The Ministry of Defence (MoD) on Thursday signed a ₹880-crore contract with the Israeli Weapon Industries (IWI) for 16,479 Light Machine Guns (LMG).
“The Acquisition Wing of MoD has signed the capital acquisition contract with Israel Weapons Industries for procurement of 16,479 LMGs at a cost of ₹880 crore with the approval of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh,” the Ministry said in a statement.
The contracted Negev 7.62X51 mm LMG is a combat-proven weapon and currently used by several countries and would greatly enhance the lethality and range of a soldier compared to the presently used weapon, it said.
The Army has recently begun inducting the first batch of 10,000 SIG-716 assault rifles with troops engaged in counter-insurgency operations in the Northern Command. The rifles are being procured under a contract signed in February 2019 with Sig Sauer of the U.S. for 72,400 SIG-716 assault rifles worth over ₹700 crore.
The Army is also close to signing the final deal for the procurement of over 7.5 lakh AK-203 assault rifles most of which would be manufactured locally by an India-Russia Joint Venture (JV) under technology transfer.
