India Re-Launching Global Tender for New-Generation Assault Rifle

I've heard somewhere that the Indian military's 5.56 ammo was poor in terms of stopping power, which might well have been a factor in their apparently wanting get away from that caliber. I haven't heard any complaints coming from their special forces, but then its possible that they might not be using the same ammo type as their INSAS using regular army guys.
 
Personally I would take 7.62 Nato over 5.56 any day of the week. I would rather have a gun which is a bit over-powered for some applications than one which is under-powered for others. As mentioned one of the biggest issues with early 7.62 rifles is that they are long and heavy. The MPT-76 (Turkeys new 7.62 Nato rifle) weighs in at 9lbs however compared to our current C7A2, it is lighter than that rifle (current C7A2 weighs 10lbs fully loaded). It is also shorter than Canadas C7A2 rifle (with the buttstock extended it is 39.6" vs. the MPT-76 is 36"). Plus with more modern recoil management designs you can greatly reduces felt recoil for those shooting them.
 
Thomas D'Arcy McGee said:
India Re-Launching Global Tender for New-Generation Assault Rifle

(Source: Forecast International; issued September 28, 2016)

NEW DELHI --- The Indian government is re-launching a global tender for a new-generation standard issue assault rifle to replace the Indian Army's glitch-prone, the domestically-made INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) 5.56mm assault rifle. This promises to be a mega-project for India as it seeks an initial batch of 65,000 rifles to be followed by another 1.2 million produced in India under license.

The multi-billion-dollar program follows in the wake of an earlier failed tender launched in November 2011 that was eventually scrapped in May-June 2015 after the Indian Army claimed that none of the bidders could meet the qualitative requirements of its tender. The fundamental issue was an overly ambitious requirement that the rifle have interchangeable barrels, with the 5.56x45mm primary barrel to serve in conventional warfare missions while a 7.62x39mm secondary barrel would be utilized in counterterrorism actions.

This time the requirement is for a 7.62 x 51mm assault rifle that can also be fitted with a 40mm under-barrel grenade launcher manufactured locally by the ordnance factor in Trichy. The request for information (RFI) issued by the Indian Ministry of Defense on September 27 calls for the new rifles to be "state of the art" in terms of design, metallurgy and performance parameters with the expectation that the new weapon will remain technically capable and relevant for the next 25-30 years.

A request for proposals (RFP) for formal commercial bids is to be issued in April 2017.
Click to expand...

WTH is that all about??

I predict the Germans will get it; they pay the best bribes, and often having the best products doesn't hurt either.
 
Since the INSAS is Galil-like-ish, there is the 7.62x51mm Galil and the sniper version thereof. That would cover all your long range needs. The Galil ACE has an M4 style stock and 16/18/20" barrel, and ought to work in dusty (not in a pejorative sense) environments.
 
Deckard said:
So very very serious here.

ak1b_zpsrj0p7ioe.jpg
Click to expand...

Nice early Type1 milled AK. Once the paint is stripped off and the wood re-shallac'ed, that'd be a nice addition to my gun rack if our PM were not hoplophobic.
 
Pakistan uses 7.62x51mm in HK G3. That thing although FA but it's not controllable. Pakistani army came to a conclusion to move to smaller round 40 years after NATO.

It's interesting to see that Indian are going for 7.62x51

But then again it's Indian media and they nights have bungled 7.62x51 with 7.62x39
 
This is more like it, just wondering what kind of quality submission they'll get... oh, I know, anyone let Kel Tec know about this? :rolleyes:
Lee Enfield said:
With india's long and "proud" history of "liberating" other people's intellectual property and violating licence agreements in regards to small arms, I really can't see anyone licencing them anything.

Think FN-FAL, High Power, Mag58, Sterling L2A3...

All of the FNs were "reverse engineered" and the Sterling licence agreement prohibited export...
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
The Pakistani is looking for new rifles too, they want 7.62 NATO right out of the gate. The usual suspect, SCAR-H, ARX200, the Turkish 417-clone....Looks like India looks north, and figures out they cannot leave the Pakistani have a bigger and more macho calibre than they have.

The last time that light infantry of reasonable quality duking it out was back in Falklands, and they were all carrying 7.62 FAL. The lesson learnt back then was ammo went out too quickly and needed resupply all the time.
 
Last edited:
The report I read says that they want a 3MOA rifle that is effective out to 500m in 308, and it is now an urgent purchase. This is going to be an epic failure because they are so behind and no more INSAS had been purchased in the last 5 years. A 3 MOA 308 rifle is just a bigger and heavier bullet hose. And they want 68000 in 2 years 4 months after contract signed.

Looks like either the Russian or IWI will get a big order for galil ace or AK when this fails shortly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom