Lebedev MPL (Kalashnikov Concern)
According to a press release from Kalashnikov Concern, the Lebedev pistol has entered serial production. In the press release, the Russian arms company’s president Alan Lushnikov confirmed production of the pistol had begun in 2023 and announced that the company will be displaying at the EXPOTECHNOSTRAZH exposition from 15 to 17 March. Lushnikov said:
The Expotechnostrazh exhibition is traditionally important for us from the point of view of its organizer and customer of our products, the Federal Service of the National Guard Troops of Russia. The National Guard is a reliable, proven and extremely important partner. In the current exposition, we focus on the Lebedev Modular Pistol (MPL). This year we started its production and carry out the first contract deliveries. Currently, a batch of these products has been handed over to the customer and is undergoing military test.
Earlier Lebedev PL-15 (Kalashnikov Concern)
Back in 2021, Kalashnikov Concern announced that the National Guard of the Russian Federation (the Rosgvardiya) had adopted two versions of their Lebedev pistol – MPL and MPL1. It appears that deliveries of series production pistols have now begun. As yet none of the Lebedev series of pistols has been seen in the field during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The pistol was designed by Dmitri Lebedev in 2014, with Kalashnikov unveiling the first version of his pistol, the PL-14, at Russia’s ARMY-2015 exhibition. This was followed by an improved version of the pistol called the PL-15 and a compact version – the PL-15K. Following Rosgvardiya trails the MPL and MPL1 were introduced. The MPL (or Lebedev Modular Pistol) has a 4.4-inch barrel while the MPL1 has a longer 5-inch barrel and is a suppressor host with a threaded barrel and suppressor height sights.
Lebedev MPL1 (Kalashnikov Concern)
Kalashnikov announced tooling up for production of the Lebedev pistol in March 2018 with construction of a new facility at the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant set to be completed in 2019. The setting up of the Lebedev pistol manufacturing was reportedly a part of a large investment plan which totalled around $90 million.
Matthew Moss
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TheFirearmBlog.com – Managing Editor
OvertDefense.com – Managing Editor
Matt is a British historian specialising in small arms development and military history. He has written several books and for a variety of publications in both the US and UK. He also runs Historical Firearms, a blog that explores the history, development and use of firearms. Matt is also co-founder of The Armourer’s Bench, a video series on historically significant small arms.
Here on TFB he covers product and current military small arms news.
Reach Matt at: [email protected]
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