MilSpec
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Indias Indigenous weapons manufacturing
Small arms case:
Indian ordinance factory board has struggled to keep up with the need of the small arms systems both for the armed forces /civilian use in the country. When we look at other countries which do deliver the most sophisticated, they either have a very lucrative private small arms market driven by internal consumption like small arms systems like USA, Germany, or in conjunction have export oriented industries like Czech republic, Israel, china etc.
What has prevented India from developing successful small arms system is complicated question. Two of the major causes that come to mind is its discouragement towards civilian firearms inherited from the british raj, and its docile geo-political stance against exporting firearms.
Civilian arms: India never had any effective forest management like the dept of fish and game in United states of America, which would uses hunting as preservation method in animal habitat. It effectively uses the money obtained by sale of hunting and fishing tags for habitat management/conservation and severely punishes poaching/illegal hunting. Instead India adopted a zero hunting, zero habitat management/ ineffective conservation policy as a knee jerk reaction to British raj hunting days. This removed the justification for civilian firearms and effectively killed the local firearms industry. Next the Indian government in theory wants to portray the image of security of the masses as the responsibility of Indian law enforcement departments job, but with the ratio of police to population of about 1:1000, it is ridiculous to believe that security establishment is in anyway capable of providing the needed level of security. This has been very clear during naxal violence in last 30 odd years. Civilian small arms systems have quite often transitioned into the military domain into very successful firearms. The 7.62 x 51 Nato round is derived from the civilian 0.308 system, the .338 lapua system was originally designed to take large game long distance and turned into the most effective long range sniper rounds, it still is housed in a 0.416 casing which has been a traditional big game hunting round. Remington 700 bolt action system transitioned into the m24 sniper system. Thr Russian 7.62 x 54R was originally developed to hunt bears and other large sized game. Large number of variation is M16 platforms are attributed to popularity of the AR15 rifles and its custumisations done in the civilian versions, including the 7.62x39 variant, the 0.300 blackout. 6.5 grendel and 6.8 spc. Military modifications to M16/m4 platform and civilian modifications to ar15 have a symbiotic relationship. The civilian firearms has essentially fuelled the prowess of certain countries in developing the indigenous small arms market in nation that lead in the small arms market.
Export policy: Companies like Norinco, H&K, CZ, Colt and others depend on the export consumption for majority of their revenues. The even if the local consumption is low, these companies find a huge revenue in the foreign markets. The ever evolving need in different terrain drive ingenuity in their firearms system. Desert conditions needed H&K rifles led to Teflon and self lubricating bolts in their model, Low cost requirement led to skeleton AK variants from norinco, and higher case pressure requirements led to stronger alloys of cz75 and so on.
Entry into small arms market in India:
As the title of the OP suggests Shri Modi asking why there are no indigenous markets, there is not a good business case for private entrepreneur to enter the market.
The reasons:
No encouragement from army in developing firearms due to its import and associated benefits culture.
No Encouragement form state governments to develop firearms specific to its law enforcements need.
Export restrictive policy of GoI
Civilian restrictive firearms policy of India
Restrictive redtape for setting up firearms company in India.
I am a mechanical engineer and a firearms enthusiast, being from design and manufacturing background and having extensive shooting experience, I can tell you this that mechanically a firearm is as complicated as a stapler, and manufacturing a firearm doesnt need extremely complicated machineries either. It needs design and manufacturing experience, extensive testing, passion for firearms. The military and the law enforcement agencies and its consumption in India is more than enough to sustain a decent sized firearms manufacturer provided the policy and outlook of the bureaucracy changes.
Lets look at Indian Armed forces, Military/para/law enforcement
1,129,900 active Army personnel, 960,000 Reserve forces
58,350 Active Navy personnel, 55,000 Reserve forces
127,200 IAF active personnel 140,000 Reserve forces
Indian Coast Guard 9,550
1,300,586 Indian Paramilitary Forces 987,821 Reserve forces
That brings the active military strength at around 1315450, for a pessimistic projection say 1/2 of them are combatants in case of war that is around 6.5 lakh combatants, even we can project a weapons requirement to down to less than even half of that (3 lakhs) 2.5 lakh battle rifles and equal number of side arm like semi auto handgun, and around 20,000 squad support rifles, another 20,000 carbines (assume intermediate caliber) and say 10,000 precision marksman rifles.
