Showing posts with label Assault Rifle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Assault Rifle. Show all posts

Indian Navy's Elite Marine Commandos Armed With Israeli TAR-21 Tavor Assault Rifles

The Indian Navy's elite marine commandos will this month be armed with Israeli assault and rifles that will enhance their operational capability as a force trained for special operations. A consignment of over 500 TAR-21 Tavor assault rifles and another 30 Galil sniper rifles worth over Rs.15 crore ($3.3 million) and Rs.2 crore respectively was delivered to the MARCOS (marine commandos) in December 2010, a defence ministry official told reporters. 

A team from the Israeli Military Industries (IMI), the manufacturer of the specialist weapons, will be in India to carry out joint inspection of the consignment's post-delivery quality to ensure the weapons are in fighting-fit condition. "The lot of over 500 Tavor and 30 Galil rifles has arrived and the Israeli team will be here to jointly inspect the delivered weapons and for assembling them. The MARCOS will begin using these rifles and start training on them from this month," the official said. He did not wish to be identified because of ministry rules.

 


The defence ministry had placed the orders for the rifles for the MARCOS - their actual strength is classified - in 2008. The two weapons are already in use with the Indian Army's special forces and the Indian Air Force's Garud special forces units. The army's special forces got about 3,000 of the Tavors and another 1,000 of the Galils some time in 2004, for which they had placed orders in 2002.

The Tavor, a 5.56mm calibre weapon of NATO specifications, is a 21st century assault rifle from IMI. The MARCOS have been using the indigenous INSAS rifles and the Russian Kalashnikov variants. The Tavor would also be a standard weapon for the force from now. The Galil is a 7.62mm sniper weapon, again manufactured by IMI, popularly known as Galatz in the Israeli defence forces.

Indian Tiruchi Ordnance Factory Develops New Assault Rifle Like AK-47

The Tiruchi Ordnance Factory  has Designed and Developed an indigenous assault rifle matching the specifications of the AK47.

"When put into use by our armed forces and other security agencies, the rifle will be recognized as pride of India. It has been indigenously developed and has all the features of AK-47,'' said A K Prabhakar,  general manager, in an interaction with reporters on the sidelines of OFT Day celebrations. OFT, one among 41 such factories in the country, was established 45 years ago on the outskirts of the city.

To mark the contribution of the Tiruchi factory in developing the rifle, officials have decided to christen it "Trichy Assault Rifle,'' Prabhakar said. Field trials have been done for the 7.62mm caliber rifle with a range of 400 metres. "The rifle has been successfully tried by the Indian Army,'' Prabhakar said. It features a foldable butt and boasts of night vision device besides telescopic day vision system. 



OFT has also developed a hand-held multi-shell launcher. The weapon of 38mm calibre with a range of 400 metres could fire six shells at a time. It could be used for firing grenades and tear gas shells.

Prabhakar said this was the first time that OFT was coming out with an "internal security weapon", or a riot control device in common parlance. "One batch of the device has been supplied to CRPF and many states have evinced interest in buying it for their police force,'' he said.

Heavy Alloy Penetrator Project (HAAP), another ordnance unit and the only one in the country to produce anti-tank projectiles, has also received overwhelming response for its indigenous anti-submarine rockets.

HAPP general manager B Pugazhendi said the Indian navy had placed bulk orders for the six-kilometre range anti-submarine rockets named RGB 60 developed by HAPP.

HAPP had dispatched 12 units of RGB 12, another version of the anti-submarine rockets, to the Navy last year. "With inhouse research and development efforts, HAPP has also developed 120mm caliber and 125mm calibre MK-II anti-tank projectiles,'' Pugazhendi said.

HAPP has chalked out a modernization plan for enhancing the production of MK-II projectiles. "Very soon, the blueprint for modernization will be submitted to the ordnance factory board that will in turn forward it to defence ministry for clearance,'' he said.

Venezuela plans manufactoring AK-103 assault rifle localy




President Hugo Chavez's plans to build the first Kalashnikov factory in South America are stirring fears Venezuela could start arming his leftist allies in the hemisphere with Russian assault rifles. Chavez denies such ambitions, saying his government bought 100,000 Russian-made AK-103 assault rifles and a license from Moscow to make Kalashnikovs and ammunition to bolster its defenses against "the most powerful empire in history" _ the United States.
Some political opponents and critics suspect Chavez, a former paratrooper, has other intentions, such as providing allies such as Bolivia with arms while forging an anti-Washington military alliance.
"Our president has always had a warlike mentality, but now it appears this mentality is turning into a mission that could easily extend to other parts of Latin America," said William Ojeda, a presidential candidate who hopes to run against Chavez in the December election.
Chavez has said "Venezuelan blood would run" if the United States tried to invade Cuba or Bolivia, though he has not said his government would provide them with weapons.
The Bush administration also is concerned about Chavez's intentions.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Friday that Venezuela appeared to be in the midst of an "outsized military buildup for a country of that size and the nature of the threats" in the region.
"They've already purchased 100,000 AK-103 assault rifles from Russia. So I'm not quite sure what else they might need a factory for," McCormack said. "It certainly raises serious questions about what their intentions are."
The first 30,000 of those rifles have arrived in Venezuela, with the rest due by year's end.
"If the president says he'll send Venezuelans to defend other Latin American nations, nobody should doubt that he's willing to send them weapons as part of his anti-imperialist vision," Ojeda said.
Ojeda pointed out that Bolivia's new socialist president, Evo Morales, referred to Chavez as his "commander" during a recent ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the birth of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the revolutionary who was captured and executed in Bolivia 39 years ago.
Chavez has provided a helicopter and pilots to Morales to ferry him around in the weeks ahead of a July vote for a constituent assembly that will rewrite the Bolivian constitution