#IndianArmy

For years we at TFB have closely followed India’s struggles to select a new service rifle to replace the 5.56x45mm INSAS which has gained a questionable reputation over the years. Numerous home-grown rifles such as the Indian Ordnance Factories Board-designed Excalibur and the Multi Calibre Individual Weapon System have both proven to be failures. A glimmer of hope arrived when the Indian government made a concerted effort to procure new small arms launching a flurry of requests for information seeking a range of rifles in 7.62x39mm, 5.56x45mm and 7.62x51mm. At the same time, India have also procured .50 calibre anti-materiel rifles and .338 LM precision rifles in significant numbers.

Normally, when you report from a defense expo, you only talk about new products, updates and stuff that was never seen before. But when you take a path less travelled to go to regional defense exhibitions like DEFEXPO, there are a lot of weapons there that have been around for a while but are barely known outside the region. One example is an Indian 40mm UBGL, designed to be used in conjunction with INSAS or AK rifles.

After you’ve been to dozens of defense expos all around the globe, you don’t really expect to see anything new and exciting. The time when “big reveals” of new products were done at exhibitions are almost gone, there is the internet for that. And DEFEXPO was no exception until I walked into a booth of  SSS Defense.

Last month during the US India Yudh Abhyas 19 training exercise Indian Army snipers had an opportunity to get acquainted with the US Army’s M2010 Enhanced Sniper Rifle. The exercise took place at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington State, aiming to strengthen the relationship and improve combined interoperability between US INDO-PACOM Land Component Forces and the Indian Army.

In an effort to find a new light machine gun a team of Indian Army and Defense Officials have started a tour to visit firearms manufacturers, including  Arsenal in Bulgaria. The tour then continues to Israel and Israel Weapon Industries (IWI), before heading on to South Korea for a visit to S&T Motiv (previously Daewoo Precision Industries).

News Agencies from both India and Russia have confirmed that India will adopt the 7.62x39mm AK-203, with production to be established at a plant in India. Production of as many as 750,000 rifles is planned. In recent weeks we’ve seen a lot of progress in India’s struggle to modernise its Army’s small arms. Not only have India recently confirmed a deal with SIG Sauer for over 70,000 7.62x51mm SIG716s but they have also purchased 6,000 sniper rifle from Barrett and Beretta. They are also reported to be nearing a deal for 95,000 5.56 Carbines from Caracal.

Earlier this month we reported that India had entered into a major contract with SIG Sauer for procurement of over 70,000 7.62x51mm rifles. SIG Sauer have now confirmed the agreement of a contract reportedly worth $72 million.

India is reportedly poised to purchase a large number of 5.56x45mm carbines from the United Arab Emirates small arms manufacturer Caracal. A deal to buy almost 95,000 Caracal CAR816 rifles is said to have been agreed.

Back in 2012 the Indian Army purchased just over 1,500 B&T MP9 submachine gun after serious equipment shortfalls were highlighted by senior army officers. It’s unclear if India have made subsequent MP9 orders. These were issued to the Indian Army’s specialist Ghatak Platoons. Each Indian battalion has an attached Ghatak platoon which is specially trained for special operations duties.

Punj Lloyd Raksha Systems, India’s first privately owned small arms manufacturer, are set to begin building IWI X95s in Madhya Pradesh. The new joint venture with IWI will produce not just the X95 but also the Galil designated marksman variant, the Negev light machine gun and the original Tavor bullpup rifle.

In an ongoing national conference where the top Indian Army generals are convening to discuss issues and ways to improve the military, one of the top issues is small arms program reform, especially in regards to the 5.56x45mm INSAS infantry rifle currently in use by most Indian Infantrymen. Secondarily, leaders are looking towards ways to improve or adopt better machine guns and light support weapons for the troops. One news report stated that the service is in dire need of at least 200,000 replacement rifles for the INSAS, which was adopted in 1988.

The Indian Army has released an RFI that is requesting interested companies to submit a proposal for 1500 Anti-Material Rifles (AMR as per Indian Army). The rifles must be in a 12.7mm caliber (x108mm or .50 BMG wasn’t specified) and must weigh lighter than the Army’s current Denel NTW-20 in 20mm/14.5mm. They must be capable of accurately engaging targets out to 1800 meters using “armour piercing incendiary, tracer rounds, sabot light armor penetrator, armor piercing explosive incendiary and high explosive armor piercing incendiary ammunition. In addition, the rifles cannot weigh more than 15 kilograms (33 lb) for a combined weight (we assume this is fully loaded).

Earlier on TFB we reported on the South Korean Military’s insistence on picking up every single brass cartridge fired while conducting live fire training. Soon after, we received an Indian reader that emailed us with these photographs showing the brass catching practice is alive and well within the Indian Army’s INSAS and Kalashnikov rifles in training. However with the Indian Army, possibly due to funds soldiers have to improvise their own brass catchers out of bottles and wire meshes that fit over their rifles. Some of them are even painted to match the rifle they are attached to. One of the biggest problems with this brass catching phenomena is that the brass catcher can induce malfunctions on the rifle by rounds falling back into the action.

Hot on the heels of requesting an RFI for 36,000 thermal optics for GPMGs, Indian Army Infantry Procurement officials are putting out another RFI solicitation, this time for 5,000 rifles in .338 Lapua, no mention of scopes or thermal optics. In fact, the solicitation is worded very vaguely with “as light as possible for easy transport and use in varied terrain” and, “convenient to carry and operate by an average-built Indian soldier”. Defined metrics should improve to actual specifications in the competition process. I suspect these rifles are for border security against Pakistan, similar to the thermal optic RFI. Operations in Kashmir don’t seem to afford the ranges that a .338 Lapua capability would be useful at.

The Indian Army has issued an RFI for 36,000 thermal optics to mount on the services Indian Ordnance Factory licensed production of 7.62x51mm NATO MAG 2A1 General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG). Pictured is a MAG-58 6-1, lacking the picatinny rail top cover that the 2A1 would have.