An Indian Army soldier standing guard at the India Gate in New Delhi with a SIG 716 assault rifle. (India Sentinels file photo.)
New Delhi: India has finalized a deal with the United States to procure an additional 73,000 SIG Sauer’s SIG 716 assault rifles for its armed forces. The deal, reportedly worth ₹800 crore (approximately $100 million), marks the second time India has chosen the SIG 716 rifles to expand its upgradation of the Indian Army’s infantry rifle.
This latest order brings the total number of SIG716 rifles to be supplied to the Indian Army to 145,400. The first batch of 72,400 rifles were procured in 2019. Out of those, the Army’s frontline troops, deployed at the line of control (LoC) with Pakistan and line of actual control (LAC) with China, received 66,400 rifles while the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy received 4000 and 2,000 rifles respectively.
At present, the Army, Navy, and the Air Force need a total of 810,000 combat rifles. Out of these, the Army alone needs 760,000 units.
As India Sentinels had reported, the defence ministry’s Defence Acquisition Council cleared the purchase of the second batch of 73,000 SIG 716 riles twice earlier – in September 2000 and again in December 2013. However, the finalization of procurement got delayed due to a range of reasons. The announcement of the deal has finally come just as the defence minister, Rajnath Singh, was concluding his four-day US visit.
The SIG 716 rifles, produced by the US arms manufacturer SIG Sauer, are known for their reliability, accuracy, and versatility. They use a 7.62 x 51mm-calibre gun with an effective kill range of 500 metres. This gun is superior to the indigenously made Insas (Indian Small Arms System) rifle, which is of 5.56 x 51mm calibre with an effective kill range of 300 metres, and the AK-47, which is of 7.62 x 39mm calibre with an effective kill range of 300 metres.
In a statement, Ron Cohen, president and CEO of SIG Sauer, said: “We are proud to be a partner in the modernization effort of the Indian Army, and prouder still that the SIG 716 rifle achieves the Ministry of Defence’s modernization goals with the second-largest army in the world.”
“Since the initial fielding of the SIG 716, we have received phenomenal end-user feedback on the performance and reliability of the platform. Throughout this time, we have strengthened and further solidified our partnership with the Indian Ministry of Defence and are honoured to earn their continued trust equipping their frontline infantrymen,” Cohen added.
Apart from the SIG 716 rifles, the Army is also in the process of acquiring a total of 670,000 lakh AK-203 rifles – an advanced variant of the AK-47. Of this, 70,000 units have already been procured from Russia in January 2022.
The remaining 600,000 rifles are being manufactured locally under a transfer-of-technology agreement at Korwa, Uttar Pradesh. As part of this local production, Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited, an India-Russia joint-venture company registered and based in India, delivered 35,000 Kalashnikov AK-203 assault rifles to the Army in July this year.
The mass-production of the AK-203 locally is critical as the rifle is also a part of the Army “Future Infantry Soldier as System” or “F-InSaS/F-INSAS” programme.
