Чешская Zbrojovka: История и Современность Производителя Оружия

Firearms manufacturer in the Czech Republic
the firearms manufacturer

Česká zbrojovka a. s. (CZ, English: "Czech armory"), is a Czech armament manufacturer based in Uherský Brod. The company is famous for producing service, hunting and sporting firearms. It is owned by the Czech holding company Colt CZ Group SE, which also owns other brands with related production programs. CZ currently has around 1,800 employees. It is one of the highest volume exporters in the Czech Republic, sending its products to more than 100 countries. The company is among the top ten small arms manufacturers in the world and five that manufactures automatic firearms. In 2021, CZ acquired the Colt's Manufacturing Company; the following year, the parent company changed its name to Colt CZ Group.

In 1919 Jihočeská zbrojovka was founded in Strakonice. Today's Česká zbrojovka a. s. was built as part of a large scale transfer of strategically important production capacities of the former Czechoslovakia as far as possible from the western borders threatened by Nazi Germany. In Uherský Brod in the south east of Moravia, a brand new arms factory was established in 1936, which was one of the most modern and most efficient factories at the time. In the first years of its existence, it was successfully engaged primarily in the highly demanding production of aircraft machine guns.

After World War II, the joint stock company Česká zbrojovka was nationalized and its branch factory in Uherský Brod, which became independent in 1950, gradually became the main Czechoslovak manufacturer of small firearms. Its most famous products from the immediate post war period were the Sa vz. 23 submachine guns, chambered in the common 9×19mm Parabellum cartridge (Later the 7.62×25mm Tokarev in vz. 24/26 after Czechoslovakia joined the Warsaw Pact). The Sa vz. 23 were the first production model submachine guns with a telescoping bolt, which the bolt wraps around the barrel, which made the vz. 26 shorter and more compact than the other submachine guns at the time. By 1953, 545,000 were produced in Uherský Brod, 345,000 of which were of the 7.62 mm Tokarev variants. The vz. 58 assault rifle chambered in the 7.62×39 mm cartridge, was a Czechoslovak alternative to the Soviet's AK 47 with an original design. This firearm was produced in Uherský Brod for the national armed forces as well as for export until 1984 and the total production volume reached about 920,000 units. In 1961 Sa vz. 61 Škorpion machine pistol was introduced to fill the gap between submachine guns and semi automatic pistols. More than 200,000 of these machine pistols in the standard .32 ACP cartridge were produced in Uherský Brod until 2000, and small batches of these machine pistols in the .380 ACP version were produced in the 1990s. The CZ 75 semi automatic pistol, revolutionary in a number of aspects, was the work of the well known designer František Koucký, who worked on its development based on an assignment of today's Česká zbrojovka a. s since 1969. This firearm with perfect ergonomics and unique double action trigger mechanism co defined the category of Wonder Nines, i. e. large capacity SA/DA pistols chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum and has long been one of the most popular of them.

In 1992 Česká zbrojovka was privatized and transformed it into a joint stock company, which concentrates its activities in its main plant in Uherský Brod on the development and production of high quality firearms, while utilizing its remaining capacity for the production of high precision components for the automotive and aerospace industry. The position of Česká zbrojovka, a. s. on the world's firearms market has significantly strengthened by the establishment of the subsidiary distribution and service company CZ USA in 1997. This subsidiary started its activities in California, but in 1998 it relocated to Kansas City, Kansas, where it still operates. Within the creation of the international holding Česká zbrojovka Group (now Colt CZ Group), CZ USA became an independent business entity. In order to preserve the famous tradition of firearms production in Brno, Česká zbrojovka a. s began preparing to take over the firearms division of Zbrojovka Brno, a. s. The newly created company, originally named BRNO RIFLES, started its activities at the turn of 2006 and its domain was the production and development of break action firearms. In 2008 it became a subsidiary company of Česká zbrojovka a. s. In 2010 the company was renamed to Zbrojovka BRNO, s. r. o. In 2005 CZ became the owner of Dan Wesson Firearms through its subsidiary CZ USA. In 2011 the company began production of the new generation of CZ 805 BREN A1/A2 assault rifles, CZ SCORPION EVO 3 A1 submachine guns and CZ 805 BREN G1 grenade launchers for the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic. Česká zbrojovka a. s significantly penetrated foreign markets by opening a separate space for the assembly and repairs of CZ pistols at the FAME army plant in Lima, Peru. The Czech company participated in the project by supplying modern equipment and tools and training of technical personnel. This enabled the Peruvian company to assemble CZ guns, provide service and sell them on the Peruvian market and then throughout Latin America. It was the first case of technological transfer of Česká zbrojovka a. s to this promising region. Since 2018, Česká zbrojovka a. s has been part of the international holding Česká zbrojovka Group SE that, in addition to the parent plant in Uherský Brod, gradually incorporates other companies with related production and development programmes. In cooperation with CZ USA, the production of the first CZ firearms was launched in Kansas City, Kansas, US. These include selected models of the CZ P 10 series of pistols. In 2021 CZ bought Colt's Manufacturing Company and their Colt Canada subsidiary.

Sa vz. 23/25 (9×19mm Parabellum and 7.62×25mm Tokarev)
Škorpion vz. 61 (.32 ACP a. k. a. 7.65×17mm Browning SR)