Degtyaryov Plant will supply 20 weapons to Russian Defense Ministry for the Ratnik program

“The Degtyaryov Plant has manufactured a range of weapons under the program to develop the Ratnik ‘soldier of the future’ outfit,” Acting Head of the Plant’s Small Arms and Artillery Systems Department Sergei Pustovalov said.

“The weapons include the 5.45mm balanced assault rifle, the 7.62mm assault rifle designed for two types of ammunition, the upgraded Pecheneg machine gun and sniper rifles,” he added.

“We are expected to deliver all the three types of our weapons to Defense Ministry special forces in February 2016 for operational trials,” Pustovalov said.

The operational trials of the test batch comprising 20 weapons should show their efficiency, he added.

The AK-12 assault rifle manufactured by the Izhevsk-based Kalashnikov Corporation is a rival of the Degtyaryov Plant’s AEK-971 weapon.

Ratnik is a Future Soldier equipment program Russian for Russian army. The goal of the Ratnik program is to improve the connectivity and combat effectiveness of the Russian army. Improvements include modernized body armor, helmet with special monitor (eye monitor, thermal, night vision monocular, flashlight), systems of communication and special headphones.

In October 2015, Russian Land Forces’ commander Col. Gen. Oleg Salyukov has annouced that The Russian military will get about 80,000 sets of the Ratnik ‘future soldier’ gear before the end of 2015.

The Ratnik gear has been successfully tested by the Russian military but is adoption into service has been delayed due to uncertainty with the choice of small arms component, which is likely to include the new Kalashnikov AK-12 assault rifle. Many other nations have similar future soldier equipment programs in progress, including the U.S. Land Warrior, Germany’s IdZ, Britain’s FIST, Spain’s COMFUT, Sweden’s IMESS and France’s FELIN.