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CRPF asks govt to replace Insas guns with AK rifles
Deeptiman Tiwary, TNN
Nov 13, 2014, 05.30AM IST
NEW DELHI: At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is stressing on 'Make in India', CRPF has said bye-bye to locally made Insas rifles. The largest force fighting Maoists has written to the government to replace all Insas rifles it uses with AK (47/56) rifles because of the former's poor operational quality.
CRPF has said the gun gets frequently jammed at crucial times and is a danger to the life of jawans during anti-Naxal and anti-insurgency operations. The move, if approved by the government, would mean massive procurement of AK guns in the years to come as over 40% of guns used by the three lakh strong force are Insas rifles.
"We have sent a proposal to the government that all Insas rifles with the force be replaced by AK rifles. The Insas has a problem of jamming. Compared to AK and X-95 guns, Insas fails far more frequently. While the error percentage in AK guns is 0.02%, in Insas it is 3%," CRPF DG Dilip Trivedi said.
Sources said the force is expected to use the inferior quality Insas guns just because it is indigenously produced by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). "The government must ponder if it's okay to lose the lives of our jawans to promote a faulty indigenous gun," said another CRPF officer.
The move is a fallout of the government's push to the forces to launch all-out offensive against Maoists. This has resulted in the force increasingly using area weapons such as 81 mm mortar guns and automatic grenade launchers. "While we had these guns earlier, we used them sparingly. However, now we have done extensive training with BSF and are using them more and more," Trivedi said.
Mine protected vehicles (MPVs), however, are not finding favour with the force with the vehicles being increasingly proving ineffective due to the massiveamount of explosives used by Maoists in a mine. Ironically, they are now being used on those roads which have been checked by a road opening party and cleared of mines. "MPVs are to be used sparingly and only when we are sure there is no mine under the road. Maoists are using as much as 100 kg of explosives in a mine, making the utility of MPVs ineffective," Trivedi said.
Deeptiman Tiwary, TNN
Nov 13, 2014, 05.30AM IST
NEW DELHI: At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is stressing on 'Make in India', CRPF has said bye-bye to locally made Insas rifles. The largest force fighting Maoists has written to the government to replace all Insas rifles it uses with AK (47/56) rifles because of the former's poor operational quality.
CRPF has said the gun gets frequently jammed at crucial times and is a danger to the life of jawans during anti-Naxal and anti-insurgency operations. The move, if approved by the government, would mean massive procurement of AK guns in the years to come as over 40% of guns used by the three lakh strong force are Insas rifles.
"We have sent a proposal to the government that all Insas rifles with the force be replaced by AK rifles. The Insas has a problem of jamming. Compared to AK and X-95 guns, Insas fails far more frequently. While the error percentage in AK guns is 0.02%, in Insas it is 3%," CRPF DG Dilip Trivedi said.
Sources said the force is expected to use the inferior quality Insas guns just because it is indigenously produced by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). "The government must ponder if it's okay to lose the lives of our jawans to promote a faulty indigenous gun," said another CRPF officer.
The move is a fallout of the government's push to the forces to launch all-out offensive against Maoists. This has resulted in the force increasingly using area weapons such as 81 mm mortar guns and automatic grenade launchers. "While we had these guns earlier, we used them sparingly. However, now we have done extensive training with BSF and are using them more and more," Trivedi said.
Mine protected vehicles (MPVs), however, are not finding favour with the force with the vehicles being increasingly proving ineffective due to the massiveamount of explosives used by Maoists in a mine. Ironically, they are now being used on those roads which have been checked by a road opening party and cleared of mines. "MPVs are to be used sparingly and only when we are sure there is no mine under the road. Maoists are using as much as 100 kg of explosives in a mine, making the utility of MPVs ineffective," Trivedi said.
