So these images just dropped. Those are Indian Army soldiers at the Infantry School in central India with their brand new U.S. built SIG716 G2 Patrol assault/battlefield rifles. Seen here on Livefist for the first time since the new firearms began arriving in December, maker Sig Sauer Inc. will complete deliveries of 72,400 of these by the end of this year.
The Indian Army ordered the SIG716 last February as part of a wider, urgent, effort to bring new assault weapons into its infantry units quickly, while sidestepping the traditional curse of piecemeal, stopgap purchases of the past. As Livefist has reported, the new SIG716 rifles are part of a two-pronged procurement drive. While these rifles will be sent to priority units deployed in counter-insurgency and frontier anti-terror roles, a requirement of nearly 700,000 new assault rifles for regular infantry units will be met by the Kalashnikov AK-203. After some delays, and with paperwork in place, an order for the AK-203 could finally come this year. The rifles are to be manufactured in country at a joint venture facility of Kalashnikov and India’s Ordnance Factor Board at Korwa in U.P.’s Amethi.
The SIG716 G2 Patrol is an enhanced assault rifle featuring a 16-inch barrel, M-LOK handguard, and a 6-position telescoping stock. The weapons are being supplied to the Indian Army from Sig Sauer’s facility in New Hampsire, U.S.
“The global importance of this contract for SIG SAUER is far reaching based on the size, location, and economic strength of India in the global market,” says Ron Cohen, President and CEO, SIG SAUER, Inc. “We are very proud, and honored that the SIG716 was chosen for use by the fighting forces of the Indian Army, and we are looking forward to developing a strong partnership with India’s Ministry of Defense.”
“This [was] the first large firearms procurement of the Indian Government in decades, and the explicit mission for this tender was to modernize the infantry troopers of the Indian Army with the best rifle available,” said Cohen last February. “We competed in an open tender with small arms manufacturers from around the world. The SIG716 rifle underwent a comprehensive and exhaustive testing and evaluation process where it outperformed the competition, and was ultimately chosen, and met all the criteria, as the best rifle to modernize the Indian Army.”
The SIG716 isn’t the only American-built firearm in the Army’s inventory. The Para Special Forces have inducted unspecified numbers of the M4A1 carbine for years and have recently begun receiving Barrett M95 purpose built sniper rifles (in addition to the Italian Victrix Minerva Scorpio TGT.) The Indian government is also expected to conclude a delayed order for 93,385 CAR816 carbines from UAE firm Caracal this year.
The SIG716 and AK-203 featured on the latest episode of BattleCry with Livefist’s Shiv Aroor on India Today TV. Here’s the full episode if you’d like to watch:
So SIG716 G2 Patrol will not be made in india ?
NO Rahul…for make in India the numbers are small and its requires a whole new ecosystem to at place..we need it on emergency basis and thats all
Indian Army at its imported maal fascination best. Arjun MBT chucked, INSAS roadmap chucked, indigenous FMBT, TATA Kestrel chucked.
Hope the Army Generals will now be able to afford Bentleys and Rolls Royces at their bungalows with the proceeds
Arjun MBT is a piece of shit, it has critical design flaws and is generally a mishmash of ideas “inspired” by the leopard and the T72. Good riddance, DRDO chucklefucks are simply shit at their job. INSAS again is well known to be basically a danger to the operator, a rifle designed to only fire semi auto cooks off an entire mag randomly, and Tata is making a new and vetter APC derived from the kestrel.
I dont know what commie shithole you live in but why should our soldiers be saddled with substandard and incompetently made weaponry so some swadeshi twat gets their rocks off?
“These images just dropped”
For an Indian journalist, you know a lot of American slang haha 🙂
Helpful blog to know about Indian Army about their assault weapons, battlefield riffles SIG716 and modernize infantory troopers of Indian Army…
https://youtu.be/qMdHLCze7iE
Tavlor, Galil, Uzi, SiG716, CAR 816, AK-203, how may types of Rifles will the Indian Army procure ???? and to what end ? Are these indicative of adhocism and lack of planning ? What about Make in India ?
Why can’t Ishapore make a new design assault rifle/s which is a possible successor to the INSAS ? Even a tiny country like Israel and Korea are making world class Assault rifles and we continue to import them merrily. We are making our own Arihant class Nuclear propelled SSBNs and we are stumbling on a simple Assault rifle ???
Bad assumption of Ishapore producing a good rifle from its outmoded manufacturing process and unionized workers.
What would you do if your child got bad grades in school ? Take him out of school or focus on him more to get good grades ?
If the Navy is the father, they will put more effort ( see the warships and submarines coming out from the Indian shipyards). If the Army is the father, they will take him out of school ( one bad rifle means they will buy foreign, first tank was up to mark- still they buy foreign)
First of all its tavor not tavlor
The ak203 is going to be manufactured under the make in India project.
The sig 716 is going to be used by the counter insurgency units.
The galil, uzi and the favor are in use by the special forces as they require different and more reliable weapons according to their mission sets.
The car816 is bought to replace the old sterling which has been in use since the world war 2.
Please do not tell the ministry of defense what to do without ay prior knowledge.
First of all its tavor not tavlor
The ak203 is going to be manufactured under the make in India project.
The sig 716 is going to be used by the counter insurgency units.
The galil, uzi and the favor are in use by the special forces as they require different and more reliable weapons according to their mission sets.
The car816 is bought to replace the old sterling which has been in use since the world war 2.
Please do not tell the ministry of defense what to do without ay prior knowledge.
Suresh sir-Some are used by special forces and for different purposes .we had imported earlier from German for NSG,Belgium,Austria and special forces like Marcos,CRPF etc have their own imported rifles .Make in india is for Russian AK 203-when numbers are in large scale only its possible.It requires a complete ecosystem to setup in place and if orders are in not large scale no manufacturer will find interest to setup base
sir
The only problem is the lack of monitoring of developments & lethargic approach of union led workers at defence factories. Being in a sarkari job all they want to sit around do nothing & have salaries
Isha pore couldn’t make a functioning bottle opener let alone an assault rifle. They had examples of the world’s best assault rifles to copy and still managed to produce a sub standard rifle that no one wanted. We can’t afford to keep wasting money by giving them another chance. Their most recent efforts rejected by the army
Import from Russia, import from Israel or whichever country… but never try to make your own substandard ones like INSAS.
First of all its tavor not tavlor
The ak203 is going to be manufactured under the make in India project.
The sig 716 is going to be used by the counter insurgency units.
The galil, uzi and the favor are in use by the special forces as they require different and more reliable weapons according to their mission sets.
The car816 is bought to replace the old sterling which has been in use since the world war 2.
Please do not tell the ministry of defense what to do without ay prior knowledge.
we don’t know how to create a new weapon
better solution for it is we should clone imported weapon and alter the design
I was vocal about make in India until I read this article. It’s real experiences of a trained ex pilot. What bad machines HAL makes and how poorly they address problems is an eye opener.
Read it before you about MAKE IN INDIA. Let’s not risk lives of our soldiers with sarkari fighter planes , helicopters and guns.
https://www.livefistdefence.com/2020/06/the-truth-hurts-says-indian-navys-1st-dhruv-flight-commander.html