In a blow to the Make in India movement, particularly in the defence sector, the Indian Army has rejected an indigenously built 7.62 mm prototype assault rifle which was supposed to replace the much reviled Indian New Small Arms System (INSAS) rifle and AK-47s currently in use. Last year, another indigenously-built assault rifle called the 5.56 mm Excalibur gun was also rejected on the grounds that it failed to meet the required standards.
According to reports, the rejection of the new rifle built by the Ishapore Rifle Factory came after it ‘miserably’ failed the firing tests last week. Although it had the larger caliber (7.62 mm) compared to the 5.56 mm Excalibur, Army sources said the gun had multiple faults, including excessive stoppages, flash and sound signature, and faulty magazine design.
Last year, the Army had put out a request for proposal for the new guns, and some 20 firms, including foreign ones, had responded. A high level meeting—comprising officials from the three services and the defence ministry—has now been called to decide whether the government should import tried and tested weapons from foreign manufacturers.
These include the Belgian FN SCAR-L which comes in different configurations, Israel’s Galil, said to be the choice of Special Forces worldwide, and the American Colt CM901, which can be easily converted from a battle rifle to a assault rifle .
But despite the government’s decision to allow 100 per cent FDI in defence and bring in private sector companies to jointly manufacture hi- tech equipment in India in partnership with foreign entities, our domestic military infrastructure is still unable to make an assault rifle which meets the Army’s needs.
At the moment, the Army, which desperately needs around 2 lakh rifles to replace the ageing and ailing INSAS and AKs, can only wait and watch helplessly as the babus and their bosses dither over whether to import or shove another substandard home-made gun down the military’s throat.