NEW DELHI: India's armed forces have embarked on a shopping spree for modern assault rifles, body armor and helmets, providing a potential boost to global arms suppliers.
The 1.3 million-strong military is abandoning its two decade-old Indian made rifles and seeking to outfit its infantry with more up-to-date equipment, scouting for a new model on the global market for 185,000 assault rifles. The Ministry of Defence also needs to buy hundreds of thousands of helmets and tens of thousands of bullet proof vests.
The moves are part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's $250 billion push to modernise India's armed forces, as infantry continue to face the brunt of deadly attacks in disputed border areas such as Kashmir and the north-east.
Plans to buy new equipment from overseas, however, have been held back by bureaucratic delays and the military's desire to balance the needs of troops against efforts to have equipment built domestically under Modi's "Make in India" programme, a key plank in his drive to boost local manufacturing.
"It's encouraging that they're going ahead with this, but it's discouraging that it's not made under 'Make in India,'" said Anit Mukherjee, a former major in the Indian Army and assistant professor at Singapore's S Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
"The fact that it took 10 years for Indians to go ahead and say, 'we're importing' means the bureaucracy is still holding back modernisation of the armed forces. That's problematic."
To identify possible vendors, the ministry last month issued a request for information. It said it wants a larger, more deadly 7.62mm model that will "shoot to kill."
India needs 65,000 rifles within 28 months of signing the contract and has asked global manufacturers to reply by November 7, the ministry said. India plans to issue a tender for procuring rifles in April 2017.
Apart from assault rifles, the army also sought to buy light automatic rifles, machine guns, and sniper rifles. Initially, it planned to buy 43,000 carbines off the shelf from international companies and build 120,000 others at ordnance factories in India.
But a tender issued four years ago to buy the carbines was canceled earlier this month over procedural issues, according to a senior army officer who asked not to be identified discussing information that is private.