INSAS Rifle, LMG & Carbine

WolfPack86

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OFB Offers Its Close Quarter Carbines For The Indian Army
Days after the Ministry of Defence decided to cancel the Close Quarter Carbine deal with the UAE based company Caracal, the Rifle Factory Ishapore (RFI), under Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has decided to jump in the race to make these in India. Financial Express Online had reported recently that the Indian Army was trying to buy 93,895 CQBs through the Fast Track Procedure (FTP) since 2018. Now, the government has decided to take the `Atmanirbhar’ way and these CQBs are expected to be made in India. The OFB in 2017 had failed to provide a carbine as per the requirement of the Indian Army, which is why the decision to import them through FTP was taken.

Now, the RFI which is located on the outskirts of Kolkata has developed an advanced 5.56 mmx45 mm carbine that is undergoing evaluation. This factory has been the key supplier of the 5.56 mm INSAS Rifle to the Army. Reports suggest that the RFI based in Kolkata was manufacturing 100,000 for the Indian Army and the central and state police forces at one time and is soon going to start manufacturing components for the AK-203 Assault Rifles.

OFB Has Claimed Earlier That They Could Make Rifles But Failed. What Is Different This Time?

The official spokesperson of the OFB says, “Indian army time and again, has altered its requirements/specifications vis-a-vis other security forces insofar as small arms/rifles are concerned. Since independence, and through all the wars that India has fought, OFB has supplied small arms, ammunition and artillery weapon platforms to the Indian Army. INSAS was the bedrock of the Indian army’s small arms repertoire.”

OFB has made rifles meeting international standards. 7.62 x 51 mm assault rifle, 5.56 x 51 mm assault rifle, 5.56 x 51 Excalibur Rifle, 7.62 x 51 sniper Rifle, 5.56 x 30 mm carbine, 7.62 x 39 mm Trichy Assault Rifle are some major examples.”

“All these Rifles have been evaluated by MHA and are being used by the state police forces to their satisfaction. These rifles meet international specifications and the MHA units including the elite ones like BSF, CRPF, Assam Rifles, ITBP are happy with the weapons,” he states.

Will The Private Sector Be Involved In Manufacturing The Close Quarter Carbines?

“It is worth mentioning that import centric procurements are very difficult to conclude and the procurement actions get dropped at various stages. The same is evident from the huge number of unsuccessful RFPs issued by the Indian Army which could not see the light of the day.

OFB has incomparable and unmatched facilities insofar as developing and manufacturing of small arms is concerned. Therefore, the question of seeking help from the private sector does not arise,” the OFB spokesperson says.

Call For Corporatisation Grows Louder … The Other Side Has Another View

A change of gear is required which will help in increasing the productivity and improve the quality of the product being manufactured in these factories.

However, a source told Financial Express Online, “Due to nature of its business of manufacturing Arms and Ammunition, OFB is dependent upon the orders from the Services, either Indian or Foreign (in case of exports). OFB, as well as DPSUs, have witnessed the outright preference for imported arms/ ammunition/weapon platforms by Army/Air Force/Paramilitary forces of our country in the past.”

In his view, “Any organization engaged solely in defence production, irrespective of whether it a government department or a DPSU or a Private company, remains largely dependent on the support from the users (Indian Armed / Paramilitary Forces) due to the nature of its products/business. We can see from the history of most of the DPSUs that their performance on various business success parameters is entirely dependent upon the order book from the services.”

“As a corporate entity with commercial accounting under the provisions of Company Act, OFB will find the cost of maintaining war reserve capacity unviable and could have a very adverse effect on defence preparedness of the country.”

Another important and vital aspect with adverse effects will be customized long term support to the users, country’s armed forces.

“Military equipment like battle tanks, self-propelled guns and howitzers have a service life of 30-40 years or more. Bofors guns and modified T-72 tanks manufactured several decades back are still being used by the army, as frontline weapons. And, OFB caters to the needs of the army for spares and special subsystems even after closure of production lines of the weapon system. And the spares are supplied on the demand of the users till the end of its service life, 40 years and beyond. For the want of one spare part or subsystem, the whole battle tank becomes inoperative.”

Adding, “OFB has taken the full responsibility for complete lifetime support of its equipment. And there have been instances when only very few numbers of a spare were needed by the user and our factories restarted the production line at considerable cost, but supplied the required meagre quantity to the army to make the war equipment operational as was witnessed during Operation ‘Parakram’ and on other occasions.”

