Another triumph of the glorious Soviet Union looks like biting the dust (having raised quite a bit):
Kalashnikov Manufacturer Faces Bankruptcy
It produces the most popular automatic rifles in the world but the company that makes the Kalashnikov, or AK-47, is in trouble. It has had to deal with a slump in arms exports and competition from the makers of copycat versions around the world. Now a shady businessman has filed bankruptcy proceedings against the company.
Even in his old age, Mikhail Kalashnikov still worries about the invention that defined his life. At a conference on the 60th anniversary of the weapon that he invented in 1947 — the Avtomatni Kalashnikova (Automatic of Kalashnikov) or AK-47 — the elderly weapons designer, who is still chief designer for the state controlled company that makes the guns, lamented that, “there are counterfeits all around the world now which are plainly not of the same quality as the Russian example.”
The legendary Kalashnikov is a Russian export success story. The guns are used by 60 armies worldwide, account for up to 80 percent of all assault rifles and are known as the weapon of choice for terrorist groups and rebel movements. But the Izhmash Arms factory in the central Russian city of Izhevsk, where Kalashnikovs are manufactured, has long been concerned about forgeries.
According to Izhmash Arms’ parent company, the Rosoboronexport State Corporation — which has a monopoly on supplying Russian arms to the international market — there are about eight countries in which dozens of business are making their own versions of the Kalashnikov. And they are doing this without passing on any licensing fees to the Russians.
And now it appears that the financial difficulties facing the weapons manufacturer have reached crisis point: its very existence is threatened…
And those darn Chinese knockoffs aren’t helping either. Darn capitalists!
Most Kalashnikov rifles in the world aren’t Izmash and haven’t ever been.
Under the USSR, they were made at various factories, and in most if not all of the Warsaw Pact countries… none of which stopped after the Iron Curtain fell.
Tula Arsenal still makes AKSU-74s, for instance, though they might be paying Kalashnikov royalites. Or maybe there’s a loophole for State purchases… it’s not like Russia is exactly capitalist, even today.
And I can’t make myself cry a tear for Izmash not getting any royalties from former Soviet-occupied states for continuing to make the very arms that oppressed them under the Red heel. Consider it reparations, Comrades.
(While the kid in the picture has a Kalashnikov pattern rifle, I see no particular reason to assume it’s an Izmash/Kalashnikov brand rifle.)
perhaps the criticisms of the AK47 were in fact in relation to the performance of the knockoffs.
M16 vs. 47 bla bla bla.
this is the result of the failure of 1st world nations using considerable clout to force ROTW to abide by patent and copyright regulations. don’t want to? there goes any chance of loans, foreign aid, etc etc.
it is the gutless politishuns of europe and n america exclusively to blame for this. capitalism is its own worst enemy. they’re called free riders.
Yeah,Yeah,AK-47,”designed” by Mikhail Kalashnikov.
Here’s an interesting picture of a rifle that looks a hell of a lot like an AK-47 but,*Whoopsey-Daisy*,it was invented in 1944 in Germany,3 years before it was invented by Kalashnikov.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sturmgewehr_44.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturmgewehr_44
The problem for Mr Kalashnikov (incorrect spelling in the title of the post) is that his invention was so easy to knock off.
So, it’s not a failure of the AK-47, rather it’s due to lack of enforcement of patent law, as the article states. The gun is so simple to make, it’s easy (I’ve heard) to buy one on the street in some places in India, and of course China has no real cares for intellectual property.
There would apparently be one AK-47 for every 60 people in the world, if they were to be evenly distributed.
Erik Larsen: Imagine a “C” at the start of the title.
Mark
Ottawa
“incorrect spelling in the title of the post”
It’s an English-language pun on the word “cash”, Eric.
Yep, I got it after Mark explained it. I’m slow. Cheers, EriK 🙂
Chinese capitalists? You mean rip off artists don’t you? Over there rule of law as corporations over here have to abide by doesn’t even exist. But all the same I’m not sorry for the Russians, you think after 60 years they could invent a better gun to take over the market?
The AK-47, from the Evil Empire and responsible for more wickedness and misery than any other weapon ever made.
If our gun laws weren’t so stupid, Canada single handedly could keep Izmash afloat.
“The AK-47, from the Evil Empire and responsible for more wickedness and misery than any other weapon ever made.”
The rifle or the hands that use it?
MikeG – AK-47s don’t enslave and murder millions, Communists enslave and murder millions.
Yeah,Yeah,AK-47,”designed” by Mikhail Kalashnikov.
Here’s an interesting picture of a rifle that looks a hell of a lot like an AK-47 but,*Whoopsey-Daisy*,it was invented in 1944 in Germany,3 years before it was invented by Kalashnikov.
