CDS (I) 2022 General Knowledge · Question 109 of 120

Correct — B, Russia. The AK-203 is a Kalashnikov design, and the contract signed in December 2021 was worth about ₹5,124 crore for 601,427 rifles — the six lakh of the stem. The rifles are being made in India, at the Korwa Ordnance Factory in Amethi district of Uttar Pradesh, by Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited, a joint venture in which the Indian side holds 50.5 per cent and the Russian side, through Rosoboronexport and Kalashnikov Concern under Rostec, holds 49.5 per cent. Indigenous content was to rise from about five per cent to seventy per cent over the first batch of seventy thousand rifles and to a hundred per cent thereafter, which is why the deal is described as manufacture rather than purchase. Once the rifle is identified as a Kalashnikov the country follows automatically.

• (a)Canada — Canada is not a supplier of small arms to India. Nothing in the AK series has any Canadian connection; the designation itself points to Kalashnikov.
• (c)France — France is a major defence partner — Rafale aircraft, Scorpene submarines — but its small-arms industry has no part in this contract. The AK-203 is not a French design.
• (d)Israel — Israel supplies India a good deal of equipment, and Indian forces do use Israeli small arms such as the Tavor and the Negev. That real connection makes this the most tempting wrong answer, but the AK-203 is Russian.

The AK-203 is a modernised 7.62 by 39 mm rifle in the Kalashnikov family, chosen to replace the ageing INSAS rifle as the Indian Army's standard-issue weapon. The programme is significant less for the rifle than for its structure: rather than importing finished weapons, India set up a joint-venture company at an existing ordnance factory to build them locally with a rising share of Indian content. That pattern — a foreign design, an Indian production line, and a schedule for indigenisation — is the template much of India's defence procurement has moved towards.

Small-arms questions are answered from the designation. AK stands for Avtomat Kalashnikova, so any weapon in the AK series is a Russian design and the answer is fixed before the options are read. The trap is Israel, because India genuinely does field Israeli rifles and the paper's other defence items in this block also involve foreign suppliers. A second detail worth carrying is that this was a manufacturing contract, not an off-the-shelf purchase, so a question asking where the rifles are being made has a different answer from one asking which country the contract was signed with: the design and the partner are Russian, the factory is at Korwa in Amethi. The figure in the stem, nearly six lakh, matches the contracted 601,427.

• The December 2021 contract was for 601,427 AK-203 rifles at about ₹5,124 crore, with Kalashnikov Concern of Russia.
• The rifles are being manufactured at the Korwa Ordnance Factory in Amethi district, Uttar Pradesh.
• The manufacturer is Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited, 50.5 per cent Indian-owned and 49.5 per cent Russian-owned.
• The Russian partners are Rosoboronexport and Kalashnikov Concern, under the Rostec state corporation.
• Indigenous content was planned to rise from about five per cent to seventy per cent across the first 70,000 rifles and to a hundred per cent thereafter.

• Answering Israel because Indian forces use Israeli small arms. The AK series is Russian.
• Treating the contract as an import. The rifles are being manufactured in India by a joint venture.
• Confusing the AK-203 with the AK-47 or AK-103. The 203 is the specific modernised variant in this contract.

As a which-country item on a defence contract, as a where-is-it-made question, or as a statements item on the joint venture and its ownership split.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The AK-203 rifles contracted for the Indian armed forces are being manufactured at

  • (a)Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh
  • (b)Korwa, Amethi district, Uttar Pradesh
  • (c)Avadi, Tamil Nadu
  • (d)Medak, Telangana

  Answer(b) Korwa, Amethi district, Uttar Pradesh — by Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited, a joint venture with Russian partners.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The AK-203 was contracted mainly to replace which one of the following rifles in Indian service?

  • (a)INSAS
  • (b)Tavor
  • (c)Negev
  • (d)SIG-716

  Answer(a) INSAS — the indigenous rifle that had been standard issue and whose reliability complaints drove the search for a replacement.