India targets weapons self-reliance with fully local assault rifle

India is touting its locally manufactured AK-203 Sher assault rifle – an advanced version of Russia’s powerful Kalashnikov – as an important milestone for the “Make in India” initiative to reduce reliance on foreign-made weapon systems.
The Sher, or Tiger, will replace the older, heavily criticised Indian National Small Arms System (INSAS) service rifles used by the Indian Army.
Complaints about the INSAS emerged just a year after it was adopted by the army. Indian soldiers fighting the high-altitude Kargil war in 1999 against Pakistan-backed forces in Ladakh, then a part of Kashmir, said the firearm tended to jam or its magazine would crack in the freezing temperatures.
After the Sher was successfully test-fired on August 23 at an ordnance factory in the northern town of Amethi, experts celebrated having cracked the Kalashnikov code without having to import any parts.
This is a significant victory as most of India’s military weapon systems – from Su-30MKI fighter jets to several warships and submarines – come from Russia.

India has been slowly trying to reduce its reliance on Russian-made weapons, as Moscow prioritises its own needs for its ongoing war with Ukraine, by buying equipment from France, Israel and the United States as well as boosting domestic manufacturing.
“End-to-end manufacturing of the [AK-203] rifle creates much more than a weapon system. It reflects a building of capabilities in metallurgy, precision engineering, quality control and world-class testing,” said Rakesh Kapoor, former Indian Army deputy chief of staff.
“The AK-203 Sher is not merely a rifle. It is a manifestation that India can take world-class technology, absorb it, master it and eventually manufacture the entire product itself.”
Indo-Russian Rifles, a company established in 2019 under an agreement with Russia to make the AK-203, is preparing to submit the rifle to the Indian Army for trials this month, according to local media.
The rifle is considered important in the country’s fight against insurgency as separatist militants in India’s Kashmir region during the height of unrest in the 1990s relied on Kalashnikovs, which earned a reputation for reliability.
At about 3.6kg to 3.8kg (8lbs to 8.4lbs), the AK-203 is about 600 grams (20oz) lighter than the INSAS, has double the range at 800 metres (2,600 feet) and boasts heavier calibre cartridges that can kill rather than only injure targets.

“Russia brought the design, [and] India has progressively developed the manufacturing ecosystem around it. With 100 per cent Indian components and input materials, the project demonstrates technology absorption and indigenous manufacturing capabilities,” Kapoor said. “This also meets the larger strategic intent of creating resilient supply chains.”
In many ways, an assault rifle is more important for the soldier than heavy weapon systems such as tanks and missiles. “For a soldier, a rifle is not merely a piece of equipment; it is an extension of the soldier himself. Given Indian terrain and operating conditions, the weapon has to be reliable in all conditions in which the soldier operates,” Kapoor said.
India has one of the most diverse terrains in the world, spanning towering snow-capped mountains, vast fertile plains, dry deserts, high plateaus and long tropical coastlines. “Therefore, robustness of military equipment is an imperative,” he said.
‘Significant achievement’
Early feedback – including from troops in the Siachen Glacier, considered the world’s toughest and highest battlefield – had been positive, said Sanjay Iyer, a former brigadier with the Indian Army.
But he urged that equal importance be paid to quality standards – otherwise “India will have re-created the Kargil problem with a better rifle”. Part of the reason soldiers encountered problems with INSAS rifles during the Kargil war was because of problems with ordnance-factory ammunition and gun oils, he said.
An entirely locally made weapon marked “a significant industrial achievement” with now more than a hundred medium and small enterprises sitting across the supply chain, Iyer said. Indigenous content moved up from 25 per cent in July 2024 to 50 per cent by 2025, before achieving complete local manufacturing.

Over 601,000 rifles would be delivered by December 2030, ahead of a contractual promise of October 2032, the Press Trust of India reported last July, citing a senior official.
While fully domestic manufacturing was an important milestone, “it is certainly not a design achievement”, Iyer said. “The intellectual property remains Kalashnikov’s. India cannot redesign the weapon at will, and export freedom rests with the joint venture.”
The AK-203, at least 25 per cent cheaper than imported versions, could be used to arm the police and “be available for exports from 2030”, Iyer said.
Indian small arm exports have climbed nearly 10-fold from 7.79 billion rupees (US$82.5 million) in the 2018 financial year to 72.16 billion rupees in the 2025 financial year.
“So the market is real,” he added.