Thanks to Hollywood, automatic weapons like Uzi, AK-47, Walther and Beretta are big hit among visitors — both youngsters and professional soldiers — to the stalls displaying these sleek weapons at the ongoing international defence exhibition DefExpo 2014.
While the youngsters posed with the rifles, soldiers made discreet enquiries about the quality of weapons. Incidentally, the Army has floated a global tender to replace its standard- issue infantry rifle and the global giants are now vying for the Rs 10,000-crore contract for multi-calibre rifle.
Among other attractions at the four-day exhibition ending Sunday, the Israeli through-the- wall radar is hogging much limelight. It enables the security forces to identify the target behind the wall in multi-dimensional mode and take necessary action in neutralising it without causing collateral damage.
While more than 624 companies, including 256 Indian and 368 foreign companies are displaying state-of-the-art weapon systems ranging from tanks, submarines and electronic warfare, the stalls exhibiting automatic rifles and sub-machine guns are drawing the maximum crowds.
Youngsters got a chance to have a feel of these weapons, which they had so far only seen in Hollywood films, and they merrily posed with Russian made Dragunov sniper rifle capable of hitting a target at more than 1,000 metres, Israeli Uzi sub-machine gun and Walther and Beretta pistols.
These pistols are exclusively used by Special Forces commandos the world over and Arpit Bhalla, a student of documentary film making course run by YMCA, remarked that it was a dream- come-true for him to hold such a weapon in his hand.
Another college student while taking aim with the sniper rifle, urged his friend to take a photograph and said Sylvester ‘Rambo’ Stallone used to fire these weapons in his runaway hit film in the 1980s.
On a more serious note, a stream of professional soldiers are visiting these small arms stalls put up by Russia, Israel, Germany, Bulgaria and US amongst others to make critical assessment. Israel Weapon Industry (IWI) officials said many officers from the Army and paramilitary forces showed interest in Uzi Pro sub-machine gun, Galil sniper rifle and Tavor assault rifle.
At present, Indian security forces are using some of these Israeli made weapons but they one generation old and Israel has now unveiled its latest series of Uzi and Galil.This company along with Colt, Beretta, Sig Sauer and Ceska are in the race for the contract to replace more than ten lakh 5.56 mm INSAS rifles now used by the Indian Army.
Claiming to be better that its competitors, Beretta officials said their multi-caliber gun is lighter in weight and more effective in close quarter battle and standard infantry moves. While the officials were explaining the finer aspects of the gun to this reporter, some Indian Special Forces personnel were also keenly following the demonstration.
As regards through the wall radar, the IWI officials said they have sold some units to Indian para-military forces over the last three to four years for counter-insurgency and counter-terrorist operations but refused to quantify the numbers.
The compact radar can make out the number of people behind the wall and whether they are standing or sitting. The configurations are displayed in 3-D mode and the operational commanders on ground then take suitable action based on these images.