The city-based Ammunition Factory at Khadki has produced an indigenous 40 mm Under Barrel Grenade Launcher (UBGL) for the Border Security Force (BSF) following Prime Minister Modi’s call for an ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (self-reliant India).
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The first consignment of the 40 mm UBGL, designed and manufactured by the Ammunition Factory at Khadki with components sourced from Indian industries, has already been sent to the BSF on Tuesday, said the Ministry of Defence in a release on Wednesday.
This ammunition, which comes in four variants, is fired from a launcher fitted under the barrel of a 5.56 mm Rifle INSAS (INdian Small Arms System).
The advantages of the 40 mm UBGL ammunition vis-a-vis a traditional hand grenade is that it is light weight, with a range of 400 meters as compared with only 30 meters of the hand grenade.
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This ammunition used to be imported by the Army and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) units. Thus, there was a perceived need to indigenise the design and manufacture of this ammunition, said the release.
“Inspired by the Prime Minister’s clarion call for an Atmanirbhar Bharat, the Ammunition Factory at Khadki wrote a new chapter on self-reliance by producing and sending the first consignment [of the 40 mm UBGL] to the BSF…with this, the Ammunition Factory at Khadki has joined the national endeavour to make India self-reliant in defence production and save valuable foreign exchanges by way of import substitution,” said the MoD’s statement.
Mr. Hari Mohan, Chairman, Ordnance Factory Board, and Mr. M.K Mohapatra, Senior General Manager, Ammunition Factory, Khadki, flagged off the first consignment of the 40 mm UBGL to the BSF in the presence of senior officers from these two establishments on August 11.