Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited

Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited holds the barrel-making half of the former Ordnance Factory Board. Registered in Kanpur in August 2021 and trading from 1 October that year, it is one of seven government-owned defence companies created by the corporatisation, and it inherited eight plants whose lineage runs back to the Gun Carriage Agency established at Cossipore in 1801. The unit list explains the product range better than any brochure. Rifle Factory Ishapore in West Bengal has been making rifles since 1904 and gave the Indian Army the 2A1 and the licence-built 7.62 mm 1A1 self-loading rifle. Small Arms Factory Kanpur and Ordnance Factory Kanpur sit at the registered office. Ordnance Factory Tiruchirappalli, opened in 1966 after the 1965 war, is the largest small arms plant in the country and carries the widest catalogue. Field Gun Factory Kanpur handles large calibre ordnance end to end, from steel melting and heat treatment through machining, assembly and proof firing, on a 104 hectare site. Gun Carriage Factory Jabalpur builds towed artillery, Gun and Shell Factory Cossipore produces medium calibre guns, mortars, elevating masses and fuzes, and Ordnance Factory Project Korwa completes the group.

Small arms are the volume business. The range covers the INSAS 5.56 mm rifle family and the 1B1 variant, the 7.62 mm 1A1, the 7.62x39 mm Trichy Assault Rifle now widely carried by central and state police forces, the 5.56x30 mm Joint Venture Protective Carbine designed by DRDO's armament establishment as a Sterling replacement, a 9 mm machine pistol, a close quarter battle carbine and the Vidhwansak multi-calibre anti-materiel rifle. Crew-served and vehicle weapons include the 7.62 mm MAG general purpose machine gun, a modernised tank machine gun, the 12.7 mm air defence gun, an automatic grenade launcher, the 30 mm cannon and the 23 mm Ghasha gun. Grenade and shell launchers form their own cluster, with the 40 mm multi grenade launcher, the 38 mm multi shell launcher used for riot control and the 40x46 mm under barrel grenade launcher, of which the company reports more than 21,000 delivered. Training devices such as the 14.5 mm sub calibre device round the list out.

Large calibre weapons are the prestige line, and the centrepiece is Dhanush, a 155 mm 45 calibre towed howitzer developed at Gun Carriage Factory Jabalpur from the Bofors technology transfer, cleared for series production in 2019 and in service with the Indian Army out to 38 kilometres. The 105 mm Light Field Gun and the Indian Field Gun remain in production for mountain formations. Recoil systems are supplied as a separate product group, and a set of inter-unit items moves between the factories. A civil arms catalogue sells revolvers, pistols, sporting rifles and pump action shotguns to licensed Indian buyers under names including Nirbheek, Anmol, Ashani and Nishank. Customers listed by the company span the three services, DRDO, the central armed police forces, state police, foreign governments and industrial partners.