>joke
more like a scam, no joke
i mean just consider this,
> OFB Korwa, Amethi was inaugurated in 2007 by *ahem* Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi himself, and as per official CAG report itself they were supposed to manufacture CQB carbines and other small arms there
> Since 2008 at least there were constant mentions of indian "assembly" // manufacturing of AK-103 (DO NOTE AK-103M = FIRST VERSION OF AK-103 WITH RAILS ONLY CAME OUT AROUND 2009, THIS EVEN PREDATES RUSSIAN ADOPTION OF 'AK WITH RAILS' ABOUT GOOD 2-3 YEARS HUUUH) on wikipedia, read it yourself at internet archive at here
https://web.archive.org/web/20081201084021/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK-103
View attachment 187251
and this was later put as citation around 2008, a times of india article on it
web.archive.org
View attachment 187252
it mostly stays similar (with some change in lines like "negotiating for a license" etc but main point being same) for good 10-11 some years upto 2019 at least, upto 2019, meanwhile we saw change in govts from UPA-1 to UPA-2 and later NDA-1,two PMs and three Presidents and what not...
meanwhile around 2009 then Izhmash announces AK-103M = this,
View attachment 187253
View attachment 187254
View attachment 187257
mark the date, ALSO COMPARE IT WITH CURRENT
SO CALLED AK-203 WE ARE GETTING
View attachment 187256
WHAT FUCKING EVEN...
well this was the early progress of "AK with Rails" thing in Russia which went further ahead and in some years forked into AK-200, AK-400, AK-12 etc all...not relevant (EVEN THOUGH DAMN RELEVANT IN BROAD SENSE) to us
we saw AK-103 plus railed top cover (do note this seemed like from KM-AK upgrade kit of Russia) at some OFB exhibition around 2017-18 time if i remember correctly
View attachment 187264
View attachment 187265
also note how even this seemingly "desi made AK-103" also is damn similar to what we're getting in name of AK-203 hhmm
coming back to wikipedia thing,
this mention of "licensed manufacturing AK-103" ONLY WENT AWAY IN 2019, AND AROUND SAME TIME THEY WERE ROLLING OUT AK-200 SERIES, FROM THAT ONE AK-203 ONE EVENTUALLY GETS SELECTED AS UPCOMING STANDARD ISSUE RIFLE WITH SAME LICENSED MANUFACTURING + ToT THEY HAD BEEN DISCUSSING WITH US IN PAST
DOESN'T IT ALL SOUND SO STRANGE ? Like something that'd been going on for more than 10 years eventually is selected as INSAS replacement - as next service rifle while every damn other rifle program here (be it licensed manufacturing-JV or developing here or even
impoorting ) is effectively butchered down to ;no orders; - as if they only wanted russian AK
baaki sab jaae bhaad mey ; and even selected a variant that was damn similar
sans rails to what was originally offered...