Moscow and New Delhi sealed a deal on Monday that will let India produce more than 600,000 AK-203 assault rifles, according to Russian weapons maker Kalashnikov.
The agreement comes during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official visit to India for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It’s part of the new joint venture, Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL), which, according to Kalashnikov CEO Vladimir Lepin, is opening up a new chapter in Russian-Indian military-technical cooperation.
He told TASS: “Russian and Indian specialists have carried out large-scale preparatory work over three years to optimize the project’s cost and technological parameters. Now that the contract has been signed, we are ready to start the production of advanced AK-203s in the town of Korwa in the coming months.”
The modern version of the iconic AK-47 Russian assault rifle has an effective range of 300 meters, is lightweight and robust. The AK-203 fires the much larger 7.62 mm rounds that have better penetrating power, while similar rifles with less stopping power fire the smaller 5.56 mm rounds.
Plans to set up a joint venture for the production of Kalashnikov assault rifles in India were announced by Prime Minister Modi in 2019. India will become the first foreign country to produce Kalashnikov assault rifles from the AK-200 series.
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