The Indian Ministry of Defense has launched procurement programmes focused on outfitting the army with assault rifles, sniper rifles, and light machine guns.
The home-made 5.56mm INSAS will be replaced by a 7.62mm assault rifle (Picture source: India Defence)
The market for machine guns (MGs), assault rifles and sniper rifles is to meet the urgent operational requirements of the troops deployed on the borders and engaged in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu & Kashmir and the North-East. The assault rifles in 7.62x51mm caliber will replace the Army’s existing standard issue Indian Small Arms System (INSAS) rifle of 5.56mm caliber which was designed some three decades ago. The new rifle will enable the troops to hit targets distant of 500 meters with more efficiency and accuracy. Obviously, the army has drawn fruitful lessons from the use of its old FAL rifle (Fusil Automatique Léger, Light Automatic Rifle, whose prototype was completed in 1946 by Belgian small arms designers Dieudonné Saive and Ernest Vervier, and manufactured by Fabrique Nationale d'Armes de Herstal, FN Herstal, Belgium). Currently, the Indian army also uses the AK-47 Kalashnikov and the Israeli IWI Tavor in 5.56mm.
The purchase of 740,000 new assault rifles for $1.91 billion is regarded as the top priority by the Defense Acquisition Council (DAC), which sits atop the military procurement hierarchy. These are to be manufactured by the state-owned Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and private defense companies under the Buy & Make (India) procurement category focusing on domestic design and production. Some characteristics of the new assault rifle are a mass inferior to 4Kg,
5,719 sniper rifles for both the army and air force will also be purchased at a cost of $153.43 million. India is looking outside its own domestic sector at an off-the-shelf solution via foreign manufacturers such as Colt, Beretta, Czeska Zbrojovka, Rosoboronexport, and Israel Weapons Industries (IWI).
The acquisition of light machine guns is budgeted for $285 million.
