Leaving aside the jingoism IOF leaves lot to be desired for guns, pistols and ammo they manufacture cannot comment on Tanks and big guns. On a recent trip to India had an interesting conversation with an Indian Army Infantry Lt. Col. His choice of guns kind of explains the downward graph of IOF gun quality, his first choice of weapon is the AK 47 variant ( gun and ammo both imported and are reliable), followed by 7.62mm FAL ( phased out now) and then INSAS 5.56 gun. When asked about side weapon a pistol, his take was even though copy of Browning is decent ( few were sold in US and remark on it workmanship was “machined by drunken monkey”) the quality of 9mm ammo is horrendous. Because of which most of the Indian officers don’t think pistols are reliable neither are they trained as much on firing pistols. I had a similar experience when firing a Glock issued to a Police officer, my every second bullet misfired and this was a fresh lot of ammo and its considered normal!

A US Marine who participated in Joint exercises with Indian army in Goa also echoed the same remarks about the INSAS as the officer above, starting with the ridiculous plastic magazine and the plastic toy feels it gives. Col’s opinion was that on a range every gun would shoot about the same its in the field that INSAS fails the muster. India has already picked up Travor the Israeli rifle ( jury is out on this gun) for the special units then again one reads about SIG assault rifles being bought for National Security Guard units!

There is another reason why the quality of guns is deteriorating, earlier officers were not paper tigers but were war veterans and back then most of the officials and also public knew their guns quite well. Unlike the current set of players where officers have much less leverage, its absurd that India would purchase the best arty, tanks and jets out there yet couldn’t even procure or guarantee decent rifles and kits for grunts or jawans the back bone of the forces.

The quality of earlier guns manufactured was remarkably decent, I remember a gent from Montana who had made a scout gun from an Ishapore 7.62 Lee rifle and was quite content. I cannot locate the article but during earlier Afghan war some dealers bought huge quantity of Ishapore 7.62 Lee rifles and ammo the embarrassingly for India the shipment was then routed to Afghans for use against the Soviets.

All said and done its high time India privatizes their defense industry starting with the guns. The malaise is due to the monopoly IOF enjoys and the draconian anti gun laws. No wonder one of our gun nut friend recommends tractor wheel bench rest testing for IOF .315 rifle. This entails tying the gun to a tractor wheel and then pulling the trigger with a string!

Best