The INSAS 5.56mm Rifle- A Technical Treatise

[Shaundassey]

An awesome post with pics that ease the assimilation of data . . .

Sad facts :

-in 1980 the army decided to go in for 5.56 assault rifles with steel core ammo
-choice was between steyr aug and HK G11
-Steyr Aug was reported as the best cos of modular design, scope sights, 850 rounds/mnt, bullpup design and so on
- Army PQR's disqualified it as it didnt fit certain "prerequisites" like " it should be capable of being swung from the barrel when outta ammo
- So now we have a SLR lookalike, part FN FAL, part kalaniskov, part HK and part i dont really know what else . . .

I have met two categories of army officers wrt the INSAS . those who openly despise it and those that say " we will do the best with what we have been given " . . never met one who swears by it . . . that speaks volumes about this weapon . .

thanx again for the post . . .
cheers

[goodboy_mentor]

Following can give an idea of "reliability" of INSAS-
Nepal army blames failure on India-made guns:
http://archive.deccanherald.com/Deccanh ... 005812.asp
Army wants INSAS rifles replaced urgently:
http://www.zeenews.com/news629091.html

[cottage cheese]

CC

WOW Knew that Oman has had very close relations with India and also the defense forces interact a lot but this is surprising unless Indians just donated some...now IOF can claim another Customer and beat the chest ..the darn show goes on...

Wierd....since Oman has been using stuff like the AUG for a while. Stinks of backdoor leverage....much like when the Margaret Thatcher government arm twisted us into buying sub-standard Westland WG30 helicopters....which we apparently didn't need....

[eljefe]

I think until the 60's the INDIAN rupee was the official currency of Oman.Thats where Dhirubahi cut his teeth,learning the trade
Arent both are about the same class? the AUG and the INSAS...

[jonahpach]

Akshully, despite its obvious poor quality fit and finish, I believe it could outperform the M-16A1 or the M4 carbine in terms of reliability and performance in desert conditions as it theoretically has the more reliable gas-piston action as compared to the more unforgiving gas impingement system used on the M-16 and the M4. But an oil rich country could definitely afford the Much acclaimed HK-416 system which uses the same M-16 platform with a gas-piston system. Er.. is Oman a friendly country??

Jonah

[Sakobav]

Eljefe

Dhirubhai was in Eden / Yemen..imagine that now...may be the Sheikhdom is having issues because monies spend on maintaining the expensive Yachts and they probably bought those CDOs derivatives..Hence wont be surprised if they are having the same issues as Dubai.

Jonah

Oman is very friendly towards India. OT Gawadar area in Balochistan now a big Pakistani port was their Colony as late as 1950s. The family also ruled Zanzibar and one of their Sheikhs actually was exiled and died in Bombay.

cc
You are right other than India Oman is only other nation that bought Jaguar planes.
Best

[Raj Malhotra]

Re Cottage Cheese

Very nice article. Incidentally I think that OFB is settng up a new Small arms factory at Korwa, UP. One hopes that the qualtiy of production is better there.

[mundaire]

There was a time when Indians were considered masters in weapon creation. I guess we lost that gene pool.

Nope, the gene pool is very much intact - but the government policies don't allow for private production! Make a monopoly out of anything and the prices go up, quality goes down and innovation ceases... make it a GOVERNMENT OWNED MONOPOLY and you exacerbate the problem of monopoly a million times over!!!

[dev]

Tellya one thing though the INSAAS shoots pretty okay and I quite liked it in the limited exposure that I had. Don't like the charging handle but the army trains the guys to rap it back smartly with the left hand and you are good to go. I haven't shot it in the burst mode but in semi-auto it was eerily reliable and behaved like it was supposed to.

[xl_target]

Thanks for the informative article, CC.

If you ask me babudom has killed modern India. I often feel when the Brits left they wanted to leave something that would again take India back by 200 years. So they left the babus.

I find it hard to blame the British for today's Babudom. They left India with a functional Transportation system that worked, Schools, Universities, Road, Hospitals, etc. giving India a head start over many newly independent colonies.
While they did leave an established bureaucracy, for the most part it worked. Now very little seems to work like it is supposed to as the chief job of the Babus seems to be to torment the citizens that they are supposed to help.

63 years after independance, we can blame no one but ourselves and each successive government that we have elected.
Why, we are still blaming them for the arms act that our own elected governments have made more and more restrictive.

[m24]

63 years after independance, we can blame no one but ourselves and each successive government that we have elected.
Why, we are still blaming them for the arms act that our own elected governments have made more and more restrictive.

[nagarifle]

let me quote one ex prime minster Rao in the early 90s, i think who said this.

"the British invented the rad tape but the Indian perfected"

[roy]

Thanks for the most informative article on a rifle which I knew very little about. Here in the USA we are able to see a great variety of arms but this one is not found here. It appears to be a fairly well thought rifle (except for that carrying handle!?!?) which suffers from poor manufacture. Synthetic materials for handguards and magazines can do quite well as the Steyr AUG and various other arms demonstrate but some are certainly much better than others...... I do hope that the standard of manufacture improves. This is not of immediate concern to me sitting in the US far from most enemies with access to the FAL, AK, AR, AUG, CETME, M-14/M1A, etc. I do not envy the Indian fighting man who has no such choices but must defend his country and put his life on the line behind this rifle as currently made....

[m24]

A mention at the The Firearm Blog. I am sure other blogs would be picking this up.

Regards

[Ravindrane]

Hi CC very enlightening article on INSAS, a very ISI !