JSC Arsenal AD () is a Bulgarian joint-stock company based in Kazanlak, engaged primarily in the manufacture of firearms and military equipment. It is Bulgaria's oldest arms supplier. History The company's history can be traced back to 1878 with the first armory in the country - the Ruse Artillery Arsenal. Due to strategic concerns, it was relocated to Sofia in 1891. After the nation's defeat in the Second Balkan War and World War I, in 1924 the company and all of its equipment were relocated in Kazanlak, a town situated in central Bulgaria. The armory was given the name ("State Military Factory"). Initially producing only artillery gun components and ammunition, the factory later began to manufacture gas masks (1920s), nitroglycerin (1930s), machine tools (1940s) and finally assault rifles, optic sights and B-10 recoilless rifles (1950s). The first assault rifle, a direct copy of the Soviet AK-47, was produced in 1958. By the 1960s, a total of seven factories were under the company's jurisdiction. Until the Fall of Communism in 1989-1990, the company was named Mashinostroitelen kombinat Fridrikh Engels ("Friedrich Engels Machinery Works") to conceal its activities as a military enterprise. As part of this strategy, it adopted the manufacture of various civilian products, including automobiles such as the then-popular Bulgarrenault-8. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Arsenal began cooperation with companies from Japan, Sweden, Ukraine and Germany. Currently, Arsenal AD is a private company conducting international arms trade, although it also expands its civilian exports, now including high-precision metalworking machinery, mobile robot manipulators and synthetic diamonds. Military production Pistols Arsenal Compact Submachine guns Shipka SMG (9×18mm Makarov / 9×19mm Parabellum) Assault rifles AR-M1 / AR-M1F - improved AK-47 copy with an AK-74 front sight base, flash suppressor, black polymer stock set, luminous spots on the iron sights and a rail for mounting optics. The -F model features a folding stock. Chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×39mm. AR-M2 / AR-M2F - improved AK-47 copy like the AR-M1/AR-M1F, but with a shortened barrel, AKS-74U front sight base and muzzle booster/flash suppressor hybrid. AR-M4SF - extremely short development of the AKS-74 with red dot sight, provision to mount a night vision or laser sight. Chambered in 5.56×45mm NATO and 7.62×39mm. AR-M7F - improved AK-47 copy like the AR-M1, but with an AK-101-style folding stock. AR-M9 / AR-M9F - improved AK-47 copy like the AR-M1/AR-M1F, features a thumb-operable fire selector and a different