What has not been said about the Kalashnikov assault rifle? It is too heavy, cumbersome, and its human engineering is scandalous. They have called it ugly, and said that it is outdated. Some said that it is too greatly identified with murderous militias and terrorist organizations, and they are right.
There are two things, however, that cannot be said about the Kalashnikov: that it is unreliable, or that it does not do a good job. In other words, it is very good for killing.
Developed 70 years ago by Mikhail Kalashnikov, a Red Army soldier wounded fighting the Germans in WWII, the Kalashnikov, regarded as the world's most common weapon, is here to stay.
Since the first Kalashnikov's were developed, it is estimated that over 100 million of its various models have been sold, probably not including imitations, one of which is the Israeli Galil rifle, called "more Kalashnikov than the Kalashnikov" by weapons experts.
With all the Kalashnikov's prestige and lousy user experience, Israeli weapons company CAA has entered the picture over the past year. CAA aims to improve this outmoded rifle's shape and make it more user-friendly. It can already shoot; what it needs now are up-to-date accessories that will make people want to hold it, take it to the firing range, and be photographed with it. Meet CAA's Alpha Kalashnikov, made in Kiryat Gat. "It's the most reliable one in the world. You can shoot it as much as you want; it never jams. You can throw it into the water, or bury it in the sand - it won't jam. It does what it's supposed to do: shoot," says CAA founder and owner Moshe Oz. "For the Alpha we took the Kalashnikov 'engine,' and renovated and improved everything else - the entire envelope. We left what was good in the rifle - the firing mechanism, which is the best and most reliable, and added things around it. We improved and corrected. In our opinion, we have created the world's best assault rifle."
A toy that men like
Up until a year ago, CAA focused its activity on weapons accessories, saying that a "user experience" was also valid for something designed to kill: innovative and easy-to-use magazines, advanced sights, handles and butts that make things easy for users of the various weapons, user-friendly clips, powerful miniature lights, night vision equipment, bipods that open at the push of a button and help improve shooting performance - in short, the production and marketing of toys that men like.
The company has developed and put on the market more than 300 items, some of them groundbreaking. CAA promises more to come, and that its development teams in Kiryat Gat have all sorts of creative ideas in their heads.
Oz, however, is not satisfied with weapons accessories. For him, it was spending too much time in the proximity of the real thing he has been aiming at for years with a great deal of determination, and especially patience - making a weapon.
The breakthrough came five years ago, when Oz visited Kalashnikov factories in Izhevsk in Russia. He was there to promote sales of one of CAA's biggest patented devices - the Roni, which can turn any piston into a submachine gun within seconds. Named after Oz's daughter, a suitable Roni kit is being offered together with pistols on sale by almost every weapons company solicitous of its customers - and itself.
Oz returned from Izhevsk with an understanding in principle: the Russians would give him the good old mechanism that made the Kalashnikov what it is, and CAA would add to this clumsy, uncomfortable, and unbelievably ugly rifle human engineering to make it a hit sold like hotcakes throughout the world.
Manufacturing weapons in Israel under license is a long story involving a great deal of supervision, background checks, and mainly bureaucracy that can shorten an average person's lifespan. Oz, however, has patience, belief, and mainly a handsome prototype of an upgraded Kalashnikov. Every time he looked at it or shot it on the firing range, he became convinced that one day, it would be worthwhile.
"Here, we work 24/6"
About a year ago, it happened: the government convened a meeting, and decided to approve CAA's weapon production license. At CAA's plant in the southern Kiryat Gat industrial zone, they opened the champagne bottles, but one of its Israeli competitors making weapons, which was buying magazines and other items from the young company, was not so enthusiastic about, and cut off contact. Ever since, the CAA plant has been working around the clock, or as VP marketing Shahar Dagan puts it, "Here, we work 24/6."
