Indian Army SIG Sauer 716 assault rifle.

WolfPack86

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INDIA YET TO NEGOTIATE US-MADE SIG SAUER RIFLE DEAL COST
In September last year, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh-headed Defence Acquisition Council had given clearance for the procurement of additional 72,400 assault rifles from the US


New Delhi: The Indian Army will have to wait for at least one and half years to get the second lot of over 72,000 US-made assault rifle Sig Sauer 716 as the cost is still being negotiated.

“Cost is being negotiated and then order will be placed. It would take at least one year after the contract is signed,” a source in the defence establishment said.

In September last year, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh-headed Defence Acquisition Council had given clearance for the procurement of additional 72,400 assault rifles from the US.

The Indian Army had received the previous order of same quantity that was signed in 2019 at around Rs 700 crore, have been provided to troops deployed on borders, involved in counter insurgence and counter terrorism operations.

These assault rifles will replace the obsolete Indian Small Arms System (INSAS) 5.56x45mm rifles, which were inducted two decades back.

Last month, India and Russia had inked a pact to procure 70,000 AK-203 rifles. The two countries had also formed a joint venture to manufacture AK-203 assault rifles at Korwa in 2019. However, the production is yet to start.

As per the reports, India is keen to procure around 7.5 lakh AK-203 rifles to do away with shortage of guns for the troops.

Earlier, the government had ordered for procurement of 16,500 Light Machine Guns from Israel. Out of which, 6,000 have been delivered to India.

India has speeded up its procurement and modernisation drive amidst border standoff with China in the eastern Ladakh since May last year. Though, the disengagement has taken place at several friction points but still a large number of China’s PLA troops are present in the depth areas.
 

WolfPack86

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Ukraine crisis delays Ak-203 assault rifle deal with Russia
Due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, implementation of the deal for 6.1 lakh Ak-203 assault rifles signed with Russia last July has been delayed by at least few months, according to defence sources.

As part of pre-production activities, retrials were scheduled to be done with ammunition from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in Russia in the first half of February, two defence sources independently said. But due to the current situation they have been delayed by at least 3-4 months, one of the sources stated.

While the production activities are on, manufacturing of rifles will start after the trials, it has been learnt.

As reported by The Hindu earlier, with repeated delays in the deals for procurement of Ak-203 assault rifles, last August India had signed a deal for 70,000 Ak-103 assault tickets to be procured off the shelf. The delivery of these rifles has been completed, officials said.

In another small arms deal, the repeat order for 72,400 SIG-716 assault rifles from Sig Sauer is delayed and more than two officials, on condition of anonymity, said it is likely to be dropped.

In December, Alexander Mikheev, Director General of Rosoboronexport, said manufacturing of the rifles at the plant in Uttar Pradesh was likely to begin within few months. Over 6.1 lakh Ak-203 assault rifles costing over ₹5,000 crore will be manufactured by a Joint Venture, Indo-Russian Rifles Private Ltd (IRRPL), at Korwa, Amethi in Uttar Pradesh. IRRPL was set up jointly between with erstwhile OFB [now Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWEIL) and Munitions India Limited (MIL)] of India and Rosoboronexport (RoE) and Kalashnikov of Russia.

Increase in localisation
As part of this, the first 70,000 AK-203 rifles will be produced in India with a phased increase in the extent of localisation from 5% to 70%. The rest of the rifles will be produced with 100% localisation.

A modern production line has been established and a small arms range has been set up where both factory and acceptance tests of assault rifles will be carried out.

Under a ₹700-crore deal in February 2019 with Sig Sauer of the U.S., the Defence Ministry procured 72,400 SIG-716 assault rifles through Fast Track Procurement (FTP), most of which were for the Army and have been provided to frontline troops involved in counter-insurgency operations.

The deal is in the Request For Proposal (RFP) stage and went for approval from the Competent Financial Authority (CFA) on February 22, one of the sources cited above said.

However, there is a push for foreclosure of the case given on the emphasis for boosting domestic industry, the source added.

The first lot of 72,400 SIG-716 assault rifles have long been inducted by the Army.
 

Spindrift

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Our 9mms are worst of the all.. I had fired both Glock and our 9mm(during training so not so much rounds).. Personally i felt its easier to fire brownings than glocks as due to the weight brownings had less vertical jump than glocks. But if you fire 10 rounds from Browning there will be atleast 2 misfires. 😬. Brownings are not a reliable weapon to bring to a firefight.(again solely based on my experience from multiple incidents and multiple ofb 9mm autos)
PS: one reason may be all those pistols were training issued once which may had worn out of firing, but then again the level of cleaning done in training centres is unmatched with any active units. Also the quality of indian made 9mm round and also the build quality of ofb too matters.
Browning HPs are quite good pistols there was a time where a lot of SF forces used them such as the SAS. The problem is IOF they screwed it. If Glock does ToT to IOF, they are going to screw up Glocks as well.
 

