Recently, Indian paratroopers and Sri Lanka have conducted military exercises, how can India, as the number one military power in South Asia, give up the opportunity to perform? No, after the end of the exercise, the Indian paratroopers posed for the media to take pictures and show the outside world the "extremely powerful image of the Indian army"!
Realistically speaking, from the photos, it is really intimidating, single soldier armor, aramid helmet, bulletproof vest (the latter two are made in China), combat boots, polarized glasses that shield strong sunlight... Everything is available, and the image of the Indian army is sloppy.
But on closer inspection, this eight-man tactical squad (equivalent to a squad) actually used 4 models of rifles, of which 4 were equipped with Israeli "Tar-21" stockless assault rifles, 2 people used Russian-made AK assault rifles modified from stocks, 1 person was equipped with American-made M4 assault rifles, and machine gunners used Russian-made PKM universal machine guns, one of which Tar-21 and M4 were equipped with M203 grenade launchers, 4 types of guns and 3 kinds of ammunition, namely: Tar-21 and M4 assault rifles common 5.56* The caliber and ammunition of the 45-bullet, the 7.62*39 bullet for the AK assault rifle and the 7.62*54R bullet for the PKM general-purpose machine gun are too complicated.
The Tavol-21 (Tar-21) tortole assault rifle with the M203 40 mm grenade launcher, which was jointly developed by the Israeli company IMI and Barrett Company, there is too much information about it to be repeated, and the gun and the M4 plus M203 grenade launcher still need to say a few words.
M203 grenade launcher is the U.S. military equipped with M16A1, A2, A3 assault rifle accessories, firing 40 * 46 grenades, the maximum range of 400 meters, the strike point target 200 meters, there are two kinds of ammunition: fragmentation of personnel anti-personnel shells and armor-breaking bullets, fragmentation of the explosives is equivalent to an offensive grenade, armor-breaking bullets with a depth of 200 meters and 20 mm steel plate, which can effectively strike field fortifications and light armored vehicles.
Rifles can fire gun grenades during World War I, the purpose is to eliminate enemy heavy machine gun bunkers at a longer distance, to the further development of World War II, the picture is M1 "Garand" rifle firing gun grenades, but want to fire a long distance and more accurate hit the target, you need to master the firing angle, this is not a skill that anyone can master, generally speaking, the use of muzzle grenades to use a special "empty package", this bullet does not have a bullet after being fired to produce gas to push out the gun grenade, This is more troublesome in the use of procedures, and later designed a "bullet trapper" for the tail of the grenade, which can be fired directly with the bullet, but the probability of accurate hit by the muzzle grenade is very low, and the rifle cannot continue to shoot when firing the grenade, so although countries have designed gun grenades, they are rarely used.
The M203 grenade launcher can be fixed with two screws on the handguard of the gun, has better directivity, has a large amount of fire in the 40 mm shell, allows the grenade to shoot directly, and the effect of 200 meters against civil engineering and light armored vehicles is far better than that of earlier gun grenades.
Indian paratroopers also saw the convenience of use of the M203 grenade launcher and has a certain killing effect, which can better destroy the enemy fire point in street battles and low mountain operations.
In the first few years, the Indian army also purchased tens of thousands of M4 carbines, equipped with special forces /SWAT anti-terrorism units, mainly M4 carbines can be mounted with a lot of accessories, various types of aiming equipment, tactics, laser pointers... Etc., can effectively improve the accuracy of shooting, to paratroopers equipped with M4 is also out of this consideration, and the bullet can be used with the Tar-21 rifle, wartime there is a certain degree of ammunition mutual support, as for the 2 AK assault rifles are also equipped with its mechanical reliability, in case the Israeli and American rifles suddenly fail, the AK rifle can fill the firepower gap.
AK assault rifles are usually equipped with the northern mountains and the desert area bordering Pakistan in the west, the Indian army is currently equipped with more than 200,000 AK assault rifles of various models, but the main model is the AKM imported from the Soviet Union, and Pakistan has also introduced China's Type 56 submachine gun, which shows that the AK rifle is unparalleled in environmental adaptability and mechanical reliability.
Unlike the "Buren L4" machine gun equipped with the second-line troops and police forces of the Indian Army (caliber is 7.62 mm, firing 7.62 * 51 bullets), the Indian paratroopers are equipped with a Soviet-made PKM general-purpose machine gun, which uses a 100-round magazine to supply ammunition, the firepower sustainability is much higher than that of the "Buren L4", and adheres to the characteristics of the Soviet-made gun leather and durability, and the mechanical reliability.
PKM general purpose machine gun fires 7.62 * 54R bullets, ammunition can not be used with AK assault rifles, and a machine gunner himself can only carry 500 rounds of bullets, in principle, other people in the combat squad have to help him carry a 100 rounds of ammunition box or 100 rounds of ammunition chain, I don't know if the rest of the Paratrooper Eight in India is also like this, to know that the machine gun is the core weapon of the squad squad, if it is because there is no bullet dud, then the rest of the squad will be suppressed by the enemy light machine gun... The movie "Lonely Survivors" has been seen by everyone, and the "SEAL 4" was completely suppressed by the other side's PKM because there was no light machine gun....
Looking at the armband, this is still India's "Cobra SWAT Anti-Terrorism Force".
The Indian army currently has no less than 20 gun models and bullet types, the United States, Russia, Europe, Israel... Well-known light weapons in other countries have, veritable "universal brand", which has brought great pressure to the logistics and military production of the army, and it has been reported before; the Indian army is extremely short of bullets, and the production capacity of each caliber model does not meet the minimum reserve standard of tens of millions of rounds / year, and it is impossible to cope with the needs of medium-scale war.
In view of the poor performance of the self-developed "Yingsas" rifle, India wanted to introduce the Russian-made A203 assault rifle last year, planning to produce 700,000 pieces, which is actually the "ultimate version of AKM", which is a low-tech weapon, and the Russian army itself cannot see it, only India's army with a huge number of illiterates is purchased.
In short, "light weapons are not light"! Is a very high discipline, the world can develop from pistols to heavy machine guns (including automatic grenade launchers) on its own countries, need millions of designers, engineers and senior technicians to complete the design and large-scale production, small and medium-sized countries certainly can not constitute the whole industrial chain, in a certain field has been very difficult to achieve, India such a former industrialized country is not imagined.