Excalibur Rifle and the Arms Merchant
Indian Army after the failure of four imported design competetion in last three years came to the conclusion that the rifles in the imported multi calibre competetion did not suit their requirement. They instead preferred an Indian design of Excalibur design, which is further development of INSAS rifle with improved everything.
The four imported with multicaliber designs which were still in prototype stage could not become a winning the competetion. Now their prestige was at stake. They just could not let an Indian design to go past their merchandise without a fight. So the arms merchants began a very sophisticated propaganda against Excalibur.
First, they pointed out that the Excalibur is also at a prototype stage, which is true. It has not been inducted in large scale and has not undergone a battle test in firefight anywhere with any of the armed forces including BSF, counter insurgency forces etc.
Second, not disputing the test results, they began to question GSQR specs. These were termed flawed and unachieveable. The forgoing may or may not be true. These were written to get a multicaliber rifle with future thirty years requirements of an individual soldier in mind, still the foreign arms merchant brought four of their prototypes to be tested to India. They should have thought about GSQR flaws earlier before entering the competetion.
Now their reputation is at stake as their designs has failed.
Third, at six times the price of regular INSAS rifle and four times the Excalibur rifle, the arms merchant's argument is that if sufficient numbers are ordered, prices will come down. Their argument is invalid. Only 66,000 are to purchased off the shelf in the initial phase. Price offered was way too high and fixed. The remaining one hundred thousand more to manufactured in India under technology transfer will not be marginally cheaper as they will set the transfer price of technology, parts and other machine tools so high that it won't be cheap to manufacture in India.
Fourth, they are mildly invalidating the Excalibur design as inadequate, although it passed the rigorous test. They argue that it is a soupped up INSAS. If INSAS has not succeeded well (that point of theirs is invalid as over years all the improvements to INSAS has made it a formidable weapon) with Indian soldiers, Excalibur will not succeed either. Read in between the lines, only their weapon will succeed. That argument is also invalid, the same argument can be advanced to M-16 rifle of the US army, it did not succeed in Vietnam war, but improvements over twenty years made it a formidable weapon although still questionable range and hitting power.
Fifth, Indian Ordinance Factories are out of date. They belong in fifties and sixties. These cannot produce a very modern weapon. The arms merchants may be correct here. The rifle manufacturing factories are grossly under achievers. They have not been upgraded to take on the task of today's complex manufacture. Our labour also need thorough reshuffle and re-education before a complex task of machining, stamping of exact parts is undertaken. Quality problems are serious issue during the production stage.
Sixth, the above propaganda war is being fought thru foreign magazines and news portals with Rahul Bedi and Raghuvanshi etc. Leading the charge. Other "Fanboys" defence forums pick up their arguments and question Excalibur design. I do not believe any of them (including me) have seen the business end of the Excalbur rifle, barring a few. But their crocodile tears become points to argue.
Seventh, the India Army although being asked to thoroughly evaluate the Excalibur rifle has scheduled testing in the hands of the soldiers. Pressed by the highest level of Army hierarchy, a number of high Army officials have decided to get involved in initial prototype manufacture stage. This is all designed to make the New rifle succeed. Unless a mess up happen (do not under estimate Arms Merchant Lobby) then Excalibur would be a standard rifle in the Indian Army. Specialized units in the Army may wield a Indian made multicaliber rifle, or Tavor rifle or M-4 or AK-47 etc., but standard weapon of of the Indian Army is expected to be Excalibur rifle.
A few high army officials may be unhappy, as the possibilities of commissions and bribes has been eliminated. Their last chance is to make this rifle unworthy if prototype defects are deliberately left in the rifle before a couple of hundred are sent to the army for testing. These defects may fail the rifle, but factories have to watch out for that.
Down with the Arms Merchants.