MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. The Russian ShAK-12 assault rifle evokes great interest of foreign customers, the Instrument Design Bureau (part of High Precision Systems Group within the state hi-tech corporation Rostec) told TASS on Thursday.

The Instrument Design Bureau is the developer of the new assault rifle.

"Foreign customers are displaying great interest in the assault rifle. Actually all are displaying interest in it also because the situation in the world is very complex. No one skips the ShAK at all international exhibitions but there are no existing export contracts on the assault rifle so far," the Central Design and Research Bureau of Sporting Guns within the Instrument Design Bureau said.

As a representative of the gun’s developer said, "the supplies of the assault rifle to military units of Russian Special Forces will continue but not on a massive scale."

‘This is a specific weapon for special tasks and it is not needed in large numbers," the Instrument Design Bureau said.

The US-based journal The National Interest called the ShAK "a super gun" with the impressive firepower. The new assault rifle was unveiled abroad for the first time at the Indian Defexpo arms exhibition in 2018.

The ShAK-12 (the assault automatic system) is chambered for 12.7 x 39 mm rounds of three types: subsonic velocity rounds, armor-piercing rounds and anti-ricochet rounds. The latter are designed for police operations: the ammunition features the high stopping power while minimizing collateral damage against civilians.

The ShAK system has been developed on order from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) as the Special Forces’ highly effective assault weapon for close-quarters combat. Its first version dubbed the ASh-12 (the assault gun) was unveiled in 2011.