India has signed an agreement to buy 70 thousand AK-103 rifles from Russia under emergency procurement. This agreement has been done by the Ministry of Defense for the armed forces of the country, but it is believed that most of the rifles will be given to the Indian Air Force.
No information has been given officially from the Ministry of Defense or Russia about the agreement. But sources told ABP News that this deal has not been done from the capital-budget but from the emergency fund included in the defense budget by the government. For the last two years, provision of emergency fund has been made in the defense budget. Right now there is no clear information about when India will get the delivery of these Russian AK 103 rifles. But the sources clarified that since these will be bought directly in case of emergency, the delivery will definitely be quick.
In fact, India had signed an agreement with Russia in the year 2019 to manufacture seven and a half lakh (7.50 lakh) AK-203 rifles at the Korba plant of the Ordnance Factory Board ie OFB in Amethi. But till date the rifle manufacturing work has not started in the plant. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself inaugurated this plant in the presence of Russian President Putin.
This is the reason why India has decided to buy 70 thousand rifles directly from Russia. It is believed that these AK-103 series rifles will replace the outdated INSAS rifles of India.
During the ongoing dispute with China on the LAC, India has also directly purchased 1.44 lakh Sigsaur rifles from America under emergency procurement. Although the Sigsaur rifle was purchased for the Indian Army and has been used by the Indian Army. Indian soldiers deployed on both the LOC and LAC fronts are using these Sigsaur rifles.