NEW DELHI, August 23. /TASS/. The joint Russian-Indian venture Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited (IRRPL) plans to supply the Indian Armed Forces with another 20,000 Kalashnikov AK-203 assault rifles by the end of this year, IRRPL CEO and Managing Director Major General Sudhir Kumar Sharma said in an interview with TASS.

"In December of last year, that is about 8 months back, the first rifle was delivered to Indian Army. [To date] we have already delivered 35,000 rifles which have reached Indian Army and are being used by the soldiers in field, on ground today," Sharma said.

"We are right now in the process of preparing next 20,000 rifles of stage 2, which we intend to deliver [to Indian Army] by December 2024," he said adding that these 20,000 rifles would have 15% components made in India.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the creation of a joint Indian-Russian venture to manufacture Kalashnikov assault rifles in the country in March 2019.

Indo-Russian Rifles Private Limited for the production of AK-203 was established in the Korwa area of the Amethi district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The founders of the enterprise from the Russian side are Rosoboronexport and the Kalashnikov concern of the Rostec state corporation.

India has become the first foreign country to manufacture the 200s series of Kalashnikov assault rifles. The AK-203 assault rifle in the configuration for the Indian Armed Forces was first presented at the international arms exhibition Defexpo India 2020. Unlike its predecessor, the AK-203 is equipped with an anatomical Magpul-type buttstock and a more comfortable pistol grip. Picatinny rails for mounting various sights are located on the reinforced cover of the receiver and the upper part of the modernized fore-end. MIL-STD-1913 standard rails are also installed at the bottom of the fore-end (for bipods, front grip or tactical flashlight) and on its sides (for laser sight or tactical flashlight). The assault rifle can be equipped with a 40-mm GP-34 underbarrel grenade launcher.