India on track to become the main producer of the AK-203 assault rifle

During the Cold War, India was a major military customer of the Soviet Union. This remained the case even after the communist state collapsed in 1991, when New Delhi bought tanks, planes and even an aircraft carrier from Russia.

India is moving away from developing its own aircraft and armoured vehicles. The country has also launched its first domestically produced aircraft carrier.

But the Indian military continues to hold on to the Kalashnikov assault rifle.

India was a buyer of the AK-203 and now manufactures the weapon under license. Production will be fully localized by the end of next year. The first models assembled and produced in India were made available to troops in June 2023, but they consisted of only 5 percent components from India, with the remaining parts manufactured in Russia.

“The production in India will be done in 5 phases. That is, Phase 1 to Phase 5 based on the percentage of indigenous content,” Major General Sudhir Kumar Sharma, managing director of Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL), a Russian-Indian joint venture, told TASS this month. “I am targeting December 2025 to complete 100 percent indigenization in this country.”

The Indian Ministry of Defence signed a contract with IRRPL to manufacture the rifles in 2021. The company produces legacy small arms now in service with the Indian military – most notably the INSAS battle rifle. The AK-203 is now used by all branches of the armed forces, with the majority going to Indian army units.

“Almost 95% of our orders come from the Indian Army, 5% from the Air Force and Navy. So we may supply AK rifles to the Air Force and Navy next,” the Indian military commander added.

Sharma said 35,000 of these rifles have reached the troops and have been praised by soldiers for their reliability and ergonomics. Another 20,000 are scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2024, with 15 percent of the components of this batch being manufactured in India. By 2026, production will reach 600 AK-203 rifles per day, by which time the Kalashnikovs will have largely replaced the small arms currently in service.

It may not be the only country that uses the Russian-made Kalashnikov assault rifle.

“Today, our rifles are so popular and the articles you have read in the media are so positive that I have already been contacted by 8-10 countries interested in buying the Indian-made AK-203 rifles. They are interested in us because Kalashnikov rifles are very famous,” Sharma added. “It is very clear in the intergovernmental agreement document that both India and Russia will decide to whom they will sell the rifle after it is made in India. So, if I want to sell something to someone, India and Russia, that is, our shareholders, will decide together – this country we can sell, this country we cannot sell. We will decide it together.”

The variant produced for India features a 415 mm barrel and a fixed, side-folding anatomical Magpul stock, but is otherwise similar in design to the version used by the Russian military. It is equipped with a reinforced shroud and has a Picatinny rail on the forend for mounting various optics. On the bottom of the forend there is a MIL-STD-1912 standard mount that allows for the mounting of bipods, foregrips or tactical lights or lasers. In addition, a 40 mm GP-34 underbarrel grenade launcher can be mounted on the AK-203.

The assault rifle weighs 3.8 kilograms when empty, has a rate of fire of 700 rounds per minute and an accuracy of 800 meters.

Author's experience and expertise: Peter Suciu

Peter Suciu is a writer from Michigan. He has contributed for more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites with over 3,200 published articles in his twenty-year career as a journalist. He writes regularly about military equipment, weapons history, cybersecurity, politics and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Author for Forbes and Clearance jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciuYou can send an email to the author: [email protected]

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