Excalibur rifle

It is manufactured by Ordnance Factory Board in Rifle Factory Ishapore.

History

The Indian Army used the INSAS rifle from the late 1990s, and the rifle saw action during the Kargil War. The INSAS was said to be plagued with many reliability issues like cracking of the polymer magazines because of cold weather, oil being sprayed in the user's eyes and the rifle going into automatic mode when set on 3-round burst (the INSAS does not have an automatic mode).

In November 2011, the Indian Army sent a request for proposal (RFP) to 34 vendors for 65,678 multi-calibre rifles for about ₹2,500 crore (US$400 million). The tender also included a license to manufacture about 100,000 more rifles in India, with a total expenditure of the phasing out estimated at ₹5,500 crore (US$900 million). Similar tenders for a carbine and a LMG were also issued. However, the Army sent a letter to the manufacturers on 15 June 2015, to notify them that the tender had been retracted. In July 2015, it was reported that the INSAS may be replaced by the Modified INSAS rifle (MIR), which is based on the Excalibur. The decision was taken by General Dalbir Singh, who wanted an indigenous rifle.

After cancelling the tender, the army decided to pursue the new Excalibur rifle developed by the ARDE as a replacement for the older INSAS rifles.

On 3 July 2016, the Indian media reported that the Indian Army had rejected the Excalibur for its standard issue assault rifle as it did not match the requirements standard of the army.

In September 2016 the Indian Army announced that it was launching a tender for 185,000 7.62×51mm-caliber assault rifles. The Indian Army in October 2016 announced that Excalibur rifles will be adopted as an interim assault rifle until a suitable replacement is found.

In June 2017, the Excalibur was announced to have failed tests due to concerns about quality control and ineffective firepower.

In July 2018, the Indian Army announced that plans to adopt the Excalibur will not proceed.