Renowned Russian weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov Concern displayed two of its brand-new weapon models at an expo outside of Moscow on Saturday. The state-of-the-art RPL-20 light machine gun and an under-barrel grenade launcher that can easily attach to any modern AK assault rifle model were presented at the event.
Dubbed the RPL-20, the company’s latest machine gun features belt loading and a magazine with up to 200 rounds. A new loading system made it possible to outfit it with a long Picatinny rail that allowed the machine gun to be equipped with various sighting and aiming systems.
The aiming devices do not need to be removed even if the weapon is reloaded or disassembled, the manufacturer said. The machine gun has a caliber of 5.45mm and weighs just over five kilograms. The prototype of the weapon was initially presented back in 2020.
The weapon system is already entering service with the Russian military, the company’s chief gun designer, Sergey Urzhumtsev, told TASS. The machine gun has even made it to the front lines of the Ukraine conflict in “test regime,” according to Urzhumtsev, who said it was already getting favorable reviews from the military.
“The feedback is positive,” the weapons engineer said. “[It has] high operational accuracy… and high intensity of fire.”
The other weapon system presented at the show is the GP-46 grenade launcher. According to Urzhumtsev, it can be mounted on any type of modern standard-design AK assault rifle. Attaching the grenade launcher to the assault rifle is easy to do and does not require any part of the weapon to be removed, the gun designer added.
The grenade launcher has a caliber of 40mm, an effective range of 400m and can fire between five and six rounds per minute. It also weighs only a little over 1.5 kilograms and has a flexible loading and firing system that allows a soldier to use either hand to operate the launcher. It can also be used as a separate weapon since it has a detachable gun butt.
When mounted on an assault rifle, it does not limit the weapon’s primary use in any way, according to Kalashnikov.
The concern is Russia’s largest manufacturer of automatic and sniper weapons and is best known for its assault rifles, which are some of the most recognizable in the world. The first version of the gun, the AK-47, was used by the Red Army of the Soviet Union starting in 1949. Apart from military-grade weapons, the company also produces civilian goods, such as hunting rifles, motorcycles, and machine tools.