Zorasan Ordnance Factories Corporation
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| State-owned enterprise | |
| Industry | Firearms, Defense, Machinery |
| Founded | 1953 |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | worldwide |
| Products | Pistols, Rifles, Submachine guns, Machine gun, Shotguns, Munitions, Explosives, Machine tools, Armoured vehicles, Artillery, Helicopters |
| Owner | Union Ministry of National Defence |
Number of employees | >88,000 (2021) |
The Zorasan Ordnance Factories Corporation (ZOFC) is a major firearms, defence contractor, and military corporation headquartered in Feryedunekar, Ravanistan, Zorasan. It is the second largest military industrial complex under the Union Ministry for National Defence, after the State Defence Industries and is part of the Great Soldier Foundation. It is the largest producer of firearms, ammunition, explosives and personal equipment, while also producing conventional arms and ammunition for international export. Zorasan Ordnance Factories also manufacture commercial explosives, hunting ammunition and possess extensive facilities for the manufacture of brass, copper and aluminium ingots, extrusions and sections for non-military applications. In 2009, the ZOFC opened a manufacturing plant for the production of ball bearings, sprockets and other small metal pieces. The ZOFC operates 14 individual factories and three corporate subordinate entities and employs an estimated 88,000 people as of 2021.
The corporation was founded in 1953 following the establishment of the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran, which combined the successors of the Etrurian Colonial Ordnance Arsenal into a singular entity. Initially restricted by engineering and technological know-how to mass producing only firearms, ammunition, explosives and artillery rounds, it has since rapidly expanded and developed into a major defence contractor. Together with the State Defence Industries, it produces many needs of the Zorasani Irfanic Revolutionary Army as well as a number of private and state customers abroad.
The board of the ZOFC is subject to the authority of the State Commission for Logistics and Ordnance, and its chairman is appointed by the Supreme Council of the Revolutionary Armed Forces. The corporation is also a subsidiary of the Great Soldier Foundation, the holding company of the military, which includes SDI and other defence contractors, shipyards, metal works and other non-defence entities.
History
The ZOFC was formed in 1953 following the establishment of the Union of Khazestan and Pardaran and merged the successor companies to the Etrurian Colonial Ordnance Arsenal (AOCE), which operated several factories in the Sublime State of Pardaran and Etrurian Rahelia prior to 1946. The majority of factories in both Pardaran and Khazestan were moved to Feryedunekar in 1954 to centralise production and to provide greater security owing to the tensions between the UKP and its neighbours at the onset of Zorasani Unification. Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, ZOFC grew to provide greater needs of the ZIRA, beginning production of several licenced artillery pieces, firearms and vehicles from Werania, Shangea, Soravia and Chistovodia, which provided the necessary engineering experience to enable the emergence of domestically designed and produced products in the 1970s and onward.
During the First Rahelian War (1965-1967), the factories employed almost 100,000 people to supply the ZIRA with weaponry and ammunition. In 1966, a large explosion at an ammunition plant killed over 100 people and injured 300 more, in one of the worst industrial accidents in Zorasani history.
In 1981, ZOFC's production lines were reduced with the establishment of the State Defence Industries, which was afforded the rights to produce tanks, armoured vehicles, naval vessesl, aircraft and later unmanned aerial vehicles.