[IDEF 2025] UPM 200 Heavy Machine Gun From Kazakhstan
When people hear about Kazakhstan, there are a handful of things they remember. Sadly, some would only know about it from the movie “Borat”. Others would remember nomads, horses and boundless plains of Central Asia. Few know that the country is producing some of the most capable heavy machine guns in the world.
In the early 70s, the Soviet government decided to build a new factory in Kazakhstan with a sole purpose - production of a .50 caliber heavy machinegun called NSV. The design team that lost to Kalashnikov in the competition to develop a new general-purpose machine gun quickly found another task and created NSV.
The name is made with the first letters of the weapon’s designer surnames: Nikitin, Sokolov, Volkov. Compared to the older DSHK (and more common DSHKM), the new NSV machinegun was a huge leap forward. Much lighter than the predecessor, for decades NSV was the main heavy machine gun in the Soviet Army and was also sold to about 40 countries.
After the Soviet Union collapsed, Kazakhstan managed to keep the factory operational and, for decades, sold machine guns to countries that had previously used the NSV and had stocks of Soviet 12.7x108 ammunition.
However, they missed out on the militaries that use the more popular 12.7x99 round, better known as .50 BMG. At IDEF 2025, they demonstrated a version of the NSV chambered in 12.7x99, called the UPM 200.
In addition to caliber change, they added a Picatinny rail to the receiver, so the end user could mount optics, night vision devices or thermal sights.
Considering that many armies that used to belong to the Warsaw Pact are now planning to switch to NATO-standard ammo, there appears to be a sizable market for this machine gun from Kazakhstan.
Vladimir Onokoy is a small arms subject matter expert and firearms instructor. Over the years he worked in 20 different countries as a security contractor, armorer, firearms industry sales representative, product manager, and consultant. His articles were published in the Recoil magazine, Small Arms Review, Small Arms Defence Journal, Overt Defense and Silah Report. He also contributed chapters to books from the "Vickers Guide: Kalashnikov" series. Email: machaksilver at gmail dot com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vladonokoy/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/machaksilver
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