Yeah. They are AKs. But screw on sights are an issue with the Indian army.
Small Arms & Tactical Equipment
- Thread starter Parthu
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Also, just the inefficiencies built into their systems due to high labor cost and poor productivity. They won't be able to build an AKM at the prices that Romanians, Polish, and Bulgarians can. I mean if they are selling $1000 AK's to the Army for sure they won't be able to sell $700AK's to the civilian markets.They are not. The army has made subtle hints that OFB should sell their rifles in western markets. There are no takers within the OFB for it.
For now, it's just this.
OFB to export cartridge bullets for US civilian market
"The OFB has received an export order to supply 5.56*45 mm NATO MI93 Ball ammunition to USA. The ammunition will be manufactured by Ordnance Factory Varasgaon and will be supplied in the current financial year," the OFB said in a tweet.indianexpress.com
But the problem is not that. The OFB paltan's main goal is to skim money off the top by skimping on quality for MoD orders. So even if they match American standards for the American market, they are unlikely to offer the same standards to the IA because of corruption.
I suppose the prices will come down after the first 120,000 rifles are made. From 80,001 onwards, 100% of the rifle will be made in India.
OFB's profit margin is unclear at this time. And I'm sure the Russians will sell the same rifle at a cheaper rate in the US, since they don't have to add the additional royalty price to it, even after disregarding their superior efficiency.
Eastern European yes , Russian no. During Obama there was a blanket ban on the import of all civilian firearms and ammo from Russia.
Does the ban extend to Russian overseas companies as well, includiong subsidiaries? If so, then the AK-203 will suffer the same fate.
There are ways to get around such as incorporating a US company like Kalashnikov USA.
Kalashnikov USA, headquartered in Pompano Beach, Florida, is a subsidiary of RWC Group (Russian Weapons Company) LLC.[5][6] Kalashnikov USA has no ownership connection to Kalashnikov Concern. Wiki
The P72 is unproven, to say the least. They have the aesthetics in the bag, but we haven't seen it in the range at all. AK-203 (-103M) is a joke/scam. It is the same as a vanilla AKM with a few rails here and there. And a fairly rudimentary flash hider.
SSS claims to have ditched the P-72 design and are working on a, well, AK.
Honestly, their only finished product right now is their .338 sniper. The rest are publicity stunts.
Dunno if OFB and Kalashnikov will do that for the AK-203. Let's see what happens in a few years.
Anil Ambani’s Reliance firm still not ready to showcase LMG for Army, trials delayed again
New Delhi: The much-awaited Army trials for nearly 41,000 light machine guns (LMGs), under the Make in India initiative, has been delayed again as Reliance Armament of Anil Ambani has sought more time to showcase its weapon, ThePrint has learnt.
While trials for the 7.62X51 mm belt-fed LMGs were to begin from 22 February, they have now been postponed to April due to Reliance Armament. The new LMGs are to replace the 5.56x45mm INSAS LMG, which is a derivative of the INSAS assault rifle.
Sources in the defence and security establishment said this is not the first time that Reliance has sought an extension. Sources said Reliance Armament wrote to the Army in February seeking more time to showcase the weapon, which the company says is an indigenous one.
A questionnaire sent to Reliance Defence remained unanswered at the time of filing this report.
The Anil Ambani group is one of the contenders for the project along with Bharat Forge of the Kalyani Group, Adani Group’s PLR systems and the state-run Ordnance Factory Board (OFB).
The Bengaluru-based SSS Defence, which was one of the original contenders, is understood to have pulled out of the trials as it wants to focus on sniper and the carbines contract.
Reliance also tight-lipped about partner
While Reliance has been tight-lipped about who it has tied up with for the contract, it is learnt that a South Korean firm could be in the picture.Reliance is also said to be working on multiple vendor options, including American and European manufacturers.
Reliance Infrastructure’s annual report for 2019-20 stated that the group has established multiple companies such as Reliance Armaments Ltd, Reliance Ammunition Ltd and Reliance SED to cater to the specific requirements of small arms, ammunition and defence electronics.
It had also said that Reliance Armament has received RFPs (Requests for Proposal) for LMGs, sniper rifles and other small programmes with the Ministry of Home Affairs valued at over Rs 6,000 crore over many years.
Of the other contenders for the LMG project, Bharat Forge has tied up with Bulgarian firm Arsenal, while the OFB has come out with an indigenous product.
Adani Group’s PLR systems is a joint venture with the Israel Weapons Industry (IWI) and they are fielding the Negev NG-7.
The IWI already has a fast-tracked procurement contract from the Army for about 16,000 of these Negev NG-7 and the first tranche has already reached soldiers in the Northern Command.
The Army contract, however, is directly with IWI and not with the Indian joint venture, which now manufactures various Israeli weapons at its Gwalior plant.
Final contract will take time
Even if the trial does take place on time, sources said that a final contract will be delayed. This is because the RFP allows any Indian company to present a product for trials.If the weapon is selected, the Indian company will be given 18 months for Transfer of Technology (ToT) from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) and for the setting up of a production plant in India.
Once the plant is set up, the company will manufacture 10 serial production LMGs, which will be tested by the Army again to see if it fits the bill as the original.
It is not clear if the second round of trial planned will be as stringent as the first, which itself is yet to start.
Industry sources told ThePrint that the frontrunner for the LMG contract is PLR systems because its parent IWI already has a contract with the Army and the firm has a running production plant in Gwalior, which has started supplying various small arms to central armed police forces and the state police.
Drop the conman. He’s already broke
This proves that those fleshy models shown by SSS in DefExpo were nothing but just bait.
Who could they have teamed up with anyway. The ones that are left are FN with mk48 and h&k with mg5. The rest only have 5.56 lmg's. And we know both of them aren't going to be sold to us..
They abandoned the p-72 and are now looking to make an AR-15 pattern rifle, which is not a bad idea but they should stick to DI as it will require less r&d.
Them pulling out of the LMG contract is very disappointing, i hope SSS doesnt turn out to be a failure.
That means they never had anything to show except for a dummy rifle.
And thy are trying again to sell another lemonchooze
Well considering you can find all the ar15 blueprints very easily online and all the materials used are known, it souldnt be all that hard to produce one.
Very small companies in america are producing ar15 from scratch.
I’m more concerned about their work ethics.
Making AR 15 replicas may not be that hard for real enthusiasts and professionals but if a company is trying to cheat at the start, I’m not so sure about their future.
They should make quality arms like what cheytacc does instead of competing with bigger players..