The Department of Defence has cancelled the order to buy back 72,400 “Patrol” Sig Sauer assault rifles from the United States for its armed forces. Ministry sources said the government will now consider purchasing similar rifles through the “Made in India” initiative being promoted to give a boost to the domestic defence industries.
The ministry has ordered Rs 700 crore worth 72,400 Sig Sauer rifles in 2020, but is clearly not keen to procure the same number of SIG716 7.6251 mm rifles again due to the operational problems faced by the forces deployed in Jammu and Kashmir. A senior official in the ministry indicated that the SIG rifles might work well in America but there might be compatibility issues in India due to different operating conditions.
The department’s second thoughts also stem from complaints about issues arising from incompatibility between Indian ammunition used in US assault rifles, informed military sources said.
From the first batch, the army got the most guns (66,400), the Indian Air Force (IAF) got 4,000, and the Indian Navy’s special forces were armed with two thousand remaining weapon systems.
