NEW DELHI: The government has dispatched a nine-member ‘empowered committee’, headed by an Army brigadier, to the United States, Australia,
South Korea, Israel and the UAE to scout for an initial limited quantity of new assault rifles and close-quarter battle (CQB) carbines for the armed forces.
This comes after the defence ministry finally set the ball rolling for the acquisition of 72,400 assault rifles and 93,895 CQB carbines, which were promised for
infantry soldiers deployed on the borders with China and
Pakistan under the fast-track procedure (FTP), by floating initial tenders or RFPs (requests for proposal) for them in March.