New Delhi: The Defense Ministry is in the final stages of approving a repeat order from the US for 73,000 SiG 716 G2 patrol assault or battlefield rifles to meet the needs of its frontline troops, ThePrint has learned.
Sources in the defense and security establishment told ThePrint that despite reports of alleged cancellation of the proposed Sig 716 order, the ‘repeat order’ procurement of 73,000 rifles by the Defense Ministry is “in the final stages of approval”.
In February 2019, 72,400 SiG 716 rifles – 66,400 for the Army, 4,000 for the Air Force and 2,000 for the Navy – of 7.62 x 51mm caliber were contracted to SIG Sauer Inc, USA under the Government ‘Buy (Global) Category’. Fast Track Process (FTP).
‘Buy (Global)’ category Refers For outright purchase of equipment from foreign vendors.
The consignment was transported and distributed to the soldiers.
In contrast to initial plans to only equip frontline troops, the Army then had over 400 infantry battalions equipped with SiG 716s, as opposed to the SiG 716. informed of east. All infantry battalions have at least two companies (about 100 soldiers each) given the Sig 716 – whether in the field or at peace stations.
The number of rifles distributed among battalions varied, with some being larger than others.
Defense sources said that keeping in view the performance of the weapon, and to ensure operational requirement, parity and related logistics functionality, the Defense Ministry is now in the process of clearing a repeat order of 73,000 SiG 716 assault rifles.
The latest order is to meet the requirement of the remaining frontline soldiers, who did not get these rifles last time.
Sources said the reason for the selection of this particular weapon is due to the revision of the operational philosophy of the Indian Army in 2016, wherein the 7.62 x 51 mm caliber was chosen as the 5.56 x 45 mm caliber, which is the optimum caliber for operations. Was.
As a result, the higher caliber (7.62 x 51 mm) SiG 716 assault rifle has a longer effective range, more lethality and higher recoil, compared to the INSAS rifle (5.56 x 51 mm caliber) or the AK-47, he added. rifle (7.62 x 39 mm), which are also used.
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Army is engaged in strengthening Sig Rifles
Sources said that since the induction of the SiG 716 rifle, the Army has been using ammunition manufactured by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) with the weapon and no deviation has been found in the performance of the weapon.
ThePrint has previously informed of That the military replaced Native American-made ammunition with locally manufactured and readily available 7.62 medium machine gun (MMG) ammunition because American bullets were too expensive in the long run.
While sources in the defense establishment have said that this does not affect the performance of the rifle, another group of sources on the ground said it led to higher recoil – an issue that could be dealt with with better production quality ammunition. could.
Sources said that the Sig 716 rifles will carry various equipment and accessories, such as optical sights, barrel grenade launcher (UBGL), forehand grip, bipod and laser pointer with Picatinny rails to facilitate mounting without any modification to the weapon. is fitted.
When asked why the accessories were not procured with the original rifle in 2019, sources said that these equipment and accessories, such as optical sights, are usually procured after the weapon is inducted.
Keeping in view the usefulness of Forehand Grip, Army procured it from indigenous source,
Explaining why SiG rifles are better than INSAS – in terms of range and lethality – sources said that the SiG 716 rifle also has an ‘automatic’ mode of firing (similar to the AK-47), as compared to three- INSAS Round Burst (TRB) mode of the rifle.
Sources said that to make better use of these features of the weapon, a certain number of bipods have been procured so that the weapon can be used in multiple roles and to increase its effective range to a greater distance.
“Therefore, after the induction of SiG 716 rifle in the inventory, the cases of procurement of image intensifiers for day binocular sight and night vision, thermal imaging and weapons have been processed from indigenous source,” the sources said. .
(Edited by Polomi Banerjee)
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