According to a senior official of Kalashnikov, the Russian company that makes the assault rifles, production of the AK-203 assault rifles by the Indo-Russian joint venture in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh, is expected to start by year’s end and the manufacturing equipment needed for it will be delivered from Russia soon. The start of the production was initially planned for early this year.
The factory’s Indian employees will start receiving training soon, and in three years, 100% of the production process would be done in-house, according to an official who wished to remain unnamed. He said that past problems with the rifle ammo had been overcome.
The Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSMTC) of Russia’s Dmitry Shugaev confirmed this by stating that “work is under way to organise the production of the AK-203 assault rifles in India, with the expectation that serial production will begin in late 2022 or early 2023” on the sidelines of the Army-2022 expo.
Retrials were planned to be conducted with ammunition from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in Russia in the first half of February as part of pre-production preparations, but they were postponed by a few months due to the conflict in Ukraine. Officials claimed that this matter had been resolved and that an Indian ammunition producer had been found.
According to the contract, a Joint Venture called Indo-Russian Rifles Private Ltd (IRRPL) in Korwa, Amethi in the Uttar Pradesh state will produce more than 6.1 lakh AK-203 assault rifles at a cost of more than 5,000 crore. The former OFB [now Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWEIL) and Munitions India Limited (MIL)] of India, Rosoboronexport (RoE), and Concern Kalashnikov of Russia together established IRRPL.
Assault rifles will be put through factory and acceptance testing on a cutting-edge production line that has been created, along with a small arms range.
Director-General of Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheev has previously claimed that full-scale production of the guns is anticipated to begin within two to three years. According to the conditions of the contract, India would build the first 70,000 AK-203 rifles, with localization increasing gradually from 5% to 70%. The production of the remaining firearms will be entirely local.
