Arsenal AD

JSC Arsenal AD (Bulgarian: Арсенал АД) is a Bulgarian joint-stock company based in Kazanlak, engaged primarily in the manufacture of firearms and military equipment. It is Bulgaria's oldest arms supplier.

Arsenal AD

Company type	Private
Industry	Defense
Founded	1878 (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)
Number of employees	10,500 (2022) (2010)
Website	arsenal-bg.com

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 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.

Military production

Pistols

• Arsenal Compact

Submachine guns

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

Assault rifles

Main article: AR-M1

• AR-M1 / AR-M1F - improved AK-74 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-74 copy like the AR-M1/AR-M1F, but with a shortened barrel, AKS-74U 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. Chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×39mm.
• AR-M7F - improved AK-74 copy like the AR-M1, but with an AK-101-style folding stock.
• AR-M9 / AR-M9F - improved AK-74 copy 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-1 / AR-1F - improved AK-47 copies with black polymer lining and luminous sights.
• AR-SF - based on AKS-74U, 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

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

Grenade launchers

A Bulgarian soldier with an ATGL-L, equipped with a red dot reflex sight.

• Lavina - 40mm semi-automatic revolver-type grenade launcher;
• 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

Munitions

• Small arms ammunition - 9×18mm Makarov, 9×19mm Parabellum, 5.56×45mm NATO, 7.62×39mm, 7.62×51mm NATO, 7.62×54mmR
• Artillery rounds - 23×115mm, 23×152mmB, 30×165mm
• Rounds for grenade launchers - 30mm for AGS-17 and AGS-30, 40x46mm low velocity, 40mm VOG-25, 40x53mm high velocity
• Rounds for anti-tank systems - RPG-7, SPG-9, 2A28
• Mortar bombs - 60mm, 81mm, 82mm and 120mm
• Hand grenades
• Unguided aviation rockets

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

See also

• TEREM, another Bulgarian arms manufacturing company
• Mars Armor Ltd, a Bulgarian ballistic protection manufacturing company
• Defense industry of Bulgaria

External links

• Official website
• History of Arsenal AD
• Arsenal, Inc. (US importer)
• Blue Book Publication: ARSENAL, BULGARIA companyinformation (archiveversion)