Indian Army Plans to Upgrade INSAS Rifle. Part 3 - The Future
In Part 1 of this article, I talked about the history of the INSAS platform, Part 2 was dedicated to my personal experiences with these rifles as well as the opinions of soldiers I collected over the years. In the final article of the series, I will talk about upgrades of INSAS and the possible future of this weapon platform.
Over the years there were several projects meant to improve INSAS. One project that deserves an honorable mention is the little-known bullpup INSAS rifle. It is a single prototype designed by Indian army Colonel Prasad Bansod, who later designed the ASMI submachinegun.
Sandeep Unnithan, the famous journalist, and, in my opinion, the most professional defense writer in India, made a video about this unique prototype. This rifle remained a prototype and was not adopted.
Other attempts to improve INSAS were made by big state-owned companies. For example, in 2020, DRDO presented a rifle chambered for 6.8x43mm (Remington Special Purpose Cartridge). And no, the Indian army does not use this round.
The overall layout of the rifle was similar to INSAS, but controls such as the charging handle and selector lever strongly resembled the AR-15. The translucent magwell and magazine also look similar to the AR platform.
Another prototype based on INSAS is called “Excalibur”, which was essentially an improved INSAS chambered for the same 5.56 round.
TFB closely followed the story of this rifle. Allegedly, a total of 200 prototypes were built, but in 2016 the entire program was shelved. Personally, I’ve only seen the version of this rifle chambered for 7.62x51.
All those projects had very little impact on the overall situation. Indian army and Law Enforcement agencies preferred to import weapons from other countries rather than use INSAS.
But recently one company stepped forward with a possible solution to improve INSAS. This company is called Star Aerospace, it is an Indian defense manufacturer founded in 2015.
I reached out to the CEO of this company and he provided photos for this article as well as a detailed presentation about the modernization package.
The idea behind the upgrade is to replace the most troubled part of INSAS - its magazine, and at the same time make it more ergonomic and allow soldiers to use modern sighting systems such as optics, reflex sights, lights, and lasers.
The modernization kit consists of an upper and lower handguard with detachable side rails, folding telescopic stock, a new pistol grip, a railed receiver cover, and most importantly, a new magazine.
The capacity of the new mag is 30 rounds and it has a vertical window that allows the shooter to see how many rounds are in the magazine. In my experience, it is a more durable design compared to a completely translucent magazine.
As I mentioned in my previous article, when I fired the INSAS rifle, it had four stoppages, but they were all similar and likely caused by incorrectly designed magazines. So there is a possibility that the new magazine will improve INSAS reliability.
It is interesting to note that the parts of the modernization kit are pretty well-known and proven over a long period of time. They are based on FAB Defense products, which is not surprising since Star Aerospace is listed as the main distributor of FAB Defense in India.
It seems like an optimal solution since FAB Defense upgrades have been used by multiple militaries all over the world for several decades. I’ve been involved in a few projects with similar goals - upgrade of the existing stock of weapons, and developing accessories is just as hard as developing new weapons. It takes years to create and properly test a new stock or rail system, so using FAB Defense as a foundation for the INSAS upgrade kit is a very sound decision.
The upgrade kit has been already tested by over a dozen units with the Indian armed forces. Will this upgrade kit become a solution for INSAS problems? Well, it could. The Finnish army recently conducted a similar upgrade program for their service rifles. British Army has been updating their rifles for over 20 years and the country’s MoD seems to be satisfied with the results.
Will the same solution solve Indian army problems with small arms? Well, the time will tell, and I will follow up on this story when I have new information.
Vladimir Onokoy is a small arms subject matter expert and firearms instructor. Over the years he worked in 20 different countries as a security contractor, armorer, firearms industry sales representative, product manager, and consultant. His articles were published in the Recoil magazine, Small Arms Review, Small Arms Defence Journal, and Silah Report. He also contributed chapters to books from the "Vickers Guide: Kalashnikov" series. Email: machaksilver at gmail dot com. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vladimir-Onokoy-articles-and-videos-about-guns-and-other-unpopular-stuff-107273143980300/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vladonokoy/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/machaksilver
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Speaking of 6.8...the dang Jordanians need another contract for the stuff so I can go back to buying reasonable priced contract overrun XM68GD. My rifle likes the XM68GD a lot....and the coyotes in the pasture like it a lot less...
The British Army will finally be getting rid of the L85/SA80 when Project Grayburn kicks off next year, and rightfully so.
I don’t really see how keeping one decrepit, poorly conceived rifle in service for too long is a solid basis for keeping another decrepit, poorly conceived rifle in service.
But it’s India…so I fully expect this thing to get a 200k unit order that will coincide with an order of 75k PWS UXR’s and 300k Smith and Wesson M&P15-22’s…because why not?