Russia Plans AK-47 Ammo Factory In Cuba

[Ryan Ruck]

Russia Plans AK-47 Ammo Factory In Cuba

December 2, 2011

Russia plans to build a factory in Cuba to make ammunition for AK-47 assault rifles, Federal Agency for Military and Technical Cooperation director Konstantin Biriulin said Thursday.

"The components were taken to Cuba a few years ago. Now, it is just a matter of taking them out of the crates and getting production underway," Biriulin said.

The Russian official, however, did not say when the plant would be finished or what its production would be.

Cuba expressed interest in the past in asking Russia for the technology to produce ammunition, the Russian daily Kommersant said.

Havana wants to be able to produce 7.62 mm ammunition, Kommersant reported, citing sources.

The AK-47, also known as a Kalashnikov, is an assault first rifle first accepted by the Soviet Union's military in 1949 and has since been used in conflicts throughout the world, earning it the reputation as the world's most popular firearm.

The assault weapon has been used widely throughout Latin America, including by Colombia's FARC guerrilla group and Mexico's drug cartels. In 2006, Colombian musician and peace activist César López created the escopetarra, a guitar converted from an AK-47.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba and Russia have maintained the close ties fostered during the Cold War-era. Russia's former President Vladmir Putin visited the island in 2000, where he met with Fidel Castro and called for an end to the long standing U.S. embargo.

In 2008 current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also visited the communist island in an effort to strengthen economic ties and allow Russian to mine nickel in Cuba.

Raúl Castro has also made trips to Moscow to discuss credit and humanitarian aid to Cuba.

The news of the ammunition plant in Cuba comes after the 2009 announcement that will begin to drill for oil in Cuban waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

First an AK factory in Venezuela and now an ammo factory in Cuba. Interesting...

[vector7]

Two words, "forward positioning".

[Ryan Ruck]

Yep...

[vector7]

Red Dawn Alert: Russia to help Cuba build assembly line for production of Kalashnikov assault rifle ammo, Rosoboronexport confirms contract with Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara military plant; Russian, Cuban military prosecutors compare notes in Havana

2 Comments Posted by periloustimes1 on December 1, 2011



- Under License from Moscow, Communist Venezuela Will Begin Kalashnikov Rifle and Ammo Production in 2012, Arrangement Established in 2007

Pictured here: Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez makes the victory sign after a meeting with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Caracas, on August 24, 2011. In recent months, Chavez has sported a bald pate, the result of chemotherapy treatments in Cuba.

According to the November 30 edition of Kommersant business daily, Russia and Cuba intend to sign a contract on building an assembly line for the production of ammunition for Kalashnikov assault rifles. Citing a source in the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade, Kommersant reveals that “an assembly line for 7.62-mm rounds used in Kalashnikov assault rifles and other Russian-made rifles will be built at Cuba’s Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara military plant.”

Russia’s arms exporter Rosoboronexport has apparently prepared a contract that covers the license and technology transfer. Kommersant’s source says that Moscow also hopes to receive a contract involving the “complete overhaul of rifle ammunition production facilities in Cuba,” which were built in 1970s and 1980s under the direction of Soviet specialists.

Cuba’s communist dictatorship has repeatedly insisted that it has “no intention of resuming military cooperation with Russia” after the sudden closure of the Russian electronic listening post in Lourdes in October 2001.

Incidentally, the latter occurred, suspiciously, only weeks after the 911 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC.

Notwithstanding these assurances, Russian-Cuban military ties have improved since 2009. During his visit to Havana that year, General Nikolai Makarov, Chief of the Russian General Staff, announced that the modernization of Cuba’s Soviet-made military equipment and the training of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba personnel will be the “focus of Russian-Cuban military cooperation in the future.” In the Cold War, Makarov was a battalion commander in the Group of Soviet Forces in (East) Germany.

In 2007, Russia established an identical arrangement with President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s communist dictator, which entailed the construction of two factories, one for producing the Kalashnikov AK-103 rifle and another for the rifle’s ammo. Production of this weapon will begin in 2012. In 2005-2006, Chavez ordered weaponry from Russia worth US$3.4 billion, including 24 Su-30MK2V Flanker fighter jets, Tor-M1 air defense missile systems, Mi-17B multi-role helicopters, Mi-35 Hind E attack helicopters, and Mi-26 Halo heavy transport helicopters.

Meanwhile, the Spanish-language edition of Kremlin-run Novosti reveals that Russia’s top prosecutor, Sergei Fridinski, has led a delegation of lawyers to Havana. There they conferred with Cuban counterparts in the Military Prosecuting Office, which also carries out investigations for the Cuban Interior Ministry. The anti-Castro Cubapolidata blog offers the following translation:

According to Fridinski, the Russian and Cuban sides exchanged experiences about issues concerning criminal and civil law as well as the work of military prosecutors in both countries. The Cuban side was very interested in the work of Russian military prosecutors in the area of civil law and defense of civil rights [?!], meanwhile Russia was interested in the issue of investigations that is one of the Cuban military prosecutors’ responsibilities.

In another era, when the Soviet threat was clearly defined, the convergence of Russian and Cuban military prosecutors 90 miles south of Florida would have suggested that US patriots would soon be facing communist tribunals. Has that time returned?