Moving over from small arms, ammunition and routine weapons, the ordinance factories have proposed to upgrade the controversial 155 mm Bofors gun and manufacture high technology weapons like micro assault rifle.

The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) has submitted a proposal to the government for upgrading the 155 mm and 105 mm artillery guns with foreign collaboration.

As a technology demonstrator, the OFB has upgraded a 155 mm Bofors gun from 0.39 to 0.45 calibre with know-how from the British Aerospace Land Systems. “It will be the main attraction of our stall at the Defexpo,” Sudipto Ghosh, OFB director general, said here on the eve of the Fifth International Defence Exhibition beginning here on Saturday.

To be inaugurated by the Defence Minister A K Antony, the four-day exhibition will showcase India’s emergence as a big arms purchaser with as many as 273 foreign vendors displaying their wares.

India intends to spend approximately $30 billion in purchasing military hardware in the next five years.

Beside the Bofors upgradation, the Rs 7,942 crore OFB with 39 factories under its umbrella plans to come out with next generation 5.56 micro-light 45 mm assault rifles named Kalantak. The 200-year-old organisation is set to hand over the first batch of upgraded Pinaka rockets to the army on February 27. The OFB will supply 300 Pinaka rockets to the army in 2008 and 1,000 more next year.

The ordnance factory Trichy, on Thursday has handed over the first consignment of 10 anti-material rifles to the Border Security Force.

The OFB is now offering warranty on their products like small ammunition, bombs, rockets and weapon systems to do away with user agency’s concerns on the quality of OFB products, Ghosh said.

The OFB will have the capacity to roll out 100 indigenously manufactured T-90 tanks by 2009,  Ghosh said, adding that technology transfer issues with Russia have to be sorted out before the manufacturing began.