On the call for an indefinite strike on Oct 12, he says, “Gaining the support and confidence of OFB employees at all levels for this transition will remain a crucial determinant for the success of this experiment. This cannot be disregarded and needs to be addressed with the utmost sensitivity.”

OFB Hits Back At Its Main Customer – The Indian Army

Reacting to reports in a section of the media referring to accidents involving ammunition manufactured by OFB, on Thursday came out with its version.

The said reports state that between 2014 and 2020, there have been 403 accidents where ammunition from OFB was involved. And this according reports caused the exchequer a loss of Rs 960 crores which in turn could have financed the purchase of 100 artillery guns.

According to OFB, out of the accidents between January 2015 to December 2019, only 19% of the cases are attributable to the OFB. In its response, it specifies that between 2011 and 2018, there have been more than 125 accidents involving ammunition procured from sources other than OFB, both domestic and foreign.
 

WolfPack86

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OFB Offers its Joint Venture Protective Carbine (JVPC) Carbines for the Indian Army

The Joint Venture Protective Carbine (JVPC) designed by the DRDO and produced by the OFB as a replacement for the 9mm carbine has been offered by Rifle Factory Ishapore (RFI) after Ministry of Defence decided to cancel the Close Quarter Carbine deal with the UAE based company Caracal and procure it locally `Atmanirbhar’ way and through made in India route. JVPC is said to be more powerful than the 9mm carbine, which has a much shorter effective firing range than the 200 metres of the JVPC. It is capable of penetrating soft body armour made of kevlar. Special Protection Group (SPG) which is in charge of providing security to the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi will now sport a new weapon in their long list of arsenals. SPG which carried out trials on the DRDO developed but OFB produced Joint Venture Protective Carbine (JVPC) has reportedly cleared all trials of the SPG and now will be inducted into the Elite Special force. CRPF already has placed orders for 10000 JVPCs and the first lot was handed over to CRPF in 2017. JVPC also has been ordered by State police from Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, and Meghalaya as well while it waits orders from the Indian Army for which it was developed. The JVPC is designed to fire 5.56 mm caliber bullets with the magazine capacity of 30 cartridges – more than the 20 designed for the 9mm carbine. The weapon recoils lesser and allows single-hand firing in single round or rapid fire mode. FEATURES OF JVPC * Light (3.05 Kg), compact* Capability to penetrate soft body armour* More recoil-less than 9mm carbine* High accuracy in single shot and rapid fire mode* Provided with accessories like silencer, bayonet* Performance rate between pistol and rifle* More cartridges per magazine* Retractable butt for compactness
 

samsaptaka

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OFB Offers its Joint Venture Protective Carbine (JVPC) Carbines for the Indian Army
How can it when IA has already rejected it on the basis of failed trials ?
 

WolfPack86

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Indian defence forces considering ‘Made in India’ carbine for meeting urgent requirements

With a proposal to import carbines unlikely to fructify, Indian defence forces are considering the acquisition of ‘Made in India’ carbine for meeting their urgent requirement in view of the situation on China border. The carbine is an infantry weapon used for close quarter battles for which the Indian Army has been on a lookout since many years now. “The carbine produced by the Ordnance Factory Board at its facility in Ishapore in West Bengal has been offered to the armed forces who are now evaluating it for acquisition,” government sources told ANI. Preliminary trials of the weapon were also carried out a short while ago by officials concerned dealing with the acquisition of weapon systems for the three armed forces. The scope for consideration of buying indigenous carbine came up after it started emerging that the forces would not be acquiring the carbines from the foreign country which has exported it to only a few countries and that too in very small quantities. The issue of acquiring these carbines from abroad had been stuck for close to two years now as the matter was referred to a high-level Committee for decision by the Defence Acquisition Council under the first NDA government. The overall requirement of the armed forces is for almost 3.5 lakh carbines but they wanted to acquire around 94,000 of these weapons through import route under fast track procedures. If selected, the OFB carbine will undergo rigorous testing and initially be inducted in limited numbers only by the defence forces. Efforts to acquire the CQB carbines since 2008 have not materialised. The initial lot of carbines acquired by the forces is expected to be provided to troops deployed on the China front. Prime Minister Narendra Modi government recently cleared the second batch of the Sig Sauer assault rifles which would be provided to the troops deployed against the Chinese forces in Eastern Ladakh and other areas.
 

vampyrbladez

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OFB CQB 5.56*45mm carbine with camouflage.
This is the same carbine which is proposed to the IA.
BYE BYE ofb, have a nice retirement!
View attachment 61470
Wow the OFB Carbine shows so many errors in design! Spot welded sights, no full length rail, no ambidextrous charging handle, no muzzle devices, no ergonomic stock and a badly designed sling attachment.
 

