Russian rifles and vehicles make African debut

Rosoboronexport increased its order portfolio in sub-Saharan Africa by $1.7 billion since the start of 2020, the Rostec subsidiary announced on 7 June before the start of the Shield Africa exhibition in Côte d’Ivoire. 

During Shield Africa 2021 from 8-10 June, Rosoboronexport will not only exhibit equipment already well-known in the continent, such as BTR-80 series armoured personnel carriers and Kalashnikov AK-12 and AK-15 but also ‘absolute novelties in Africa’ such as the AK-19 and AK-308 assault rifles.

At the same show, for the first time in Africa, the Military Industrial Company (VPK) will exhibit a full-scale Tigr special armoured vehicle in the Raid configuration, as well as Strela light armoured and Ural multipurpose armoured vehicles.

Rosoboronexport noted that it is ‘successfully continuing to foster military-technical cooperation with Sub-Saharan African countries, which received a strong impetus during the Russia-Africa Forum in 2019’.

Deals since January 2020 bring to 17 the number of central, western and southern African countries in the Rosoboronexport customer portfolio, said director general Alexander Mikheev.

Related Equipment in Defence Insight

Tigr/Tigr-M

Strela

AK-19