India has now developed its first-ever indigenously made 9mm machine pistol ‘ASMI’. According to the ministry of defence, the weapon has been jointly developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Indian Army. ‘Asmi’ literally meaning pride, self respect and hard work.
The weapon has huge potential in armed forces as a personal weapon for heavy weapon detachments, commander’s tank and aircraft crew, drivers and dispatch rides, radio or radar operation said the Ministry of Defence in a press sentence.
This move is also supposed to bring in a lot of employment opportunity in central and police organization as well as VIP protection duties and policing. The machine was created in a time span of four months in DRDO’s Pune based facility.
The machine pistol fires 9 mm in-service ammunition and sports an aircraft-grade aluminum upper receiver and carbon fiber lower receiver. For the design and prototyping of different components, a three-dimensional printing technique has been used.
ASMI’s upper receiver is made of aircraft grade aluminium, while the lower receiver is made of carbon fibre. The weapon has a total empty weight of less than 2 kg and includes an 8-inch barrel along with a high-capacity magazine of 33 bullets.
This step is in line with PM Narendra Modi’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. The machine pistol is likely to have production cost under Rs 50,000 and has tremendous potential for both domestic and foreign market.
