The Defense Procurement Council (DAC) led by Rajnath Singh authorized the acquisition of Rs 780 crore of the assault rifles from US firm SiG Sauer. The 13 lakh strong army has already installed 72,400 SiG Sauer rifles, which are 7.62x51mm caliber cannons with an effective “kill” range of 500 meters, under a Rs 647 crore rapid acquisition agreement (FTP) signed in February last year.
On Monday, the DAC also gave its go-ahead to indigenous acquisitions of anti-airfield smart weapons for Rs 970 crore and sets of static HF transceivers for Rs 540 crore.
Full coverage – LAC deadlock
TOI in July had reported that the Army was planning to order a second batch of 72,000 SiG Sauer rifles for front-line troops due to the continuing delay in the project to manufacture Russian AK-203 Kalashnikov rifles in India.
India in March this year also signed a Rs 880 crore deal to acquire 16,479 Israeli Negev 7.62x51mm light machine guns (LMGs) for its front-line troops deployed on the borders with China and Pakistan. But the limited number of new assault rifles and light machine guns will also only meet the partial requirements of the military.
Most Army soldiers are expected to obtain 7.62x39mm caliber AK-203 Kalashnikov rifles, with an effective range of 300 meters, to supplement the limited number of more advanced US-origin rifles with a greater range of death. .
But the highly touted ‘Make in India’ project to make 6.71 lakh AK-203 rifles at the Korwa artillery factory in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi district has yet to take off due to pricing issues.
In June, the Defense Ministry had appointed a “cost committee” to set a “reasonable price” for the manufacture of AK-203 after the joint venture between the Indian Ordnance Factory Board and the Russian company Rosonboronexport and Kalashnikov listed a “unreasonable and unacceptable” price for rifles. The DAC, incidentally, had granted “acceptance of necessity” to acquire 6,71,427 AK-203 rifles at an estimated cost of Rs 4,358 crore in January 2019.
The Army had first ordered new assault rifles and hand-to-hand combat carbines for its 382 infantry battalions (with 850 soldiers each) in 2005, while the LMG case began in 2009.
But long-running procurement projects were repeatedly derailed by corruption allegations or framing unrealistic technical parameters, and the lack of effective indigenous options also compounded the problem for more than a decade.
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