152, 30x165, * Rounds for grenade launchers - 30mm, 40mm, 40x46mm * Rounds for anti-tank systems - RPG-7, SPG-9, BMP 73mm * Mortar bombs - 60mm, 81mm, 82mm and 120mm * Hand grenades * Unguided aviation rockets * Anti-tank mines

Other products

* Computer Numerical Control (CNC) equipment * Cemented Carbide Inserts * Cemented Carbide Tips * Cemented Carbide Special Tools * Hunting Powders "Sokol", "Mars", "Magia" * Nitrocellulose for Lacquer Production * Nitrocellulose for Dynamite Production

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website

History of Arsenal AD

Arsenal, Inc. (US importer)
* Blue Book Publication
''ARSENAL, BULGARIA'' companyinformation
(archiveversion) Defence companies of Bulgaria Companies established in 1878 Kazanlak