"New" 7.62x51 made in India assault rifle?

[Vikram]

From the article: Emphasis is mine.

The ARDE officials and members of the firm worked hard to develop the weapon in 100 days."It was a commendable achievement. We could do it because our design was already ready," added the director.

I am unable to wrap my head around this. What does this even mean? This rifle was developed in 100 days? How does that work?


Tim,

Thank you so much for taking time to shed much light on this subject and give us several larger contextual perspective on this subject. Much appreciated.

[timmy]

Partheus: Yes, the high pressure + bimetallic cartridge direction opens up a whole new aveue for development. It will be exciting to watch. Hopefully, we regular folks will get to participate a little, oo.

Vikram, thanks for your words!

el jefe: yes, the announcement is no different from commercial gun announcements -- long on blather, short on substance. Your speculation of an AK-like weapon seem as good as any at this point. I can't tell whether they are using a sheet metal receiver like AKs use, or whether it is something else, like a milled aluminum forging. Also, I wonder whether they stuck with the AK's long action or went with the more prevalent (today) short system.

I also wonder how this rifle fits in with the choice to buy two purchases (1.5 lakhs overall) of Sig 716 G2s -- same cartridge, yes, but a very different rifle, it would seem?

Ot is almost as if the world is on the cusp of entering a new small arms era. I once read that the Russians were making AKs for ₹4000 and were selling them to Saddam Hussein for ₹38,000 a pop, back when Iraq was under arms sanctions. Now it seems as if militaries are willing to pay ₹1.25 lakh and up for service weapons. Even handguns, certainly not a vital battlefield tool, are half of that.

No nation can afford to equip a large army fully with new weapons at such high prices, and it would seem that all are stuck with retaining older AK/AR weapons for large parts of the forces.

I wonder what has become of the AK203 project, and where plans for this sit now?

I also wonder about China and Pakistan: it would seem as if Pakistan would need to wheedle new weapons from China for any large scale deployment of new weapons, just like their pending acquisition of new Chinese J31 5th Generation fighters. I also wonder, considering all of China's various initiatives around the world, and also considering their economic outlook, where they would find the money to reequip their huge army with new small arms.

Hopefully, someone is thinking about this, and not about other, more personal issues, as has been suggested.

[eljefe]

From the article: Emphasis is mine.

The ARDE officials and members of the firm worked hard to develop the weapon in 100 days."It was a commendable achievement. We could do it because our design was already ready," added the director.

I am unable to wrap my head around this. What does this even mean? This rifle was developed in 100 days? How does that work?

Going by the pic , it’s. A sort of a Galil in 7.62x52?
The AK -308 was designed for export - in 2018

AK action has been around for 70 years.

All they had to do was enlarge the parts to required specs and the horse and pony show.
Next- an uninformed NDTV journalist whose claim to specialisation is :
“walk us through this…”
And Bob’s the rich uncle

[timmy]

The Galil is a long operating AK system, but I believe the production versions had forged receivers

But sometimes looks can be tricky. The SVD (Dragunov) looks like a big AK, but it has a short operating system, three locking lugs (rather than two), and a different trigger group.

Of course, given that the development time was so short, one might suspect that more, rather than less, copying might have been done.

But again, recall that the SVD was made for 7.62 x 54r, whereas the AK is made for 7.62 x 39, which operates at a lower pressure. 7.62 x 51 is a higher pressure round than even 7.62 x 54r, so some considerations over and above simply scaling up would be necessary.

Regarding the media/newspapers, I'm reminded of a newspaper article a coworker had pinned up by his desk a few years ago. As if the author had untangled a great conspiracy, it proudly announced that the Chinese were hiding submarines under water, of all places! Who could have guessed?