Except that they were a ripoff of captured Russian rifles, specifically the SVT-40 and AVT-40. The real trick was in switching to an intermediate cartridge as the rifle cartridges in 7.62x54R were uncontrollable on full auto. The Russians designed some very interesting firearms.
MikeG, the perpetrator is of course always the responsible agent but the AK-47 is the tool used in more wickedness and causing more misery than in the world than any weapon ever made.
“AK-47s don’t enslave and murder millions, Communists enslave and murder millions.”
I know, that’s why my comment was directed at Dave in Pa, since he is blaming an object for misery.
“is the tool used”
So what? It’s an object. It’s no more or less evil than the intent behind it.
“is the tool used”
So what? It’s an object. It’s no more or less evil than the intent behind it.
Folks who have used it to defend themselves would disagree with you.
MikeG – totally, just thought you could use a slogan.
You would think that the sale of 100,000 of these gems to Venezuela a couple of years back, plus a license to build more in a Russian authorized factory there, would make their balance sheet look good for more than one year. I believe that sale was for the real thing, not knock-offs or pirated versions. I think there’s a money drain somewhere.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199982,00.html
of course, they may have simply invested in their own country, and lost their shirts… there’s some of that going ’round.
http://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/editorial-banking-on-russia/#more-17713
Why is it that people can’t afford shoes or sandals but can be packing a AK 47?
That kid in the grass skirt may be armed with a “Kalashnikov” but it sure ain’t no AK47 it could be an “Izmash” built AKM with an older steel AK magazine but that is difficult to tell from that pic. What is obvious is that it has a stamped receiver rather than the machined from solid original AK47 receiver.
The hallmark of the “Izmash” AK is it’s chrome lined barrel….
The East German copy of the AKM had a machined receiver and a good finish absent the devise the kid has.
The Hungarians shortened the barrel and had folding stocks.
The AKM is designed for ease of manufacture so it’s design is the downfall of Izmash.
Technically Kalashnikovs are not rifles but are automatic carbines—actually machineguns—the first setting of the selector is fully auto—all other small arms capable of auto-fire the first stop is single shot.
The Finnish Valmet is largely inspired by the Kalashnikov…..but different in many ways. The Israeli Galil bears a resemblance to the Kalashnikov but is actually based upon the Valmet—-the prototype used Finnish bodies.
The 76.2 X 39 AK round is powerful but has a bad tendency to wander……this is why the Dragonnev Russian sniper rifle uses the better, bigger,venerable 76.2 Russian rimmed cartridge.
The accuracy weakness of the AK was the main reason for the VC’s tactic of “hanging onto the beltbuckle”—close quarters combat.
It’s called “spray and pray”…….
sasquatch – you know from Kalashnikovs.
Very sad!! One of the finest military weapons ever built. The greatest advanatge is that the AK-47 had a very exclusive sound that helped soldiers indentify the user!!
Re: The rebel in the grass skirt. Anybody have a Zippo?
Actually, sasquatch, Kalashnikov’s original design (the one he built for the 1946 trials) DID use a stamped receiver, as it was intended from the outset to be a mass-produced item, on a par with the stamped Stg44, but they couldn’t iron out the bugs in production; too many receivers were being ruined during the process of attaching the trunnion, as they wouldn’t stay straight enough to support the bolt carrier during its travel. The AKS (avtomat Kalashnikov skladnoy) was also planned fromm the outset, specifically for the VDV, the airborne arm of the Russian army; if you have an interest in the history of the AK, and can read Russian, I’d recommend Monetchikov’s “History of Russian Automatics”.
I’m pretty sure the kid in the picture is working at the KFC down the street.
Sasquatch, the Valmet is what the AK is capable of becoming when it isn’t being manufactured by a bunch of drunks who are pretending to work. It’s absolutely beautiful to shoot, accurate to about a minute of angle depending on caliber chambered. Same with the Galil.
This is the real, actual reason why Izmash is going out of business while IMI and Valmet aren’t. Their work is crap.
I’ll take two.
“Dave in pa ”
A couple of point’s here …one being to correct the wepon thta has killed more living thing’s period than any and or ever war ,bomb ,of any kind ,and or any type ….iiiiiiisss….none other than the beautiful british 303 baby it is used in every single country around the world for hunting ,warfare,and all other creative types of killing ….that is a factual statistic so i am told ….LOL and if by some chance it isn’t it is definatley in the top three but it far ,far ,far surpasses the ak-47 by a long shot …sorry no pun intended.
Paul in calgary .
state owned business = epic fail
SDC
Pravda….
Kalashnikov’s prototypes were stamped receivers but Russian cold forging had to wait for espionage to provide successful Western cold forging technology.
