The Author is Former Director General of Information Systems and A Special Forces Veteran, Indian Army

As per recent reports, India and Russia have signed a deal on August 19, 2021 for immediate off-the-shelf procurement of 70,000 x AK-203 series of assault rifles. The foundation stone for indigenous production of the AK-203 assault rifles was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Amethi on March 3, 2019 in presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin amidst much fanfare. The joint venture is between the Ordnance Factory Boars (OFB) and Kalashnikov.

News reports covering the foundation stone laying ceremony read: AK–203 is latest derivative of the legendary AK-47 rifle. India has signed deal with Russian firm to manufacture 750,000 of these assault rifles which would be given to Army's infantry troops.

On June 4, last year, it was reported that the Amethi AK-203 factory is unlikely to start operations in 2020 and that the Indo-Russian plan to make assault rifles in Amethi has missed another key milestone over differences in pricing. Later when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited Russia in September 2020, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated that progress on the issue was “reviewed”.

The foundation stone for indigenous production of the AK-203 assault rifles was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Amethi on March 3, 2019 in presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The joint venture is between the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) and Kalashnikov.

Incidentally, since two years before the foundation stone for the AK-203 factory was laid by Prime Minister Modi, Kalashnikov was looking at joint production of the AK-203 in India in collaboration with Adani Defence. However, government did not permit that because of the controversy over the Rafale jet fighters deal and government wanted to give a boost to the OFB which had failed to produce even one state-of-the-art small arm over past 72 years. Had government permitted Kalashnikov to undertake joint production of AK-203 with a private Indian enterprise, we would have had lakhs of these weapons produced indigenously under ‘Make in India’ by now.

On June 24, 2021, media quoted Russian officials monitoring the inter-governmental agreement on joint production of AK-203 rifles production saying that all terms for manufacturing assault rifles at the Amethi factory have been settled and the ball is now in the Indian court to place orders and initiate the contract.

Finally, on August 21, media has quoted defence and security officials in saying that India is to import 70,000 AK-203 series assault rifles from Russia on immediate basis. The contract for these 70,000 was reportedly signed between the MoD and Russian representatives, in the presence of officials from Indo-Russia Rifles Pvt Ltd; a rifle-manufacturing firm that will lead the indigenous production of AKs in India. These rifles are expected to begin arriving in the country from November this year.

According to media, the procurement of these 70,000 rifles is being done through an emergency contract by one of the three services. The news report further states that emergency contract for off-the-shelf rifles could include “multiple variants” of the AK series since the basic difference is the accessories that are fitted to the rifle.

On June 24, 2021, media quoted Russian officials monitoring the inter-governmental agreement on joint production of AK-203 rifles production saying that all terms for manufacturing assault rifles at the Amethi factory have been settled and the ball is now in the Indian court to place orders and initiate the contract.

One wonders what has prompted these emergency imports at this juncture since the Chinese aggression in Eastern Ladakh was in May-June 2020 and production by the Amethi factory was in limbo. Surely it is not prompted by the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan! The irony is that the ‘Hindu Rate of Growth’ gets mentioned sometimes but the ‘Bureaucratic Rate of Movement’ is never addressed which cares two hoots about the operational requirements of the troops on ground.

According to sources in the defence and security establishment, while the initial plan was to directly import 20,000 of the 7.62×39mm AK-203 rifle and jointly manufacture 6.5 lakh of them in India, the delay in joint production meant that more of them had to be bought off the shelf, all because it took 28 months to settle the pricing from the time the foundation stone of the Amethi factory was laid on March 3, 2019 – some commendable feat!

Most significantly the conflict over pricing was because the OFB was quoting a higher price than the AK-203 rifles actually cost through import. What a shame this is but then the deep state was obviously supporting OFB because the OFB must extract its pound of flesh in addition to lining pockets of the deep state. This is the primary reason why OFB instead of privatising is to corporatise cosmetically while retaining the same work force and consequently the same work culture.

Now work is reportedly to begin the indigenous production of 6 lakh AK-203 rifles in India by the Indo-Russia Rifles Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between the OFB, the Kalashnikov Concern (manufacturer of the AK rifles) and Rosoboronexport — the Russian state agency for military exports. But the formal contract for the joint production is expected to be inked soon – though soon in bureaucratic parlance could be many months. As mentioned above, the Russian side had already said in June that the ball is in India’s court.

Under the proposed deal, the joint venture has to achieve 100 per cent localised sourcing of materials for the rifle within one-and-half years of beginning the production line

Under the proposed deal, the joint venture has to achieve 100 per cent localised sourcing of materials for the rifle within one-and-half years of beginning the production line. Wonder if there will be roadblocks in achieving this target in the stipulated three and a half years as well.

The AK-203 rifles are to replace the 5.56×45mm INSAS rifles that currently in use with the Army, Navy and the Air Force besides other security forces and will become the mainstay of the Armed Forces for many years. The Indian Army also uses the American SIG716 rifles, which are chambered for the 7.62×51 mm round and were procured by the Army under a fast-tracked process. The frontline infantry soldiers will be equipped with the SIG while the rest will use the AK-203. But recent news reports reveal that these 70,000 assault rifles of the AK-203 being imported are all for the Indian Air Force (IAF), which possibly is to cater for a heightened terrorist threat.