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Excalibur is an assault rifle which is derived from the INSAS Rifle, which is the standard rifle of the Indian Army. The rifle has many improvements over the INSAS rifle and is slated to replace the INSAS as the Indian Army’s standard assault rifle.
In November 2011, the Indian Army sent a request for proposal (RFP) for 65,678 multi-caliber rifles for about Rs. 4,848 Crore. However, the Army sent a letter to the manufacturers on 15 June 2015, to notify them that the tender has been retracted. After cancelling the tender, the army decided to pursue the new Excalibur rifle developed by the Rifle Factory Ishapore as a replacement for the INSAS rifles.
Excalibur rifle(MIR) is lighter, more compact and fully automatic capable (INSAS is not full auto capable) version of INSAS. The Three Round Burst mode of INSAS rifle is excluded from Excalibur. It is better than INSAS in both open field operations as well as close quarters. Successive improvements were done by Rifle Factory Ishapore on the basis of feedback received from the infantry officers after trials.
The gas-operated, fully automatic rifle has a foldable butt, Picatinny rail for mounting Holographic, telescopic & night sights, sensors and bipods. The Excalibur’s barrel is 4 mm shorter than that of the INSAS and its hand guard is smaller. The recoil is less with good accuracy and effective range than INSAS.
Excalibur rifle performs well on a very large range of temperature -50 to 50 degree Celsius. Many weapons of foreign origin like Beretta ARX 160, CZ-805 BREN, IMI Galil ACE 1, Colt M4 and SIG SG551 were unable to work efficiently over this range.
One good thing about INSAS platform is that it works on a long stroke piston and has very simple chambering using only two locking lugs. Other very important is that it is dirt cheap. Excalibur inherits these properties already. Weight and rate of fire is excellent.
On 1st September 2015 Gen Singh, accompanied by Lieutenant General Sanjay Kulkarni, Director General Infantry (DGI), visited the Rifle Factory Ishapore and personally conducted the ‘water’ and ‘mud’ tests on the rifle, which it reportedly cleared. The Army tested the Excalibur in 2014-2015. The trials were a success as the rifle passed a majority of tests which included many tests many foreign rifles were not able to pass. Some of the trials include –
# User reliability trails
# Firing the rifle after submerging it in water and mud for about half an hour.
# Checking the number of stoppages after firing 24,000 rounds. The Excalibur had only 2 stoppages which was near the expectations of the Army who expected only one stoppage.
Excalibur rifle is awaiting for last round of user trials and final certification from Indian Army. If the Excalibur clears trials ie one stoppage after firing 24,000 rounds, it will be manufactured by the OFB in Rifle Factory Ishapore and could be in the hands of infantry soldiers within two years.
In November 2011, the Indian Army sent a request for proposal (RFP) for 65,678 multi-caliber rifles for about Rs. 4,848 Crore. However, the Army sent a letter to the manufacturers on 15 June 2015, to notify them that the tender has been retracted. After cancelling the tender, the army decided to pursue the new Excalibur rifle developed by the Rifle Factory Ishapore as a replacement for the INSAS rifles.
Excalibur rifle(MIR) is lighter, more compact and fully automatic capable (INSAS is not full auto capable) version of INSAS. The Three Round Burst mode of INSAS rifle is excluded from Excalibur. It is better than INSAS in both open field operations as well as close quarters. Successive improvements were done by Rifle Factory Ishapore on the basis of feedback received from the infantry officers after trials.
The gas-operated, fully automatic rifle has a foldable butt, Picatinny rail for mounting Holographic, telescopic & night sights, sensors and bipods. The Excalibur’s barrel is 4 mm shorter than that of the INSAS and its hand guard is smaller. The recoil is less with good accuracy and effective range than INSAS.
Excalibur rifle performs well on a very large range of temperature -50 to 50 degree Celsius. Many weapons of foreign origin like Beretta ARX 160, CZ-805 BREN, IMI Galil ACE 1, Colt M4 and SIG SG551 were unable to work efficiently over this range.
One good thing about INSAS platform is that it works on a long stroke piston and has very simple chambering using only two locking lugs. Other very important is that it is dirt cheap. Excalibur inherits these properties already. Weight and rate of fire is excellent.
On 1st September 2015 Gen Singh, accompanied by Lieutenant General Sanjay Kulkarni, Director General Infantry (DGI), visited the Rifle Factory Ishapore and personally conducted the ‘water’ and ‘mud’ tests on the rifle, which it reportedly cleared. The Army tested the Excalibur in 2014-2015. The trials were a success as the rifle passed a majority of tests which included many tests many foreign rifles were not able to pass. Some of the trials include –
# User reliability trails
# Firing the rifle after submerging it in water and mud for about half an hour.
# Checking the number of stoppages after firing 24,000 rounds. The Excalibur had only 2 stoppages which was near the expectations of the Army who expected only one stoppage.
Excalibur rifle is awaiting for last round of user trials and final certification from Indian Army. If the Excalibur clears trials ie one stoppage after firing 24,000 rounds, it will be manufactured by the OFB in Rifle Factory Ishapore and could be in the hands of infantry soldiers within two years.
