Indian Army issues global tender for new assault rifles

New Delhi, Nov 30 (PTI) Indian Army has issued a global tender for arming its more than one million soldiers with a new assault rifle, which will replace the existing indigenous INSAS gun in its inventory. In the first lot, the Army will procure 65,000 rifles and has sought complete transfer of technology from the vendors so that the guns can be produced under licence at Indian facilities. "The global Request for Proposal (RFP) to procure new assault rifle was issued recently to multiple global vendors," Army officials said here. As per the RFP, the vendors are required to submit their response by the end of February next year for supplying the 5.56 mm rifles. The Army wants the rifles to be equipped with under barrel grenade launchers and capable of firing indigenously-produced ammunition. The Army had first expressed its intention to replace the INSAS series rifles with modern assault rifles in its technology capability roadmap prepared last year. The INSAS rifles, designed by the country's Deference Research and Development Organisation, were inducted into the armed forces in the 90s and have been used in the 1999 Kargil war with Pakistan as well as counter-insurgency operations within the country. PTI