New Kalashnikov Inc. AS-1 and AS-2 Bullpup Rifles

New Kalashnikov Inc. AS-1 and AS-2 Bullpup Rifles

Two new bullpup rifles were debuted by the newly formed Kalashnikov Inc. Izhmash, one of Russia’s largest arms makers was recently renamed to Kalashnikov Inc. Along with Izhmash, Izhmech, Baikal and Molot also make up the new Kalashnikov Inc. Posted over at Military-Informant.com, the new AS-1 and AS-2 were revealed at the “Innovation Day” expo in Russia. Not much is known about these new rifles however, what we do know is the AS-1 will be chambered in 5.45x39mm and the AS-2 in 7.62x39mm.

Google Translate’s version of the article was a bit hard to follow, a member over on the gun section of Reddit provided a much better translation of the article as seen below:

“For the very first time, the new special purpose assault rifle AS-1, was publicly shown. The Kalashnikov Corp demonstrated these weapons, which were initially developed at the request of the FSB for special operations, to the professional community at the “Innovation Day” expo – AS-1 in 5.45×39 mm and AS-2 in 7.62×39 mm.

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Later on, the AS assault rifle may be included as an armament competent of the indigenously developed Ratnik “future soldier” system.

The main characteristic of the new assault rifle is the so-called “bull-pup” configuration. According to an announcement by a representative of Kalashnikov Corp, in addition to the more traditional rifle configurations, the company will develop and mass-produce such “bull-pup” designs, where the hammer part of the fire control group and magazine are located behind the trigger.”

The article goes on to describe the history and benefits of the bull-pup weapons, focusing on the Steyr AUG.

It ends with: “Unfortunately, at the moment, we lack any details on the design and specific functionality of the AS-1 and AS-2 assault rifles, but hope that more information will be disclosed and available soon.”