The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Just in case anyone is interested in what the Indian army have bought and are using:

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/indias ... cafa392aaa

And a more in-depth review of the rifle itself:

http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=9131

I wonder who got the backhanders to allow that into production and service?

They should have bought the SA 80........oh, hang on a minute.......

Tried one once, verily a piece of sh*te, why oh why did they not buy a proven weapon system? (reminds me of someone else)

The INSAS is actually quite a nice design; I like the forward cocking piece, the fire control group is much nicer than the somewhat primitive Kalashnikov design, and there are small but thoughtful improvements throughout.

Unfortunately there's a wide gap between "design" and "construction." The AK-47 has been successfully manufactured (either by reverse engineering or license) by such industrial giants as Ethiopia, Iraq, Nigeria, Sudan, and Venezuela, or hand-made with files and hammers by Darra gunsmiths in Pakistan.

India has the dubious distinction of being the only nation that couldn't build an AK that would work. There's nothing wrong with the design. The factory managed to build FALs and SMLEs, and Martinis to British specifications. A few years ago when I became aware of the INSAS (hey! cool!) and its problems I spent a while reading Indian newspaper articles. The problem isn't design or manufacture. The manufacturing part is a horror story. Too many corners were cut; parts don't fit properly or break in service, quality control is nonexistent, and there are persistent reports of guns being issued to troops that are missing parts or simply won't fire, much less reliably hit anything.

It's a level of dereliction of duty, outright thievery, nepotism, bribery, slimy politics, and sheer incompetence that would make any generic banana republic blush. As in, so large, with so many different people involved, for so long, that there's too much slime spread around for any party or group to effectively do anything would involve admitting their own involvement and guilt.

So the only politically-acceptable solution is to shut down production and adopt a completely different gun, with a large group advocating that, for fear of contamination by the INSAS fiasco, that they just purchase them from some foreign power instead of building them themselves.

The closest my country can come to that is the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but since it has been "in process" for 20 years none have actually been put into service yet. (it will replace both the Harrier and the F-18! And there will be a special Zamboni edition! What could possibly go worng?)

soggy0ne wrote:Tried one once, verily a piece of sh*te, why oh why did they not buy a proven weapon system?

Now there's the million dollar question for more than one nation. A G3 chambered in 5.56 or similar is hard to beat.

Scotsgun wrote:

soggy0ne wrote:Tried one once, verily a piece of sh*te, why oh why did they not buy a proven weapon system?

Now there's the million dollar question for more than one nation.

"Not made here." That and backhanders left, right and centre. What do you expect from a country whose corruption is so universal that they have a website reviewing officials and how much they had to bribe them? http://www.ipaidabribe.com/

Looks like the INSAS is on its way out:

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2011 ... w-carbine/

This is with the SMLE, 1A, and AK47s still in service in various military and police formations.

looks like an aug, tar21 and a galil mar had a threesome

rufrdr wrote:Looks like the INSAS is on its way out:

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2011 ... w-carbine/

Man that is one ugly firearm. Wouldn't give either of them - the INSAS or its replacement - house-room.