IN SEARCH OF A GOOD RIFLE

It is an interesting conundrum: how is it that India, with some of the most capable rocketry and ballistic missile programmes in the world, does not have an indigenously designed, world-class assault rifle-the infantryman's basic weapon.

The answer is a mix of factors-persistent flaws in indigenous designs, dithering of the Indian Army over the exact type of weapon it wants and unrealistic demands from weapons manufacturers.

India is the world's largest user of small arms (under which assault rifles are categorised), with approximately two million rifles currently in use. The Indian military and paramilitary forces use a variety of assault rifles, such as the INSAS (Indian Small Arms System, the standard issue personal weapon of the Indian soldier), AK-47, M4A1 Carbine, T91 assault rifle, SIG Sauer 716, and Tavor. INSAS forms the major chunk of India's small arms inventory, with close to one million rifles in use. The armed forces use 810,000 assault rifles for the three services, out of which the army alone uses 760,000 rifles.

Assault rifles, designed for military use, can function both as a semi-automatic weapon (which fires a single bullet with each pull of the trigger) and a fully-automatic one (that fires continuously until the trigger is released). In a major advancement from older, boltaction rifles, semi- and fully-automatic rifles allow for a higher rate of fire by using the energy of each fired bullet to eject the spent cartridge and load a new one.