Spadex

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'Indian army scraping 726i due to heavy Recoil"

Like they didn't knew the Recoil of 7.62 * 51 beforehand.

Man even this deal turned out to be a scam 🤣. Please forgive my language but sometimes I think that procurement and planning in india army is done by jokers generals
 

Love Charger

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'Indian army scraping 726i due to heavy Recoil"

Like they didn't knew the Recoil of 7.62 * 51 beforehand.

Man even this deal turned out to be a scam 🤣. Please forgive my language but sometimes I think that procurement and planning in india army is done by jokers generals
Hehe great news of today , iam glad this deal was cancelled.
Now induct ofb r2 in numbers and standardize the bloody calibre
 

SGOperative

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'Indian army scraping 726i due to heavy Recoil"

Like they didn't knew the Recoil of 7.62 * 51 beforehand.

Man even this deal turned out to be a scam 🤣. Please forgive my language but sometimes I think that procurement and planning in india army is done by jokers generals
Isnt this canceled by MOD? They put it on hold sometime back also the Source seems to be the Wire's horrible Article, tho the main point seems to be the bad performance of the OFB rounds.
 
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ezsasa

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Isnt this canceled by MOD? They put it on hold sometime back also the Source seems to be the Wire's horrible Article, tho the main point seems to be the bad performance of the OFB rounds.
all small arms RFI from IA clearly mention that the weapon system should fire currently used field ammunition. it's not the case that OFB ammo is bad(in this case), rather that OFB ammo is not optimal for sig-716i that has been bought.

i think it would be wrong to interpret from this scenario that OFB ammo is inferior.

one can't expect IA to buy different ammo for 76000 rifles.
 

Love Charger

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all IA small arms RFI from IA clearly mention that the weapon system should fire currently used field ammunition. it's not the case that OFB ammo is bad(in this case), rather that OFB ammo is not optimal for sig-716i that has been bought.

i think it would be wrong to interpret from this scenario that OFB ammo is inferior.

one can't expect IA to buy different ammo for 76000 rifles.
Precisely sir , it would have been a large scale buffonery on indiam army's part
 

SGOperative

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all small arms RFI from IA clearly mention that the weapon system should fire currently used field ammunition. it's not the case that OFB ammo is bad(in this case), rather that OFB ammo is not optimal for sig-716i that has been bought.

i think it would be wrong to interpret from this scenario that OFB ammo is inferior.

one can't expect IA to buy different ammo for 76000 rifles.
Does it take in some special 7.62 NATO ammo?
 

ezsasa

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Does it take in some special 7.62 NATO ammo?
nothing special, optimal would be the right word. our current ammo was not the right combination for the sig-716i. the article says our current ammo was used after the ammo that came with the rifles were expended.

let more info come, since it is the wire the liar that has reported this.
 

vampyrbladez

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With 'Snags' Reported, Defence Ministry Decides Against Repeating US Assault Rifle Orde

The supplementary procurement of SIG716 7.62x51 mm rifles had been abandoned following several "operational glitches" which had surfaced soon after they were issued to Indian Army units deployed along the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Chandigarh: India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has decided against inking the Rs 700-crore repeat order it had approved in late 2020 for 72,400 ‘Patrol’ Sig Sauer assault rifles from the US for its military, due to diverse ‘snags’ which had surfaced with earlier imports of an equal number of similar weapon systems a year before.Official sources told The Wire that the supplementary procurement of SIG716 7.62×51 mm rifles had been abandoned following several “operational glitches” which had surfaced soon after they were issued to Indian Army units deployed along the Line of Control in Kashmir and on counter-insurgency operations in the region from December 2019 onwards.

According to industry officials, the “operational shortcomings” in the SIG716 rifles included “jamming” while firing locally produced 7.62 mm rounds, which were not as efficient as imported ammunition, of which limited amounts had initially been acquired but had since been expended.

When fired, these local rounds reportedly, in many instances, tended to spawn “barrel bulges” that rendered many rifles inoperable. These bulges ensued after a round failed to exit the rifle upon firing and then the follow-on round built up tremendous pressure due to the constricted air inside the barrel, causing it, in turn, to either develop a bulge, cracks or even lead to it exploding altogether.

https://m.thewire.in/article/securi...ides-against-repeating-us-assault-rifle-order

OFB ammunition and lack of LVPO sights led to deficiencies in weapon performance.
 

SwordOfDarkness

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nothing special, optimal would be the right word. our current ammo was not the right combination for the sig-716i. the article says our current ammo was used after the ammo that came with the rifles were expended.

let more info come, since it is the wire the liar that has reported this.
My guess would be that OFB made rounds a bit hotter than usual for purposes of reliability (esp since it is also supposed to be lmg ammo), which led to damages to the gun.
 

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