DRDO's carbine successfully completes Army's user trials

At a time when the Indian Army is hunting for a new carbine, a DRDO-designed 5.56x30 mm protective carbine has successfully undergone the final phase of user trials on December 7, 2020, meeting all the qualitative parameters.

The Army has been looking for a carbine for many years. Recently, its tender was stuck at the final stage in which a middle-Eastern weapon was selected.

The successful trial of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) carbine has paved the way for induction into the services. This was the last leg of trials in a series of user trials which have been carried out in extreme temperature conditions in summer and high altitudes in winter.

According to the Defence Ministry, the Joint Venture Protective Carbine (JVPC) has successfully met the stringent performance criteria of reliability and accuracy in addition to quality trials conducted by the Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA).

JVPC is a gas-operated semi-bull-pup automatic weapon having more than 700 rpm rate of fire. The effective range of the carbine is more than 100 m and weighs about 3.0 kg with key features like high reliability, low recoil, retractable butt, ergonomic design, single hand firing capability, and multiple picatinny rails etc. These features make it a very potent weapon for counter-insurgency/counter-terrorism operations by security agencies.

The carbine has been designed as per the Indian Army's GSQR, by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), a Pune based laboratory of DRDO. The weapon is manufactured at a small-arms factory, Kanpur while the ammunition is manufactured at an ammunition factory, Kirkee Pune.

The weapon has already passed the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) trials and procurement action is initiated by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and various state police organisations.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had unveiled the 5.56 x 30 mm JVPC during DefExpo- 2020 at Lucknow.