Ministry of Defence on Tuesday granted final approval to the AK-203 assault rifle deal worth Rs 5000 crore ahead of the Russian President’s visit to New Delhi.
As per this deal, around 7.5 lakh AK-203 assault rifles will be manufactured in Amethi of Uttar Pradesh. The AK-203 rifle deal, which may be signed during the visit, was approved by the defence acquisition council (DAC) on Tuesday during a meeting, sources told ANI.
As per the sources, the first 70,000 rifles out of the total 7.5 lakh will have Russian-origin components due to the slow process of transfer of technology. These rifles will be delivered to the Indian army after 32 months of the production process starts.
The deal has been consented to by both Indian and Russian sides a few years ago and now the final major issue of the transfer of technology would be resolved, the sources added.
