Over the past two years, India purchased nearly 150,000 US-made SIG 715 model rifles, chambered in 7.62mm NATO. Sig Sauer had announced the latest deal in July 2020. The Indian Army will also receive the Kalashnikov AK-203, which is being produced as part of a joint venture with Russia’s Kalashnikov Concern and India’s Amethi ordnance factory.
The Indian Army has been diversifying its small arms inventory, as part of an attempt to phase out its aging assault rifles and light machine guns. The Indian domestically-produced Small Arms System (INSAS) has been in use since 1998.
AK-203 7.62x39mm Assault Rifle
Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboron-export, which is part of the state tech corporation Rostec, has prepared a contract for signing with India on the delivery of the latest 7.62x39mm AK-203 assault rifles. Compared to the baseline AK-203 version, the variant being produced for India has a fixed side-folding stock, but is otherwise similar in design to the version being employed by the Russian military.
The assault rifle weighs 3.8 kg empty, and it has a rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute and is accurate to a range of 800 meters. The AK-203 assault rifle designed for the Indian Amy features a 415mm barrel and it is equipped with a Picatinny rail, which can be used with a variety of sights or scopes as well as flashlight and other equipment.
New Carbine
The Indian Army has issued a fresh Request for Information (RFI) for a fast-track procurement of 93,895 carbines. This comes five months after the defence ministry revoked the case for procuring a similar number of carbines under the Fast-Track Procedure (FTP).
The RFIs were issued on 10 February to multiple Indian and global manufacturers, including Caracal, Colt, SiG Sauer, Beretta, Thales and Adani Defence. In 2018, UAE gun maker Caracal’s CAR 816 carbine had emerged as the lowest bidder in the FTP initiated by the Indian Army for a new compact weapon to replace its World War 2 vintage 9 mm 1A1 ‘Sterling’ carbine. As before, the army wants the new carbine chambered for the 5.56×45 mm cartridge. At just a single page, the army’s new RFI is far simpler compared to its three-page RFI in 2018. The service aims to procure the weapons within a year of the contract signing.
The size of this deal is not yet known, but if one were to make estimation from Caracal’s 2018 bid, then it would likely be upwards of $110 million (over Rs 800 crore).
Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar, who heads the Defence Procurement Board (DPB), finally pulled the plug on the acquisition last September. The earlier deal was questioned by senior defence ministry officials on two grounds.
• The carbines were costlier than the US-made SiG 716 assault rifles also imported under the FTP last year for over Rs 700 crore; and.
• The defence ministry officials noted that no part of the weapon was being manufactured indigenously.
Last September, Caracal had offered to manufacture all the rifles in-country as part of the government’s Make in India initiative. The UAE government-owned arms maker said it would also oversee technology transfer.
Top army officials had also explored options for purchasing a smaller quantity of around 25,000 carbines from the UAE manufacturer, but this idea seems to have been abandoned in favour of a fresh contract.
M4 Armoured Vehicles
On 23 February 2021, an emergency order was placed by the Indian Army for the procurement of M4 armoured vehicles. These vehicles have undergone intensive tests in Ladakh during the standoff with China in 2020. These vehicles are going to be purchased from Pune-based private sector company Bharat Forge of the Kalyani group.
A company statement said, on 23 February, that “an order worth Rs 177.95 crore has been received from the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) for the supply of Kalyani M4 vehicles”.
Such wheeled armoured vehicles are required for transporting troops and have the capability of being operated in high altitudes.
These armoured vehicles which have undergone intensive trials in high altitudes along with other competitors come with certain extra features as compared to the regular vehicles.
It is a multi-role platform, and has the capability of quick mobility in rough terrain and those areas which are affected by IED and mine threats.
According to the company, this vehicle has ballistic and blast protection from up to 50 kg TNT side blast, or IED or roadside bombs, all because of the design. It is built on a flat-floor monocoque hull and has a thrust speed of 140 km per hour. With a payload of 2.3 tonnes, it can operate in a range of about 800 km.
The original product is from South African Paramount Group, whose M4 has been modified as per the Indian conditions and requirements of the end user by Bharat Forge.
Futuristic Communication System
With the increasing dominance of the electronic spectrum, cyber warfare and artificial intelligence, the Army has laid the groundwork to introduce a futuristic communication system for providing secure and seamless inter-connectivity between its war-fighting elements and also enhance situational awareness.
“The Indian Army is planning a long-term evolution (LTE)-based communication grid with Internet of Military Things (IoMT) sensor network for providing failsafe, robust and secure communication to its formations and units along the northern and eastern borders,” a RFI states.
This will require designing and developing, with industry support, a communication grid with its radio access network, core network and IoMT compatible network along with sensors and interfaces to provide surveillance, situational awareness, sensor network and compatible interfaces for legacy surveillance devices currently in the Army’s inventory.
LTE is a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices that increases the capacity and speed of data transfer and provides several add-on facilities. IoMT is a type of Internet of Things designed for combat operations and warfare based upon smart technology and artificial intelligence.
The network would facilitate a state of the art mobile communication and sensor network for troops operating in a counter-insurgency environment, rugged mountains and jungles overlooking the Line of Control and international borders through the use of handheld communication devices and e-tabs.
The project envisions high grade and reliable mobile communication with a layer of security for voice, data and video communication to make the traffic secure and make the network free from the possibility of intrusion and interception, prevent unauthorized access.
The proposed LTE-based communication grid with IoMT sensor network will also be capable of interoperability with existing mobile communication network and would be integrated into the armed forces’ current and futuristic communication infrastructure and networks.
It will also have an IoMT sensor network, seismic, pressure and ultrasonic ground sensors autonomous UAVs and drones, information nodes, helmet-mounted cameras and interfaces for current surveillance equipment as well as an ecosystem for controlling and monitoring the sensor data from all IoMT devices.
Only Indian vendors and those who tie-ups with foreign original equipment manufacturers having their registered offices along with operations, maintenance and repair infrastructure in India would be allowed to participate in the project.
Army Has Alternative to WhatsApp
From April 1, the Indian Army is likely to start using SAI (Secure Application for Internet), a messaging platform, for internal communications, Army chief General M.M. Naravane said on 24 February.
He said the application, developed by Colonel Sai Shankar, was undergoing the process of getting cyber and security clearance and data testing.
The application supports end-to-end secure voice, text and video-calling services for Android platforms over the internet – equivalent of WhatsApp.
The application supports end-to-end secure voice, text and video-calling services for Android platforms over the internet.
The model is similar to commercially available messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram, SAMVAD and GIMS, and utilises the end-to-end encryption messaging protocol. SAI scores over these platforms in terms of security features with local in-house servers and coding, which can be tweaked as per requirements.
