In the Russian Federation, the property and territories of the bankrupt PJSC Motovilikha Plants, the only manufacturer of a number of artillery systems in the country, is being sold, Russian media report.

Since 2018, the enterprise has been undergoing a bankruptcy process. In 2022, part of the company’s territories was already sold for 59.5 million rubles (about $100 thousand) for residential development.

Now the head of the competition commission, which deals with the liquidation of the company’s debts, announced the acceptance of bids, within which the property and part of the territories of the enterprise had to be sold. The initial price of the lot is 9.481 billion rubles (about $105 million).

Located in the Perm Krai, the company is one of the oldest manufacturers of weapons in Russia. The date of its foundation is considered to be 1736. Today it is one of the largest artillery manufacturers in the Russian Federation.

PJSC Motovilikha Plants is the developer and the only Russian manufacturer of combat and transporter-loader vehicles for the Grad, Smerch MLRS and their modified versions, such as Tornado-G and Tornado-S.

Production facilities also produced 2S4 Tyulpan self-propelled heavy mortar, BM-27 Uragan, Nona 120mm self-propelled mortars, Msta-B towed howitzers and 2S12 Sani 120mm mortars.

In addition to the production of new equipment, the company is also engaged in the restoration of damaged, as well as removed from long-term storage equipment.

State of the enterprise

According to Russian publications, at the end of 2022, the PJSC Motovilikha Plants production association was still operating and manufacturing weapons, although it was already in the process of bankruptcy, as reported by Militarnyi.

The production has had a number of chronic problems related to lack of funding, equipment and experienced personnel.

It is also noted that over the years of downtime and optimization processes, they have lost unique equipment for the production of spare parts for old equipment.

This is a big issue in the conditions of removal from long-term storage and restoration by Russia of weapons of the 60-70s production.