New Belarusian Assault Rifle Production Enabled By Iran, Sources Say
VSK-100 rifles
Photo: bsvt.by (Courtesy Photo)
During a visit to a weapons manufacturing facility in Belarus’s Minsk region on August 18, Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko was presented with a VSK-100B, an assault rifle described by its makers as being made entirely in Belarus.
If that claim is true, the domestically-produced weapon, made by Kidma Tech, would mark a significant milestone for the sanctioned country that insiders say was made possible by Tehran.
Uladzimer Zhyhar, a representative of BelPol, an organization of former Belarusian security officials that published an analysis of the VSK-100, alleges that machinery crucial to the domestic production of the weapon was sourced from Iran after sanctions and other difficulties hampered Kidma Tech’s efforts to acquire crucial hardware.
“Through its embassy in Austria, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry tried to arrange the delivery of a machine used to manufacture the barrel — the rifle’s principal component. After failing to purchase it in Austria, they approached the [Russian weapons giant] Kalashnikov Concern who were unable to supply the machinery within a reasonable time frame,” Zhyhar says. “The authorities then intensified communications with Iran and reached an agreement to obtain the equipment from there.”
A technician works with gun barrels in the Kidma Tech facility.
Kidma Tech had been producing an identical-looking weapon at their production facility called the VSK-100 — named from the initials Voenno-Sportyvnyy Karabyn (Military Sporting Carbine) — since 2020, but those guns had incorporated parts sourced from other countries.
Alyaksandr Volfovich, the head of Belarus’s Security Council, had previously announced that the VSK-100B, (the B is assumed to stand for “Belarus”), which he described as “a modern Belarusian assault rifle with 100 percent localization,” is expected to enter mass production by the end of 2026.
The rifle weighs 4.3 kilograms without its magazine and is chambered for the same 7.62 x 39-millimeter caliber bullets used by many Soviet-designed Kalashnikov rifles. Like the Kalashnikov AK-74 it resembles, the Belarusian gun uses a 30-round magazine as standard and can be switched between semi or full-automatic fire.
According to BelPol’s analysis, Kidma Tech is jointly controlled by state-owned Belspetsvneshtechnika, which holds 50 percent of the company, Latvia’s Electrooptic, and the United Arab Emirates-based Sohra Overseas, which each hold one quarter.
Sohra Overseas is a distribution company that supplies Belarusian equipment and fertilizers to the Middle East and Africa. Kidma Tech was sanctioned by the United States and Canada in 2024 and by the European Union in 2021.
A gun barrel being tested at a Kidma Tech facility.
Zhyhar told RFE/RL’s Belarus Service that the VSK-100, “is just a modernization of the Kalashnikov assault rifle by a company that makes optics and other components.” He added that “Kidma Tech is simply fitting the rifle with the same things it already produces.”
He believes the Belarusian-made rifle will be sold “to countries that, for one reason or another, cannot purchase weapons legally through normal channels.”
Kidma Tech have claimed the gun has a sturdier barrel than its Kalashnikov equivalents which results in a longer operational life and greater accuracy.
Kidma Tech has also produced a “bullpup” version of the VSK-100. Bullpups are guns designed with the magazine and breech positioned behind the trigger. That usually results in a stubbier silhouette in which less of the gun barrel protrudes, though the Belarusian bullpup has been presented with a suppressor, which adds length to the weapon.
RFE/RL’s Belarus Service spoke to a former soldier of an EU country who now works as a professional firearms instructor. He expressed surprise at the design of the Belarusian bullpup.
“It’s simply a crudely converted Kalashnikov. The rifle was never designed with anything like this in mind,” he said. “I can’t understand why they made it.”