#Thread || The Small arms dilemma

(1/25) 2011, the Army floated a tender for the supply of "multi-caliber rifles" to replace its existing INSAS

2. Testing was done on Beretta’s ARX-160 (Italy), Colt Combat Rifle (the US), CA 805 BREN (the Czech Republic) and Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) ACE1 all failed to make a mark owing to the unrealistic General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR).

3. But because of this tender two indigenous rifles came into picture > DRDO MCIWS > OFB Excalibur

4. Multi Caliber Individual Weapon System (MCIWS) by Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE)

5. A Multi caliber weapon whic can fire ammunition of various calibers like 5.56x45mm (INSAS), 7.62x39 mm (AK) and 6.8x43 mm. The rifle was ahead of it' time

6. Different calibre can be fired by changing the Barrel Assembly to meet various requirements. It was a Carbine to LMG in one package

7. As expected In October 2017, the MCIWS procurement was superseded as army suddenly changed their requirements Now army wanted to acquire around 7 lakh "shoot to kill" rifle. (Later AK203 Was selected)

8. Designed by Armament R&D Establishment (ARDE) The Excalibur is an improved version of the INSAS assault rifle.

9. The Excalibur also had to face major resistance from import Lobby both inside Indian army and outside were in favour of import

10. Statements like "the army is being forced to accept DRDO's Excalibur" was made through paid media houses. After many years of testing it was rejected as army changed its req from 5.56 to 7.62*51mm .

11. The OFB developed their own 7.62 51mm R2 battle Rifle in response to the new requirements but it was yet again rejected because of "heavy recoil"

12. This series of rejection stopped with the procurement of 72,400 SIG rifles under fast-track procurement (FTP) For Rs 700 crore > 66000 for army > 2000 for navy > 4000 for airforce

13. Earlier only Frontline infantry troops were to be equipped with sigs but now two companies in all the infantry battalions are being given the Sig 716 essentially replacing INSAS, this nos will increase If AK-203 deal didn't finalizes in future

14. The way sig were inducted was also very unique, no picture or video of the trial was released. No article against it or supporting it was published. It' didn't go through the famous 100 yr testing cycle of indian army. It all happened just too fast, so I wonder

15. Now let's talk about AK 203 or more appropriately AK-203i (indian version)

16. The Indian version (according to the pictures released by IA PR ) is standard AK-203 minus the buttstock and magazine, both are derived from AK74s

17. Media headlines regarding the deal Feb 2019 : ind Russia had signed an Inter-Governmental Agreement Nov 2020 :- india will procure AK203 Feb 2021 :- india close to sealing AK203 Deal Dec 2021 :- india Russia ink AK203 deal

18. Jan 2022 :- production will start soon March 2022 :- production will begin soon June 2022 :- Ukraine crisis delayed AK 203 deal The project have been Stalling for last 2 yrs.

19. Due to these delays the indn air force have brought old AK103 (modified version) Rifles out of the shelf. Around 70,000 were ordered according to ANI

20. BTW the OFB have come up with their own 7.62 x 39mm :- >Ghatak Rifle > Trichy assault rifle or TAR

21. Ghatak Rifle is an Indianized Mpi KM-72 with the similar stamped receiver as INSAS 1b1. Trichy Assault Rifle is an Indianized AR-M1 featuring a milled receiver. They are improvement on existing Varients. https://twitter.com/Kunal_Biswas707/status/1346671553732169729?t=gjKPMqCZEIO75llcT0eWpA&s=19…

22. Meanwhile our SPECIAL FORCES are also in Dire need of new rifles. They are still using first generation tavor brought in early 2000s and old SOPMOD BLOCK 1 brought in 2001ish

23. Initially the Indian Army wanted a rifle that would incapacitate a solider instead of killing him thus increasing the logistics burden for each soldier injured.(5.56) However after many yr of CI/CT ops the Army started preferring a rifle with a higher kill capacity ie AK.

24. In Summary we don't have a standard issue rifle yet even after so many years This is the part one of the threads part 2 will contain CARBINE and SNIPERS' Rifle

@Aman Routray @Kachra Seth @_Tej_ @Maj Manik M Jolly,SM @Kalashnikov Operator @𝗞𝗨𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗕𝗜𝗦𝗪𝗔𝗦 @Kushal Kumar Sinha @VatsRohit @Kaptaan Sahab @Krishnan @Riya Karan sir/ ma'am a thread on indian small arms