From assault to sniper rifles, machine guns to carbines, soldiers yet to get basic infantry weapons

NEW DELHI: Indian Army's foot soldiers are still nowhere close to getting basic modern infantry weapons, ranging from assault rifles and sniper guns to light machine guns and close-quarter battle carbines, after a decade of acquisition projects from abroad being repeatedly scrapped as well as failure of indigenous options to pass muster till now.

The huge delays in the induction of `small arms' for infantry battalions figured in the Army commanders' conference last week, with Gen Bipin Rawat telling his senior lieutenant generals that “our approach to procurement process needs to be balanced with focus at the right places“.

Though plans are on track to plug major operational gaps, `small arms' remain a big worry . As per overall plans, the 12-lakh strong Army needs 8,18,500 new-generation assault rifles, 4,18,300 close-quarter battle (CQB) carbines, 43,700 light machine guns and 5,679 sniper rifles. But the induction plans, which are supposed to include direct purchase of an initial number of weapons from a foreign vendor followed by largescale indigenous production with technology transfer, have failed to materialise so far.

In September 2016, the Army was forced to re-launch its global hunt for new-generation 7.62 mm x 51 mm assault rifles to replace the glitchprone 5.56 mm INSAS (Indian small arms system) rifles after similar bids over the last decade were scrapped.

Sources said the technical parameters or GSQRs (general staff qualitative requirements) for the new assault rifles, with an effective range of 500 metres, have now been finalised. “The case will now be moved for the defence min istry's approval under the `Buy & Make (Indian)' model before the formal tender or RFP (request for proposal) is floated,“ said a source.

Similarly , the procurement case for 5.56 x 45 mm CQB carbines, with an effective 200metres range, was re-launched recently after the earlier one was scrapped last year. The defence ministry had junked the earlier case, dating back to 2006, on the ground that it had become “a resultant single vendor situation“. The story of the 7.62 mm x 51mm caliber light machine guns is similar, with the Army back to square one after a long-winded procurement process. The defence ministry in August “retracted“ the tender because only IWI was left in the fray after protracted field trials from December 2015 to February 2017.