Later this year, the Indian army will get its second shipment of rifles from a joint venture by India and Russia based in an Uttar Pradesh facility.
Major General Sudhir Kumar Sharma, the managing director of Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL), said Russian media that the company plans to boost its daily output from 300 to 600 rifles by April 2026 in order to fulfill its obligation to supply 20,000 to the armed services.
December 2023 saw the delivery of the first batch of 35,000 AK-203 rifles from IRRPL to the Indian Army.
Since the production line was established in the town of Amethi, the weapons have completed a number of quality testing, including shooting checks that were overseen by Russian experts prior to the delivery of the first AK-203 rifles, according to Sharma. He also described the process by which India acquired the weapons’ technology from Russia.
“We have decided that the entire process of technology transfer and manufacturing in India will be done in five stages, depending on the percentage of technology being transferred,” Sharma explained.
“We barely have five percent of the components made in India for stage one. At stage two, fifteen percent of the rifle’s components, thirty percent at stage three, seventy percent at stage four, and all fifty percent at stage five will be manufactured in India. Within two years of the manufacturing beginning, all five stages must be finished,” he continued.
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According to Sharma, the percentage of locally made parts in the first 35,000 rifles made in Amethi was 5%, but that number will rise to 15% in the next 20,000.
“We are currently in the process of preparing the next 20,000 rifles with Indian components at the second stage level,” he said.
“We intend to deliver them to the Indian Army by December 2024.”
By the end of the next year, the IRRPL chief expressed confidence that all of the weapons would be built in India.
“By December 2025, I hope to have 100% localization completed. India is already utilizing these technologies now,” Sharma said.
“We received the final set of technical papers from Russia last month. It takes time to become proficient with technologies.”
