founded 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 51 300 000 2008 1 number of employees 7 000 2 2010 website arsenal bg.com arsenal ad bulgarian 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 . contents 1 history 2 military production 2.1 submachine guns 2.2 assault rifles 2.3 machine guns 2.4 grenade launchers 2.5 artillery and aa guns 2.6 other firearms and products 2.7 munitions 3 other products 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit 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 in 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 in 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 fridrikh 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 edit submachine guns edit shipka smg 9 18mm makarov 9 19mm parabellum assault rifles edit ar m1 ar m1f improved ak 47 copy with an ak 74 front sight base 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 47 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 47 copy like the ar m1 but with an ak 101 style folding stock . ar m9 ar m9f improved ak 47 copy like the ar m1 ar m1f features a thumb operable fire selector and a different style polymer stock set . ar 1 ar 1f improved ak 47 copies with black polymer lining and luminous sights . ar sf based on aks 74u with laser aim indicator . chambered in 5.56 45mm nato and 7.62 39mm . machine guns edit lmg lmg f rpk copies in 7.62 39mm 5.45 39mm or 5.56 45mm nato chambering arsenal mg series different versions of the pk machine gun all with polymer lining and slightly higher muzzle velocity ; grenade launchers edit a bulgarian soldier with an atgl l equipped with a red dot reflex sight . lavina 40mm semi automatic revolver type grenade launcher ; 3 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 copy of the ags 17 plamya artillery and aa guns edit m6 210 60mm mortar m8 81mm mortar m82 82mm mortar ads a zu 23 2 copy with advanced sights and a computerized fire control system other firearms and products edit barr series bolt action hunting rifles based on ak series ; sar series semi automatic hunting rifles he frag and flash bang grenades munitions edit bullets and shells of all calibres and sorts ; s 5 rockets other products edit 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 edit terem another bulgarian arms manufacturing company defense industry of bulgaria references edit monitor 21.11.2008 132 stara zagora.org http world.guns.ru grenade bg lavina e.html external links edit official website history of arsenal ad arsenal inc. us importer retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title arsenal ad & oldid 733370357 categories defence companies of bulgariacompanies established in 1878kazanlakhidden categories articles containing bulgarian language text navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages edit links this page was last modified on 7 august 2016 at 09 55 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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