New Delhi: The National Security Guard (NSG) Thursday won the All India Police Commando Competition in the sniper category, beating the commando wings of the central armed police forces and that of the states.
Moreover, a major milestone was achieved, ThePrint has learnt. The NSG fired a .338 Saber sniper rifle, made by Bengaluru-based firm SSS Defence.
Competing with the top sniper rifles from across the world in service with the Commando forces in the country, the .338 Saber managed to not only hit the target with perfect accuracy but also excelled all other parameters in the sniping competition.
It is learnt that the second position was won by Force One of the Maharashtra Police which was using the formidable American sniper rifle Barrett 50 Cal, which is known as the world’s best and is in use with the American Special Forces and the Indian Army which had gone in for limited numbers to shore up capabilities at the Line of Control (LoC).
The Force One won the competition last year.
The Saber.338 is the only indigenously designed and manufactured sniper rifle in the most reputed of sniper calibers—.338 Lapua Magnum
It has an effective range of about 1,500 metres with an accuracy of sub 1 Minute of Angle MoA (an MoA is a group size of 3 cm x 3 cm at 100 metres).
The rifle comes with a 27-inch match barrel (made in India), monolithic chassis with 2 stage trigger, suppressor compatible with the suppressor designed and made in India.
The NSG also has a Barrett MRAD sniper but chose to go ahead with the one by SSS Defence.
Interestingly, a foreign country has already bought the snipers from SSS Defence and also placed a follow-on order, as reported by ThePrint earlier.
This was the first time India, which has been importing small arms for years to equip its defence and police forces, exported a rifle to another country.
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