- The Indian government cleared a proposal to manufacture Kalashnikov automatic rifles to be built by Ordnance Factory Board(OFB) and Russian firm for the Indian Army.The plant for the same will be set up near Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.
- A Kalashnikov rifle is an automatic rifle based on the original design of Mikhail Kalashnikov.They were originally manufactured in the Soviet Union but these rifles and their variants are now manufactured in many other countries.
- The Indian Armed Forces are currently equipped with INSAS Rifle. There is an urgent requirement of replacing the in-service INSAS Rifle with an Assault Rifle which is compact, robust and modern in technology.
- It will be a joint venture under ‘Make in India’ program.The Russian share in the Joint venture as per the provisions of the Indian law is going to be 49.5% with the OFB share being the majority 50.5%.
- The assault rifles will be a game changer for the Indian Army due to evolving security threats from both China and Pakistan.
