'Asmi': India's first indigenous machine pistol developed by Indian Army & DRDO in big win

The Defence Ministry on Thursday said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Army have jointly developed the country's first indigenous 9 mm machine pistol named ''Asmi". It said the Army's infantry school in Mhow and the DRDO's Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) in Pune have designed and developed the weapon.

'The weapon has potential for exports': Defence Ministry

The ministry said the weapon has been developed in a record time of four months. "The machine pistol fires the in-service 9mm ammunition and sports an upper receiver made from aircraft-grade aluminium and lower receiver from carbon fibre. A 3-dimensional printing process has been used in designing and prototyping of various parts including trigger components made by metal 3D printing," the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

The statement said the weapon has huge potential in armed forces as a personal weapon for heavy weapon detachments, commanders, tank and aircraft crews, drivers/dispatch riders, radio/radar operators, closed quarter battle, counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations etc. The weapon is also likely to find huge employability with the central and state police organizations as well as VIP protection duties and Policing, it added. 

"The machine pistol is likely to have a production cost under Rs 50,000 each and has potential for exports," the statement said. The weapon is aptly named “Asmi” meaning “Pride”, “Self-Respect" and “Hard Work”.

"Keeping the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of Aatmnirbhar Bharat in view, this small step will pave way for self-reliance and it is expected that the Services and Paramilitary Forces (PMFs) will induct this expeditiously," the Defence Ministry said.

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India clears Tejas LCA fighter jet deal 

Meanwhile, in a major decision aimed at boosting the domestic aerospace industry, India on Wednesday approved a much-awaited deal worth Rs 48,000 crore to procure 83 indigenously-developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas for the Indian Air Force. The decision to procure the fleet was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said.

Around three years back, the Indian Air Force had issued an initial tender for procurement of 83 Tejas aircraft, a four-and-half generation combat jet which is manufactured by the state-run aerospace behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL). The IAF has already inducted a batch of Tejas aircraft as part of its initial order of 40 jets.

In a statement, the Defence Ministry said the government approved procurement of 73 LCA Tejas of Mk-1A variant and 10 LCA Tejas Mk-1 trainer aircraft at the cost of Rs 45,696 crore along with design and development of infrastructure worth Rs 1,202 crore.

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(With agency inputs)