Reserve forces have an approximate strength of around say 1155000, forget arming them completely, just to train them 1 rifle for 10 reservists, thats nearly 1.15lakh rifles, which can be broken down into 30,000 battle rifles, bolt rifles and .22 semi auto training rifles respectively.
ignoring the coast guard s, we still have around 13 lakh para mil forces, again say 1/4th of them can be need newer firearms which brings a projection of arming say 3 lakh units with semi auto handguns with the addition of a carbine/battle rifle of less 1/2 of them.
thats around 3 lakh semi auto pistols and around 1lakh carbines (say pistol caliber) and 50000 battle rifles.
that pessimistically projects a requirement of
Battle rifles 280000 units, (assume 70,000 7.62 Nato, 210000 5.56 Nato)
Carbines 120000 (80000 5.56 caliber, 40,000 .45acp)
Semi auto Handguns 550000 (9mm)
Squad support rifles 20000
Precision Sniper rifles 10000
Bolt action rifles 30000
.22 training rifles 30000
for sake of simplicity lets assume dirt cheap prices for all of them
battle rifle both calibers 500$ (same as insas)
carbines say 400$ (although cxstorm is nearly 1200$)
semi auto handguns at 400$ (although a berreta 92fs iss 600$)
Squad support rifles at 2000$
precision sniper rifle at 2500$ (although even a used dragonuv is around 3000$ and barret m82 runs you 5000$)
Bolt action rifle at 300$ (savage fcns is around twice that price)
.22 training rifle at 150$ (ruger 10/22 around 300$)
Battle rifles 140 Mil dollars
Carbines 48 Mil dollars
Semi auto Handguns 220 Mil dollars
Squad support rifles 40 Mil dollars
Precision Sniper rifles 25 Mil dollars
Bolt action rifles 9 Mil dollars
.22 training rifles 4.5 Mil dollars
The point of this entire example is to give you the rough idea that just by internal consumption (discounting civilian arms) with extremely pessimistic projections in both cost and quantity, you can have a decent market for small arms, but lethargic policy making is preventing this industry. The day this changes, I might pack my backs to go back
Discussion: Is there a need, for private arms manufacturers in India?
Do civilian firearms rules need extensive reform, if yes what kind?
Do export norms need to be realligned to the changing geo-political environment?
Does OFB needs to be divided into smaller factions specializing in manufacturing Small arms system?
@sancho, @Abingdonboy @Sashan @Vinod2070 @Capt.Popeye @Syama Ayas
Small arms case:
Indian ordinance factory board has struggled to keep up with the need of the small arms systems both for the armed forces /civilian use in the country. When we look at other countries which do deliver the most sophisticated, they either have a very lucrative private small arms market driven by internal consumption like small arms systems like USA, Germany, or in conjunction have export oriented industries like Czech republic, Israel, china etc.
What has prevented India from developing successful small arms system is complicated question. Two of the major causes that come to mind is its discouragement towards civilian firearms inherited from the british raj, and its docile geo-political stance against exporting firearms.
Civilian arms: India never had any effective forest management like the dept of fish and game in United states of America, which would uses hunting as preservation method in animal habitat. It effectively uses the money obtained by sale of hunting and fishing tags for habitat management/conservation and severely punishes poaching/illegal hunting. Instead India adopted a zero hunting, zero habitat management/ ineffective conservation policy as a knee jerk reaction to British raj hunting days. This removed the justification for civilian firearms and effectively killed the local firearms industry. Next the Indian government in theory wants to portray the image of security of the masses as the responsibility of Indian law enforcement departments job, but with the ratio of police to population of about 1:1000, it is ridiculous to believe that security establishment is in anyway capable of providing the needed level of security. This has been very clear during naxal violence in last 30 odd years. Civilian small arms systems have quite often transitioned into the military domain into very successful firearms. The 7.62 x 51 Nato round is derived from the civilian 0.308 system, the .338 lapua system was originally designed to take large game long distance and turned into the most effective long range sniper rounds, it still is housed in a 0.416 casing which has been a traditional big game hunting round. Remington 700 bolt action system transitioned into the m24 sniper system. Thr Russian 7.62 x 54R was originally developed to hunt bears and other large sized game. Large number of variation is M16 platforms are attributed to popularity of the AR15 rifles and its custumisations done in the civilian versions, including the 7.62x39 variant, the 0.300 blackout. 6.5 grendel and 6.8 spc. Military modifications to M16/m4 platform and civilian modifications to ar15 have a symbiotic relationship. The civilian firearms has essentially fuelled the prowess of certain countries in developing the indigenous small arms market in nation that lead in the small arms market.
