NEW DELHI: The joint venture of Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited was established in 2019 between Indian and Russian defence entities.
A Rs 12,000 crore contract by the Ministry of Defence for the purchase of close-quarter carbine guns for the Indian Army has run into rough weather after one company was not allowed to participate in the field trials on “financial grounds”. This company has pointed out ambiguities in the tender document, which are attributed to mistakes made by officials in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) during the preparation and execution of the tender. The company claims that these issues have affected the fairness of the selection process
This has led to the said company, “Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL)”, a joint venture established in 2019 between Indian and Russian defence entities filing a case in the Delhi High Court, which has now issued notices to the defence ministry and listed the matter for 21 October. It has applied for the bid through its authorized Indian vendor, BSS Material Private Limited.
The company has also filed representation with the Prime Minister’s Office and the Chief Vigilance Commission highlighting the “untenable” and “ambiguous” grounds on which they were not allowed to participate in the trials despite offering, what they claim, is the “best gun” at the “lowest price” among all its competitors. However, their guns could not be evaluated on these two parameters because they were not allowed to participate in the trial.
As per the court documents, 47 vendors were issued Request for Proposal (RFP), which is used to solicit proposals from potential contractors or suppliers for a specific project or service. Out of this, 15 submitted their bids. Apart from BSS, the 14 companies who submitted their bids were: Counter Measures Tech Private Limited, Neco Desert Tech Defence Private Limited, Raspian Enterprise Private Limited, Defined Enterprise Private Limited, Jindal Defence System Limited, Kalyani Strategic System Limited, Paavak Industry Private Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited, Delta Combat System, Bharat Forge, PLR Private Limited, SAF Kanpur, SS-LMT and ICOMM.
However, only eight were finally allowed to compete in the bid: Jindal Defence, ICOMM, Bharat Forge, PLR Private Limited, Kalyani Strategic System Limited, Paavak Industry, Bharat Electronics Limited (which had tied up with Italy’s Beretta) and SAF Kanpur.
Kalyani Strategic Systems Limited (KSSL) is a subsidiary of Bharat Forge Limited and both entities had applied separately for the same bid, offering two separate weapons.Five others—Raspian, Neco, Counter Measure, Defined, Delta, SS-LMT and BSS—were not allowed to participate on the grounds of not meeting the “net worth” criteria.
It is pertinent to mention that IRRPL was incorporated on 25 February 2019 as a joint venture between Indian and Russian defence entities to manufacture the AK-203 assault rifle in India. The joint venture was set up under an Inter-Governmental Agreement between India and Russia to produce over 600,000 AK-203 rifles for the Indian Armed Forces. The shareholders in IRRPL are Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited (AWEIL), Munitions India Limited (MIL) and two Russian shareholders—Concern Kalashnikov which designs AK rifles and Rosoboronexport.
Rosoboronexport is the sole state intermediary agency for Russia’s exports/imports of defence-related and dual-use products, technologies and service. The manufacturing facility for IRRPL is located in Korwa, Amethi district, Uttar Pradesh.
This tie-up was seen as strategically important as it not only strengthened India-Russia defence ties but also contributed to India’s goal of becoming a leading manufacturer of small arms in South and Southeast Asia, fostering local industry and technology transfer.The proposal for close quarter carbines was first floated in May 2017 and the final request for proposal was released in November 2022 for 425,213 unit carbines for the Indian Army.IRRPL, which had offered AK19(K), which is based on AK-12, the newest generation of Kalashnikov which was recently accepted by the Russian military, was told in December 2023 by the Technical Evaluation Committee that they were not eligible for participating in the bid because of not meeting the set guideline for average turnover and net worth, while referring to the financials of the authorized vendor. As per the tender documents, AK19(K) was especially developed for this specific tender, and for India, BSS the local vendor of IRRPL was able to get a “special” price of Rs 127,700 (plus taxes) per unit from the manufacturers for this tender, apart from a service life of 15 years or 15,000 rounds. The said price was $720 less than the current price of AK19(K). The price of the export version of AK19(K) is otherwise quoted to be US$2,750 for a minimum 100,000 units.
The company was willing to finally agree to a lower price of Rs 1 lakh per piece for this specific tender.
Similarly, its annual maintenance contract too was around 5%, which is considered as amongst the lowest in such tenders. The said gun, as per the company, would bring more economic benefits in terms of maintainability and interchangeability as it’s from the same family of Kalashnikov which the Indian Army is already inducting.
IRRPL had used titanium pins in the gun, whereas most guns that have been shortlisted for the tender, have pins made of steel. AK19(K) has been specifically made with an extendable and retractable 88 MM butt, which can be used easily by both “short” soldiers and “tall” soldiers.
In its filing before the Delhi High Court and other officers, it has stated that neither the tender document nor the Defence Acquisition Procedure (2020) has any rules stating that the financial criteria of the authorized vendor will be checked and not that of the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), a ground on which IRRPL was not allowed to participate.
The company, as per the documents accessed by The Sunday Guardian, wrote at least three letters explaining that as per practice while checking the financial criteria, the committee should check the books of IRRPL and not that of the vendor as the vendor was not the manufacturer.
A company official, while commenting on the developments, said that this was a serious ambiguity in the tender document and there was no reason as to why serious, established names were not allowed to participate in the evaluation trials and were rejected prematurely while stating that they want to be allowed to at least participate in the trials so that if the rejection has to happen, it can happen on the quality of the gun rather than ambiguous terms in the tender documents.The trial evaluation in India is being held on a “No Cost No Commitment” basis under which everything, including the cartridges, is to be borne by the manufacturer. The buyer, at its own expense, will depute its representatives for the Field Evaluation Trials (FETs).
The short-listed guns will undergo high altitude winter trials in the coming days. Overall, the guns will have to go through sand and dust test, mud test, water immersion test, rain test, humidity test, drop test, low temp test, high temp test and salt water test.
The selected carbine should be able withstand extreme environmental conditions like minimum temperature between minus 20.0 C and minus 10.0 C. and maximum temperature between 40.0 C and 45.0 C. and humidity of 90% at 30.0 C. As per the tender document, the overall quantities of the carbine will be split between L1(lowest bidder) and L2 vendors. The L1 vendor will have to supply 255,128 units while L2 will have to supply 170,085 units.In case the L2 vendor doesn’t agree to meet the cost and terms and conditions of the L1 vendor, the entire quantities of CQB Carbine will be supplied by the L1 vendor.As per rules, the Technical Offset Evaluation Committee is chaired by senior officials from the military and civilian bureaucracy.The case is now listed for 21 October in front of the Chief Justice bench and company officials said that they would be approaching the Supreme Court too, if the need arises, as they have a “strong” reason to support their claims.Close quarter carbines are specialized firearms designed for use in close quarters combat (CQC), which involves engagements at very short ranges, typically within 100 meters. These carbines are lightweight, short-barrelled variations of standard rifles, making them more portable and easier to manoeuvre in confined spaces such as buildings or urban environments.