Kalashnikov’s original intent was to produce a weapon as cheap and easy to manufacture as Georgy Shpagin’s PPSH41(burp-gun). oddly enough the East German AKM copies utilized more costly machined receivers and are dead give-aways because of this—-they still shot like crap…a design weakness—-this is why the Galil’s origin is with the Valmet.
Remember the Finnish Soami and the Finns aplication inspired the soviets to copy it.
Finns are the Spartans of the North…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81p9Rcl9pM0
Sounds like this?
Russian and Warsaw pact AKs are too expensive for your cost conscious war lord so all the sales go to NORINCO (China North Industries Corporation)who make cheap replicas of the AK47,Dragunov,M14,SKS battle carbines and rifles.
NORINCO has a ship stacked with small arms and ammo ready to sail into the nearest port from each new armed conflict outbreak.
The Russians were scooped by the Chinese in the low end small arms racket, that leaves the Russian low end nuke biz to expand into Mid east and African conflicts.
Isn’t it interesting that both these arms pimping nations sit on the UN security council?
That’s true, Paul. Its either the Lee Enfield or the Mauser, they are common as dirt too. Issued world wide, copied by every major country and gun maker.
Fly, have you seen one of those Norinco AKs or SKSs? They -rattle-. Every machined surface is left unfinished except the barrel and the crown. Every piece of sheetmetal is left with raw edges. You’d be lucky to hit a barn from the inside with one.
Ah! the weird logic of so – called “Capitalists”. The government giveth and the government taketh away…that should be a clue. In a truly capitalist society, there would be no intellectual property, there would be no patent “rights”. The folks that tout this claptrap like it just fine when governments give them special rights, all in the name of “stimulating innovation”.
Perhaps y’all should consider the fashion industry, where innovation and creativity thrive despite the fact that their creations are not patentable.
Every time I read bitching and moaning about failures to enforce patent rights and how the Chinese are “stealing”, and fat – cat Hollywood moguls and legacy sound recording interests are being deprived of their “property” rights by counterfeiters, I want to puke. You’re not Capitalists, you just want your little leg up from the State just like the other something – for – nothing Socialists.
Perhaps the fine folks at Izmash should get up off their butts and come up with something new after all these years. Ak’s are so, well…..yesterday, fashion – wise.
The weapon that has killed more living things in history than any other is called “the sword.”
Just my 2 cents.
Swords are still being used all over the world to kill people to this day, Sudan for one example.
Agreed Phantom…
I got some nasty scrapes and cuts from those Norinco wonders…..
A long time ago and far far away, we bagged some Chinese AKs which although condition wise looked fairly new and well maintained had shot their rifling out and were in practical terms smooth-bores.
The Russian practice of chrome-plating of the bores and parts subject to gas wash does have much merit.
The dirt floor gunsmiths of Peshawar don’t bother building AKs but do produce sweet, match quality Mk 4 Lee Enfield counterfeits.
Posted by: Dave in Pa>
“The AK-47, from the Evil Empire and responsible for more wickedness and misery than any other weapon ever made.”
The AK-47 is responsible for NOTHING!
The Tutsis & Hutu killed each other in what was claimed to be genocidal massacre (800,000 – 1,000,000 estimated dead) – with machetes.
No one blames the machetes, do they?
In my opinion the AK-47 is a pretty crappy gun for anyone aside from brain dead tribesman who barely understand that they need to point the skinny end towards their target and squeeze.
Ever see news footage of them holding the gun in the air without aiming then “spray and pray”? Useless.
The only advantage of the AK that I can see is it requires no maintenance to function in the hands of idiots. That said the best variant on the market is the “Galil” by Israel Military Industries, unlike the typical Chinese copied junk, this is a well made firearm.
cottus: Where do you get this definition of “true capitalism”?
The fashion industry, is your only counter-example? Telling, isn’t that?
That the only example you could come up with of “innovation” (where “innovation” means “making it look a little different yet be otherwise exactly like the predecessors”, I guess?) at an industrial scale without IP protections is one where the goods are not particularly durable, no real “capital” is required to produce them, the alleged innovation is (almost) entirely aesthetic and trivial (which is why it isn’t patentable!), and the only reason it works is that a number of fashion-slaves will buy something new every year even if it’s crap.
If you can explain how that’s somehow the logical model of “true capitalism” despite having essentially no capital investment and being all brand-value, you’ll at least have started down the path of explaining how IP isn’t useful for promoting expensive research and testing in real industries that do have capital investments and aren’t just… fashion.
There’s a reason “fashion” has a meaning beyond “clothes-makers”, and a reason that meaning is what it is.