Export policy: Companies like Norinco, H&K, CZ, Colt and others depend on the export consumption for majority of their revenues. The even if the local consumption is low, these companies find a huge revenue in the foreign markets. The ever evolving need in different terrain drive ingenuity in their firearms system. Desert conditions needed H&K rifles led to Teflon and self lubricating bolts in their model, Low cost requirement led to skeleton AK variants from norinco, and higher case pressure requirements led to stronger alloys of cz75 and so on.
Entry into small arms market in India:
As the title of the OP suggests Shri Modi asking why there are no indigenous markets, there is not a good business case for private entrepreneur to enter the market.
The reasons:
No encouragement from army in developing firearms due to its import and associated benefits culture.
No Encouragement form state governments to develop firearms specific to its law enforcements need.
Export restrictive policy of GoI
Civilian restrictive firearms policy of India
Restrictive redtape for setting up firearms company in India.
I am a mechanical engineer and a firearms enthusiast, being from design and manufacturing background and having extensive shooting experience, I can tell you this that mechanically a firearm is as complicated as a stapler, and manufacturing a firearm doesnt need extremely complicated machineries either. It needs design and manufacturing experience, extensive testing, passion for firearms. The military and the law enforcement agencies and its consumption in India is more than enough to sustain a decent sized firearms manufacturer provided the policy and outlook of the bureaucracy changes.
Lets look at Indian Armed forces, Military/para/law enforcement
1,129,900 active Army personnel, 960,000 Reserve forces
58,350 Active Navy personnel, 55,000 Reserve forces
127,200 IAF active personnel 140,000 Reserve forces
Indian Coast Guard 9,550
1,300,586 Indian Paramilitary Forces 987,821 Reserve forces
That brings the active military strength at around 1315450, for a pessimistic projection say 1/2 of them are combatants in case of war that is around 6.5 lakh combatants, even we can project a weapons requirement to down to less than even half of that (3 lakhs) 2.5 lakh battle rifles and equal number of side arm like semi auto handgun, and around 20,000 squad support rifles, another 20,000 carbines (assume intermediate caliber) and say 10,000 precision marksman rifles.
Reserve forces have an approximate strength of around say 1155000, forget arming them completely, just to train them 1 rifle for 10 reservists, thats nearly 1.15lakh rifles, which can be broken down into 30,000 battle rifles, bolt rifles and .22 semi auto training rifles respectively.
ignoring the coast guard s, we still have around 13 lakh para mil forces, again say 1/4th of them can be need newer firearms which brings a projection of arming say 3 lakh units with semi auto handguns with the addition of a carbine/battle rifle of less 1/2 of them.
thats around 3 lakh semi auto pistols and around 1lakh carbines (say pistol caliber) and 50000 battle rifles.
that pessimistically projects a requirement of
Battle rifles 280000 units, (assume 70,000 7.62 Nato, 210000 5.56 Nato)
Carbines 120000 (80000 5.56 caliber, 40,000 .45acp)
Semi auto Handguns 550000 (9mm)
Squad support rifles 20000
Precision Sniper rifles 10000
Bolt action rifles 30000
.22 training rifles 30000
for sake of simplicity lets assume dirt cheap prices for all of them
battle rifle both calibers 500$ (same as insas)
carbines say 400$ (although cxstorm is nearly 1200$)
semi auto handguns at 400$ (although a berreta 92fs iss 600$)
Squad support rifles at 2000$
precision sniper rifle at 2500$ (although even a used dragonuv is around 3000$ and barret m82 runs you 5000$)
Bolt action rifle at 300$ (savage fcns is around twice that price)
.22 training rifle at 150$ (ruger 10/22 around 300$)
Battle rifles 140 Mil dollars
Carbines 48 Mil dollars
Semi auto Handguns 220 Mil dollars
Squad support rifles 40 Mil dollars
Precision Sniper rifles 25 Mil dollars
Bolt action rifles 9 Mil dollars
.22 training rifles 4.5 Mil dollars
The point of this entire example is to give you the rough idea that just by internal consumption (discounting civilian arms) with extremely pessimistic projections in both cost and quantity, you can have a decent market for small arms, but lethargic policy making is preventing this industry. The day this changes, I might pack my backs to go back
Discussion: Is there a need, for private arms manufacturers in India?
Do civilian firearms rules need extensive reform, if yes what kind?
Do export norms need to be realligned to the changing geo-political environment?
Does OFB needs to be divided into smaller factions specializing in manufacturing Small arms system?
@sancho, @Abingdonboy @Sashan @Vinod2070 @Capt.Popeye @Syama Ayas
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