In India, the AK-203 assault rifle, entirely made from local parts and materials, was assembled and tested for the first time. The prototype was produced by the Russian-Indian enterprise Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL) at its factory in Korwa, Amethi district.
The assault rifle passed firing tests, including burst firing, said IRRPL CEO Major General Sudhir Kumar Sharma. The enterprise now plans to produce several more such rifles and hand them over to the Indian army for tests in September.
At the same time, IRRPL plans to increase production rates to one AK-203 every 100 seconds. According to Sharma, this will accelerate the delivery of about 600,000 assault rifles to the military by almost a year.
The AK-203 is a version of the AK-200 assault rifle chambered for 7.62×39 mm ammunition, used by the Indian army. The main feature of the “200 series” is the ability to install modern sighting systems on a Picatinny rail while maintaining high reliability of automation.
India remains the largest importer of Russian weaponry. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia supplies about 36% of Delhi's weaponry.
Indo-Russian Rifles delivered the first 35,000 AK-203s to the Indian Ministry of Defence in July 2024. By that time, the enterprise had completed the first phase of the project, and the factory in Korwa was prepared for a further increase in the share of local production.
Licensed production of the AK-203 began to bring Russian enterprises more than $100 million by September 2025. Deliveries of assault rifles to the Indian Ministry of Defence began in 2023, and the total production volume under the contract exceeds 600,000 units. The parties continued to increase the level of localization, transferring the production of an increasing number of rifle components to Indian enterprises.