DEFENCE ACQUISITION COUNCIL APPROVES AK-203 DEAL WITH RUSSIA
- The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has granted permission for mass production of AK-203 rifles, providing fire power to the standard weapon profile of armed forces.
- DAC has also approved an independent satellite for Indian Air Force (IAF).
Key Points
- This decision was taken ahead of scheduled visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India beginning. His visit will start from December 5.
- This deal was put on hold since 2018.
- The DAC meeting was chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
- During the meeting, Minister granted permission to manufacture 7.5 lakh AK-203 assault rifles for IAF, under ‘Make in India’ initiative.
Contract for AK-203 assault rifles
- Contract was signed at over Rs 5,000 crore.
- It will lead to manufacturing of 6,014,427 AK-203s for a period of 10-years.
Inter-governmental Agreement (IGA)
- IGA was signed in February 2019. Under this agreement, first 70,000 rifles will include Russian components as technology transfers.
Kalashnikov Rifles
- Manufacturing of the Kalashnikov Rifles or AK-203 will be done in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh.
- It will be manufactured jointly by Indo-Russia Rifles Pvt Ltd (IRRPL). IRRPL was created as a joint venture between Ordnance Factories Board (OFB) of India and Rosoboronexport& Concern Kalashnikov of Russia.
- OFB is holding 50.5 per cent stake in the concern, while Russian entities is holding the remaining 49.5 per cent share.