75 workers are employed at this plant, and it's already become crowded there. Orders for accessories for various types of weapons are flowing, many of them for Roni kits, and no less for the various models of the Israel Alpha - the Israeli Kalashnikov. "Not much has changed since the light weapon was developed. The mechanism is essentially the same as it was at the beginning. A bullet is shot from barrel by burning gunpowder. There have been no breakthroughs here. The ballistics is the same; no one has reinvented the wheel here. What makes the different is therefore how the weapon looks and how easy it is to use. A weapon is essentially like a car: it has to do its work, while making sure that it's comfortable and user-friendly. We made the Kalashnikov what the Russians didn't dare to do," Oz says.
The Alpha comes in varying calibers, according to the character of the target market and demand from users. 7.62 mm, like the original Russian assault rifle, but also 5.56 mm caliber, like its Western competitor - the M-16, made by the US Colt company. CAA teams are now focusing on developing a new model of the Alpha family - a 9 mm caliber rifle for use mainly by police and security forces. "Our Kalashnikovs adapt themselves to the target market in which we operate, and are adapted to the types of ammunition available to users in the various countries," Oz says.
Most of CAA's attention is directed to the US market. The embargo restricting Russian exports to the US, following Russian actions in Ukraine has paved CAA's path to the US market, where it is introducing the Russian rifle through the back door. People in the US like the Kalashnikov because it is good and reliable, but also because of the excitement aroused by its bloody history. Demand is sky high, and CAA is meeting it by opening a plant in Florida to manufacture the Kalashnikov for the thirsty local market. Oz talks about plans to export tens of thousands more Kalashnikov's a year to the US: "It's not hard," he says confidently. "It's a huge market with something like 450 million weapons; others estimate that there are 600 million weapons owned by people. The US civilian market is the bread and butter of every weapons industry in the world. You can't make a living from orders by armies."
Regulation? Control of mass weapons sales following mass murders and other horrific deeds in the streets? The more people took about such control, the higher CAA's sales rise.
A 5.56 mm Israeli Kalashnikov with a folding butt, two replaceable handles, and all sorts of other accessories will cost $1,700 in the US. It is all for the civilian market, which is subject to regulation restricting exports of automatic Kalashnikovs, because there are rules even in the Wild West. "Still, when they talk in the US about restricting access to weapons, it comes to processes that in the end may lower the number of bullets that can be put in a magazine from 30 to 10. The weapons industry in the US has a strong lobby. Always, after we hear about a new legislative initiative on this issue, people mob the stores and run to stock up on weapons," Oz says.
Among the speckled, black, and brown butts of the upgraded Kalashnikov rifles in the company's factor can also be found brighter and far less military colors - red, purple, and pink, as well as colorful Roni kits. "Some US men like to surprise their wives by buying them presents of this type. We appeal to all audiences," Dagan says.
Still, we are talking about weapons - rifles that shoot and kill. For Oz, he is only the manufacturer, and the user bears sole responsibility for the use of the weapon. "If someone stabs someone else with a knife, should they stop making knives," he asks. "That's not subject to our control."
At the same time, he says that one of his biggest nightmares is that one morning, he will open the newspaper and find a picture of one of Israel's haters holding a weapon made in his Kiryat Gat plant or one of the items he developed. He himself served for years in special IDF units, and maintains warm relations with them to this day. "Yes, we see the movies. When I see pictures like this, I look straight at the weapon itself - make sure that that it didn't come from here. All weapons exports are approved by the Defense Export Controls Agency (Ministry of Defense), but things can still happen. It has happened to others, and it can also happen to me. I export to whomever the state allows."
While a bill is being promoted in the Knesset banning exports of Israeli weapons to countries that violate human rights, Oz wonders how such a country can be defined, and how a violation of human rights can be defined. "Some people here claim that Israel also violates human rights. It's in the eyes of the beholder. Sometimes we get weapons orders, and reject them without even sending the request to the Ministry of Defense for a decision. In any case, we don't export to whomever we feel like: we have a regulator above us. He decides to whom we are allowed to export, and to whom we are not allowed."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 11, 2016
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