[Drizzt]

BBC Monitoring International Reports


October 9, 2003

LENGTH: 477 words

HEADLINE: GERMAN COMPANY TO DEVELOP NEW WEAPONS IN UKRAINE

BODY:




Kiev, 9 October: Ukraine and Germany will jointly develop and promote new weapons at global markets.

Germany's Schmeisser International, a world-renowned small arms producer, signed several agreements on designing, producing and promoting new types of small arms at global markets with Ukrainian partners in Kiev today.

Specifically, the company signed a long-term 10-year agreement with the institute of automated systems of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine to jointly develop a modern sniper rifle and a sub-machine-gun. The agreement provides for joint research in the area of ultra-light, ultra-strong metals and new technologies. Schmeisser International also signed an agreement with the chief designer of the Ukrainian-German company Schmeisser, Viktor Shevchenko, who had developed a 9-mm PARA pistol for special police and army units. The pistol is to be produced and sold in Ukraine and Germany.

According to another agreement signed, Schmeisser International products will be promoted by a Shooting World Cup and European champion, (Ukrainian) Nataliya Kalnysh.

"The documents signed today will be not only a significant step in Ukrainian-German relations but will also contribute to Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration," Schmeisser International director, Werner Resch, has said.

(Passage omitted: Resch praises the agreements)

Resch said it has been planned to begin mass production of new types of small arms in 2005.

Speaking about key features of new weapons, specifically the sub-machine gun, he said the gun would not require lubricants or cleaning, which would prove an advantage in certain combat regions. The gun would have an improved barrel and no recoil.

Answering a question from journalists, Resch clarified that the Ukrainian Vepr (modified AK-74 soon to be adopted by Ukraine's armed forces - Interfax) and the new sub-machine-gun are different weapons.

Among the partners in this project are the Kiev-based Artem company and the state company Scientific Centre for Precise Machine-Building (Kiev).

Schmeisser International estimates the sales of the new weapon to reach 100,000 units per year.

Schmeisser International has been working in Ukraine since 1993. Over these years, the joint company Schmeisser, which had been established by the German company and Ukraine's machine-building plant Vizard together with the Kiev-based Sapsan company specializing in making gas-spray pistols and active self-defence means (rubber bullet pistols), has produced over 100,000 pistols.

According to Schmeisser, it controls about 20-30 per cent of the Ukrainian market for these types of weapons.

The Ukrainian side owns 49 per cent of the joint venture, while the Germans own 51 per cent of shares.

Source: Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 1538 gmt 9 Oct 03

[atek3]

The gun would have an improved barrel and no recoil.

Wow, sign me up, I want a gun that violates Newton's Laws.
tight.

atek3

[Mike Irwin]

Funny, Germany enlisted the Soviet Union's help to develop, covertly, new weapons in the late 1920s and 1930s...

Funny how history repeats itself...

[Ukraine Train]

Funny, Germany enlisted the Soviet Union's help to develop, covertly, new weapons in the late 1920s and 1930s...

Can you elaborate on that? I thought the Russians copied the Germans, like the Makarov is based on Walther's design and AK-47 on the MP44.

[Langenator]

Germany, IIRC, worked in the USSR, of course with Stalin's blessing, on developing tanks and warplanes that were verboten under the Treaty of Versailles.

Despite their somewhat similar appearance, the MP-44 (later corrected to StG-44) and the AK-47 are totally different designs. I don't think Kalishnikov ever saw a StG-44.

[trooper]

Oh yeah, it's covert/black ops. That's why they have press releases about it...

[greyhound]

German Company to Develop New Weapons In Ukraine

Imagine going back in time and speaking those words in 1946.....:D

[El Tejon]

Didn't the Dutchies try this in `43 at Kursk and Kharkov?:D "Ja, Hans, du bis fertig? Ja, Franz fire up the Panther and see how it worken."

Firearm with no recoil? Hmmm, apparently the laws of physics have been repealed in the Ukraine.:rolleyes:

[DMK]

he said the gun would not require lubricants or cleaning, which would prove an advantage in certain combat regions. Wasn't this also said about the M-16 when it first came out?

[El Tejon]

DMK, and about the geewhiz hi-tech Dutchie rostfrei ammo 100 years ago.:D

More things change, more they stay the same. Iwannacoolgun virus is the ONLY constant. Where art my magic sword?:uhoh:

[Mike Irwin]

Langenator hit the high points...

Both the Soviet Union and Germany were largely on the outs politically and socially in the 1920s and early 1930s, so it was natural that they should be drawn together by happenstance.

Some of post-war Germany's earliest independent trading actions were with the Soviet Union.

German designers worked heavily in the Soviet Union, especially in the aircraft and tank fields.

This early German design influence and German interest in tanks after their experiences in World War I had a profound effect on Soviet tank doctrine, and to some point design.

It's no accident that the two nations that viewed tanks as combat elements in their own right, as opposed to infantry support units, were Germany and the Soviet Union.

[Skunkabilly]

The agreement provides for joint research in the area of ultra-light, ultra-strong metals and new technologies.

Carbon fiber? :o

:D