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Russian arms producer Kalashnikov to start series production of new biathlon rifle in 2018

The Russian company is making about 500-600 biathlon sporting rifles per year

MOSCOW, November 8. /TASS/. Russian arms producer Kalashnikov Concern is going to start series production of a new Bi-7-7 biathlon sporting rifle, head of sports projects of the company and three-time world champion in biathlon Ivan Cherezov told TASS on Wednesday.

"Kalashnikov is making biathlon rifles for more than 20 years. Modernization is gradually underway and riffle barrels are investigated in a search for barrel geometry. We are selling the Bi-7-4 model to schools and teams and are working on the new Bi-7-7 rifle. We hope we will manage to start its series production next year," Cherezov said.

The new rifle has extra adjustments depending on anthropometric data of athletes, Cherezov said. "We focused on appearance and design. Many top athletes pay attention to the appearance of their rifles. Clearly this cannot be achieved in large-scale production but we will be able to customize the approach to each athlete," he said.

Kalashnikov’s rifles are competitive both in terms of reliability and price, Cherezov added.

The Russian company is making about 500-600 biathlon sporting rifles per year. The new rifle already enjoys interest of foreign national teams, Chief Executive Officer of the company Alexei Krivoruchko told TASS. "The interest is definitely present because our rifle is reliable, enjoy the market demand and is not inferior to foreign peers in any aspect," he said.