The Indian Army is all set to purchase small arms through a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route from a US-based firm FN Herstal for the Special Forces (SF). “The 7.62 x 51 mm FN SCAR, made by a US unit of Belgium’s FN Herstal, is being purchased by the Army under its own financial powers and is roughly around Rs. 200-300 crore,” confirmed a source.

The 7.62 x 51 mm FN Scar, is going to help in the upgrading of the firepower of SF in the dense jungles of the Northeast and Myanmar and will be replacing the ‘1B’ LMGs which were manufactured by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) almost a few decades ago. These small weapons are considered to be of critical value for the Special Forces as support weapons enabling them with heavy firepower.

The modernisation of the Special Forces has been pending since 2005 and last year a decision was taken to start the process gradually of the Special Forces and a decision to procure from the US through the FMS route was taken.

This 7.62 mm a general-purpose machine gun was designed in the 1950s at the Fabrique Nationale (FN) in Belgium by a man named Ernest Vervier. In India, this has been licensed produced by OFB.

The modernisation of the Special Forces has been pending since 2005 and last year a decision was taken to start the process gradually of the Special Forces and a decision to procure from the US through the FMS route was taken.

More About FN MAG

The FN SCAR-H assault rifle 7.62mm is designed to operate with NATO spec 7.62x51mm or 308 Winchester calibre ammunition. It has a magazine capacity of 20 cartridges. A 10-round option magazine is available. The magazine can be removed from the weapon thanks to an ambidextrous magazine release. With this release, both right- and left-hand shooters can get faster, easier reloads while keeping the rifle on target. The 7.62×51mm NATO is a rimless bottlenecked rifle cartridge designed and developed by FN Herstal in the 1950s to replace different types of infantry ammunition used by the various NATO member states. This became the first NATO standard calibre for small arms in 1957. Although not identical, the 7.62×51mm NATO and the commercial .308 Winchester calibre are similar enough to be loaded in rifles chambered for the other round, but the Winchester .308 cartridges are typically loaded to higher pressures than 7.62×51mm NATO service cartridges. The FN SCAR-H can fire all types of 7.62mm ammunition.

Key Features

The FN SCAR-H assault rifle 7.62mm features a foldable buttstock, which provides a more compact weapon package in aircraft and vehicle deployments. The buttstock can be folded to the right thanks to a lock button located on the left side. When the buttstock is folded, it is still possible to shoot and operate. The standard FN SCAR buttstock module is adjustable for length of pull (LOP) and cheek rest height to allow the stock to be adjusted to fit the gear of the operator. The buttstock is adjustable in length with six positions, numbered from 1 to 6. Each adjustment is equal to .50” for a total of 2.50" of LOP adjustment. The cheek rest is adjustable with 2 positions. Additional buttstock configurations are available on request. The FN SCAR-H rifle includes rear and front iron sights that are fully adjustable and foldable. A full range of accessories can be mounted on the top receiver (scopes) and side and lower Picatinny rails (such as red dot sight, flashlight, bipod, vertical grip).

The Wish List of Special Forces Includes

715 Mk 48 Light Machine Guns (LMGs)
1,050 FN Scar (H) 7.62×51 assault rifles
1,400 FN Scar (L) or HK-416 assault rifles
110 .50 Cal Browning heavy machine guns (HMG)
400 helmet-mounted night vision systems
600 combat free fall parachutes
100 Barret M107 A1 heavy sniping rifles