MOSCOW. June 6 (Interfax) - The Kalashnikov Concern Board of Directors has pronounced the assembly of AK-102 rifles in the United States as inexpedient, as suggested by U.S. company Itadesa, a source familiar with the situation told Interfax.
Itadesa lodged the request with Rosoboronexport in February. It said it wanted to assemble Russian firearms in the Philadelphia industrial zone, Pennsylvania, with the assistance of Russian specialists.
According to the source, Itadesa chose the AK-102 rifle as the core model to be assembled in the United States and intended to make some accessories for marking end products as "Made in USA" consistent with U.S. laws. That would have allowed Itadesa to bid Kalashnikov rifles in tenders of the U.S. Department of Defense and other agencies. The source said Itadesa proposed to buy 90,000 AK-102 knock-down kits at the start.
"The Kalashnikov Board of Directors decided the project was inexpedient under the current circumstances," the source said. In his words, the decision was made at a Board of Directors sitting on May 15.
The Itadesa (Industrial Trade and Development Company) website said it was a part of the international group established in the Czech Republic in 1999 with operating offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, the Czech Republic, Ecuador and Latvia. The company was founded in June 2011 with the purpose of starting joint ventures with industrial enterprises of Russia and Ukraine on U.S. territory.
Concern Kalashnikov (earlier called NPO Izhmash, Izhevsk) is the biggest Russian manufacturer of combat automatic and sniper weapons, guided artillery munitions and a broad range of civilian products - hunting guns, sport rifles, machine tools and instruments.