At the end of this year Azerbaijan will launch the assembling of AK-74M machine guns on a Russian license, according to the advisor to the Minister of the Defence Industry of the Republic, Azad Mamedov.
"Currently, we are developing the licensed assembly of AK-74Ms according to the contract signed with the Russian concern Izhmash. The first units collected by Azerbaijani specialists will be available by the end of the year," he told a correspondent of ARMS-TASS during the exhibition of weaponry and military equipment IDEX-2011 in the UAE.
According to the Izhmash, two contracts have been signed for the licensed production of Kalashnikov rifles: one in Venezuela to produce 7.62 mm-caliber AK-103s and one in Azerbaijan to produce 5.45 mm-caliber AK-74Ms.
