Russian rifles and vehicles make African debut

7th June 2021 - 12:49 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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Kalashnikov AK-19 assault rifle. (Photo: Rosoboronexport)

New-model Kalashnikov rifles and VPK armoured vehicles will be displayed to an African audience for the first time on 8-10 June at Shield Africa.

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.