Manufacturer catalog

Tula Ordnance Factory

Tula Ordnance Factory is the catalog's normalized name for the historic Tula arms plant in Tula, Russia, better known as Tula Arms Plant or TOZ. It is a long-running Russian defense manufacturer associated with small arms, machine guns, ammunition, and guided weapons, and it provides the production context behind the DShK entry in this catalog.

2 weapons

This profile groups catalog entries that point to the historic Tula state arms plant rather than a separate modern brand. Open-source reference and sanctions records tie the company to Tula, its long-running arms-production role, and the legal-name variants used in English and Russian sources.

For the catalog, the factory matters because it is one of Russia's oldest arms makers and a source for cataloged systems such as the DShK heavy machine gun. The profile keeps the naming variants together so the built-by catalog page stays searchable across historical and legal forms.

small armsmachine gunsammunitionguided weapons

Notable Systems

DShK, 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, Infantry Weapons

DShK heavy machine gun

12.7 mm heavy machine gun

Imperial War Museums identifies a 1945 DShK example as created by Tula Ordnance Factory, Tula, USSR, which makes it the clearest cataloged system tied to this builder.

Sources: manufacturer, background

Maxim machine gun M1910

GlobalSecurity notes that the Maxim machine gun was produced under license at the Tula Arms Plant and became the Russian army's principal machine gun before World War I.

Sources: manufacturer, background

Manufacturer History

  1. Factory founded in Tula

    Reference and sanctions sources place the plant's origins in 1712, when Peter the Great ordered a state arms factory in Tula.

    Sources: background

  2. Maxim machine gun production

    GlobalSecurity and other references note that the Tula Arms Plant began producing the Maxim machine gun in 1910.

    Sources: background

  3. Current public joint-stock company incorporated

    OpenSanctions records the current company form as a public joint-stock company incorporated on 2002-09-02 in Tula.

    Sources: background, manufacturer

  4. Sanctioned by the EU and aligned regimes

    OpenSanctions and OFAC list the enterprise under sanctions tied to Russia's war against Ukraine and related export-control regimes.

    Sources: background

Website links
Official websiteOFAC sanctions searchOpenSanctions profileGlobalSecurity Tula Arms Plant

Public sources normalize the factory under several names, especially Tula Arms Plant, TOZ, and Imperial Tula Arms Plant, so aliases capture those variants. I used a sourced Tula headquarters and the current sanctions-era corporate identity; no separate corporate successor was added because the open sources I checked treat this as the same long-running plant identity.

Manufacturer Sources

  • OpenSanctions profilePublisher: OpenSanctions | Note: Supports the legal-name variants, website, Tula address, incorporation date, sanctions context, and the company's public-joint-stock-company form. | Accessed: 2026-06-21
  • OFAC sanctions searchPublisher: U.S. Department of the Treasury | Note: Supports the current sanctioned entity name, aliases, and Tula address for the factory profile. | Accessed: 2026-06-21
  • GlobalSecurity Tula Arms PlantPublisher: GlobalSecurity.org | Note: Supports the 1712 founding history, the Tula state-arms-factory context, and the plant's long-running small-arms role. | Accessed: 2026-06-21
  • IWM DShK collection recordPublisher: Imperial War Museums | Note: Supports the DShK notable-system context by identifying a 1945 example as created by Tula Ordnance Factory, Tula, USSR. | Accessed: 2026-06-21
  • Tula Arms Plant entrance buildingPublisher: Wikimedia Commons | Note: Image provenance and licensing source for the 2019 entrance-building photo; Commons credits A.Savin and states Free Art License with free reuse when properly attributed. | Accessed: 2026-06-21

Produced weapons

Category

Infantry Weapons

Portable weapons used by soldiers and small units.

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DShK, 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, Infantry Weapons2014 Russia-Ukraine War, 2023 Israel-Hamas War +11 moreDShK12.7 mm heavy machine gunBuilt in: Soviet UnionThe DShK is a Soviet 12.7 mm heavy machine gun designed by Vasily Degtyaryov and refined with Georgy Shpagin's belt-feed system. Built for anti-aircraft, anti-vehicle, and infantry support roles, the DShK/DShKM family spans Vietnam War helicopter defense, Soviet-Afghan War ambushes, modern technicals, and Ukrainian mobile counter-UAV teams using vintage heavy machine guns against slow Russian drones.
DShKM heavy machine gun, 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, Infantry Weapons1955 Vietnam War, 1979 Soviet-Afghan War +4 moreDShKM heavy machine gun12.7 mm heavy machine gunBuilt in: Soviet UnionThe DShKM is the Soviet postwar Model 38/46 modernization of the DShK 12.7 mm heavy machine gun, retaining the DShK family's anti-aircraft, infantry-support, and vehicle-mount roles while replacing the earlier feed system. Sources document the DShK-1938/46 in Vietnam War anti-aircraft use, DShK-M capture and employment in the Soviet-Afghan War, DShK-M use by Ukrainian defenders, and DShK/DShKM variants in Islamic State's Iraq-and-Syria arsenal.