Malyuk

The Malyuk (Ukrainian for "baby"), also known as the Vulcan, is a Ukrainian bullpup assault rifle developed by Interproinvest. According to IPI's vice CEO Serhiy Luhovskyy, work began in 2005 under a contract from the Security Service of Ukraine, with prototypes supplied before the Ministry of Defence made its own enquiries in 2008. The rifle was shown publicly at the Arms & Security expo in Kyiv in 2015 and abroad the same year at the International Defence Industry Fair in Istanbul, then at the Azerbaijan defence exhibition in Baku in 2016. Production is handled by the Krasyliv Assembly Manufacturing Plant in cooperation with the Electron Corporation, and the Ministry of Defence confirmed that series manufacture had begun in July 2019.

The Malyuk is a Kalashnikov reconfigured into a bullpup layout, drawing on the earlier Ukrainian Vepr bullpup and the lessons of its shortcomings. It is built largely from polymer, weighs 3.8 kg, and measures 712 mm overall with a 415 mm barrel - a full-length barrel in a package shorter than an AKS-74U. It is offered in 5.45x39mm, 7.62x39mm and 5.56x45mm NATO; the two former calibres use standard AK, AKM, RPK and AK-74 magazines while the NATO version takes AK-100 pattern magazines. Effective range is 500 m at a cyclic rate of 660 rounds per minute, and the rifle is cooled by air convection, which extends barrel life. An AK-74-type flash hider is fitted as standard and an IPI suppressor is available.

Bullpup rifles are usually awkward for left-handed shooters and slow to reload, and the Malyuk's design addresses both. A deflector shield over the ejection port throws spent cases either downward or forward at 45 degrees and cuts the gas blowback into the receiver, making the weapon genuinely ambidextrous. The magazine release sits next to the trigger, and the magazine well is shaped so that a released magazine drops free on its own; a fresh magazine is inserted tilted back and rolled forward. The combination lets the firer shoot, unload and reload one-handed. Recoil is reported as halved compared with the parent design. The rifle can retain AKM-pattern selective fire or use an ambidextrous low-profile two-position selector, and has a full-length Picatinny rail on the upper receiver plus three short rails on the handguard. It accepts an underbarrel grenade launcher and the RSP2W Shoot Corner mount for firing around corners.

Variants include the semi-automatic civilian Malyuk K-01 in 7.62x39mm and K-02 in 5.56x45mm, the Shepit ("whisper") with a long barrel, bipod and suppressor, and the Riff, a man-portable anti-drone system powered by a 100-watt battery. The rifle has been used by Ukrainian special forces since 2017 and also serves with the Ukrainian Army, the National Guard, the Rapid Operational Response Unit and the Territorial Defence Forces. It has been demonstrated in Indonesia and Sri Lanka in pursuit of export contracts.