An assault rifle is the most basic and often the only weapon carried by a soldier. Only in some cases, the rifles are supplemented by hand grenades and bulletproof jackets for safety.
The British set up the rifle factory at Ichapur in Bengal in 1904 to supply small arms to the armed forces. It produced 7.62x51 mm self-loading rifles (SLRs), the mainstay of the forces until the 1990s, when they were replaced by 5.56x45 mm INSAS assault rifles, supplied by the Ordnance Factory Board, with final assembly at Ichapur..
