Arming the infantry soldier: How much is good enough?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDpwRcPznFY

The Indian army's infantry regiments inherited .303 Lee Enfield rifles from the British army in 1947, but frequent wars and military engagements have since driven deep changes in technology, introducing new weapons, sidearms, communication equipment and protection suites.

The Indian army soldier has had his fair share of battles and gruelling experiences, be it fighting prolonged wars against Chinese and Pakistani militaries, serving in extreme weather conditions, braving terrorism and civil wars in UN missions and overseas deployments, or conducting decades-long counter-terror operations.

In a career ranging between 16 and 30 years, the soldier not only witnesses changing ground realities in theatres of operations, but also steep changes in technology and military strategy that introduce new weapons, tactics and training regimen.

When India gained independence, the Army's infantry battalions inherited the British Army's Lee-Enfield .303 bolt-action rifle as the primary service weapon, which they used during the 1948 border war with Pakistan, the wars to liberate Goa and Hyderabad, the 1962 war with China and to a lesser extent, during the 1965 war with Pakistan.

Though the 303 was a reliable rifle used by the army, its fate was sealed by the end of the 1962 war when Indian troops posted in the Ladakh and the North Eastern Frontier Agency came face to face with Chinese forces armed with the PLA's standard-issue Type 56 assault rifle, a variant of the Soviet AK-47.

The .303 Lee Enfield could fire around 20 shots per minute compared to the Type 56 whose rate of fire was 650 rounds per minute. The mismatch proved fatal for defending troops who, despite displaying numerous acts of bravery and valor, were overwhelmed by superior numbers and firepower.

The mismatch in firepower forced the Army high command to quickly transition away from the .303 to a modern bolt-action rifle in the short term and a self-loading semi-automatic assault rifle in the long term.

Starting 1963, Indian Army formations started receiving the Ishapore 7.62mm 2A1 rifle.

The Ishapore 2A1, whose design and production began soon after the 1962 war, was a bolt-action rifle but was configured to fire NATO standard 7.62mm rounds compared to the .303 which fired .303 sized British rounds.

The Ishapore Rifle Factory produced about 2,50,000 of these rifles till 1974, some of which are still in service with some Indian police forces.

The bolt-action rifle, for obvious reasons, was never meant to be the primary weapon of the infantry soldier. After the 1962 war, the Army adopted the L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle, commonly known as the SLR, in large numbers.

The rifle, chambered to fire 7.62×51mm rounds and with a rate of fire of up to 750 rounds per minute, performed remarkably in the successful wars of 1965 and 1971, and continued to be the primary service weapon of the infantry soldier until 1998.

Beginning 1998, the Indian Army started receiving the INSAS rifle which was chambered to fire smaller 5.56×45mm rounds, thanks to a doctrinal shift which prioritized injuring enemy troops instead of killing them outright.   

Unlike the SLR which was based on the British L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle, the INSAS was India's first home-grown assault rifle, but issues began to emerge not long after the Army fought and won the brutal Kargil War.

Soldiers complained about sudden stoppage during firing; cracking of the polymer magazine and malfunctions associated with the automatic mode. The Army started placing tenders for a replacement rifle as early as in 2011, but it would take another decade before infantry troops started receiving modern assault weapons.

Cut to 2025, is the infantry soldier better off today in terms of the quality of his service rifle, his battle kit and combat protection compared to ten years ago?

A modern infantry soldier carries a lot more equipment in addition to his service rifle. These include encrypted radio sets, scopes, magazines and cleaning kits for rifles, secondary weapons, bulletproof vests, ballistic helmets, and custom gear that account for weather conditions.

The Indian Army has been running a program to equip the modern infantry soldier based on the requirements of modern warfare. Named Project F-INSAS, the program calls for a state-of-the-art assault rifle, bulletproof vests, hands-free secured communication sets, multi-mode hand grenades, and protection systems like ballistic helmets and goggles.

A major small arms acquisition, which completed in 2020, was the acquisition of 10 lakh multi-mode hand grenades from Economic Explosive Ltd, a private enterprise. These new grenades, delivered in the next two years, replaced War II vintage grenades that stayed with the Army for over 75 years.

Frustrated by the slow progress in replacing the INSAS rifle, the government made a direct purchase of 72,400 SIG716 rifles from American weapons manufacturer Sig Sauer. In August 2024, the government signed a follow-on contract to buy an additional 73,000 SIG716 rifles, taking the total number of such rifles to 145,400.

The SIG, however, is not meant to replace INSAS as a primary service weapon for infantry soldiers. The government also entered into intense negotiations with Russia's Rosoboronexport and Kalashnikov Concern to licence and manufacture the AK 203 assault rifle.

The contract was finally signed in 2021, thanks to which a company called the Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited will manufacture about 6.1 lakh AK203 rifles at a factory in Korwa, Amethi. The factory has already delivered 48,000 rifles to the Army as of July 2025.

The large-scale adoption of SIG 716 and AK-203 rifles indicated that the Indian Army has finally moved on from the earlier doctrine of relying on 5.56mm assault rifles to the more lethal and confidence-boosting 7.62mm rifles.

To add further boost towards modernizing the Indian Army's small arms inventory, the government placed an order of more than four lakh twenty five thousand  Close Quarter Battle carbines which will be manufactured by Bharat Forge. The new carbines will replace the severely obsolete 9mm Sterling submachine guns used by the Army since at least the 1960s.

The infantry soldier's firepower received another major shot in the arm when the Army ordered more than 16,000 Israeli Negev light machine guns in 2021 to replace decades-old LMGs in its inventory.

In 2024, Adani Defence said it had bagged an order for close to 40,000 NEGEV NG7 light machine guns for the Indian Army. Deliveries of these guns will replace the Army's entire LMG inventory in the coming days.

If we look at these acquisitions, we find that orders placed since 2014 have, in fact, replaced weapon systems that had been used by generations of infantry soldiers. The Army has, in the past ten years, also made purchases of tens of thousands of advanced ballistic helmets, bulletproof jackets, ballistic shields and ballistic helmets for Sikh soldiers to protect the lives of infantry soldiers operating in conflict zones.

Other major acquisitions to make the infantry soldier more lethal and effective have been hand-held software defined radios, surveillance and target acquisition systems, night vision devices and sniper rifles. Interestingly, the Army is replacing its entire inventory of older Dragunov sniper rifles with the longer-range Sako TRG 42 which fires an entirely different caliber.

As we speak, the Army has more or less modernized every single infantry weapon system and protection kits that the infantry soldier needs to prevail in battle.

The quick delivery of ordered inventories and the acquisition of armoured personnel carriers, which has faced severe delays, will fill the missing pieces in helping the Army win future battles with overwhelming technical and qualitative superiority.