Russian arms maker Kalashnikov ramps up production of kamikaze drones

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By Guy Faulconbridge

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian arms maker Kalashnikov, maker of the world’s most widely used assault rifle, said on Friday it was launching a new division to produce kamikaze drones, one of the main weapons used in Ukraine’s war.

After Ukrainian forces used Western, Israeli and Turkish-made UAVs with lethal efficiency in the early months of the war, Russia began using Iranian-made Shahed drones while ramping up its own production.

“Kalashnikov is starting a new production of unmanned aerial vehicles,” the Izhevsk-based company, Russia’s largest producer of automatic weapons and guided artillery, said in a statement.

A new division of the company will focus on the production of so-called rogue munitions, or kamikaze drones, which are detonated once a target is identified.

“The main task of the division is the production of complexes with guided roving munitions. The complexes are designed for high-precision destruction of individual and group remote enemy ground targets.”

Kalashnikov, named after Mikhail Kalashnikov, creator of the AK-47 rifle, will also produce launchers, control technology, and research and development.

“By 2024, we will be able to increase several times the number of UAVs produced in our traditional niche – roving munitions and reconnaissance drones,” Kalashnikov Chairman Alan Lushnikov said. He did not give numbers.

Used in early form by the United States in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, drones have become an important tool for the militaries of all major powers, gathering intelligence and destroying targets.

Ukraine said on Friday that Russia had launched 31 drones into the country overnight, while Moscow said two drones had attacked the southern Russian city of Krasnodar.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that the Russian drone industry could soon be worth more than $12 billion once a plan to ramp up production is implemented.

Putin has called for an increase in drone production. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said that by the end of 2026, Russia should be able to make 18,000 drones a year.

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