AK-203


The AK-203 is a Russian gas-operated assault rifle designed to chamber the 7.62×39mm cartridge. It is one of the latest iterations of the AK series of assault rifles originally designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov. The AK-203 was developed in the 2010s by Kalashnikov Concern in Russia, primarily operated by Indian Armed Forces.

History

In 2019, India and Russia signed a Inter-Governmental Agreement. On 3 March the same year, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi inaugurated Indo-Russia Rifles in Korwa, Uttar Pradesh. The Joint Venture, tasked for the production of AK-200 rifle family, included partnership among India's Ordnance Factory Board and Russia's Rosoboronexport and Kalashnikov Concern under the parentship of Rostec. By then, the production of 750,000 rifles was approved.
As of February 2020, the production, which was originally expected to commence in May that year, was delayed initially to 2020-end due to pricing disagreements. One of the objectives of the project was for India to have 100% indigenisation on the production of the rifles. However, this meant that initially, the domestically produced rifles would be 20–25% costlier than those imported from Russia. The production of rifles would begin only after the JV submits a "competitive" commercial bid. Later, due to the travel bans during COVID-19 pandemic, negotiations were further delayed and a fresh bid could not be submitted which meant the production would not begin in 2020.
As of August 2021, India reportedly purchased 70,000 AK-203 rifles from Russia. The deliveries would begin from within three months.
In December 2021, India signed a -worth contract with Kalashnikov Concern for the procurement of 601,427 rifles from IRRPL. For the first batch of 70,000 rifles to be manufactured, the indigenous content would rise from 5% to 70%, while the remaining rifles would have 100% indigenous content. The full-scale production could be reached in 2–3 years.

Design

The AK-203 is chambered for 7.62×39 and it uses AK-type magazines. It weighs 3.8 kg, and has a length of 690 mm with the stock folded, or 930 mm with it extended.
Its rate of fire is 700 rounds per minute. Its polymer front housing free floating case has been accused of being difficult to handle according to combat footage from the Russo-Ukraine war. It has a birdcage type muzzle brake device for better handling of rifle and flatter trajectory of bullet.
An individual AK-203 has 50 components and 180 sub-components and is built to fire at least 15,000 rounds in its life.

Adoption

India

The AK-203, nicknamed Sher, is the fourth generation of standard-issue rifle of the Infantry of the Indian Army following — Lee–Enfield .303 bolt action rifle, L1A1 Self-Loading 7.62 NATO semi-automatic rifle and INSAS 5.56 assault rifle.
The AK-203 is produced in India by Indo-Russia Rifles Private Limited at an -facility at Korwa Ordnance Factory in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. The company has 50.5% Indian ownership and 49.5% Russian ownership.

2022

On 25 January 2022, Russia supplied the first batch of 70,000 AK-203 rifles to the Indian Air Force. Meanwhile, the rest of the 600,000 rifles that are to be produced by Indo-Russia Rifles in India under technology transfer will be used by the Indian Army.

2023–24

The production of the rifles in India began in January 2023. On 3 February 2023, Alexander Mikheev, director general of Rosoboronexport, announced that the first batch of AK-203s were completed at Amethi. On 12 October 2023, it was reported that Kalashnikov Concern completed shipment of machinery and tools for India to manufacture AK-203s.
On 5 July 2024, Rostec announced that Indo-Russia Rifles Pvt. Ltd. had delivered 35,000 rifles to the Indian Army. As of then, the rifles had an indigenous content of 25%. The deliveries were completed in batches of 27,000 rifles on 20 May and 8,000 rifles on 5 July.

2025

As of February, IRRPL expects to deliver 70,000 and 100,000 rifles to the Army in 2025 and 2026, respectively.
As of 17 July, IRRPL 48,000 rifles were delivered to the Indian Army with an additional batch of 7,000 units to be delivered within the next 2–3 weeks. Meanwhile, the Indian produced rifles has achieved an indigenous content of 50% while the same of 70% and 100% is expected to be achieved by October and December, respectively.
The first batch of fully indigenised 15,000 rifles are to be delivered in December. Following the complete indigenisation, the rifle will be rebranded as Sher and production rate will rise to 12,000 units monthly which equates to a unit every 100 seconds or about 150,000 units annually. The deliveries are expected to be executed by December 2030 ahead of the contract schedule of October 2032. By now, the Indian Army has started phasing out the standard issue INSAS rifles.
Further, the Indian manufacturing facility currently employs 260 personnel, including permanent Russian experts, which is planned to be expanded to 537 personnel, which would include 90% Indians. The company also received 100% of technology and its testing has also been indigenised against the earlier practice of the parts to be approved from Russia.
So far, 60 critical components have been indigenised which are supplied by vendors pan-India and then assembled and tested in India. All the components have an alternate Indian supplier already.
On 9 September, 5,000 units were delivered to the Indian Army following trials under the supervision of a team representing the Director General of Quality Assurance in August.

Export

In an interview with Maria Vorobieva, Director of Kalashnikov Concern's Public Relations Department in October 2021, she said that some Asian nations, including those from the Commonwealth of Independent States, are interested in acquiring the AK-203.
On September 25, 2024, it was revealed that following the sanctions imposed on Russia, several Middle Eastern and African countries were reported to have enquired with IRRPL regarding export of the rifle.
In April 2025, it was reported that the Kerala Police are looking at procuring the AK-203 with proposals to export it to Nepal.

Users

  • : 118,000 delivered. Total 670,000 rifles planned for the Indian Army and the Indian Air Force.
  • * Indian Army: Total 53,000 delivered as of September 2025 with 601,427 units on order.
  • * Indian Air Force: 70,000 delivered directly from Russia from January 2022.