The #INSAS rifle had a rather short and unimaginative existence- dogged by quality control issues through a 25 year service life, it never found favour with the army. It went through multiple and incremental iterations-- the 1A, B and C- before the army switched calibers in 2020 and went for a heavier battle rifle (the SiG 7.62) and another assault rifle the AK-203. But around this time, a brilliant young Indian Army officer saw potential in this weapon and reimagined it as a bullpup optimised for Close Quarter Battle Ops that could help him and his mates fight in confined spaces.
He chopped the 960 mm long fixed-butt weapon to around 600 mm...cut the 464 mm long barrel to around 300 mm. optimised it for a range of around 100 metres. Fitted it with a new 30-round box magazine (polymer with steel inserts) four Picattiny rails- and (neglected to mention this in video) two M-Lok rails.
As you all know, the INSAS family had three weapons, an AR, LMG and CQB carbine. The AR and LMG were inducted but the CQB carbine was rejected because of flash and recoil issues. The bullpup INSAS is an imaginative solution which could have been tried. (Im told there was one such attempt in the past, but didn't succeed).
The officer who designed and developed the INSAS bullpup ? Colonel Prasad Bansod- who then went on to bigger and greater things like the ASMI 9 mm SMG. The INSAS bullpup is where he cut his teeth.
The only prototype of this weapon is kept in Colonel Bansod's parent unit- the Indian Army's Infantry School in Mhow.
I haven't seen the weapon in action, but i'm told its quite reliable. Perhaps there is merit in resurrecting this design for special duty tasks.
