Infantry to get foreign rifles, others to get 'made in India'

Army chief says frontline foot soldiers, who are directly in contact with the enemy, will get state-of-the-art assault rifles

The army’s highest levels have arrived at a vital decision that could open the doors to buying new rifles for the entire army, while remaining within a strained procurement budget. The decision is to equip infantry soldiers with a world-class assault rifle, while non-infantry soldiers would get a cheaper, less effective, indigenous rifle.

Earlier, the army had planned to procure some 800,000 state-of-the-art assault rifles from the global market, each costing about Rs 200,000. That would have cost about Rs 16,000 crore — significantly more than what the army can afford.

Now, army chief General Bipin Rawat has decided to