Interesting Facts about Weapons of Indian Army
Indian Army at present uses mixture of foreign procured as well as indigenous weapons mainly for the needs of small arms and hand guns. Most of the indigenous weapons are developed by ARDE (Armament Research and Development Establishment) which is sister concern of DRDO and produced by Indian Ordnance Factories. India is still much reliant on foreign countries for weapons, arms and ammunition. India is also the biggest arms exporter of the world although initiatives are being taken through Make in India process for focussing the development and production of arms and ammunition inside India only.
INSAS Assault Rifle 1B1, 1B2
This is the standard rifle of Indian small arms system which uses gas operated system to eject the blank cartridges and load the fresh one. It utilizes 5.56×45 mm NATO ammunition. It is equipped with telescopic day view or passive night sight mounting, a bayonet (knife mounted in front). ARDE 40 mm Grande launcher can also be mounted on this assault rifle. The standard version of this assault rifle comes in black furniture and this has a range of 400 meter. The magazine of this assault rifle has 20 rounds capacity. 1B1 is the straight fixed butt while 1B2 model is the folding butt type. It has capacity of single round fire or three round burst fire. This rifle is manufactured at Ordnance factory Tiruchirappalli. These assault rifles are soon scheduled to be replaced by Excalibur rifles.
INSAS LMG (Light Machine Gun)
The only difference between INSAS assault rifle and LMG is that the LMG has a range of 700 meter as compared to 400-meter range of standard rifle. The LMG version is equipped with long and heavier barrel as compared to the standard assault rifle. It comes with mounting bipod to take-on the long rage targets easily. The magazine of LMG has 30 rounds capacity. This LMG comes in two versions – fixed but or folding butt.
Excalibur Assault Rifle
Excalibur is the modified version of its predecessor INSAS assault rifle and utilizes similar ammunition of 5.56×45 mm NATO standard. Presently the Excalibur rifle is in development stage/ trials and is expected to be inducted in Indian Army by end of year 2016. The mass productions of the Excalibur is expected to be complete by 2018. The modifications in the Excalibur as compared to standard INSAS assault rifle are – automatic firing, reduced barrel length by 4 mm, folding butt, universal mount for fitting any type visual aids and sensors. The prototypes of the Excalibur rifle developed at RFI (Rifle Factory Ishapore) was taken trial by Indian Army last in 2014-15 and found most of the tests were successful such as only 2 stoppages (cartridge stuck) after 24000 rounds of fires which was quite close to Indian Army expectations of only one stoppage.
Multi Caliber Assault Rifle (MCIWS)
This multi caliber rifle is also called as Multi Caliber Individual Weapon System (MCIWS). MCIWS multi caliber rifle was designed by ARDE, Pune to keep in mind the fact that a single weapon should be used for different type of targets. Multi Caliber rifles gives the flexibility of using various different ammunition like 5.56 mm, 6.8 mm and 7.62 mm just by changing the barrel. Barrels are of different sizes and length designed for target ranges such as 5.56 mm ammo for target of 400 meter and 7.62 mm ammo for target range of 300 meter. This multi-Caliber rifle gives the liberty to a soldier to configure its rifle by changing the barrel and magazine just according to the requirements of the mission. MCIWS is also equipped with Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) to launch air bursting 40 mm grenades. It utilizes 30 round plastic magazines. The picatinny rail mounting ensures a number of universal mountings like day vision cameras and thermal imaging night vision aids. MCIWS is presently under development stage and the trials are expected to complete in 2016 end.
Amogh Carbine
This carbine is quite light weight (2.95 Kg) and is meant for close combat quarter combat (CQC) missions. It uses 5.56×30 mm ammunition exclusively developed for carbines. The main design features are ergonomics, ease to carry and use and portability. It is equipped with ambidextrous lever controls which means both hands can be used to operate the lever. The bore of the barrel is chromium plated for long endurance. Length of barrel is 330 mm and total length with extended butt is 800 mm. Amogh carbine uses 30 rounds box type magazine. It is effective for close target ranges of about 200 meters.
Modern Sub Machine Carbine
This Carbine is basically a sub-machine gun which was developed by ARDE for Indian Army. Sub-machine guns are basically those weapons which uses pistol type magazines and can be fired by single hand. Sub-machine guns hence are also called as machine pistols. It is comparatively lighter than other rifles designed by ARDE and it weight is 2.98 Kg. It uses 5.56×30 mm MINSAS cartridges. The barrel length of this carbine is 300 mm and the effective range for which it could be used is about 300 meters. MSMC utilizes 30 rounds grip inserted box type magazines. This carbine is also under trials and the development phase is soon expected to be complete in 2016 end.
Vidhwansak Anti Material Rifle (AMR)
This is basically anti material rifle which is meant for destroying huge targets like enemy bunkers, tanks, tankers, armored vehicles etc. Vidhwansak is equipped with multi caliber system and also be used as large caliber sniper rifles. 3 different ammunition calibers can be used by changing the barrels – 14.5×114 mm, 12.7×108 mm, 20×82 mm. The weight of this Anti material rifle is 25 Kg and hence it is a 2-crew type weapon which means 2 persons are required to operate and dismantle/carry it. Its effective firing range is about 1800 meter and maximum range is 2300 meter. It is manufactured by Ordnance Factory Tiruchirappalli and is already inducted in Indian Army.
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