New Delhi: 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,” according to sources.

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.

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 and 100 Barret M107 A1 heavy sniping rifles.

There is an urgent requirement of 20 million rounds of ammunition. These will be used in the small arms.