New Delhi/Gwalior, March 28 (IANS). Adani Defense and Aerospace, an Adani Group company, has handed over 2,000 indigenous 7.62 mm ‘Prahar’ light machine guns (LMG) to the Indian Army. This achievement is being considered a major milestone for India’s ability to make small arms.
As part of further planning, this Gwalior-based unit is now also preparing to produce weapons used in close quarter battle (CQB), which will further strengthen India’s indigenous weapons manufacturing capability.
Delivery of the first consignment was completed in just 7 months, which is 11 months ahead of schedule. At the same time, the ‘First-of-Production Model’ (FOPM) was prepared in just 6 months, whereas the time limit for it was 18 months. After this, after getting ‘Bulk Production Clearance’ (BPC), production could start on a large scale.
Senior officers of the Indian Armed Forces including Additional Secretary of the Defense Ministry and DG Acquisition A Anbarasu were present in the program.
This modern small arms factory located in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh is the country’s first fully integrated private sector arms manufacturing unit. With the manufacturing of ‘Prahar’ LMG here, the dependence on imports for infantry weapons will be reduced and self-reliance in the defense sector will increase.
Spread over approximately 100 acres, the unit has modern facilities like barrel manufacturing, bolt carrier and receiver manufacturing, advanced Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining, robotics, surface treatment, precision metrology, a metallurgy laboratory and a 25 meter underground firing range.
Before being sent to the army, every weapon is subjected to life-cycle testing, ballistic testing and testing in different environmental conditions so that it fully meets the standards of the army.
This plant has the capacity to make about 1 lakh weapons every year and more than 90 percent of the material is taken from within the country. Due to this, along with increasing employment in Madhya Pradesh, the MSME sector is also getting strengthened.
Additionally, the company’s ammunition complex in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) also supports this production, with an annual capacity to produce approximately 300 million rounds of small arms ammunition. In future, large and medium caliber ammunition will also be manufactured here.
In this way, this strategy of linking design, manufacturing and supply chain together will not only speed up production, but will also strengthen India’s self-reliance in the defense sector in the long run.
–IANS
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