The Rifle Factory Ishapore (also known as Ishapore Arsenal) is an Indian state-owned arms manufacturing unit located at Ichapore in the state of

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

History

In 1904, a rifle factory was established by the British at Ichapore,

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

as Ishapore, and began production of the

Lee–Enfield The Lee–Enfield is a bolt-action, magazine-fed repeating rifle that served as the main firearm of the military forces of the British Empire and Commonwealth during the first half of the 20th century, and was the standard service rifle of th ...

rifle, which has continued- more or less- until the mid-1980s, and possibly the present. The factory also manufactured the Vickers-Berthier (VB)

light machine gun A light machine gun (LMG) is a light-weight machine gun designed to be operated by a single infantryman, with or without an assistant, as an infantry support weapon. LMGs firing cartridge (firearms), cartridges of the same caliber as the othe ...

, which was adopted in 1932 by the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

and still remains in reserve use. Military rifles manufactured at Ishapore 1949 and pre-1949 are stamped "GRI" on the buttsocket, referring to ''George Rex, Imperator'' (i.e. King

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952 ...

, last Emperor of India), whilst military rifles manufactured 1949 and post-1948 are stamped "RFI", which stands for ''Rifle Factory, Ishapore''. The factory was administered by the Ordnance Factory Board of India till 2021 when it was corporatised under the ownership of Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited.

Products

The .303 British calibre Short Magazine Lee–Enfield Mk III, the

7.62×51mm NATO The 7.62×51mm NATO (official NATO nomenclature 7.62 NATO) is a rimless, straight walled, bottlenecked, centerfire rifle cartridge. It is a standard for small arms among NATO countries. First developed in the 1950s, the cartridge had first be ...

calibre Ishapore 2A1 rifle and the 7.62mm NATO

L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle The L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle (SLR), also known by the initial Canadian designation C1, or in the U.S. as the "inch pattern" FAL, is a British version of the Belgian FN FAL battle rifle. The L1A1 was produced under licence and adopted by the arme ...

were manufactured at RFI. It now manufactures the 5.56mm INSAS rifle assault rifle, Kalantak rifle, Ghatak rifle (7.62×39mm AKM-style assault rifle), 7.62 Sniper Rifles and Pistol Auto 9mm 1A for military/law enforcement. RFI makes other firearms such as IOF .22 revolver, IOF .315 sporting rifle, IOF .30-06 sporting rifle and IOF .22 sporting rifle for civilian customers.

Noted employees

* Amal Dutta

References

External links

Ordnance Factory Board of India website
{{Ordnance Factories Board Defence companies of India Firearm manufacturers of India Economy of West Bengal Manufacturing companies established in 1904 Indian companies established in 1904