ManhattanProject

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Wow the OFB Carbine shows so many errors in design! Spot welded sights, no full length rail, no ambidextrous charging handle, no muzzle devices, no ergonomic stock and a badly designed sling attachment.
it has a full length rail, there is a muzzle device, the stock looks ergonomic it just isnt adjustable for length.
 

srutayus

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The carbine was designed by ARDE not OFB. Hopefully it is not subject to the same issues of manufacturing problems and lack of product ownership that plagued the INSAS
 

utubekhiladi

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OFB CQB 5.56*45mm carbine with camouflage.
This is the same carbine which is proposed to the IA.
BYE BYE ofb, have a nice retirement!
View attachment 61470
that rifle design looks like flattened AK47 :pound: and also it resembles INSAS,. so old wine in new bottle.


ALSO, i have huge fucking problem with the way that guy is holding the rifle. :facepalm:

rifle loaded or not, you treat your gun as if its fully loaded all the time. you don't put your finger on trigger unless you are ready to destroy whatever the thing that muzzle is pointing to. it a lethal weapon so gun safety and discipline should be followed at all time.
:rage: its just good practice.
 
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WolfPack86

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Indian defence forces considering 'Made in India' carbine for meeting urgent requirements
With a proposal to import carbines unlikely to fructify, Indian defence forces are considering the acquisition of 'Made in India' carbine for meeting their urgent requirement in view of the situation on China border.

The carbine is an infantry weapon used for close quarter battles for which the Indian Army has been on a lookout since many years now.

"The carbine produced by the Ordnance Factory Board at its facility in Ishapore in West Bengal has been offered to the armed forces who are now evaluating it for acquisition," government sources told ANI.


Preliminary trials of the weapon were also carried out a short while ago by officials concerned dealing with the acquisition of weapon systems for the three armed forces.

The scope for consideration of buying indigenous carbine came up after it started emerging that the forces would not be acquiring the carbines from the foreign country which has exported it to only a few countries and that too in very small quantities.

The issue of acquiring these carbines from abroad had been stuck for close to two years now as the matter was referred to a high-level Committee for decision by the Defence Acquisition Council under the first NDA government.

The overall requirement of the armed forces is for almost 3.5 lakh carbines but they wanted to acquire around 94,000 of these weapons through import route under fast track procedures.

If selected, the OFB carbine will undergo rigorous testing and initially be inducted in limited numbers only by the defence forces.

Efforts to acquire the CQB carbines since 2008 have not materialised. The initial lot of carbines acquired by the forces is expected to be provided to troops deployed on the China front.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi government recently cleared the second batch of the Sig Sauer assault rifles which would be provided to the troops deployed against the Chinese forces in Eastern Ladakh and other areas.
 

WolfPack86

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Army considers acquiring carbine made in India by OFB
In a decision that could be a major boost for defence, the Indian Army is considering the acquisition of carbine made in India by the ordnance factory board.

“The carbines with 5.5 6MM bullets are being considered by the Indian Army for meeting the requirement on an urgent basis to provide such weapons to the field forces in Ladakh and adjoining areas," top government sources told India Today.

"OFB has been producing guns in the past to insource series rifles which have turn out to be good for almost 20 years now and we think that their carbine can also meet our requirements indigenously itself," the sources said.

The ordnance factory board has traditionally been the supplier of assault rifles for the armed forces since the late '90s.

Indian Armed Forces have been looking out for this since 2008 and they have a large requirement of almost up to 50,000 of these weapons for different arms and services.

India was also planning to import almost 95,000 Caracal carbines from the United Arab Emirates but the plan has not yet been successful and is likely to be scrapped in favour of Make in India.
 

Unknowncommando 2

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The rifle in the picture is probably Ace 52/53 which uses 7.62mm, which is not a CQB.
But Ace 21/22/23 and its derivatives are CQB.
That's ACE 22N with 16 Inch Barrel & MAGPUL 5.56mm magazine


This is ACE 22N from IWI Website with 13 Inch barrel & STANAG Magazine


ACE 52


ACE 53
 
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