IAF floats tender for 32,000 assault rifles

[sasi]

32k rifle. Just assembling? In way legitmate indian broker selling! I hope Whatever r&d we have, not killed! @Kunal Biswas ur view pls!

http://idrw.org/?p=46308

The Indian Air Force has floated a tender for the procurement of 32,000 assault rifles under the Buy & Make (Indian) route using an Indian partner. The IAF has stipulated that the assault rifles should be compact, foldable, easy to carry, handle, operate, simple to maintain and with high effective range. The new RFI is only the latest in a spate of efforts by the IAF to arm its Garud commando units as well as other personnel with new modular weapons as part of a more extensive modernisation thrust.
The new weapons will be for units guarding airfields and other assets round the year, and especially in hostile environments, the new weapons will be required for units that may operate in hostile territory as part of cover operations in conjunction with the special forces of the Army and Navy. The Army special forces and certain infantry units are armed with the Israeli TAR-21 assault rifle that would presumably fit the bill for the IAF too, though the process will be a competitive bid. The quantity of rifles required by the IAF alone, when tagged to the numbers still required by the Army make it a test case for the Buy & Make (India) procurement route. MoD sources suggest the new assault rifle procurement could be testing ground for manufacture of infantry weapons by private sector firms too in a shift beyond the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).

 

[sgarg]

This is actually a good requirement that a private company can take up. Since no Indian private company has built such a rifle before, it will be a license production. However the quantity is good so investment is justified.

Let us see the response to this tender.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Till date their are more than 3 million 1B1 are produced, And many thousand Excalibur and Amogh carbine for troops, A little purchase of 32k will not effect our National Defense Industry ..

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IAF purchases of firearms does not effect front-line solider`s lives, As they will be used mainly for protecting airbases and will be provided to IAF guards only, Its highly unlikely that anything could go wrong with the rifle within based under regular maintenance ..

If such purchases made by Army - paramilitary its concerning as troops will be fighting in different terrains under little field maintenance for them a Rifle such as 1B1 or Amogh carbine will work ..

 

[Hari Sud]

Can they not combine requirements army Multi cal, Garuda and Marcos rifle together?. It will be a smaller logistics nightmare.

Can India made Multi caliber rifle satisfy the requirements of all three special forces.

 

[AshutoshNSingh]

How many assault rifle types will OFB license build under 'buy & Make India' with MCAR & Carbines already in the list??? Can't Garud just floor a tender for additional Tavors?
But they must be needing a conventional design weapon as the bullpups like Tavor are anything but 'foldable'.