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A Kalashnikov rifle being disassembled.
New models of pistol, rifle and sniper rifle will be created by a special military laboratory, First Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the defense industry Dmitry Rogozin said Tuesday.
Rogozin said the lab is a response to problems with the firearms, ammunition and "special chemicals" currently in use by the military, Interfax reported. He said weapons engineers would make new "world-class" models and said the timeline for their becoming used by the military would be laid out by the end of the year.
Earlier this month, RBK reported that a research center would be created at a state-run machine-building institute in Klimovsk in the Moscow region for the team developing the firearms.
In September, the Defense Ministry said it was suspending orders of the iconic Kalashnikov rifle, produced by weapons maker Izhmash, saying the military had plenty of reserves and that an upgrade in quality was needed.
Rogozin, formerly Russia's top representative to NATO, was given responsibility for the notoriously wasteful defense industry in December. He said at the time of his appointment that he would manage the sector with an "iron fist" to eliminate corruption.
