JVPC

The Joint Venture Protective Carbine (JVPC), known as the Modern Sub Machine Carbine (MSMC) until 2014, is a compact select-fire carbine developed by the Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE) of the DRDO. It grew out of the INSAS programme, which had produced an early carbine variant chambered for the 5.56x45mm NATO round; that design was rejected in the early 2000s because recoil was excessive for a weapon of its size. A 2002 General Staff Qualitative Requirement prompted ARDE and the Ordnance Factory Board to develop two competing designs, the MSMC and the Amogh carbine, both firing the lighter 5.56x30mm MINSAS cartridge. Neither met the Army's requirement in trials held in 2006, 2007 and 2009, and in 2010 the two organisations combined efforts to rework the MSMC into the JVPC.

The weapon is gas-operated with a long-stroke piston and a rotating bolt, and feeds from a 30-round box magazine inserted through the pistol grip in the manner of the Uzi. It measures 552 mm with the stock collapsed and 745 mm extended, around a 300 mm barrel, and weighs 2.98 kg empty. The fire selector is ambidextrous, and MIL-STD-1913 rails on the upper and lower receivers accept optics, sights and a forward grip. Prototype upper receivers were stamped sheet metal, while production examples use metal injection moulding with a largely polymer lower receiver. Cyclic rate is 800 to 900 rounds per minute, muzzle velocity 650 m/s and effective range 200 to 300 metres. Suppressors and a bayonet can be fitted.

Intended to replace the 9mm Sterling submachine gun in Indian service, the JVPC was accepted by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2017 and formally inducted into the Central Armed Police Forces and other police organisations. Indian Army user trials ran from 2016 to 2021 and concluded in the cold desert of Ladakh, the weapon clearing the Army's qualitative requirement in December 2020. Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited, which builds the carbine alongside Kalyani Strategic Systems, reported roughly 6,000 deliveries in its 2021-22 annual report. Operators include the Central Industrial Security Force, the Central Reserve Police Force, the Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh police forces, and the Special Protection Group.